Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Penguin Modern Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Matsumoto, Seichō

Genre Fiction

Penguin Classics

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 How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood?When Tsuneo goes to apologize to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...

A Quiet Place

A biting psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Tokyo Express, now available in English for the first time\nOnizuka 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.\nSuspected 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 . . .\nIn 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.

Suspicion (Penguin Modern Classics)

From “Japan's Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times): A secluded bay. An apparent lovers’ suicide. And a pair of detectives with a nagging suspicion that the pieces don’t add up. Can you solve one of the most astonishing literary puzzles ever written?\n“An irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose.”—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train\nIn a rocky cove at Hakata Bay, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing on the cold beach, the police see nothing to investigate: The flush of the couple’s cheeks and the empty juice bottle speak clearly of cyanide, of a lovers’ suicide. But in the eyes of two men, senior detective Torigai Jutaro 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.\nNow widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seichō Matsumoto’s masterpiece.

Tokyo Express: A Novel

Literary

Modern Library

The suicide of a young couple on a secluded and historically famous Japanese beach uncovers a nation-wide crime network

Points and Lines

Kodansha USA Inc

In a police procedural by Japan's foremost master of mystery, Inspector Imanishi Eitaro, a typically Japanese detective fond of gardening and haiku, must follow a killer's trail across the social strata of Japan.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (English and Japanese Edition)

Soho Pr Inc

In the wee hours of a 1960s Tokyo morning, a dead body is found under the rails of a train, and the victim's face is so badly damaged that police have a hard time figuring out the victim’s identity. Only two clues surface: an old man, overheard talking in a distinctive accent to a young man, and the word “kameda.” Inspector Imanishi leaves his beloved bonsai and his haiku and goes off to investigate—and runs up against a blank wall. Months pass in fruitless questioning, in following up leads, until the case is closed, unsolved. But Imanishi is dissatisfied, and a series of coincidences lead him back to the case. Why did a young woman scatter pieces of white paper out of the window of a train? Why did a bar girl leave for home right after Imanishi spoke to her? Why did an actor, on the verge of telling Imanishi something important, drop dead of a heart attack? What can a group of nouveau young artists possibly have to do with the murder of a quiet and “saintly” provincial old ex-policemen? Inspector Imanishi investigates.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Soho Crime)

Soho Crime

"A master crime writer . . . Seicho Matsumoto's thrillers dissect Japanese society."The New York Times Book Review "A stellar psychological thriller with a surprising and immensely satisfying resolution that flows naturally from the book’s complex characterizations. Readers will agree that Matsumoto (19091992) deserves his reputation as Japan’s Georges Simenon.-Publishers Weekly 
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 wifewho was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetingsended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood? 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... 
Seicho Matsumoto was Japan's most successful thriller writer. His first detective novel, Points and Lines, sold over a million copies in Japan. Vessel of Sand, published in English as Inspector Imanishi Investigates in 1989, sold over four million copies and became a movie box-office hit.

Bitter Lemon Press

Tokyo, 1958. Teiko marries Kenichi Uhara, ten years her senior, an advertising man recommended by a go-between. After a four-day honeymoon, Kenichi vanishes. Teiko travels to the coastal and snow-bound city of Kanazawa, where Kenichi was last seen, to investigate his disappearance. When Kenichi's brother comes to help her, he is murdered, poisoned in his hotel. Soon, Teiko discovers that her husband's disappearance is tied up with the so-called 'pan-pan girls', women who worked as prostitutes catering to American GIs after the war. Now, ten years later, as the country is recovering, there are those who are willing to take extreme measures to hide that past.

Point Zero

When Kiriko Yanagida first came to Otsuka's law offices, she had only a familial conviction of her brother's innocence despite his confessing to the murder. To the high-profile (and high priced) lawyer Otsuka, this small-town girl's belief was nothing more than naive hope, so he sent her away, advising her to find a local lawyer or something. Now, Kiriko plots to avenge her brother -- entirely pro bono.

Pro Bono

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Books by Matsumoto, Seichō

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Matsumoto, Seichō. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Penguin Modern Classics)

A Quiet Place

Suspicion (Penguin Modern Classics)

Tokyo Express: A Novel

Points and Lines

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (English and Japanese Edition)

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Soho Crime)

A Quiet Place

Point Zero

Pro Bono