The Tattoo Murder

The Tattoo Murder

Akimitsu Takagi

Mystery / Cultural / Japan

An ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery, set in post-war Tokyo and steeped in the illicit subculture of Yakuza tattoos 'Like voyeurs, we follow Takagi down the charred streets of bombed-out Tokyo to scenes of fastidiously executed decadence' New York TimesCan you solve the mystery of the tattoo murder?Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals her full-body snake tattoo to rapturous applause. Days later she is gone. A dismembered corpse is discovered in the locked bathroom of her home, but her much-coveted body art is nowhere to be found.Kinue's horrified lover joins forces with the boy detective Kyosuke Kamizu to try to get to the bottom of the macabre crime, but similar deaths soon follow. Is someone being driven to murder by their lust for tattooed skin, and can they be stopped?Set in a seedy Tokyo of bomb sites, dive bars and Yakuza gangs, The Tattoo...
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The Noh Mask Murder

The Noh Mask Murder

Akimitsu Takagi

Mystery / Cultural / Japan

A gruesome Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Tattoo Murder__________*** Praise for The Tattoo Murder ***'Like voyeurs, we follow Takagi down the charred streets of bombed-out Tokyo to scenes of fastidiously executed decadence' New York Times'This lurid mystery provides a fascinating portrait of wartorn Tokyo' The Times Crime Club, Pick of the Week'An engaging journey into a Tokyo ravaged by war and its criminal underworld... Crackles with the energy that made Takagi one of Japan's most popular crime authors' Financial Times__________Strange things are happening in the Chizurui mansion...At night, a figure clad in a Hannya mask is spotted wandering around the house. The amateur crime fiction writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate, but then tragedy strikes. The head of the Chizurui family is found dead inside his study, locked from the inside, with only a Hannya mask and the scent of jasmine as clues to his mysterious death.As Takagi delves deeper...
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Honeymoon to Nowhere

Honeymoon to Nowhere

Akimitsu Takagi

Mystery / Cultural / Japan

Etsuko has fallen in love with the shy young university lecturer who clumsily courts her. But her family objects to his past: his father was a war criminal; his deceased younger brother, a murderer. When Etsuko lies to force the marriage through, she thinks their troubles are over, but on their wedding night, the groom leaves in response to an urgent phone call. In the morning, he is still missing.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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The Informer

The Informer

Akimitsu Takagi

Mystery / Cultural / Japan

When he loses his job as a trader after the stock market crashes, Shigeo Segawa is offered lucrative work as an industrial spy. How could he say no? He is soon assigned to seduce an ex-girlfriend and steal an important formula from her husband, who runs a large chemical company. But when the husband is found murdered, Segawa becomes the prime suspect.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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