Seishi Yokomizo – författare

'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sarah Cox, on BBC2's Between the Covers

'The master of ingenious plotting' Guardian

'Dazzling' New York Times

FROM THE FATHER OF JAPANESE CRIME

In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village.

Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music - death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. The murder seems impossible, but amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of it.

An ingenious and highly atmospheric classic whodunit from Japan's master of crime.

Amid the rubble of post-war Tokyo, inside the grand Tsubaki house, a once-noble family is in mourning.

The old viscount Tsubaki, a brooding, troubled composer, has been found dead.

When the family gather for a divination to conjure the spirit of their departed patriarch, death visits the house once more, and the brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi is called in to investigate.

But before he can get to the truth Kindaichi must uncover the Tsubakis' most disturbing secrets, while the gruesome murders continue...

PRAISE FOR SEISHI YOKOMIZO

'The diabolically twisted plotted is top-notch' New York Times

Readers will delight in the blind turns, red herrings and dubious alibis... Ingenious and compelling' Economist

'Plenty of golden age ingredients... with a truly ingenious solution' Guardian, Best New Crime Novels

In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, and his family eagerly await the reading of the will. But no sooner are its strange details revealed than a series of bizarre, gruesome murders begins. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan's terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and hidden identities to find the murderer, and lift the curse wreaking its bloody revenge on the Inugamis.

The Inugami Curse is a fiendish, intricately plotted classic mystery from a giant of Japanese crime writing, starring the legendary detective Kosuke Kindaichi.

Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news - the son of one of the island's most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger - with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters' lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can.

As Kosuke Kindaichi attempts to unravel the island's secrets, a series of gruesome murders begins. He investigates, but soon finds himself in mortal danger from both the unknown killer and the clannish locals, who resent this outsider meddling in their affairs.

Loosely inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, the fiendish Death on Gokumon Island is perhaps the most highly regarded of all the great Seishi Yokomizo's classic Japanese mysteries.

A Times No.1 and Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller

A classic Japanese mystery, from the author of The Honjin Murders

'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sara Cox, Between the Covers

Tokyo, 1947.

The Pink Labyrinth is one of the bomb-scarred city's most shady neighbourhoods. There, in the dead of night a patrolling policeman catches a young Buddhist monk digging in the back yard of The Black Cat Cafe, a notorious brothel. In the shallow grave at his feet lie the dead body of a woman, her face disfigured beyond recognition, and the corpse of a black cat.

Who is the murdered woman, and how was she connected to the infamous establishment? And where did the dead cat come from, given that the cafe's feline mascot seems to be alive and well? The brilliant sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi investigates, but as he draws closer to the truth, he finds himself in grave danger...

PRAISE FOR SEISHI YOKOMIZO

'The diabolically twisted plotting is top-notch' - New York Times

'Readers will delight in the blind turns, red herrings and dubious alibis... Ingenious and compelling' - Economist

'With a reputation in Japan to rival Agatha Christie's, the master of ingenious plotting is finally on the case for anglophone readers' - Guardian

'This is Golden Age crime at its best, complete with red herrings, blind alleys and twists and turns galore... A testament to the power of the simple murder mystery and its enduring appeal' - Spectator

'Plenty of golden age ingredients... with a truly ingenious solution' - Guardian, Best New Crime Novels

'Truly ingenious' Guardian

'The king of the locked-room mystery' CrimeReads

'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sara Cox, Between the Covers

'Fiendishly complex and wonderfully atmospheric' S.J. Bennett, author of Murder Most Royal

'With a reputation in Japan to rival Agatha Christie's, the master of ingenious plotting is finally on the case for anglophone readers' Guardian

The third title in Japan's most popular murder mystery series -- following The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse -- fiendish classics featuring investigator Kosuke Kindaichi

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the Sixteenth Century eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village.

Centuries later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.

An old friend of Kosuke Kindaichi's invites the scruffy detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe in order to look into a twenty-year-old murder case. But no sooner has Kindaichi arrived than a new series of murders strikes the village - several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that match the lyrics of an old local children's song...

The legendary sleuth investigates, but soon realises that he must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its rival families, to get to the truth.

THE CLASSIC JAPANESE MYSTERY - from the author of The Honjin Murders

'The master of ingenious plotting' Guardian

Fear looms over the luxurious Furugami estate. The beautiful, young Yachiyo Furugami, plagued by episodes of sleepwalking, receives a series of cryptic letters culminating in an ominous warning: 'Walk not at night'.

Then a body is discovered, decapitated with a centuries-old samurai sword. The police are baffled, so the famous sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi is called upon to solve the mystery, but before he can do so, the killer strikes again. Can Kindaichi get to the truth before the Furugami family is destroyed by its own secrets?

'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sarah Cox, on BBC2's Between the Covers

'The master of ingenious plotting' Guardian

'Dazzling' New York Times

FROM THE FATHER OF JAPANESE CRIME

In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village.

Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music - death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. The murder seems impossible, but amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of it.