TOKYO JUKU

Pronko presents a murder mystery set in the high-stakes world of Japanese academic achievement.

Mana, an exhausted student at a juku in the Kichijoji area of western Tokyo—a private school offering intensive, supplementary test preparation classes—is less than two weeks from her university entrance exams. She’s pushing herself through another sleepless night when she finds her teacher, Terui Sensei, dead with a knife lodged in his stomach. Already stretched thin, physically and emotionally, she’s suddenly thrown into police questioning and online scrutiny. Police Det. Hiroshi Shimizu, juggling departmental pressure and the looming arrival of his first child, becomes her uneasy ally as the investigation confronts the private juku system, which promises seemingly magical shortcuts to passing all-important exams. Mana and her friends begin looking into Terui’s life themselves, discovering that his influencer persona as a wizard of exam secrets may have masked darker ambitions. Meanwhile, the media and online world quickly turn on Mana, labeling her a “killer student” and adding pressure that she may not be able to withstand. For both the detective and the teenager trying to clear her name, memories of ambition, failure, and Terui himself seem to follow them through the electric city of Tokyo. Pronko’s story is fast, efficient, and controlled; he never lingers too long on any one scene, but his pacing keeps the mystery chugging along smoothly and rarely feels rushed. It’s a fairly conventional whodunit, overall, but Pronko’s observations about pressure and achievement are exceptional, and he expertly weaves them into all aspects of Tokyo life. At times, the characters’ worldviews are shaped by such rigid schedules that they come off as cold, but this slight chill serves to further Pronko’s themes of exhaustion and disconnection—from Hiroshi’s worries about his pregnant girlfriend to Mana’s maniacal exam countdown (“Two hundred and forty hours…”). The final reveal isn’t surprising, but it carries the novel’s observations to compelling conclusions.

A sleek thriller that doubles as a sharp critique of a preoccupation with success at any cost.