James Hadfield wrote in the Tokyo weekly Metropolis magazine as part of a review of two locally written and produced volumes:

Kenneth Sharpe is a rubbish action hero. In the course of At the Sharpe End, Hugh Ashton’s fish-out-of-water thriller, he wets himself when threatened with a gun, throws up at the sight of a corpse, and only really comes into his element when required to turn out a software manual on a tight deadline.

They say that authors should draw on what they know, and Ashton—a British technical writer who’s lived in Japan for yonks—seems to have taken that to heart. His protagonist, a British technical writer who’s lived in Japan for yonks, finds himself caught up in a potentially gnarly diplomatic incident after he’s passed a mysterious package by a Japanese software genius who promptly takes a dive off the platform at Shinjuku station.

Sharpe’s subsequent adventures lead him to Vietnam, South Korea and Shonan, via tussles with gangsters, police and embassy officials, and a brief spell of high-stakes trading on the currency markets. It’s a narrative that could quite easily have tilted into implausibility, but Ashton keeps it grounded by making the main players so frightfully ordinary. Not perfect, but it kept me entertained.

… Ashton is, by his own admission, content to churn out decent airport thrillers…

He then goes on to talk about another collection of short stories, by Michael Hoffman, who has more literary ambitions than do I.

What I liked here was the "rubbish action hero". Discussing this on the Facebook page for At the Sharpe End (see below in the right sidebar for details), someone pointed out that the "rubbish action here" was a staple in literature, ranging from Don Quixote onwards. So if Kenneth Sharpe follows in the proud tradition of Lemuel Gulliver, Tristam Shandy, and Flashman, etc. then I'm happy. I have to admit that I'd have welcomed comments on why Mr Hadfield felt the book was "not perfect", but I recognise that space is limited, and a book like At the Sharpe End doesn't really deserve detailed literary exegesis.