Japanese Murder Mysteries

A bestseller in Japan, Uketsu's Strange Pictures revolves around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective.

A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death.

A child's disturbing picture of his home.

A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments.

Each contains a chilling warning.

Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.

The famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro lives a life of seclusion in the remote Labyrinth House. When Yotaro invites four young crime authors to his home for a birthday party, they are honoured to accept.

But no sooner have they arrived than they are confronted with a shocking death, then lured into a bizarre, deadly competition...

As the twisted contest gathers pace, murder follows murder. The ingenious sleuth Shimada Kiyoshi investigates, but can he solve the mystery of the house before all those trapped in its labyrinth are dead? And can you guess the solution before he does?

Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man’s body is found on the tracks.

With only two leads – a distinctive accent and a single word, ‘kameda’ – senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle. Setting aside his beloved bonsai and haikus, he must cross Japan in search of answers, from Osaka to Akita, accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura. At each new town, they encounter traces of the avant-garde Nouveau Group – young Tokyo artists who are bringing new ideas from the West.

What to make of this modern collective? And how to stop another mysterious death occurring?

Japan's rich tradition of murder mysteries is captured well in this selection.