From 'a master crime writer' (Financial Times), a chilling story where Japanese tradition and Western crime collide – now available in English for the first time


Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play – but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence.

At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman’s connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy.

As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seicho Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted.

Translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood

"Seicho Matsumoto's books are packed with lean prose and twists yet they’re also educational. If you want to understand Japan, Matsumoto is a disquieting place to start" - Telegraph