Listen closely when you walk by John Matsui?

Hear the whirring?

It’s not your imagination but his. The author of urban fantasies Late Bite, a vampire with millions of social media followers, and Nathan Sherlock, celebrity chef and terrorist hunter, may not be of this world. At least he doesn’t see it the way normal folks do.

As a mild-mannered ex-reporter and PR guy, John helped readers and clients find sense and steady footing in the face of global issues, social activism, climate change, monetary policy, politics, crime, and the day-to-day stuff that breaks a heart or makes a child smile.

Now as a  novelist he’s done a 180. Rather than providing information as a journalist or inspiring calm in a crisis, John’s generating weird and wild, multi-layered chaos for villains and heroes. All those stories John loved during “the formative years” – from comic books, sci-fi novels, The Twilight Zone, and horror movies – are now breaking loose.

For instance, Late Bite is a courtroom thriller with real bite. A vampire goes on trial for blood-sucking attacks. His lawyer, Al Hamblyn, a pudgy, balding, down-on-his-luck lawyer, is an unlikely hero. He gets a chance of a lifetime to regain respect and win back his family but first he has to overcome his fear of a client who is the thing of nightmares.

Meanwhile the vampire, like serial killers before him, becomes the object of fascination for the world’s news media and garners a social media fan base in the millions.

Late Bite  has garnered an average rating of 4.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon.com. http://www.mh99.com

Here’s a link to five star reviews on ReadersFavorite.com  https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/late-bite

John’s second novel, Gravity Games, has an equally whacked protagonist – international celebrity chef and sommelier Nathan Sherlock. Sherlock’s magic in the kitchen springs from a super sense of smell that also allows him to smell murder. He and business partner/confidante Bonnie live the dream – money, cars, travel, celebrity – while anonymously helping police solve murders. When terrorists kidnap a scientist and threaten to unleash his anti-gravity technology on the world, Homeland Security in the US and CSIS in Canada recruit Nathan to sniff down the bad guys.

Gravity Games starts out as a “Murder She Wrote” mystery but quickly descends into darkness. One reader felt betrayed, like a schoolgirl lured by a stranger offering candy, when he entered a world of evil and villains beyond redemption.  Weirdly, Gravity Games lives up to its subtitle as a foodie thriller with spectacular food porn scenes and even recipes at the back of the book. A strange but dark and delicious recipe.

Gravity Games  has garnered an average rating of 4.4 stars out of 5 on Amazon.com. http://www.mh99.com

ReadersFavorite.com reviewers gave Gravity Games two five-star and one four-star review. https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/gravity-games

John has two books he’ll be publishing in 2016. The first at bat is the sequel to Late Bite, titled: Lycanthrope Rising. The horror/thriller picks up in the days immediately after the conclusion of Late Bite. The vampirish Dragul

The first at bat is the sequel to Late Bite, titled: Lycanthrope Rising. The horror/thriller picks up in the days immediately after the conclusion of Late Bite. The vampirish Dragul Mangorian finds himself back in the bad books and in prison while the ancient enemy, the Lycan Collegation, plots his destruction and the extinction of hisHomo Sanguinus species.

The two groups are ancient enemies, locked in a war that dates back 30,000 years.  Those familiar with the new lore of vampires vs werewolves, ala the Underworld film series, will find this tale to be a marked departure but with the same thrilling action scenes.

The second work John plans in 2016 is a collection of short stories, all twisted urban fantasies. The name of the collection will be Dark Matters, named after this blog.

John and his wife Judy live in London, Ontario with Sasha, their aged shih tzu / poodle.

Those of you in the London area, watch for an author interview weekly series that John will be hosting. The cable TV program is called Between The Lines. Highlights will be featured on YouTube.