Seicho Matsumoto was a prolific Japanese writer of not just crime novels but short stories and history books. He won numerous awards and had a number of his novels adapted to film (I watched one over the long weekend, but unfortunately the book was never translated into English). His famous crime novel, Points and Lines (Ten to Sen translated from the Japanese by Makiko Yamamoto and Paul C. Blum) is only my first foray into his world of Japanese crime novels. Alas, I better take my time with his books since there are so few available in English.
I think it is the case with many contemporary crime novels that the mystery, in a really good story, is informed by the ills of a society. It might all come down to greed or lust or passion, but a story likely reflects the injustices in a society. I always think that to get good insight into any culture, it is always a good idea to read some crime stories. In the case of Matsumoto, his work from what I have read about him, deals with the dark undercurrents that occur in politics and business and he does not shy away from showing corruption in any segment of society including the police.
In Points and Lines, though, while there is plenty of deceit, our detectives are after the truth, and it is all set against a backdrop of what to me seems quite exotic 1950s Japanese culture. This is a carefully constructed and craftily thought out murder mystery of what at first glance appears to be simply a case of a love-suicide pact without a hint of any wrongdoing. One tiny slip up that only by chance was caught--a dinner ticket on a train for one when, had this really been a suicide and not a murder should have been for two--results in a set of deaths that look suspicious.
It takes some very meticulous investigating and piecing together of clues to solve this crime. Literally many, many careful hours are spent sorting through detailed lists and timetables from train journeys and lots of simple hitting the pavement and following in the footsteps of the man they suspect of the crime to come up with any tangible evidence. Suspect him, they may, but none of their leads seem to pan out and offer any reliable proof, so utterly careful has the murderer been to cover his tracks. This is more of a slow burn detective story rather than racy thriller, but it is a satisfying mystery and peek into the worlds of a Japanese salaryman and corrupt government officials.
So the premise--the story opens with a businessman having dinner with two colleagues in a traditional style Tokyo restaurant that he often frequents. He is a regular client and knows his waitress who often takes care of the parties he brings. His business finished, he will return home the following day. He talks two waitresses from the restaurant into meeting him and accompanying him to the train station the next day with the offer of a free dinner, so he won't have to wait alone.
Curiously as they are waiting on the train platform they spot his waitress boarding the train with a man they have never seen. She has what appears to be a lover? Of course this causes much surprise and no little amount of gossip. She had never been known to have a boyfriend, they must get closer to get a better look. Trains come, they depart, their view is blocked save for a few moments in between departures. Indeed she is their coworker. Soon their curious surprise and gossip will turn to mortification when they discover their friend and this man have committed suicide on a lonely beach far from Tokyo. Unexpected it may be, but everyone has secrets and apparently she did as well.
It will come down to those few moments between train departures and that strange single meal ticket that don't add up. Sounds almost implausible, doesn't it? Such small things, tiny details when everything else points to a sad but not criminal case of suicide. This was such an interesting peek into Japanese society as well as a classic crime/detective story. There was a lot of detail on how the detective sussed it all out and the solution all tied into the dirty dealings of the business world. I will be reading the other books by Seicho Matsumoto that I can get my hands on.
I am now reading another, this time contemporary (rather it is set in the late 1980s) crime novel by Miyuki Miyabe called All She Was Worth, which was a Japanese bestseller, and has been hailed by the Christian Science Monitor as a "suspenseful tour of the 'new' Japan. However, as this is about identity theft and possibly murder (so far no body but only two missing women--the real Shoko Sekine and her impersonator), maybe all that corruption is not so new. She goes into some detail about the credit industry, so once again this is a novel of social consciousness. The detective, Honma, who I really like, is a widowed father of a young son. He is on leave from his police department due to a leg injury and agrees to look into the disappearance of the girlfriend of his nephew. I am at that point of no return with the story and can't wait to finish. I plan on reading more by Miyabe, as I love her storytelling. It looks like she has a handful of books translated into English. My next reading Japan choice, however, will be a regular novel--either historical or contemporary fiction. I already have a few books set aside to choose from!