The Silent Dead
Written by Tetsuya Honda, translated by Giles Murray — Recently I lamented the decline of the classic police procedural – but how quickly I’ve been proven wrong. The genre appears truly alive and well, not least of all in Japan, where authors such as Hideo…
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies — The main attraction of a police procedural is the opportunity for readers to watch the characters develop over a series of short, complex novels – Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels, for example, or Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. Both offer…
Listen to two free chapters of Six Four
Hideo Yokoyama’s Six Four is going to be one of the biggest books of 2016. Literally. The hardback comes in at 635 pages and as you can see it’s a book that stands up on its own. You could even say it’s the printed equivalent of six-four,…
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
Translated by Ross and Shika Mackenzie — Author Soji Shimada, whose groundbreaking 1981 novel has recently been translated afresh by Pushkin Press, is considered the godfather of the Shin-honkaku school of crime fiction in Japan. He inspired the New Orthodox group that aimed to return mystery fiction in…
The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro by Edogawa Rampo
Translated by William Varteresian — Edogawa Rampo was the pen name of Taro Hirai, a Japanese author active from 1923 until his death in 1965. He is known as the father of Japanese detective fiction and his work – particularly his early writing – proved that…