The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

By Soji Shimada, Ross Mackenzie (translator), Shika Mackenzie (translator)

Book cover of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Book description

'If you like your crime stories to be bloody and bizarre, then this one may be for you. The winner of several major awards... the solution is one of the most original that I've ever read' Anthony Horowitz

A bestselling and internationally-acclaimed masterpiece of the locked-room mystery genre

Japan, 1936.…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Tokyo Zodiac Murders as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Queenie Chan

Author

I like macabre mysteries with compelling hooks and clever resolutions that blow my mind, and this book does exactly that. Japan has a long tradition of writing “fair play” mysteries, which they call honkaku novels. These borrow from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in the vein of Agatha Christie but certainly are their own category.

These novels are like puzzles, focusing on the rules of fair play by giving readers all they need to figure out the mystery. This story was my first honkaku story and is only the length of a novella (like many honkaku novels), and it’s…

From Queenie's list on Manga & novels that are mysteries from Japan.

Gigi Pandian

Author

This brilliantly baffling fair-play puzzle by one of Japan’s leading mystery authors begins with a challenge. Two amateur sleuths have one week to solve a macabre crime from 40 years before. The result is a wild ride that gives all the clues to the reader, and a perfectly executed solution I never could have guessed.

From Gigi's list on mysteries with solutions you’ll never see coming.