The Tattoo Murder Case Kindle Edition

If you love the locked room mysteries of Carr and others of that era you would love this. It is actually more than just a locked room mystery. It is well constructed and written. The tattoo background is fascinating. I will admit that I eventually picked who I thought was the murderer although I had no clue as to how or why that person had done it and turned out to be correct.I am so appreciative of the Japanese authors who some years ago resurrected locked room mysteries of the golden age ala Carr and strived to match or outdo them.I strongly recommend this book.

"The Tattoo Murder Case" by Akimitsu Takagi is a classic among the increasing number of Japanese mysteries now available in English translation. As is the case with most such mysteries, this book features unusual characters and psychological issues, introducing as well a walk on the wild side of Japan's youth culture. The tattoos involved in this case reflect longstanding cultural symbolism, making "The Tattoo Murder Case" a favorite among those generations of Americans fascinated by Japanese anime, comic books, and other graphic media.

engaging read, an effective thriller -- was quite impressed with exposition of postwar Japanese society and culture -- the murder mystery was developed professionally, maintaining suspense and an atmosphere of ambiguity...

This fascinating book was surprisingly enjoyable. Unlike many shoot-'em-up police procedurals of today this mystery, written in the postwar '40s, gets solved by sheer brainpower on the part of a detective and two outsiders, with a minimum of gunplay. In addition, the book gives us a look at life in occupied Japan only two years after the atom bombs fell. But, perhaps most interesting, it takes us into the exotic world of body tattooing, giving that art form a dimension probably unfamiliar to most western readers. Thus, on a number of fronts, this book excels. In addition, it holds the reader's attention throughout and provides a good change-of-pace for mystery readers.

This book was very interesting to read. The storyline was well crafted and held many details that had to be considered to follow it.

A very clever and entertaining thriller. This would have been a four-star review, except that the Kindle edition has literally more than one error per page. It looks like the book was scanned and then not proofread, for example: he word "in" shows up as "m" about half the time, punctuation is often missing or randomly appears in the wrong places, and some words are just clearly the wrong word (auto spelling correction?). In only a few places is this is genuinely confusing, but I found it so pervasive as to detract from the reading experience. However the problem is consistent, so if you're OK with the free sample then you'll probably be OK with the rest of it.

This combines a glimpse into the fascinating culture of tattoos and yakusas in post-war Japan with a masterfully executed locked room mystery. A very enjoyable read.

Very Japanese indeed with a lot of the writing quirks that overlap with a lot of other famous Japanese authors. I enjoyed it enough to recommend it for a lengthy crime story with amateur detectives 😀

Even though the debut was a bit laborious and I was trying to guess where the story was going, I really enjoyed this book. The real joy starts when the 1st murder is committed and Tokyo police starts to investigate. The plot deepens as well as the mystery surrounding the murder. You also get a good insight about the Tattoo world in Japan and it's culture in post world war II. Overall enjoyed the book , especially the end,as I was not expecting such a surprising end !!

I really enjoyed this book, it caught the atmosphere of post war Japan beautifully and I also learned a little about tattoo's ...The plot is very good and although a little may have been lost in translation the story flows well and is a very good "whodunnit"I would recommend this to anyone who likes crime stories, albeit it is a little different in it's approach.Recommended

Excellent writing, but the book was a completely torn condition. Order from a different seller.

Tokyo, just after the end of the 2nd ww war. The main characters are just coming back from fighting lines in south-asia. whole Tokyo is still heavily destroyed, due to the bombing raids.In this scenario a series of murders occour that are abviously connected to the tatoos of the victims. To solve the case Kenzo Matsushita, secretly in love with the first vicitim, has to ask his detective brother, Daiyu Matsushita for help.The description of the crime and its solving resembles a Little bit the classical Sherlok Holmes stile.For me the key interesting point was the description of the post war Japan, the japanese culture of the time, the interaction of the characters.The Level of suspense is quite high throughout the first half of the book and slows a bit towards the end. The "solution" seemed quite constructed to me, but never the less, the crime was very interesting to read.

Its a must read book. i would like to read more books of this writer.