The September, 2024 Reading List

 

Today is the last day of the month, so the list of books read this month is called for. September is a relatively short month, but I still managed seven books - that's about average for me.

You might say the September list was inspired by Japanese writer, Akimitsu Takagi. Four of the seven listed were written by Takagi; two of the seven were mystery novels by other writers, but were books mentioned by Takagi in one of his novels. Only one book, The Lady of the Barge & Other stories by W.W. Jacobs, is in no way related to Takagi.

I've written blog posts on four of the books on the list - The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi, The Three Coffins (AKA The Hollow Man) by John Dickson Carr, The Noh Mask Murder and The Informer, both written by Akimitsu Takagi.

I wanted to read S.S.Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case because it was mentioned favorably in The Noh Mask Murder. This, in spite of my having read another in Van Dine's Philo Vance series and not being impressed. The Greene Murder Case turned out to be better than I had expected.

Takagi's The Informer was top notch. Like all of Takagi's work, I highly recommend it.

The outlier in this month's list is W. W. Jacobs' The Lady of the Barge & Other stories. This book is a collection of short stories by the English writer. The most famous story in the collection is The Monkey's Paw, which was adapted into film in 1915, 1923, 1933, 1948, 2008 and 2013. My interest in reading the collection came from Commentary Magazine's John Podhoretz mentioning The Monkey's Paw on the magazine's podcast, in reference to the idea that wishing for something you shouldn't wish for can lead to tragic consequences.

Some of Jacobs' stories are humorous, while others are meant to be "horror" stories. The horror stories aren't really frightening by today's standards, but the book is, by and large, entertaining.

So now, the list:

The Tattoo Murder Case   by Akimitsu Takagi
The Hollow Man (The 3 Coffins)  by John Dickson Carr
The Noh Mask Murder   by Akimitsu Takagi
The Informer    by Akimitsu Takagi
Honeymoon to Nowhere   by Akimitsu Takagi
The Greene Murder Case   by S.S. Van Dine
The Lady of the Barge & Other stories   by W. W. Jacobs

The Informer by Akimitsu Takagi

As I've mentioned in earlier blog posts, the late Japanese crime fiction writer, Akimitsu Takagi has four novels translated into English. Two of these four feature State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima and are part of a seven part series. The Informer is the second in this series.

In The Informer, a former Tokyo stock exchange worker, Shigeo Segawa, is fired because of illegal trades. Segawa accepts a job from an old friend and discovers that this new firm is actually an agency for industrial espionage.

Early on, I was beginning to think that The Informer was strictly a story about industrial espionage and not a murder mystery. It takes a while before a murder takes place in the novel.

The story turns out to be more complicated than I originally suspected. The circumstantial evidence builds against Shigeo Segawa, so naturally I assumed that Segawa would not be the killer, although figuring out who the actual killer might be wasn't so easy.

Upon finishing The Informer, I'll move on to the third book in the Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima series, Honeymoon to Nowhere. 

It doesn't appear that there will be additional translations of Takagi's work and at 72, I'm too old to learn enough Japanese to read the entire series. That's unfortunate.

The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

In my blog post on The Tattoo Murder Case by Takagi Akimitsu , I mentioned that "I found this novel surrounding the tattoo subculture in Japan one of the best mysteries I've read this year." I've read two mysteries novels since making that statement, and while I still believe it remains "one of the best", Akimitsu Takagi's second novel, The Noh Mask Murder is even better.

Like The Tattoo Murder Case and John Dickson Carr's The Three Coffins, The Noh Mask Murder is a "locked room mystery" and like Carr's book, the story has three coffins. When it comes to "locked room mysteries", Takagi learned his lesson well.

I thought I had the story figured out. I was certain I knew the identity of the killer, only to be fooled and fooled yet again.

Four of Akimitsu Takagi's mystery novels have been translated into English. I'm about to start The Informer and then on to Honeymoon to Nowhere. It's unfortunate for me that there aren't more of his books in English. 

As an aside, one of the characters in the book is considered the "Japanese Philo Vance".  The Greene Murder Case is mentioned - there's even a chapter in The Noh Mask Murder with that title. I may get around to reading the S. S. Van Dine novel, although not until I've finished with Takagi.

The Three Coffins (AKA The Hollow Man) by John Dickson Carr

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, one of the main characters in Akimitsu Takagi's mystery novel, The Tattoo Murder Case, Kenzo Matsushita is himself a big fan of mystery novels. It's mentioned that Kenzo is reading The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr. Naturally, I searched the web for information on Carr's book.

The Three Coffins was published under that title in the U.S. in 1935. The book was published that same year in the U.K. as The Hollow Man and has received high praise from many critics, particularly for the often-reprinted "locked room lecture" given by investigator Gideon Fell in chapter 17. In 1981, a panel of 17 mystery authors and reviewers selected the novel as "the best locked room mystery of all time".

Upon reading such praise, I decided to read The Three Coffins before going on to Akimitsu Takagi's other novels that are available in English.

I have mixed thoughts on the book. Frankly, I feel the story drags in the early stages and it isn't until the chapter 17 "locked room lecture" that the book picks up. The ending, where the locked room mystery of The Three Coffins is explained is top notch but, unfortunately, one must read a good deal of sub-par writing to get to the end. 

The book was placed at No 40 on the Crime Writers' Association's list of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time and No 96 on the Mystery Writers of America's Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time. 

Honestly, I don't see it.