Book Review: Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
A brilliantly crafted primogenitor of the Japanese crime genre.
Penguin Classics, 2022
Of course, no detective worth their salt ever wants to abandon a case… The number of cases I have worked on during that period astounds even me. Fortunately, my career has been a relatively untroubled one – and yet, I have left plenty of cases unsolved. Looking back, there are all sorts of things I wish I’d done differently. In every instance, however, it comes down to the fact that I just didn’t persevere. I kick myself, thinking: I could have cracked that case, if I had only stuck at it a little bit longer. Sometimes all it takes is the tiniest extra push in exactly the right place.
I’d seen Matsumoto’s classic in several bookshops since the Penguin reissue, but made the commitment after Nick Harkaway recommended it on several podcasts. Tokyo Express is a slim volume. Its comparatively short length makes it the perfect palate cleanser between longer books, and I’m always up for a Japanese mystery novel. What it lacks in word count, it makes up for in punch. Set in 1950s Japan, Inspector Mihara is a young but persistent detective for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, investigating what appears to be a lovers’ suicide pact in Hakata in the deep south. Mihara’s suspicions are roused by a suspect, whose iron-clad alibi places him on the other side of the country in Hokkaido. Or does it?
There’s an extraordinary amount of fine detail to sift through, and at times, reading it feels like studying a printed train timetable which features heavily in this meticulously and ingeniously plotted murder mystery.
This review originally appeared in Dispatch Edition #2.
The Dispatch is a monthly roundup by British speculative fiction writer, Jordan Acosta. News, short reviews and more, published every first Thursday. You can subscribe at jordanacosta.co, and read previous editions, here.
