A Dish Best Served Cold

Duane Kolilis gives readers an exceptional story of revenge with ‘Henshin’.

Revenge, they say, is always a dish best served cold, and author Duane Kolilis perfects that old adage in his outstanding novel, Henshin.  

A story that weaves its way through a life, a murder, and an underground of crime syndicates, Henshin is the tale that begins on what should be a fun and happy occasion: a seventh birthday.  For young Ryuujin Hashimoto, however, the excitement of his birthday quickly turns sinister and bloody when his parents are brutally murdered by a group of men who have broken into their quiet Tacoma, Washington home.

Ryuujin escapes death by hiding from the intruders, and is sent to Tokyo to live with his uncle, Jiro Asano, an Aikido master and director of post-war Japan’s CIA, the Cabinet Research Chamber.  Recognizing the potential in the boy, his uncle immediately begins to train Ryuujin to become a powerful and deadly assassin, telling him that in order to do this, he must shed all emotional attachments to the events of his past.

Ryuujin, however, is unable to let go of that horrible day, and two decades later, he remains both driven and obsessed by the death of his parents.  Dressing himself in the bloody rags that are the remnants of the clothing his parents wore when they died, dubbed “The Raggedy Man” by the media, Ryuujin is drawn into deadly conflict with foes all over the world, including the American Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza.  In the midst of this, however, he finds a man who may have the answers Ryuujin is looking for: who killed his parents and why.  Growing ever closer to the truth behind the crime that changed his life, Ryuujin closes in on those he hunts, and begins to work the revenge he has waited his life to mete out.

A phenomenal story told with sharp characters and startling insight, Henshin will leave readers unable to put it down until they’ve reached the brilliant and explosive conclusion.  

Duane Kolilis

Born in Mandan, North Dakota, Duane Kolilis grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where the beginning of his novel is based.  He holds a degree in Russian from the Army Language School and a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology.  He has worked as a licensed clinical psychologist in Oregon and North Carolina, as well as a Russian linguist in Korea and Japan.  Some of his novel, Henshin, is based on events from his own life.  Beginning as catharsis and evolving into fiction, Kolilis hopes his novel will encourage readers to overcome traumas in their own lives.  He now lives with his wife, Marlene Tynan, in Portland, Oregon.

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For media inquiries or to request a review copy, please contact:

Duane Kolilis

ddkmbt@comcast.net