Ellery Queen's Japanese Mystery Stories: From Japan's Greatest Detective & Crime Writers as the title suggests is a collection of 12 stories by arguably Japan’s greatest detective and crime writers. Ellery Queen has selected these stories by award-winning Japanese authors, from among many thousands of stories published in postwar Japan.
Each story has a unique setting and features an unusual plot and some diverse set of characters. At the beginning of each story Satoru Saito – an Associate Professor of Japanese Literature at Rutgers University – provides background information on each writer. He describes their writing style, the context of the story in Japanese literature, and a hint of what you can expect from the story that follows.
The best thing about the book is that it features several authors from different eras with different writing styles and with a lot of unique storylines. Each story has some unique idea or narrative style which will keep you engaged. Of the 12, most were either good to excellent with very few missing the mark. The ones I really liked were Too Much About Too Many by Eitaro Ishizawa, The Cooperative Defendant by Seicho Matsumoto, A Letter From the Dead by Tohru Miyoshi, The Kindly Blackmailer by Kyotaro Nishimura, No Proof by Yoh Sano, Invitation From The Sea by Saho Sasazawa and Write In, Rub Out by Takao Tsuchiya
Overall, This compilation offers a different flavor of mystery, focusing mainly on unusual characters and unpredictable storylines, then blood and gore. The writing is excellent and there are several new themes that you may have never encountered before. This book will serve nicely as an introduction to the world of Japanese mysteries with a good and diverse selection of mystery stories.
Many thanks to the publishers Atlantic Monthly Press and Edelweiss for the ARC.
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