I have no idea when I started reading vintage mystery novels by Japanese authors. Maybe after I visited my brother in Japan in 2017. I hadn’t expected to love the country as much as I did, so I suspect that’s what got me looking for fiction that transported me back there from my home in Europe.
I love to learn about places via their history, and it’s no surprise I look to vintage novels, not contemporary ones. The first I read was The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, which won Japan’s first big mystery prize in 1948. Since then, I’ve read all his books I could get my hands on in translation. They’re devious little stories of locked rooms and rotten families, starring the shabby, vagabond detective Kusoke Kindaichi. These are not Agatha Christies, of course, but I get a similar vibe in the quick pacing and ingenious plots. They’re just fun to read.
Last night, I finished The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi (from 1950), and I loved it. This was one where you can guess the murderer pretty early and stick with it to see how it all unfolds. And there’s a trope that could have gone horribly wrong – the author inserting himself directly into the story – and yet it worked! The writing is more sophisticated than the Yokomizo mysteries, but not at all hard to read. Despite some minor problems with the plot, the twists at the end satisfied in every way. I’m moving on to Takagi’s The Tattoo Murder.
I can also recommend Yukito Ayatsuji’s mysteries set in odd houses (the Bizarre house mysteries). These can definitely feel Christie-like; The Decagon House Murders (published in 1987) directly references her work.
The Black Swan Mystery by Tetsuya Ayukawa (published in 1960) stars the gentle and precise Inspector Onitsura, at least some of the time. It took some getting used to how the story was structured, and it was more complex than some of the others I’ve recommended here. It had a lot to do with alibis and train time tables, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
Here’s a good overview of some of the books out there (and a Black Swan review), and some background about what launched the wave of translating Japanese mysteries into English.
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