Many other good reviews on the Amazon site

Best read I've had in a long time.

I was reading At The Sharpe End yesterday at Disneyland. Your novel was more interesting!

I'm about half way through ATSE, thought it would help bring on sleep, unfortunately couldn't stop turning the pages.

The main character, his girlfriend and two best friends are types that you run across everyday in expat Tokyo. The plot draws you in as soon as you start reading and as the book goes on the plot reveals aspects that you didn't expect.
The book is especially appealing to readers who know Japan and computer tech, both of which I do.
Now that I finished the book I feel that something is missing. It's like an old friend has bid sayonara after spending many hours entertaining you and brightening your life.

LibraryThing is a social book site. I sent a few copies for review to members – here are some edited highlights. The book page is here.

Wow, this was an exciting book. Kenneth Sharpe gets handed a gizmo that can make someone very rich. Unfortunately, the mob and several secret government agencies all want to get their hands on it, and are willing to kill to do so. I could barely put the book down.

So many things happen around Ken that the story borders on being unbelievable. But the story kept me entertained. I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what happens next.

Set in modern Tokyo, At the Sharpe End is a convoluted, fast-paced tale of international intrigue, high tech gambling, and violence. Protagonist Sharpe is a self-deprecatory expatriate who is handed a Hello Kitty box that ultimately leads to murder, riches, insanity, and more trouble than anyone bargained for. The nonstop action is sometimes slowed by the wordiness of the characters, but that same wordiness, particularly in the spot-on rendering of Indian-laced English, evoked several appreciative snorts and a couple bouts of laughter. The twists in this plot will keep you guessing.

This book is a fantastic financial thriller. I love how the author mixed suspense, the currency markets and current events. The author found the proper balance to describe technical details without being boring. The characters are well developed and I found myself liking a villain or two as much as the good guys.

My friend Tim, who has published two books for Japanese about making mistakes in English, and runs a Web site and podcast on this subject, sent me the following after reading At the Sharpe End:

My favorite aspect, maybe predictably, was the accurate description of life in Japan! We all (gaijins) know the eye-rolling feeling we get when faced with novels, movies, etc. that take place in some alternate-universe Japan rather than the one we know, with ninjas, mysterious women who throw themselves at foreign men (if only it were the case), etc.. I loved how the overly complex cell phone interface became a plot complication, or a jinshin-jiko slowing things down at a crucial time. A bit of an inside joke, perhaps, but perhaps informative for those who haven't lived here. Sharpe's mistake had me laughing out loud. I'm sure I've made similar mistakes!
My favorite example, though, was … the police arrive, and what do they say when they see Sharpe? "Oh, it's a foreigner." Gaijin da! I dare the likes of Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton to put this bit of dialog in the mouths of any of their Japanese characters. This was way too real-Japan for them; it wouldn't even OCCUR to them. But having been the subject of this observation more than once (as you probably have as well), I really appreciated the verisimilitude, I guess you could say.

…an ever-twisting, unpredictable tale of "who's the bad guy" set in Japan. The explanations of a foreigner's life in Japan are realistic and are not bogged down by excessive explanations. Yet those explanations are enough to make the story comprehensible to the reader with very little or no knowledge about life in Japan. A totally enjoyable good read.

There's also a video on Facebook of one of my readers unpacking his copy of the book and commenting. This is what he wrote on Facebook after he'd finished reading the book:

Japan-based author Hugh Ashton recently self-published this high-tech espionage / mystery / action thriller of a novel. I ordered a copy from his website and received a signed first-edition by mail a few days later. (It's also available on Amazon.com).
I've always been a fan of books in related genres. That said, I need to be honest though - I had never read any of Hugh's work before, and I have to admit, hearing it was a self-published book, my expectations initially weren't very high.
As it turns out, this was a big mistake on my part.
I ended up tearing through this book in 3 evenings - one of the best reads I've had in a long time. I hated to put it down and looked forward all day to getting back to it after finishing my work.
Not to go all "fan-boy" here but in all honesty, this was a much better story than many in this genre I have read from major publishers - including some of the "best-sellers" - the past few years.
Why?
First, the characters, action, setting and dialogue in this story are written with such believable and convincing detail, that even though the plot probably should have seemed a bit over the top, I totally felt like I was reading - almost watching - a true - albeit amazing - story unfold before me.
As a good portion of the story takes place here in Japan, I can also confirm Hugh has done an incredible job describing places many of us expats are very familiar with in and around Tokyo.
On top of that, in my own life, I personally know people who are very similar to many of the characters in the book. (Including a couple of the many spooks and gangsters that play heavily in the story.) If Hugh had not done an impeccable job making these characters believable, any expat living in Japan reading this wouldn't be able to identify with them - as they would have come across as stereotypes or caricatures.
Fortunately the author succeeded in developing characters that were completely - almost too - believable. For example, when the SHTF in the story, I got a same sort of sickening feeling in my gut I would have gotten if I'd heard a similar story reported on the evening news. That's how believable his writing is.
Furthermore the technology, politics and current events referred to in the book all match up with the plot's time frame too - the months just before and just after the financial crash of 2008. Hugh obviously did his research and it paid off - adding even more layers of realism to this adventure.
I'm absolutely positive readers who enjoy mysteries, action thrillers and spy novels - even those who have never stepped foot in Japan - would enjoy this at least as much as I did. Besides being a truly absorbing read, At The Sharpe End will also leave folks who never visited our adopted home with a very realistic image of some aspects of Japan - and life as a foreigner here. (Though not the image those abroad may have imagined.)
My only concern is that the story did not leave an obvious opening for a sequel (or did it? - very clever ending!), as I'm already missing the characters since I finished the book. Here's hoping Mr. Ashton has something in mind…

Some comments from people who read through early drafts and manuscripts:

The interests and challenges in this story make me feel like I've been living in it for four days. I love it.

An intriguing trawl through the murky interface where industrial espionage, high finance and plain criminality meet in the Far East, with global implications - a Sharpe twist on the genre.

B.K.Thomas in the USA was given an advance copy of the manuscript and wrote:

For avid readers, occasionally we are fortunate to stumble upon a new author who produces novels populated by intriguing, accessible, likable characters, involved in a realistic, fun plot. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you know the author is special. Hugh Ashton is one such author.  Following on the absorbing first novel, Beneath Grey Skies, Ashton brings us At The Sharpe End.  Set in Tokyo, we begin the adventure with Kenneth Sharpe, a British technical consultant working for Japanese corporations.  A Japanese businessman approaches Sharpe at a train station, requesting his help in what appears to be corporate espionage.  Within hours, Sharpe is involved in not only corporate skullduggery, but also the Tokyo police, the American CIA, North Koreans, the Yakuza, and high-level technology innov ation.  Within the first few pages, Sharpe and the other characters bring us into their world of life as expatriates in Tokyo, business customs, cultural differences, and spies.  The combination is irresistible.
Americans reading Ashton’s novels may find Ashton’s British perception of Americans fascinating.  His development of the American characters is spot on.  As an American who has spent time in Tokyo, I am particularly intrigued by Ashton’s depiction of ex-pats’ life in Tokyo.  The unromantic detail brings realism to the story, which deepens the reader‘s involvement in the story.  The characters in the novel become familiar, and stay with the reader long after finishing the book.
At The Sharpe End is definitely in the “page-turner” category of novels.  This is a book that readers will find difficult to put down, and they will feel satisfied at the end.

From one of the proofreaders:

I worked on this from 8 am until 2 pm today without more than a few minutes' break for food and drink, and only stopped because I had lessons to give. It kept me interested the whole time, which is pretty good, I reckon.