The Informer - by Akimitsu Takagi (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

When he loses his job as a trader after the stock market crashes, Shigeo Segawa is offered lucrative work as an industrial spy. How could he say no? He is soon assigned to seduce an ex-girlfriend and steal an important formula from her husband, who runs a large chemical company. But when the husband is found murdered, Segawa becomes the prime suspect.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Informer

"Intricate . . . The reader is left in suspense until the end."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Takagi's just-the-facts-ma'am pace brings us swiftly to a clever and surprising conclusion."
--The Wall Street Journal

"There are many webs and one or more deadly spiders spinning them in this intricate tale of deceit and murder."
--Publishers Weekly

"The Informer . . . offers the reader an intriguing insight into life in a post-World War II Japan."
--Crimespree

Praise for Akimitsu Takagi

"A delightful, different book, not only because of its unusual setting and premise, but because Takagi is a powerful plotter and constructor of fascinating, complex characters."
--The A.V. Club

"Takagi's factional environment is reminiscent of the postwar photos of Tadahiko Hayashi, who captured telling images of demobbed soldiers, bars set up on garbage pits, bicycle rickshaws, smoking street waifs and striptease joints. More than a mere novel, Takagi has left us a document of the times."
--The Japan Times

"Intricate, fantastic, and utterly absorbing. More, please."
--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Akimitsu Takagi (1920-1995) studied engineering at Kyoto University and later worked for the Nakajima Aircraft Company. Over the course of his writing career, he published fifteen popular mysteries and won the Japan Mystery Writers Club Award.