#Blogtour Point Zero by Seicho Matsumoto

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Point Zero by Seicho Matsumoto. 'First published in Japanese in 1959, the novel abandoned the template of closed-room mysteries so popular in pre-war Japan to embrace social criticism.' 

About the Author

Author: Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1982) was Japan's most successful mystery writer. His first detective novel, Points and Lines, sold over a million copies in Japan. Vessel of Sand, published in English as Inspector Imanishi Investigates in 1989, sold over four million copies and became a movie box-office hit.  

About the Translator 

Louise Heal Kawai is a translator of Japanese literature based in Yokohama. She previously translated Seicho Matsumoto’s A Quiet Place for Bitter Lemon Press. She is the translator of other works in the mystery genre, including Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders and Death on Gokumon Island, and Seventeen and The North Light by Hideo Yokoyama. Follow @quietmoonwave17 on X

About the book

Tokyo, 1958. Teiko marries Kenichi Uhara, ten years her senior, an advertising man recommended by a go-between. After a four-day honeymoon, Kenichi vanishes. Teiko travels to the coastal and snow-bound city of Kanazawa, where Kenichi was last seen, to investigate his disappearance. When Kenichi’s brother comes to help her, he is murdered, poisoned in his hotel room. 

Soon, Teiko discovers that her husband’s disappearance is tied up with the so-called “pan-pan girls”, women who worked as prostitutes catering to American GIs after the war. Now, ten years later, as the country is recovering, there are those who are willing to take extreme measures to hide that past.

Review

When you realise that the whole point of Teiko's movements - in fact the entirety of the plot structure - is the antithesis version of the much loved closed room mystery. Then it all makes sense, because at some point you might find yourself in a state of confusion or with a bit of whiplash from the constant movement from start to finish. It never lets up. It begins with Teiko and eventually other characters follow suit.

Teiko begins her journey as a woman who is expected to fulfil her societal role and tick the appropriate boxes, which includes an arranged marriage to businessman ten years her senior. The niggles and the reddish flags that raise their heads are suddenly forgotten when her brand new husband disappears on a business trip. Her initial response - concerned wife - turns into something akin to Miss Marple with a bone.

What slowly unravels is mystery wrapped tightly in the claws of those who will do anything to hide the truth and others who wander on the periphery of said truth.

It's the kind of story one could imagine being set on screen, where the vivid imagery would unfold and gift the eye of the beholder with the true beauty of this story. Each tense emotionally restricted moment becoming the minutiae as the background tries to seduce the watcher or reader. Kudos to the translator for capturing the voice, spirit and soul of this book.

Buy Point Zero at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Bitter Lemon Press; pub date 10 Feb. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.