The Aosawa Murders
Written by Riku Onda, translated by Alison Watts — At the heart of The Aosawa Murders is a puzzle – who could have poisoned 17 people at a gathering at a house belonging to the Aosawa family, and who could have had a motive to…
Giri/Haji – new BBC drama with a Japenese edge
Remember how Robert Mitchum when to Japan in The Yakuza? Or how Michael Douglas was an American in Tokyo in Black Rain? Well, the BBC is set to flip that East-West crime fiction paradigm around. Giri/Haji is a fascinating new series that sees a Japanese…
Falling From the Floating World
Written by Nick Hurst — During the Edo period (1615-1868), The Floating World, or ukiyo, described a lifestyle and culture of pleasure-seeking, a world of entertainment and play in Japan’s three main cities – Edo (now Tokyo), Osaka and Kyoto. The centre of ukiyo was in…
The top five crime films at Cannes 2019
Our film noir correspondent Dennis Broe reveals a darker side of Asia as he reports on the best crime movies to emerge at this year’s Cannes Film Festival While some would argue that the main crime at Cannes this year was the refusal to allow…
Newcomer by Keigo Higashino
Translated by Giles Murray — The translations of The Devotion of Suspect X and Malice have put Japanese author Keigo Higashino on the map in English-speaking countries, at least among those who enjoy discovering crime books from other cultures around the world. In Malice, reviewed…
Japanese crime fiction: Six of the best
The Japanese love to read. A combination of near-universal literacy and long commute times means that you’re likely to see trains full of everyone from high school students to company owners with an open manga, paperback or kindle. This, coupled with a less clear distinction…
Countdown to Osaka
Written by Joe Hefferon — Crime fiction set in Japan, Korea and other counties of the Far East is gaining in popularity, and even Western authors are trying their hand at probing these cultures’ perplexities. Joe Hefferon’s latest novel is an exciting addition to the…
The Moving Blade
Written by Michael Pronko — Like Pronko’s debut crime novel The Last Train, The Moving Blade bills itself as a Tokyo mystery, a mystery intrinsically linked to one of the world’s biggest cities, written by an author who has lived there for an extended period…