This is your audiobook for April 2023, the Shedunnit Book Club’s mystery in translation month. For this theme, I’ve chosen to read this classic of Japanese crime fiction, first published in 1930. Koga Saburo, along with Taro Hirai aka Edogawa Rampo, was a major figure in the early days of the genre in Japan. Saburo is credited with coining the term “honkaku”, meaning orthodox, to describe the “golden age” style stories that he and his friends were writing that imported some details from the European and American crime fiction that was popular at the time. If you’d like to know more about the Japanese tradition, I made a whole episode about it back in 2021 which I’ll link in the description of this episode. But for now, let’s enjoy Koga Saburo’s story.

After listening, if you'd like to discuss this story with other members or make suggestions for me to record in the future, head over to the audiobook club area of the forum to do that.