Japanese Mystery Fiction

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 decade ago, Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga went to collect the ashes of his recently deceased mother. Years before, she ran away from her husband and son without explanation or any further contact, leaving her estranged son with many unanswered questions. Now in Tokyo, Michiko Oshitani is found dead many miles from home. Strangled to death, left in the bare apartment rented under a false name by a man who has disappeared without a trace. Oshitani lived far away in Sendai, with no known connection to Tokyo—and neither her family nor friends have any idea why she would have gone there.

Flo is sick of Tokyo. She is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up, and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a drunken passenger on the Tokyo Subway.

In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village. Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music - death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house.

Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news—the son of one of the island’s most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger—with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters’ lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can.

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend. In the 16th century, eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village. Centuries later, a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.

When Toru Narazaki's girlfriend, Ryoko, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of a private detective he's hired to find her. Ryoko's past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue leads him to a compound in the heart of Tokyo, with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru's brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn't what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence beneath its surface.

東京都荒川区の超高層マンションで起きた凄惨な殺人事件。

When her cozy hometown is visited by death, Emma's investigative skills are enlisted by a secretive ghost. But with the uncooperative spirit holding so much back, and with the handsome local doctor pressing Emma for answers, will she ever get to the bottom of the case? Or will the Hollow be forever haunted by the secrets of the past?

四人の死者は、一軒家の和室に並べられた布団に横たわっていた。頭までかけられた掛け布団をはがすと、性別も年齢もわからないほど粘着テープが貼られていた。「武蔵村山市における占い師一家皆殺し事件」に駆り出された音道貴子は、本庁捜査一課星野警部補とコンビを組んで事件に当たることになった。清潔感があり人なつこい様子の星野に貴子は「悪くない」第一印象を抱いたが――　女刑事音道貴子シリーズ第三弾。　監督/吉田純子・編集/三好達也_武井寿夫

Originally published in 1922 and translated by Takashi Kojima, this classic short story was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, about the murder of a samurai. Told from the perspective of multiple witnesses.

In Hillbilly Hollow, even the dead want the last word...When an eccentric local artist meets an untimely end during the annual Flower Festival, Emma gets pulled into two cases at once. First, the murder investigation. Second, the hunt for a dangerous burglar who has the whole town on edge. After all-brawn-and-no-brains Sheriff Tucker declares the death an accident, Emma's search for the killer hits a dead end... until a vengeful ghost comes calling. Can Emma decipher the mad ramblings of the disgruntled spirit?

「救い出すからな」「―はい」「それまで、がんばれるか」「―分かりません」音道貴子のいらえを聞いた滝沢はぞくぞくした。あの絶対に弱みをみせまいとする女が。まずい。人質となって７日。限界が近い。どうにか生きているうちに発見できたと言うのに。･･犯人グループは銃を持っている。わずか数メートルの距離にいながら手も足も出せない。どうすれば、いい。　――緊迫の下巻。　監督/吉田純子・編集/三好達也_武井寿夫

A ghostly visit from her former landlady draws Emma away from sleepy little Hillbilly Hollow to investigate a murder in the big city. But what seems like a straightforward case soon becomes entangled with an event from Emma's past and a personal quest for justice. With the attractive but bungling Sheriff Tucker at her side, will Emma be tempted by the chance to avenge an old wrong?

あの日の放課後、手紙で呼び出されて以降、ぼくの幸せな高校生活は始まった。学校中を二人で巡った文化祭。夜風がちょっと寒かったクリスマス。お正月には揃って初詣。ぼくに「小さな誤解でやきもち焼いて口げんか」みたいな日が来るとは、実際、まるで思っていなかったのだ。――それなのに、小鳩君は機会があれば彼女そっちのけで謎解きを繰り広げてしまい……シリーズ第3弾。

Within the premises of the Japanese Consulate in London a perfidious assasination came to pass. In order to avoid diplomatic affairs and to quickly solve this murder the responsible intelligence officer turns to Sherlock Holmes.

During the National High School Cultural Festival ceremony, Yoshiyuki Shimizu - the current Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and a literary giant - was fatally stabbed by a man who rushed out from backstage. The arrested suspect, 37-year-old Akatsuki Nagase, began publishing his memoirs in a weekly magazine following his arrest.

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.

Can you ever forget your true love? Aditya and Riya could never imagine life without each other. Since their accidental meeting two years ago, they have been inseparable until an unexpected tragedy changes the course of their lives forever. Will their love stand the test of time? From the...

Few things get Mas more excited than gambling, so when he hears about a $500,000 win - from a novelty slot machine! - he’s torn between admiration and derision. But the stakes are quickly raised when the winner, a friend of Mas’s pal G. I. Hasuike, is found stabbed to death just days later. The last thing Mas wants to do is stick his nose in someone else’s business, but at G. I.’s prodding, he reluctantly agrees to follow the trail of a battered snakeskin shamisen (a traditional Okinawan musical instrument) left at the scene of the crime.