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Matthew Legare - Historical, Thrillers, & Noir

Website for Matthew Legare, writer of historical, thriller, and noir novels, including the Reiko Watanabe/Inspector Aizawa series set in 1930s Japan.

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World War II

City of Devils Review & Paul French Interview

June 19, 2020 by Matthew Legare 2 Comments

city of devils cover1930s Shanghai has long captivated people for its lurid underworld, usually presented in the form of the notorious Green Gang. However, there was a brief period in Old Shanghai where a new batch of gangsters rose to prominence, and their story is told in Paul French’s City of Devils.

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Tagged With: Author Interviews, Book Reviews, China, noir, Shanghai, World War II

Blood on the Sun (1945) Movie Review

September 30, 2018 by Matthew Legare Leave a Comment

By April 1945, the war in Europe was winding down but hostilities in Asia showed no signs of ending in the near Blood on the Sun Posterfuture. Perhaps as an unconscious way to remind Americans that the fight against Japan wasn’t over yet, Blood on the Sun was released. It’s a surprisingly well-made thriller, with hints of noir, starring an impressive cast such as Sylvia Sidney, John Emery as the arch villain Baron Tanaka, and most of all, James Cagney.

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Tagged With: Japan, movie reviews, World War II

Behind the Rising Sun (1943) Movie Review

July 5, 2018 by Matthew Legare Leave a Comment

Before World War II, there was precious little cinematic depictions of Japan from Hollywood, especially when compared to China. However, after Pearl Harbor, a slew of propaganda films were made to depict the Japanese enemy. Even among these, they rarely showed the Japanese home front and even rarer, the internal politics of Japan in the 1930s. Behind the Rising Sun is a surprising exception.

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Tagged With: Japan, movie reviews, World War II

Black Wind Review Review & Interview With F. Paul Wilson

May 23, 2018 by 2 Comments

In Western media, World War II in Asia has never received as many stories dedicated to it compared to the events in Europe. The lack of stories set in Japan before and during the war makes me really appreciate novels like F. Paul Wilson’s Black Wind.Black Wind F Paul Wilson [Read more…] about Black Wind Review Review & Interview With F. Paul Wilson

Tagged With: Author Interviews, Book Reviews, F Paul Wilson, Forgotten Fiction, World War II

Tokyo Joe (1949) Movie Review

April 24, 2018 by Matthew Legare Leave a Comment

Tokyo Joe combines three of my favorite things: film noir, a historical setting, and political intrigue. It’s a criminally underrated movie and while it’s not Humphrey Bogart’s best, it still deserves to be rediscovered by audiences.

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Tagged With: film noir, Japan, movie reviews, World War II

Zero Over Berlin Review

April 17, 2018 by Matthew Legare Leave a Comment

What is the Luftwaffe possessed the Japanese Zero fighters? From this intriguing premise comes the book Zero Over Berlin, a fairly standard adventure novel set in 1940 from author Joh Sasaki.Zero Over Berlin Cover

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Tagged With: Book Reviews, Japanese fiction, Japanese Military, Secret History, World War II

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