Japanese Crime

In the Chizurui family mansion, a haunting presence casts a shadow over its residents. By night, an eerie figure, clad in a sinister Hannya mask is seen roaming around the house. An amateur murder mystery writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate—but his investigation takes a harrowing turn as tragedy strikes. Within the confines of a locked study, the head of the family is found dead, with only an ominous Hannya mask lying on the floor by his side and the lingering scent of jasmine in the air.

A class president among class presidents, a bespectacled model student who soars to the top of honors lists without fail, Tsubasa Hanekawa also happens to be a decent human being. True, she does have a habit of making single-minded assumptions, but they come from a good place and turn out to be...

As they do every year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote castle-like Water Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by an impossible disappearance, the theft of a painting, and a series of baffling murders. The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives to investigate.

A riveting account of the role of Americans in the evolution of the Tokyo underworld in the years since 1945. In the ashes of postwar Japan lay a gold mine for certain opportunistic, expatriate Americans. Addicted to the volatile energy of Tokyo's freewheeling underworld, they formed...

Yutaka Tanaka, señor feudal de la provincia de Sagami, debe vengar la muerte de su padre, asesinado por una banda de samuráis enmascarados. La investigación del crimen lo arroja a los campos de batalla, a las intrigas cortesanas y sus traiciones. Como un príncipe Hamlet perdido entre los pliegues de un país que no llega a comprender, Yutaka enfrentará la fascinación de los autómatas, las maniobras sentimentales de dama Ashikaga y los secretos del sokushinbutsu.

From Mieko Kawakami, award-winning author of Breasts and Eggs, comes a bold novel of sacrifice and the tumultuous bonds of sisterhood, set in the gritty Tokyo of the 1990s. “I can never forget the sense of pure astonishment I felt when I first read Mieko Kawakami.” —Haruki Murakami Hana...

With My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime. Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, My Annihilation interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

From the bestselling author of Strange Houses and Strange Pictures comes a mesmerizing novel of eleven strange buildings and one terrible secret. A lonely hut in the woods. A murder house. A hidden chamber. A mysterious shrine. A home in flames. A nightmarish prison. . . . Each of the buildings...

Bakemono, literally “altered thing,” which translates as “monster.” Monogatari, literally “thing narrated,” which translates as “tale.” Combined into a neologism by he of the reversible nom de plume, they yield BAKEMONOGATARI, the monster tale that kicked off a series whose anime...

Ken Hideyoshi is the new guy in Halawa Correctional Institute. He’s tough looking, a hard case. His cellmate is Cal—the mute tattoo artist of the prison who murdered his own wife. Ken, already inked with a gang symbol and a Japanese emblem, eventually asks Cal to create an elaborate tattoo on his back, in kanji script, of Musashi’s Book of the Void.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers, a captivating novel about love lost—and love found What if I’d never gotten into that car? What if I’d pulled out of the driveway five minutes earlier, or ten minutes later? Three years ago, Wolo’s pregnant wife was...

A Japanese The Thursday Murder Club, taking healing fiction for a mystery-filled spin with this bestseller that has sold more than 200,000 copies in Japan. He’s not your average Grandpa. As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s no surprise that schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday...

Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high...

大ベストセラー「道警」シリーズ待望の第2シーズン開幕!!!あの佐伯宏一が戻ってきた。札幌大通署ではなく、函館方面本部捜査課に、警部として――。(創立30周年記念作品)厚真で強盗殺人事件を起こした犯人の一人が札幌ジャズバー「ブラックバード」に立てこもり、機動捜査隊の津久井に発砲した事件から約一年。

夏休み。鉄道好きで〈スーパーおおぞら〉に憧れる僕は、ある日出会った男性に小樽の鉄道博物館へ連れて行ってもらえることに。最高の夏になると信じていたのに、こんな大ごとになるなんて──。生活安全課の小島百合は、老舗店で万引きした男子小学生を補導した。署に連れて行くも少年に逃げられてしまう。一方、刑事課の佐伯宏一は園芸店窃盗犯を追っていた。

北海道警察は、洞爺湖サミットのための特別警備結団式を一週間後に控えていた。そのさなか、警官が拳銃を所持したまま失踪。津久井刑事はその警官の追跡を命じられる。一方、過去の覚醒剤密輸入おとり捜査に疑惑を抱き、一人捜査を続ける佐伯。そして結団式に出席する大臣の担当SPとなった小島百合。それぞれが互いの任務のため、式典会場に向かう……

Since the beginning of civilization, crime and injustice has existed. At the same time, gangs in all shapes and sizes have been around, from rebels, dissidents, and rogue soldiers to the average circle of miscreants loitering in alleys and behind convenience stores. In Japan, a gang of a different breed would arise - one underscored by honor, respect, family, and a code of ethics. They are the Yakuza. The Yakuza claim to be the Robin Hoods of the Far East. While they may lean towards the other side of the law, justice is all they truly aim for.

In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria—an area some called China's "Wild East"—and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspe, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father's wealth.

The acclaimed author of Occupied City, Tokyo Year Zero, and The Red Riding Quartet now gives us a stunning work of fiction in twelve connected tales that take up the strange, brief life of the brilliant twentieth-century Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Haunting and evocative, brutal and...

札幌市内のアパートで、女性の変死体が発見された。遺体は北海道警察本部生活安全部の水村朝美巡査と判明。容疑者には交際相手で同じ本部に所属する津久井巡査部長が浮かぶ。やがて津久井に対する射殺命令までが出た。捜査から外された所轄署の佐伯警部補は、かつておとり捜査で組んだことのある津久井の潔白を証明するため有志たちと極秘裏に捜査を始めるが……。