Sunday book pick: Seven die in quest for a ‘perfect woman’ in crime novel ‘The Tokyo Zodiac Murders’

Japanese mystery writer Soji Shimada’s debut novel, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, is a curious creature. It brought him immense fame in the country and the novel’s English translation made him well-known in the “Honkaku” genre – or “fair play” mystery – where the emphasis is on the clues, logic, and challenging one’s intellect instead of social commentary or psychological insights on the crime. It is interested in the what ifs and hows, but not necessarily in the whys.

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders constitutes several voices – the murdered artist who was planning several murders of his own, the police detectives on the case, the amateur detectives racing against time to solve the crime, the killer, and even the author himself. As Shimada writes in “Message from the Author”, these voices are clues for the reader to solve the mystery on their own. He assures the reader that the killer has been revealed but it is up to them to join the dots – in these interludes, the author is not smug but almost apologetic for being so careless with the story and offering clues so freely. He is convinced that the reader will crack the mystery before his detective characters do.

The ‘perfect woman’

The murders – a shockingly...

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