Murder at the Black Cat Cafe

A classic Japanese mystery, from the author of The Honjin Murders
'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sara Cox, Between the Covers
Tokyo, 1947.
The Pink Labyrinth is one of the bomb-scarred city's most shady neighbourhoods. There, in the dead of night a patrolling policeman catches a young Buddhist monk digging in the back yard of The Black Cat Cafe, a notorious brothel. In the shallow grave at his feet lie the dead body of a woman, her face disfigured beyond recognition, and the corpse of a black cat.
Who is the murdered woman, and how was she connected to the infamous establishment? And where did the dead cat come from, given that the cafe's feline mascot seems to be alive and well? The brilliant sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi investigates, but as he draws closer to the truth, he finds himself in grave danger...
PRAISE FOR SEISHI YOKOMIZO
'The diabolically twisted plotting is top-notch' - New York Times
'Readers will delight in the blind turns, red herrings and dubious alibis... Ingenious and compelling' - Economist
'With a reputation in Japan to rival Agatha Christie's, the master of ingenious plotting is finally on the case for anglophone readers' - Guardian
'This is Golden Age crime at its best, complete with red herrings, blind alleys and twists and turns galore... A testament to the power of the simple murder mystery and its enduring appeal' - Spectator
'Plenty of golden age ingredients... with a truly ingenious solution' - Guardian, Best New Crime Novels
'Truly ingenious' Guardian
'The king of the locked-room mystery' CrimeReads
'The Japanese Agatha Christie' Sara Cox, Between the Covers
'Fiendishly complex and wonderfully atmospheric' S.J. Bennett, author of Murder Most Royal

Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan's most famous and best-loved mystery writers. He was born in Kobe and spent his childhood reading detective stories, before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan. The Honjin Murders, The Inugami Curse, The Village of Eight Graves, Death on Gokumon Island, The Devil's Flute Murders and The Little Sparrow Murders are also available from Pushkin Vertigo.BRYAN KARETNYK is a translator of Japanese and Russian literature. His recent translations for Pushkin Press include Seishi Yokomizo's The Village of Eight Graves, Futaro Yamada's The Meiji Guillotine Murders, Taku Ashibe's Murder in the House of Omari and Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Murder in the Age of Enlightenment.