TOKYO EXPRESS by Seichō Mastsumoto

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Think back to your school days. You’re sitting in sixth grade maths class and your teacher hits you with the classic problem about a bunch of trains leaving various stations at different speeds, all headed to the same destination. Which will arrive first? You quickly fill your page with a nonsensical flurry of numbers, knowing full well that maths just isn’t for you. Your mind wonders off to the Agatha Christie novel you were reading last night, and you daydream about how this whole stupid thing would be vastly improved by a murder or two.

Well, good news. Tokyo Express is your dream book. Two people are found dead on a beach, apparently having committed suicide together. Though nobody knew of any connection between them, they are assumed to have been lovers. The local detective smells a rat. The man was the star witness in a massive government corruption case, the woman a hostess at the bar frequented by the business associate of one of the accused. What follows is a fussy, fastidious investigation replete with the detailed workings of countless train schedules. It’s dated as hell, but oddly compelling. Just don’t ask me which train arrived first.

Tokyo Express by Seichō Mastsumoto (Tr. Jesse Kirkwood)
Penguin, 2020 (First Pub. 1958)
149 pages