One might be forgiven for thinking that the antiquities subgenre of the thriller category might have exhausted itself. That assumption is put to rest by COLLECTOR OF SECRETS, Richard Goodfellow’s debut novel. Though Goodfellow’s primary work is in the software design field, this book relies mainly on paper and good old-fashioned logic, deduction and shoe leather to propel the reader through a puzzle that begins in the closing days of World War II and concludes during a very harrowing couple of weeks in 2007.

Max Travers is a fish very much out of water. An American who has lived in Japan for several years, he is eking out an unprofitable but nonetheless satisfying existence as an English teacher to students as well as private clients. He is employed by a cold and calculating woman named Yoko (I am reasonably sure that Goodfellow’s choice of name is no accident here), who is also unscrupulous, keeping Max’s passport hostage as a flimsy excuse to keep him there until the school is sold to shareholders.

"It is said that Goodfellow wrote this book while traveling, and one senses he had fun doing so. Max is a very believable character, somewhat hapless physically but quite sharp mentally, and the conclusion leaves the door open for a sequel, even though it is a complete novel, fully capable of standing alone."

The one benefit that Max has acquired over the course of his work in Yoko’s school is the friendship he has struck up with Takahito Murayama, a nonagenarian whose relationship to Yoko is supposed to be paternal but is questionable on that point. Takahito is a collector of historical objects; sensing a depth to Max that is not immediately evident, he asks Max to return a diary to its rightful owner. Max senses that there is more to the errand than he really wants to get involved with and politely refuses, in part because he is planning to resign from the school and move on.

However, when Max returns to the school’s offices one night to surreptitiously liberate his passport, he walks in on a burglary being committed by a pair of Yakuza thugs. He leaves not with his passport but with the diary, which is what the two were after, and the chase begins. He is pursued not only by the Yakuza, whose powers and resources in Japan are seemingly limitless, but also by the police who want the diary for reasons of their own. Max is hardly a secret agent type --- his skill set is made up of more scholarly elements --- and given that he is a blond, six-foot-tall American in Japan, he tends to stick out like a male stripper at a sewing bee.

To make matters even worse, Max is also on the run from an extremely competent and dangerous ex-military type in the employ of a U.S. Senator who wants to make absolutely sure that the information contained in the diary never sees the light of day.

Goodfellow does an excellent job of giving the reader a triptych view of Japan, even though it is a quick one, given that Max, sometimes accompanied by his somewhat hesitant girlfriend, is often running from point A to point B, leaving a trail of Yakuza-dispatched bodies behind. The big finish is fairly predictable, given the number of players involved, but the joy of reading COLLECTOR OF SECRETS is in the journey more than the satisfying destination.

It is said that Goodfellow wrote this book while traveling, and one senses he had fun doing so. Max is a very believable character, somewhat hapless physically but quite sharp mentally, and the conclusion leaves the door open for a sequel, even though it is a complete novel, fully capable of standing alone. Whether the beginning of a series or otherwise, COLLECTOR OF SECRETS marks Goodfellow as an author to watch in the future.