An oldie but still a goodie, The Master Key begins with a highly-publicized architectural experiment: engineers are about to moLike a 3.75 rounded up.
An oldie but still a goodie, The Master Key begins with a highly-publicized architectural experiment: engineers are about to move an entire five-story building to make way for widening an existing road. The engineers have assured the women who live there that they can remain in their apartments for the move, and that they won't notice a thing. They've even convinced the inhabitants of the building that they should all fill a glass with water and watch it ... they won't even see a ripple. And as the story opens, that is what many of the women are doing. Then -- three flashbacks: an accident involving a man wearing women's clothing, the burial of a child's body in the building's basement, and the tale of the kidnapping of the young son of an American army officer stationed in Japan.
The K Apartments for Ladies is not only a residence, but is also the world which these women occupy. It is a place where, according to one woman, a person can imagine that
old women pass their days in silence still gazing at the broken fragments of the dreams of their youth, every now and then letting fall a sigh that echoes down the corridor, until they combine on the stairway and roll down to the cavernous hallway, raising one long moan...
Ironically, the original purpose of the building was to serve as a place where "Japanese women could emancipate themselves," where single young ladies could live alone. Fifty years earlier, when the building was constructed, that was almost unheard of, and people would often look at it with "envious curiosity." However, now the residents are growing old, living with the "bright days of their pasts," now passing their time largely in a lonely existence of solitude and withdrawal. Rather than being free, women are now stuck there, with nowhere else to go, keeping parts of their past lives away from the prying eyes of others. And in the face of a changing outside world, many live there in order to continue old traditions. Now, with the theft of the building's master key, the safety of their world has been violated. Someone has access to things the residents would rather keep buried. In the midst of this world of secrets and solitude, there is one person who has no qualms about prying into the proverbial skeletons in the closets. The looming threat of deadly gossip would be, in some cases, too much to bear. Along with the moving of the building, the theft of the master key threatens to bring about that "one chance in a hundred" of the collapse of the world which these women inhabit, by making public the things they have kept hidden for a good portion of their lives.
The question of who took the key and why is only part of this story. Secrets upon secrets are revealed as the author delves into the lives of a few of these women to produce a novel that starts out on a high note of tension and stays that way up until the very end. But The Master Key is not only a mystery novel; it also offers a psychological portrait of aging women dealing with their pasts and the loneliness of their present situations.
The story is told from several different points of view so the novel may be a bit confusing at times. The characters and their hidden lives are what drive this book, but I found myself having to go back a few times to remember who was who and pick up the threads of their individual narratives. While that was a bit distracting, the sleight-of-hand twist at the end made it all worthwhile, as did the sense of place that came alive in the very atmosphere of this stifling and gloomy apartment world in which these ladies live. And although it was written in 1962 and may seem a bit dated, the suspenseful tone that starts at the beginning does not let up until the end....more
Set in Tokyo, the story is told from three points of view: from the detective, who is one Ryosaku Uno, currently investigating a series of arson-set fSet in Tokyo, the story is told from three points of view: from the detective, who is one Ryosaku Uno, currently investigating a series of arson-set fires; from Ikuo Onda, who is a fireman who makes nightly patrols to try to prevent the firesetting, and from the arsonist (whose name I won't divulge here). It seems that when all three of these people were young children, they were playing a game with lit matches at the home of one of these three, and a fire broke out. After the fire, the body of a man was discovered. Fast forward to the present, and watch the investigation unfold.
I found the characters often to be a bit hysterical (so much so that I often wondered why a couple of them weren't slapped once or twice just to get them back to normal); but all in all, it was still an okay read....more
The blurb on the back of this book says that the book "recalls Strangers on a Train..." by Patricia Highsmith, but this one is even more convoluted. IThe blurb on the back of this book says that the book "recalls Strangers on a Train..." by Patricia Highsmith, but this one is even more convoluted. If you haven't read the Highsmith book, and you want to see the comparison for yourself, Strangers on a Train is on my list of favorite books I've read in my lifetime. The Third Lady is sort of like this, but with several twists in the story that stay with you all the way until the end.
It all begins with a chance meeting in France between two Japanese people. One is Kohei Daigo, who works as a researcher and has discovered that a certain product that seems to cause cancer that was sent to his lab passed as being safe. Daigo knows, however, that his boss is in bed with the manufacturers & that the lab results are false. The other person is a woman, Fumiko Samejima, who starts talking to Daigo while the two of them are alone together in a small salon in a Paris hotel during a storm which knocked out all of the electricity. It is dark, they cannot see each other, and choose to sit back to back and share secrets. She wants a certain person to die, while he wants his boss to die because of his part in causing several young children to die of cancer. The brief interlude is over quickly and they both go back to their normal lives. Imagine Daigo's surprise when his boss turns up dead. Now he is faced with a dilemma...is the mystery woman the murderer, and if so, does he now owe her?
It will keep you guessing right up to the last, and I didn't get it so I was quite happy. If you like Japanese murder mysteries (not a cozy, so forget it), you'll enjoy this. I love them...they're very twisted and focus a lot of the absence of morality within society so tend to go a bit deeper than what's coming into bookstores nowadays....more
This story takes our fears of identity theft and raises them to a new level.
I liked this book. Aside from the translation difficulties which made it vThis story takes our fears of identity theft and raises them to a new level.
I liked this book. Aside from the translation difficulties which made it very wordy and often tedious reading, the mystery itself was good. I would recommend it for the mystery...but you'll find yourself skimming at points.
brief plot overview:
The novel tells the story of Tokyo Detective Honma, at home and on leave from his police job because he is recovering from a gunshot wound to his leg. One night he receives a strange visit from his dead wife's younger cousin Jun, a banker. It seems that Jun was getting ready to marry a young woman named Shoko Sekine and everything was going great until Jun tried to push through a credit card application at his bank for his fiancee. He gets back a report that she can't have a credit card because of some business with a lot of debt and bankruptcy. Then the next thing he knows, Shoko has disappeared. So he wants his "uncle" to find her, or at least figure out what happened to her. As he gets started, and then gets deeper into the investigation, he discovers that no matter how hard you try to disappear or to erase any trace of your existence, you leave some sort of trail. Miyabe takes the reader along on the trail as well.
Also noteworthy: the discussions of how Big Brother in Japan is much more advanced than you can think of it here.
Very strange book, but every book I've read by a Japanese author shares this trait. I have to say that it had me going right up until the last few chaVery strange book, but every book I've read by a Japanese author shares this trait. I have to say that it had me going right up until the last few chapters, then the author for some reason really let me down at the end by her decision with what to do with one of the characters. The last chapter didn't seem right and interrupted the flow of the rest of the novel. That said, it was an okay story, very different than anything I've read before.
brief plot summary: Out focuses on a group of 4 different women and what they have to put up by virtue of them having to be women. The main characters are Masako, who once worked at a credit union, demanded too much & got ostracized until she quit, then settled into married life with a son & husband who have withdrawn in their own particular fashions; Kuniko who is 33, overweight, & desperately wants to have the best of everything down to her lipstick. She is living with Tetsuya, her live-in partner, who doesn't want a job & just takes off one day no warning. Kuniko is over her head debtwise, and the credit company is breathing down her neck. She applies for jobs meant for younger, prettier women and is laughed off the premises. Next is Yoshie whose husband died earlier, and who is stuck with his mother who is an invalid; she has two daughters Miki & Kazue, who are both just in life for whatever is good for them (while Yoshie is in denial about the younger girl). Finally there is Yayio, who lives with her two small children and a husband who beats her and gambles the money she earns away. All four are friends and work at a factory which manufactures box lunches for sale at supermarkets & convenience stores, etc.
The trouble really starts when one of the women kills her husband, then asks one of the others to help her hide the crime.
There's a lot more to this than a grisly murder but if I say anything, it will really spoil the story. It was okay; but I can't believe the ending of this book. It was certainly not in keeping with the rest of the book. Overall, pretty good, and while not as good as some of the Japanese books I've read, it was fine. ...more
Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a serious crime novel which starts out with a murdered victim discovered under the tracks of a train in a station. Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a serious crime novel which starts out with a murdered victim discovered under the tracks of a train in a station. The victim has not been killed by the train; his face was bashed in and he was strangled. The only clues the police have are that he spoke with a northern dialect, and the word "Kameda" was overheard in a conversation between the murderer and his victim in a bar. So from these two clues as a starting point, Inspector Imanishi of Tokyo must track down a killer. While he is searching for clues, a woman commits suicide and there are two other murders. Are they all related? And if so, how? This is the task of the Inspector.
I absolutely loved this story. It had layers and layers of clues, red herrings, dead ends, multiple suspects & no gratuitous sex. It was written in 1961,but except for some of the technology, you'd never know it.
I highly recommend this as a mystery novel to be read by lovers of serious mystery stories. ...more
Right away, let me tell you that this book is not really "active," in the sense that it is purely psychological. So if you're looking for an action-paRight away, let me tell you that this book is not really "active," in the sense that it is purely psychological. So if you're looking for an action-packed mystery, this is not the one for you. A large number of people totally panned this book because there was very little action between its covers. But, if (like me) you are okay with exploring psychological motivation behind a person's acts, then you'll like this one.
The Metropolitan Police District is investigating two linked murders: a young girl and a middle-aged man. They have a suspect, but for some of the investigators, the suspect just doesn't feel right. So they keep digging, and find that the dead man was keeping up a regular Internet correspondence with three other people, known only as Mom, Minoru and Kazumi. As it turns out these four people were playing at being a "family" on the internet...the "shadow" family of the title. The police want to put the remaining "family" members together to take a look at them individually and as a group to see what they can discover not only about the dead man, but also to take a look at why 4 people would keep up this bizarre relationship.
Miyabe's last book, For All She Was Worth, took on predatory credit practices in Japan and the concept of identity; this one takes a look at alienation within families there, as well as the separate lives people lead in cyberspace. At first you may be a little in the dark, scratching your head going "huh?" but do NOT stop reading -- there is a very nice twist at the end of the novel which plays out in a way I haven't seen before in a mystery. Sadly, I figured out who the killer was long before I got to the end, but the ride was fun.
I liked this book, but it may not be for all mystery readers....more
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