Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seichō Matsumoto

A patient detective, a mutilated body, a cold trail

In 1960s Tokyo, a man's badly disfigured body turns up on the train tracks at Kamata Station, leaving detectives with almost nothing to go on beyond an unusual accent and a single overheard word. When the case runs cold and is officially closed, methodical, haiku-writing Inspector Imanishi refuses to let it go, following a thread of odd coincidences, including a mysterious suicide and a sudden death, across Japan and into the orbit of a fashionable young group of avant-garde artists. Seichō Matsumoto, one of postwar Japan's most acclaimed crime writers, uses the investigation to paint a vivid picture of a country caught between traditional values and a fast-changing modern culture. A patient, atmospheric classic of Japanese crime fiction.