Suspicion

A master crime writer

A master crime writer

The Simenon of Japan... In this new translation of a taut 1982 novella, a former Tokyo hostess seduces a businessman. After their wedding they are involved in a car crash; he drowns, she survives. The question is whether the defence lawyer who takes her case is helping an innocent woman or falling into a moral quagmire.

What starts as a familiar setup - the classic femme fatale and her wealthy, deceased husband - soon unfolds into a layered allegory about the many ways we pursue the truth. It brought to mind Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole in its sharp exploration of journalistic ethics and the murky line between uncovering the truth and shaping it. And all presented in prose that is both spare and stylish. By the end, we’re left with a lingering sense of unease, reminded of how easily we can be nudged towards one version of the truth or another.

Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling writers in Japan. Self-educated, Matsumoto published his first book when he was forty years old and he quickly established himself as a master of crime fiction. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize in 1950 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970. His many novels include Tokyo Express and Inspector Imanishi Investigates.