Crime-books-set-in-Japan

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17 top crime books set in Japan

translated fiction-05

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A beginner’s guide to translated fiction

Suspicion

'A master class in motive and character' Alafair Burke 
 
A taut psychological novel about trial by public opinion and how we shape the truth -- now available in English for the first time 
 
Is she a victim or a murderer? 
 
Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newlywed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves. 
 
Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press, but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in . . . 
 
In this intricate, psychological noir, masterfully translated into English for the first time, Seicho Matsumoto draws out the hidden demons that guide our convictions, our biases and our deepest desires. 
 
Translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood

The Simenon of Japan... In this new translation of a taut 1982 novella, a former Tokyo hostess seduces a businessman. After their wedding they are involved in a car crash; he drowns, she survives. The question is whether the defence lawyer who takes her case is helping an innocent woman or falling into a moral quagmire

What starts as a familiar setup - the classic femme fatale and her wealthy, deceased husband - soon unfolds into a layered allegory about the many ways we pursue the truth. It brought to mind Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole in its sharp exploration of journalistic ethics and the murky line between uncovering the truth and shaping it. And all presented in prose that is both spare and stylish. By the end, we’re left with a lingering sense of unease, reminded of how easily we can be nudged towards one version of the truth or another

Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling writers in Japan. Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize in 1950 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970. His many novels include Tokyo Express and Inspector Imanishi Investigates.

Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newly-wed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves. 
 
Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press, but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in . . . 
 
In this intricate, psychological noir, masterfully translated into English for the first time, Seicho Matsumoto draws out the hidden demons that guide our convictions, our biases and our deepest desires.

A Quiet Place

A thrillingly dark novel from 'Japan's Agatha Christie' (Sunday Times) 
 
While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood? 
 
When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...

Packed with lean prose and twists... The murder is inevitable, but its fall-out is dizzyingly unpredictable

The crafty genius of Seicho Matsumoto’s gripping and subversive work is to show how one small detail slips off-track ... an unsparing X-ray of Matsumoto’s native land

While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood? 
 
When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life...

Inspector Imanishi Investigates

'An absolute classic, and a whole new world to explore ... irresistible' Lee Child 
'Beautiful and melancholic, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is not just an ingenious and elegant mystery, but a fascinating window into 1960s Japan' Paula Hawkins 
A thrilling crime classic, from the bestselling author of Tokyo Express 
Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man’s body is found on the tracks. With only two leads – a distinctive accent and a single word, ‘kameda’ – senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle. 
 
Setting aside his beloved bonsai and haikus, he must cross Japan in search of answers, from Osaka to Akita, accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura. At each new town, they encounter traces of the avant-garde Nouveau Group – young Tokyo artists who are bringing new ideas from the West. What to make of this modern collective? And how to stop another mysterious death occurring? Inspector Imanishi investigates… 
 
A fascinating glimpse into Japanese society at a time of great change, this is one of Seicho Matsumoto’s best-loved novels – a riveting mystery from the master of Japanese crime.

Utterly compelling... The plot is classic Poirot. What sets this apart is Matsumoto's delicate portrayal of a country recovering from war and undergoing enormous cultural change

Patient, meticulous stories that offer an anatomy of a society as much as a picture of a crime

A stylish mystery novel written by one of Japan's most popular authors . . . First-rate storytelling . . . Inspector Imanishi deserves to be welcomed to the ranks of international crime fiction

The most intricate web of detection . . . A tantalizing double unveiling act . . . Belongs on your shelf next to Christie and Simenon, P.D. James and Robert Van Gulik. A superb thriller

Beautiful and melancholic, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is not just an ingenious and elegant mystery, but a fascinating window into 1960s Japan

An absolute classic, and a whole new world to explore ... irresistible

In this 1960s crime novel, the setting is as enticing as the plot... thoroughly satisfying

Reminds me of [John le Carré's] writing . . . fascinating . . . It&rsquo;s a moment of transition in Japan; new ideas are spreading, new contexts are forming. There&rsquo;s traditional beauty still, but modernity is yammering to be let in . . . Highly recommended

Seicho Matsumoto's Inspector Imanshi Investigates explores post-war Japan, its anxieties and struggles for a new identity. With an engaging older detective and an enthusiastic younger sidekick, this is a book lovers of traditional crime fiction will understand and enjoy

A more considered work than Tokyo Express, although one similarly interested in train travel. Set in 1960, the writing brings up a Japan before high-speed trains, one that is more alive to differences, not least in dialect, between particular areas... A well-presented book... Deserves being in the library of all interested in detective fiction

A blood-drop on a cherry blossom, an ageless masterwork from the master himself, Seicho Matsumoto paved the way for Japanese crime fiction with good reason. Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a beguiling omakase of a novel – a fascinating exploration of tradition versus modernity, a contemplation of human darkness and a silk-smooth murder mystery. As Imanishi investigates death, so too the reader investigates a post-war Japan in metamorphosis. Matsumoto etches himself in time with this elegy to the Japanese detective

Seicho Matsumoto was born in 1909 in Fukuoka, Japan. Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction. His exploration of human psychology and Japanese post-war malaise, coupled with the creation of twisting, dark mysteries, made him one of the most acclaimed and best-selling writers in Japan. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize in 1950 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970. He died in 1992.

Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man’s body is found on the tracks. With only two leads – a distinctive accent and a single word, ‘kameda’ – Senior Inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle.Setting aside his beloved bonsai and haikus, he must cross Japan in search of answers, from Osaka to Akita, accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura. At each new town, they encounter traces of the avant-garde Nouveau Group – young Tokyo artists who are bringing new ideas from the West. What to make of this modern collective? And how to stop another mysterious death occurring? Inspector Imanishi investigates . . .A fascinating glimpse into Japanese society at a time of great change, this is one of Seicho Matsumoto’s best-loved novels – a riveting mystery from the master of Japanese crime.

Tokyo Express

'An irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly-plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train 
 
'Matsumoto was Japan's Agatha Christie' Laura Hackett, The Sunday Times 
 
'It was a puzzle with no solution. But he did not lose heart.' 
 
In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime... 
 
Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seicho Matsumoto's masterpiece - and as one of the most fiendish puzzles ever written.

Tokyo Express is an irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly-plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose

Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

Japan's Agatha Christie. A gloriously complex case of a supposed double suicide that, at just 160 pages, you can whizz through in a day.

This classic of postwar Japanese crime fiction was banned in its day for its 'decadent western ideas'. Now, the fascinatingly detailed investigations of Inspector Torigai echo those of Simenon's Maigret in a pared-down narrative shot through with political critique

A labyrinth of convincing alibis and false leads... Matsumoto's classic status is richly deserved

Hitchcockian&hellip; Seicho Matsumoto has been described as Japan&rsquo;s Agatha Christie for a reason. A murder-mystery whodunnit which carries the weight and power of high literature

The appearance in English of Japanese crime classics such as Seicho Matsumoto's Tokyo Express is long overdue

The Sunday Times, Best Crime Books of 2023

The debut novel of bestselling writer Seicho Matsumoto, first published in Japan in 1958 and never out of print, is an ingeniously plotted railway mystery

Seicho Matsumoto's brief and perennially popular Tokyo Express is a masterpiece of concision and tight plotting. . . exceptionally well paced and palpably tense, both features admirably preserved by Jesse Kirkwood in this fresh translation

A masterpiece... stands out thanks to the elegant spareness of the prose but also because of the ingenuity of the tightly coiled plot... this novel floored me, and I expect it will floor other new readers, too

Wonderfully short&hellip; this excellent work begins with a lovers&rsquo; suicide on a Kyushu beach, but detective suspicions point to a crime linked to governmental scandal&hellip; a first-rate classic by a master of the Japanese detective novel. A very satisfying read

Tense, enigmatic, thrillingly weird - a glorious find

Kevin Barry, author of Night Boat to Tangier

An absolute corker of a read -- so brilliantly shrouded in mystery that it was impossible to put it down

A fiendishly complex case. A deep understanding of human nature drives this intricately plotted masterpiece of Japanese crime writing. A timely and welcome opportunity for a new generation to discover Seicho Matsumoto

Brian McGilloway, author of The Empty Room

The Simenon of Japan. . . a legendary writer

Matsumoto is a necessity, reading him is like having a bowl of rice you never get tired of

A nice noirish and at times Hitchcockian sensibility... A wonderful time-capsule portrait of Japan in the late 50s

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime . . . 
 
Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seicho Matsumoto's masterpiece - and as one of the most fiendish puzzles ever written.

Seicho Matsumoto

Jesse Kirkwood

Seicho Matsumoto's books are packed with lean prose and twists yet they’re also educational. If you want to understand Japan, Matsumoto is a disquieting place to start

Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play – but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence.At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman’s connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy.As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seicho Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted.

Seicho Matsumoto

Books by Seicho Matsumoto

Articles featuring Seicho Matsumoto

17 top crime books set in Japan

A beginner’s guide to translated fiction

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