The Third Lady

by Shizuko Natsuki

She had appeared from nowhere quietly watching the storm through the French doors of the Chateau Chantal's salon. Away from the cares of work and family in Japan, Kohei Daigo felt strangely drawn to this woman, also Japanese, whose haunting scent thrilled his senses. In the darkness of that quaint room in a faraway country they shared an experience beyond the physical, a poetic, almost religious frenzy of love...

But they also shared their secrets: Daigo's hidden hatred for a fellow scientist responsible for the deaths of several children, and Fumiko's loathing for a killer who has never been caught.

Without knowing it, Daigo struck a bargain that night that could separate him from Fumiko forever... and make him a murderer.

Genres: Japan, Mystery, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller

249 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1978

About the author

Shizuko Natsuki (夏樹 静子) was born in Tokyo in 1938. She graduated from Keio University with a degree in English literature. She married in 1963 and moved to Fukuoka, where she has lived since that time with the exception of nine years spent in Nagoya. Natsuki is not only one of Japan’s best-selling mystery writers but also one of the most prolific. She has written more than eighty novels and short-story collections, and more than forty of her novels and stories have been made into films.

Natsuki published her first mystery novel, Tenshi ga kiete iku (the angel has gone), in 1970. The first of her novels to be translated into English was W no higeki (1982; Murder at Mount Fuji, 1984). Several of her short stories have been published in translation in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Natsuki’s writing, like that of many other Japanese mystery writers of her generation, often shows the strong influence of well-known mystery writer Seich Matsumoto.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far from his work and family in Japan, Professor Dago is watching an autumn storm from the salon of the Chateau Chantal. But it is only when the power is cut that he becomes aware of a woman, also Japanese, to whose elegant melancholy he is instantly drawn.

Intoxicated by the darkess and his desire, Daigo finds himself sharing a secret that his mysterious partner can equal with a confidence of her own: they both want another person dead. Before he knows it, Daigo has struck a bargain that could separate him from this bewitching woman for ever. And it is a bargain of which he barely understands the half...

"In some respects The Third Lady recalls Strangers on a Train, but in all it is even more harrowing than Patricia Highsmith's tale... an exemplary suspense novel, one the reader will long remember". - Edward Gorman, author f Rough Cut and editor of Mystery Scene.

I liked the book. Japanese, and different type of suspense. I'm fascinated by many things Japanese, but of the suspense books I'd only read previously some books by Natsuo Kirino - this one was far more enjoyable (Kirino is awesome too, but some of the gross parts can be a bit too gross). Daigo is trying to find the mystery lady, and figure what and when he has to do something to keep his side of the bargain. The pace of the book is generally a bit slowish for a thriller but it fits the story as nearly all action and thrill is internal. Natsuki's style is more 'Western' (aka 'less Japanese'). If I find other books by him, I'll definitely read them.

I had two copies of this book (poor memory when book shopping...):
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8...
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8...

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of this book says that the book "recalls Strangers on a Train..." by Patricia Highsmith, but this one is even more convoluted. If you haven't read the Highsmith book, and you want to see the comparison for yourself, Strangers on a Train is on my list of favorite books I've read in my lifetime. The Third Lady is sort of like this, but with several twists in the story that stay with you all the way until the end.

It all begins with a chance meeting in France between two Japanese people. One is Kohei Daigo, who works as a researcher and has discovered that a certain product that seems to cause cancer that was sent to his lab passed as being safe. Daigo knows, however, that his boss is in bed with the manufacturers & that the lab results are false. The other person is a woman, Fumiko Samejima, who starts talking to Daigo while the two of them are alone together in a small salon in a Paris hotel during a storm which knocked out all of the electricity. It is dark, they cannot see each other, and choose to sit back to back and share secrets. She wants a certain person to die, while he wants his boss to die because of his part in causing several young children to die of cancer. The brief interlude is over quickly and they both go back to their normal lives. Imagine Daigo's surprise when his boss turns up dead. Now he is faced with a dilemma...is the mystery woman the murderer, and if so, does he now owe her?

It will keep you guessing right up to the last, and I didn't get it so I was quite happy. If you like Japanese murder mysteries (not a cozy, so forget it), you'll enjoy this. I love them...they're very twisted and focus a lot of the absence of morality within society so tend to go a bit deeper than what's coming into bookstores nowadays.

[Christopher Borum · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in this book is so weird. I can't tell if it's the author or the translator. It's the opposite of "don't tell, show". There will be a few lines of dialog, and then several paragraphs of description of what led up to that encounter. For examples, two characters meet to discuss a murder. They speak two or three lines each and then follows two pages of "X had done this and Y had gone there and X had called this person, but maybe Y was not the right person so he had done something else." It's really hard to describe-and hard to show because I'd have to enter hundreds of lines of text.

Also, it isn't really a mystery. We know who does what (mostly) and when. I think it wants to be a psychological study of the main character, but he's kind of a doofus who takes certain actions he hopes will get him what he wants, but his motivations and assumptions are poorly thought out. He's hard to take seriously as a tragic figure because he's so selfish, but he's also hard to accept as a villain, even though he does villainous things, because he's such a dolt. And the backstory that propels the relationship between Daigo and Fumiko, especially his, is kind of silly.

It could have been written as a mystery, where even though the reader kind of knows what's happening, the clues the police find could have been spun out selectively so that we are solving the crime along with them. As it was, however, it's a lot of, "The Inspector assumed [x] and so he had made several phone calls and confirmed his suspicions and then he had observed [something] and then later he had found a certain clue at the scene that led him to think differently, so he had made some more phone calls, etc, etc." We could have been shown him find the clue at the scene and been left to speculate what it meant rather than being told it had happened several days after it was found.

That all said, the resolution/twist was acceptable, although I might have handled it differently. This is not a great book, but almost worth reading so you can see what I mean about the writing style. Other than that, don't bother.

[Tenma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my second Shizuko Natsuki novel that I have recently read. The other was murder on mt. Fuji. Both were a bit disappointing. A bit pulpy and full of fluff. Perhaps geared towards younger readers and hardcore mystery and YA pop fiction enthusiasts. For a mature, and a more complex and twisted plot, I would recommend the writings of her contemporary Masako Togawa.

[Jan Cornell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read to the end to find out who was who. The problem I had was that I felt the English translation was a problem or that some times the characters were not right. I wouldn't seek out another of these books.

[Luisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Schreibstil ist schon ziemlich "alt" und ich habe auch das Gefühl, dass die Übersetzung an vielen Stellen die Geschichte nicht unterstützt, sondern noch weniger spannend macht. Ansonsten ein klassisches Murder Mystery.

[Kara Ukolowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisty twisty 😍

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read another one by "Japan's most popular mystery writer". A slightly dated book, and I did guess the solution early on, but interesting nonetheless. Japan really does have a different aesthetic for their mysteries, and it shows here. The psychological suspense is more important that the "whodunnit", and the solution feels just like a melancholy haiku composed while viewing a transitory flower.

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading it, but nothing special.