Tokyo Express - by Seicho Matsumoto (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From "Japan's Agatha Christie" (The Sunday Times): A secluded bay. An apparent lovers' suicide. And a pair of detectives with a nagging suspicion that the pieces don't add up. Can you solve one of the most astonishing literary puzzles ever written?

"An irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose."--Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

In a rocky cove at Hakata Bay, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing on the cold beach, the police see nothing to investigate: The flush of the couple's cheeks and the empty juice bottle speak clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, senior detective Torigai Jutaro and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seichō Matsumoto's masterpiece.

Review Quotes

"The debut novel of bestselling writer Seichō Matsumoto . . . first published in Japan in 1958 and never out of print, [is an] ingeniously plotted railway mystery."--The Guardian

About the Author

Seichō Matsumoto was born in 1909 in Fukuoka, Japan. Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old, and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction. His exploration of human psychology and Japanese postwar malaise, coupled with the creation of twisting, dark mysteries, made him one of the most acclaimed and highest selling writers in Japan. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1950 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970. He died in 1992.