The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada & Ross Mackenzie (Translator)
An amateur investigator in this classic Japanese locked room mystery looks into a series of horrific unexplained killings.
The classic Japanese “logic mystery” mixes the puzzle-solving of Golden Age Western detective fiction with aspects of stunning horror and dark humour. It is spooky, gory, and interesting in equal measure.
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
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Kiyoshi Mitarai, an astrologer, fortune teller, and self-styled detective, has one week to solve a grisly murder mystery that has perplexed Japan for the past 40 years. Kiyoshi sets out to find the answers to the problems that have plagued the nation ever since: Who killed the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then dismembered six other victims to construct Azoth, “the perfect woman”? Kiyoshi enlists the aid of his freelance illustrator buddy.
This tale of magic and illusion is woven together like a great stage tragedy, and it presents the reader with maps, charts, and other graphics to help them solve the riddle before the curtain falls.
This was written by Soji Shimada, a modern Japanese author who has had a significant impact, notably in Asia and Japan, on the reinvention of the locked room mystery and the classic golden age story. These have gained some degree of popularity in China as well; young Chinese people particularly enjoy mystery games. These were enormously popular in Japan.
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders was first published in the 1980s, but it has just recently been translated into English. It is an extremely fascinating book. It’s quite gloomy and horrific. It’s complicated, but in a Christie-style way that makes it stand out. It’s one of those stories that very deliberately allude to the customs of the Golden Age, the great detective, the many theories of clueing and red herrings and the twists, as well as the unexpected ending. As a result, it respects tradition while also reinventing it.
Soji has achieved incredible success in doing that. The locked room mystery isn’t as overdone as people used to believe, as evidenced by his strategy and that of a number of other authors from that region. You can use these concepts to create something original and fascinating as a writer if you have the drive and creativity.
