Read The Tokyo Zodiac Murders Online
Authors: Soji Shimada
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (25 page)
I don’t have any bad feelings towards you. When I met you, I thought the result of my bet was not so bad after all. It’s just that the roll of the dice came up empty. I had decided to end my life when I lost the bet. I have a good sign in the eighth house, which controls death and inheritance. I won’t need much effort to die peacefully.
I wish you good health and a bright future.
Goodbye.
Tokiko Umezawa
Did you know?The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
belongs to the popular Japanese
honkaku
, “orthodox” or “authentic”, subgenre of murder mysteries. Unlike psychological thrillers,
honkaku
books focus on plotting and clues. The reader is not deceived by the author but actively drawn into the writing and encouraged to participate in the solving of the mystery. These “pure” mysteries also stay away from social criticism, drawing their inspiration from writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, whose works inspired the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in Britain, and with whom Shimada has been compared for the complexity of his plots and the elegance of their solutions.
Shimada studied design at university, where he also developed an interest in astrology, but he turned his attention to crime writing in 1981, after witnessing a bank robbery. He has written over 100 works, including novels, short stories and essays, and has become so popular in Japan that he temporarily moved to Los Angeles to escape his fame. He’s also a guitar player and often peppers his interviews and book signings with a tune or two. He even released a rock album in 1976!
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
is the first story to star Kiyoshi Mitarai, and Shimada has continued the detective’s fictional career throughout more than two dozen novels since.
The next book in the series
, The Locked Room of Pythagoras, features Mitarai aged seven, investigating a double murder.
Well, if you love seemingly impossible murder mysteries then you should check out the fantastic Locked Room International website (
lockedroominternational.com
or
mylri.com
) created by John Pugmire, the editor of this translation. LRI publishes English-language versions of locked-room mysteries from all over the world. John’s translation of Paul Halter’s
The Crimson Fog
(
Le Brouillard Rouge
) was named one of
Publisher’s Weekly
’s “Top Mysteries of 2013,” and LRI’s
The Derek Smith Omnibus
was included in the
Washington Post
“Top 50 Fiction Books of 2014”. Books scheduled for 2015 include mysteries by award-winning authors from France, Sweden and Taiwan.
John was a consultant for BBC Radio 4’s
Miles Jupp in a Locked Room
, broadcast in May, 2012, in which he also appeared.
And if you feel like another head-scratcher then you might enjoy Piero Chiara’s
The Disappearance of Signora Giulia
, a quietly nerve-racking whodunnit set among the high society of provincial Italy in the Fifties.
The Murdered Banker
The Mystery of the Three Orchids
The Hotel of the Three Roses
Vertigo
She Who Was No More
The Disappearance of Signora Giulia
Clinch
I Was Jack Mortimer
Master of the Day of Judgment
Little Apple
St Peter’s Snow
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
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EDITH PEARLMAN
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BEWARE OF PITY
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STEFAN ZWEIG
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SONG FOR AN APPROACHING STORM
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THE RABBIT BACK LITERATURE SOCIETY
PASI ILMARI JÄÄSKELÄINEN
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RED LOVE: THE STORY OF AN EAST GERMAN FAMILY
MAXIM LEO
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THE BREAK
PIETRO GROSSI
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FROM THE FATHERLAND, WITH LOVE
RYU MURAKAMI
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BUTTERFLIES IN NOVEMBER
AUÐUR AVA ÓLAFSDÓTTIR
‘A funny, moving and occasionally bizarre exploration of life’s upheavals and reversals’
Financial Times
BARCELONA SHADOWS
MARC PASTOR
‘As gruesome as it is gripping… the writing is extraordinarily vivid… Highly recommended’
Independent
THE LAST DAYS
LAURENT SEKSIK
‘Mesmerising… Seksik’s portrait of Zweig’s final months is dignified and tender’
Financial Times
BY BLOOD
ELLEN ULLMAN
‘Delicious and intriguing’
Daily Telegraph
WHILE THE GODS WERE SLEEPING
ERWIN MORTIER
‘A monumental, phenomenal book’
De Morgen
THE BRETHREN
ROBERT MERLE
‘A master of the historical novel’
Guardian