Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto

From “Japan's Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times): A secluded bay. An apparent lovers’ suicide. And a pair of detectives with a nagging suspicion that the pieces don’t add up. Can you solve one of the most astonishing literary puzzles ever written?

"An irresistible Hitchcockian gem: a fiendishly plotted crime novel told in crisp, elegant prose." —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing on the cold beach, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks and the empty juice bottle speak clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seicho Matsumoto's masterpiece.

Story Locale:Tokyo and Hakata, Japan, 1950s

Publication History:Originally published in 1958 in Japanese as "Ten to Sen" (Points and Lines), in English by Kodansha International in 1995, and as Tokyo Express in the UK in 2023