Tokyo Express – Seichō Matsumoto (1958 trans. Jesse Kirkwood 2022)

Two bodies are found lying together on a windswept beach in southern Japan. Toki was a waitress at a Tokyo restaurant, and Sayama worked in a government department under investigation for corruption. The police believe the two must have committed suicide together. All except local inspector Jūtarō Torigai, who begins to have doubts. When dynamic Inspector Mihara of Tokyo's anti-corruption police hears about this, he picks up the investigation with a vengeance. He becomes suspicious of a successful businessman with friends in high places…

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The Honjin Murders – Seishi Yokomizo (1947 trans. 2019 Louise Heal Kawai)

The wedding between Kenzo, the eldest son of the proud Ichiyanagi family, and Katsuko, the daughter of a fruit farmer made good, goes ahead despite the objections of Kenzo's family. But the silence of a snow-filled night is broken by screams, and the wild strumming of a koto. When the relatives investigate the annex where the newlyweds are staying, they find it locked. Outside, in the snow, lies a katana but no footprints. Inside lie the bodies of the couple, "soaked in the crimson…

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The Red Locked Room – Tetsuya Ayukawa (2020, trans. Ho-Ling Wong)

Tesuya Ayukawa was, as the introduction to this collection says, the foremost proponent in his time of the honkaku, or "orthodox" mystery story. These puzzle-centric mysteries were the inspiration for the later stories by Yukito Ayastuji and Taku Ashibe (who wrote the introduction). In fact Ayukawa lived to see the shin honkaku ("new orthodox") movement begin, and also helped many younger writers make their start. This selection of short stories - his best ones, apparently - features two very different detectives. First is the…

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