Kiyoshi Mitarai SeriesSeries

This series plunges readers into a world of intricate, timeless mysteries where logic intertwines with the unusual. The brilliant and eccentric protagonist tackles cases that have perplexed a nation for decades, often delving into long-buried secrets. Each installment is a masterfully constructed puzzle, blending classic detective fiction with psychological depth and a touch of the uncanny or esoteric.

Recommended Reading Order

1
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Soji Shimada
320 pages
12 hours of reading
3.8(543)Add rating
One of The Guardian’s “Top 10 Locked Room Mysteries” An amateur detective races to solve a decades-old murder mystery in this “bloody and bizarre” Japanese crime novel with a twist hailed as “one of the most original” (Daily Mail). Astrologer, fortune teller, and self-styled detective Kiyoshi Mitarai must solve a macabre murder mystery that has baffled Japan for 40 years—in just one week. With the help of his freelance illustrator friend, Kiyoshi sets out to answer the questions that have haunted the country ever since: Who murdered the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then chopped up the bodies of six others to create Azoth, ‘the perfect woman’? With maps, charts, and other illustrations, this story of magic and illusion—pieced together like a great stage tragedy—challenges the reader to unravel the mystery before the final curtain falls. This quintessential Japanese “logic mystery”—eerie, gory, and intriguing—combines the puzzle-solving of Golden Age Western detective fiction with elements of shocking horror and dark humor.
2
Murder in the Crooked House
Soji Shimada
320 pages
12 hours of reading
3.4(383)Add rating
A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery “reminiscent of Agatha Christie” from a master of the genre—now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! “One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.” —New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself—a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion's rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too—can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?

Recommended Reading Order

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Murder in the Crooked House