The Black Swan Mystery - by Tetsuya Ayukawa (Paperback)

About the Book

"Early one June morning, locomotive No.783 screams to a halt. A man's body lies next to the railway tracks, shot in the back. The dead man was a factory owner with many enemies, but they all seem to have unbreakable alibis. And for every delay in the investigation, there is a further price to pay in blood. Desperate for help, the police call on the indefatigable Inspector Onitsura. Crisscrossing the country by train, he begins to unravel the threads of a dark deception -- but it will take a stroke of brilliance to bring the cunning culprit to justice."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

THE JAPANESE CRIME FICTION CLASSIC: A prize-winning railway murder mystery set in 1960s Japan--for fans of Agatha Christie and Seicho Matsumoto!

Full of devious twists and turns, this brilliant puzzle mystery is considered to be one of the greatest alibi deconstruction mysteries ever written

Early one morning, the owner of a local mill is found lying next to the railway tracks just outside of Kuki Station. Suspicion initially falls on the workers' union, with whom the man had been embroiled in a labour dispute, then on a new religious sect that has been gaining followers recently.

Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are called in to investigate, and soon set off in a journey across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, and finally to the island of Kyūshu, in a hunt for the killer.

But as they investigate, the killer strikes again, and again. Will they be able to catch the murderer before even more people are slain?

Fans of Agatha Christie's 4.50 from Paddington and Seicho Matsumoto's Tokyo Express will delight in the devious twists and turns of The Black Swan Mystery, as well as in the characterisation and portrait of 1960s Japan.

The author, Tetsuya Ayukawa, is considered to be the master of alibi deconstruction mysteries-a talent that is on full display in this brilliant classic railway murder mystery, which won the prestigious Japanese Detective Writers Club Prize.

Review Quotes

"This classic caper -- fiendish but light and often funny -- deserves the spotlight, as does its author"
--Sarah Weinman, New York Times

About the Author

Tetsuya Ayukawa (1919-2002) was born in the Sugamo district of Tokyo. The son of a surveyor for the South Manchurian Railway Co., he spent much of his youth in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, returning to war-ravaged Japan only in 1944. He began writing detective mysteries, and introduced the recurring character Inspector Onitsura, for which Ayukawa later became renowned. Celebrated as one of Japan's finest writers of impossible crimes and alibi-deconstruction mysteries, he won the Japanese Detective Writers Club Prize for The Black Swan Mystery, and in 2001 he was awarded the inaugural Honkaku Mystery Grand Prix for his contribution to the genre. Many of his works have been adapted for radio and screen.