Abstract

Winner of 3 major mystery awards of 2020.
A masterpiece from a legendary mystery writer.

The year is 1949. Katsutoshi Kazahaya, nicknamed Katsudon, is an aspiring mystery writer in his last year at a new postwar high school in Nagoya. While his middle school was all boys, the recently launched postwar school system is co-ed. At their advisor’s suggestion, Katsutoshi and the members of the Mystery Novel Club plan an overnight trip together with the Film Club. In place of the traditional school excursion, the advisor and five male and female students go to the Yuya Hot Springs for a short trip. There, they get caught up in a locked-room murder. And then, on the last night of summer vacation, Typhoon Kitty comes, and someone is murdered by decapitation in an abandoned building. Will Katsutoshi and his friends be able to solve these two inexplicable mysteries? The author vividly depicts chaotic postwar Japan, which he experienced, and students’ youthful days.

Author’s Information

Born in Aichi in 1932. Graduate of Nagoya University. After working for NHK, he was widely active as a scriptwriter for animated and live action (tokusatsu) productions such as Astro Boy, Sazae-san, and Devilman. He debuted as a mystery writer in 1972 with Kadai: Chugaku satsujin jiken (The Middle School Murder Case [Tentative Title]). In 1982, Arisu no kuni no satsujin (Murder in Alice’s Land) won the 35th Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and in 2009, Kanzen ren’ai (Complete Love), published under the pen name Maki Satsuji, won the 9th Honkaku Mystery Award. He won the 23rd Japan Mystery Literature Award in 2019. Tsuji’s 2020 Takaga satsujin janai ka: Showa 24 nen no suiri shosetsu (It’s Only a Murder: A 1949 Mystery Novel) won three awards in major year-end mystery rankings. In 2022, celebrating his 90th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his debut as a mystery writer, he published Baka mitai na hanashi! Showa 36 nen no misuteri (How Stupid! A 1961 Mystery) and Omoide ressha ga kakenuketeyuku: Tetsudo misuteri kessakusen (Memory Train Runs Past: Masterpieces of Railway Mystery).