THE TOKYO ZODIAC MURDERS

An eager amateur sleuth solves a series of baffling murders that have confounded Tokyo for more than 40 years.

The prolific career of acclaimed Japanese detective novelist Shimada began with this stand-alone whodunit, first published in 1981 and packed with tropes that influenced the genre, in Japan and elsewhere, in the subsequent decades. The theatrical flair possessed by both the killer and the fledgling author is evidenced by the story’s presentation in acts and scenes rather than chapters, along with entr’actes that put an additional spin on the kaleidoscopic plot. (Two of these even features Shimada himself.) The lengthy prologue that introduces the reader to the crimes is the “last will and testament” of a man who says he’s possessed by the devil and who outlines a fiendish serial murder plan. His corpse is discovered in a locked room, but, incomprehensibly, someone implements his plan. The case remains unsolved until it’s tackled decades later by a dynamic duo. Kazumi Ishioka serves as wide-eyed Watson to the Holmes of his pal, astrologer and armchair detective Kiyoshi Mitarai. The Dramatis Personae listing characters in both 1936 and 1979 will help readers keep everyone straight. The overused metaphor of a puzzle is completely appropriate here, since the pieces include multiple first-person accounts across several decades as well as many illustrations: maps, charts and, chillingly, a series of body diagrams that depict the legacy of Azoth in the course of unraveling the mystery.

An ebullient mystery classic that foreshadows the subgenre of intricate “how-dunits.”