Description

Can you solve the puzzle of the Noh Mask Murder?

Death and madness have haunted the Chizui family for years. Now a strange figure has been seen wandering their mansion at night, wearing a sinister Noh mask that is said to bear a centuries-old curse.

Budding crime writer and sleuth Akimitsu Takagi receives a desperate plea for help from the head of the family but arrives too late to find the man dead in a locked room, with the mask at his feet. Takagi begins to investigate, but it seems the curse of the mask is not finished with the Chizuis yet…

From one of Japan’s most renowned mystery writers-who appears in the novel as a detective!-The Noh Mask Murder is an ingeniously constructed masterpiece with a breathtaking ending.

Publisher Review

“A playful, meta-narrative puzzle that will delight fans of the classic locked-room subgenre, but which also digs beneath the surface mystery to explore the “collective derangement” that can affect an entire family – or, for that matter, an entire nation” — The Irish Times

“Japanese crime-writing legend and innovator of the form, Takagi, lends contemporary thought to traditional Golden Age tropes to superb effect… Reflects the distinct and elegant storytelling of Japan and riffs on the locked room mystery” — Crime Time