Tokyo Express

by Seichō Matsumoto

ISBN: 978-0-241-43908-1

First published 1958

149 Pages

Publisher: Penguin

Cover illustration: Japan Government Railways Poster 1937 by Munetsugu Satomi

5/5 Stars

Any book with a map, you know it is going to be good. But train times and schedules?

And using them to solve a crime of murder?

A great story by Seichō Matsumoto, involving a Detective’s nagging doubts, his thoughts of suspicion until he pulls on a thread until all is revealed. Unputdownable. We are given a slice of Japanese life in the mid-1950’s, together with their train timetables.

You are taken back and taken to the 1950’s Japan. Compartmentalised, rigid social structures, but can young love bloom? Is a new age dawning, or will old human frailties resurface time and again?

You know the answer.

The murders take place at Hakata Bay but the action takes place all across Japan, indeed anywhere linked by the railway. Anywhere linked by the Tokyo Express…