The Black Swan Mystery

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC

A classic locked room mystery novel set in the 1960s Japan. A great mystery with a cast of different interesting characters and a clever detective. I won't spoil anything but I'll say that I couldn't guess who the culprit was. It was an Agatha Christie alike book so if you've enjoyed her books then you'll love The Black Swan Mystery

I've read a few Japanese mysteries, and they are always so well plotted. They are intricate and detailed and I can never guess the outcome. This is no different, and I have a great time trying to work out how this was going to end. It's kind of like a locked room mystery but not in a room, which I'm seeing more and more of as a theme. However, this book is really quite old now and so the fact that it is hitting this trend is interesting.

I'd recommend this one to fans of translated fiction and detective fiction. It has echoes of Christie but far less humourous and more restrained.

Like Seicho Matsumoto's classic Japanese detective story ,"Tokyo Express", railway timetables play a big part in Tetsuya Ayukawa's ,"The Black Swan Mystery".

When the body of a prominent local businessman is found laying on the tracks alongside Tokyo's Kuki Station there are a couple of obvious suspects. With a bitter Union dispute ongoing and his dealings with a shadowy religious sect Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are tasked to investigate.

This is a cerebral thriller with as many twists and turns as the railways that play a large part in the plot. As the dogged detectives try to make sense of often contradictory evidence the bodies continue to pile up. I was reminded of Jorn Lier Horst's Wisting books where persistence and dead ends show a more realistic picture of crime-solving than the norm in a fairly slow-moving but involving manner.

I loved this book, the pacing might be slow but there's plenty going on and it's very. very clever as the police are led down several blind alleys,closely followed by the reader. This is a book to take your time over and enjoy, not least Onitsura's deconstruction of a key alibi in the case, complex doesn't even touch the sides .