The Noh Mask Murder

by Akimitsu Takagi, Jesse Kirkwood (Translator)

A bewildering locked-room murder occurs as an amateur crime writer investigates strange events in the Chizurui mansion in this prizewinning classic Japanese mystery.

This ingenously constructed masterpiece, written by one of Japan’s most celebrated crime writers and translated into English for the first time, is perfect for locked-room mystery fans who can’t resist a breathtaking conclusion.

In the Chizurui family mansion, a haunting presence casts a shadow over its residents. By night, an eerie figure, clad in a sinister Hannya mask is seen roaming around the house. An amateur murder mystery writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate — but his investigation takes a harrowing turn as tragedy strikes the Chizurui family.

Within the confines of a locked study, the head of the family is found dead, with only an ominous Hannya mask lying on the floor by his side and the lingering scent of jasmine in the air as clues to his mysterious murder.

As Takagi delves deeper into the perplexing case, he discovers a tangled web of secrets and grudges. Can he discover the link between the family and the curse of the Hannya mask? Who was the person who called the undertaker and asked for three coffins on the night of the murder? And do those three coffins mean the curse of the Hannya mask is about to strike again?

The Noh Mask Murder’s legendary ending offers locked-room mystery fans the perfect coda to an ingenously constructed mystery.

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

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Akimitsu Takagi (高木 彬光 , Takagi Akimitsu?, 25 September 1920–9 September 1995), was the pen-name of a popular Japanese crime fiction writer active during the Showa period of Japan. His real name was Takagi Seiichi.

Takagi was born in Aomori City in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. He graduated from the Daiichi High School (which was often abbreviated to Ichi-ko) and Kyoto Imperial University, where he studied metallurgy. He was employed by the Nakajima Aircraft Company, but lost his job with the prohibition on military industries in Japan after World War II.

On the recommendation of a fortune-teller, he decided to become a writer. He sent the second draft of his first detective story, The Tattoo Murder Case, to the great mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo, who recognized his skill and who recommended it to a publisher. It was published in 1948.

He received the Tantei sakka club sho (Mystery Writers Club Award) for his second novel, the Noh Mask Murder Case in 1950.

Takagi was a self-taught legal expert and the heroes in most of his books were usually prosecutors or police detectives, although the protagonist in his first stories was Kyosuke Kamizu, an assistant professor at Tokyo University.

Takagi explored variations on the detective novel in the 1960s, including historical mysteries, picaresque novels, legal mysteries, economic crime stories, and science fiction alternate history.

In The Informer (1965), a former Tokyo stock exchange worker is fired because of illegal trades. A subsequent stock market crash means that he has no hope of returning to his old career and therefore he accepts a job from an old friend even though he eventually discovers that the new firm he works for is really an agency for industrial espionage. The plot is based on actual events.

He was struck by stroke several times since 1979, and died in 1995.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Chizui family has a strange figure wandering through their mansion at night. The figure is wearing the family’s supposedly cursed Noh mask. And this is but the start of a puzzling deadly sequence of events.


The book starts with the author explaining to a friend that he wants to write a new kind of murder mystery story. He wants to investigate a real-life crime, solve it, and turn it into a murder mystery story. Told through letters and journal entries, the author is a character in his own book seen through the eyes of another character, which is quite a fascinating concept. It’s definitely an interesting way to present a murder mystery to your audience. Though it’s also a bit complex, as this story has a few layers you need to be aware of if you want to try and solve this mystery for yourself.


One thing of note is that this story basically starts by spoiling the mystery of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. So don’t read this book if you’re planning to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd anytime soon. It also took me a few pages to get used to the way this story is structured, but the atmospheric Japanese post-war setting and the locked room murder mystery plot quickly dragged me into the story to explore the riches it has to offer.


Quite an engaging and intense murder mystery because of the writing style. The mystery itself is expertly crafted and kept me guessing. Also love the way the Noh mask is used, as you do learn a bit about this and other parts of the Japanese culture. It is a little bit dark and perhaps a bit overdramatic, but it’s a good murder mystery worth reading.

[Ila Perey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular literary topography and extended denouement.

Japanese theatre culture and folk lore sets the stage for psychological tension and suspense. A demon-symbolising hannya mask, though fixed in features can show a range of emotional expressions through the use of candle light and angles—a tilt of the head. Under harsh light, all of its secrets are exposed: colours, lines, defects etc. It conveys malediction as a series of prophesied deaths, guaranteed as pre-ordered coffins then crystallised with the end of the Chizurui family. If the mask is treated not as a harbinger but as evidence instead, then theorisation stays within the perimeters of science through a maze of implausible and plausible conclusions in closed-room murders.

Throughout the novel, insanity is given a broad meaning and examined far enough to be unsettling. Manifested notably as nihilism and obsession, it takes the form of an inflated sense of self to the point of self-deification as well as self-assessment and regard that takes one above the law, social rules and morality. It culminates in a complete disregard for human life and worth. The same person carries an air of nonchalance in the theorising of murder then in reverse direction, stimulation by the prospect of their own impending death depicting a scornful attitude towards life and existence: pointless and risible in general.

“Power is an immutable reality.”

Obsession is not solely reserved for the acquisition of power. It can be a response to perceived injustices, a quest for justice or revenge. Obsession is a kind of insanity.

A haunting read by the fire.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 🌞

A surprise mystery novel where the author is a side character (definitely the first of its kind).

The way the murder mystery unfolds is unusual. There are so many twists and red herrings that if you don't pay close attention, you'll miss the clues. This was the case for me, so when I got to the finish, I was astounded by how intelligent everything was, which is why I was torn between rating it a 4 and a 5.

Also, I despised the idea that the author was so consumed with proving himself distinct that he actually damaged a classic work "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".

Also, at one point, I felt that the entire first murder approach was a little farfetched, and I believe I need someone to conduct it in front of me to completely understand it. It's more of something that looked good on paper, but I'm not sure if it's truly possible.

[BookishDramas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For long I've been fascinated by the mystery books of past masters from Japan and the extremely slow trickle of translated books available in English. The few that I've read sit very high in the writing quality and I read a fair bit of books. The late Akimitsu Takagi wrote prolifically in the 50's to 70's but there are very few in fact 2 or 3 books available in English including his debut novel The Tattoo Murder Case and Honeymoon to Nowhere, both of which I have read earlier.

My thanks to the publishers Pushkin press and NetGalley for this lovely ARC. I wait for the release of the book in June so as to pick a copy for my collection. This review is based on my reading of this novel and reflects my comments as I progressed in the story.

The story is a classic locked room mystery, several of which have come out of Japan over the last several decades. One of the things to keep in mind is that the story is from 1950, a good three quarters of a century before and the story paces in a way similar to the Agatha Christie books. Some parts does seem dated but when the time period is considered they do not matter.
The story starts slow as Takagi starts setting up the story and the characters. The details of the Noh mask and what it means is well explained. The mansion of the Chizurui family has a haunting presence with someone moving around with a mask on and Takagi adds more interest with him going in to investigate the story as himself. The family presence is the late owner's brother, and the children of both brothers. The stated mask is a family heirloom and has a sordid history and considered cursed. The new head of the family is the first to die and more murders follow.
Takagi gives time to the characters and also the era with Japan coming out of the grip of the devastating world war. The story is dark and enjoyable till the last page.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

An aspiring mystery writer and his childhood friend must join forces to solve the mystery of a string of deaths in a prominent Japanese family that may be the result of an inherited curse.

I've always enjoyed reading works in translation - they seem to bring you closer to the place in which they are set - but I definitely haven't read many genre works. As such, I was intrigued by the prospect of this locked room murder mystery, written in 1949 but never before translated to English.

We are immediately plunged into the dark and atmospheric story of the Chizurui family, where the appearance of an allegedly cursed family heirloom in the window portends death. The author uses an interesting framing device to insert himself in the story as a bumbling amateur detective - it was rather amusing to see him so derisively described by the so-called writer of the diary in the center of the story, Koichi. The whole story has a heavy gothic flavor, and the solution that unfolded step by step lingered unsettlingly even after I was done reading.

However, the mystery itself wasn't a particularly dazzling one, and elements of it felt derivative of other mystery novels from the era. Harder to ignore was the mounting melodrama of the plot, especially where romance enters into the story - I found myself scoffing at some of the more tense moments because of this, especially toward the end.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from Pushkin Press via Edelweiss for which my thanks.

If you thought like me that Anthony Horowitz’s ‘Hawthorne and Horowitz’ series makes for a clever and certainly different mystery series where the author is himself a character, the detective’s ‘Watson’ in fact, reading The Noh Mask Murder, I was surprised to find that Japanese mystery writer Akimitsu Takagi (the pen name used by Takagi Seiichi) had beaten him to the idea and well back in 1949. The Noh Mask Murder pushes the boundaries of the structure of a detective novel while keeping intact elements of classic Japanese crime fiction like a sense of fear and foreboding, complex families with morally ambiguous and indeed dissipated characters as also some mentally unstable ones, eerie music and atmosphere, tragedy and plenty of bodies and also giving us a story with twists till the absolute last page, making for very exciting reading. This Pushkin edition (to be published early next month) is translated by Jesse Kirkwood, my third time reading a Japanese novel translated by him.

The book in fact opens with a conversation between (author/character) Akimitsu Takagi and his ‘friend’ Koichi Yanagi to whom Takagi makes known his dream of writing a very different detective story for even the most surprising ideas (Roger Ackroyd, for instance) have become too well known. He wants to in fact investigate a real-life murder, solve it and use that as the basis for his book.

Instead of the detective merely stating what he did, on what date, with whom, and so on, all that detailed evidence would form the basis for a meticulous account of his every thought, his precise chain of reasoning—and all the actions he took as a result.

And it seems in the pages that follow that he gets the chance to do just that though the story that eventually emerges is not from his pen but ends up being ‘told’ to him through letters of the Prosecutor Hiroyuki Ishikari and the journal of Koichi Yanagi for while Takagi does indeed begin by taking on the role of ‘Sherlock’ in the mystery brought to him, somewhere along the way he steps away, leaving the scene entirely.

Set in post-war Japan, we find Koichi Yanagi—now back home after serving in the war and being confined in an internment camp in Burma—is living in the home of Professor Chizui who had died ten years ago but to whom he was close in his school days. Here he distils sugar in the professor’s chemistry lab. But all is not well in the Professor’s family as his wife has been sent away to an asylum having lost her mind after the Professor’s death, his young son, fourteen-year-old Kenkichi is suffering a heart ailment and fading away, and daughter Hisako is also descending into madness by the day. Also in the house are the professor’s brother, Tajiro Chizui and his family—three children Rintaro, rather depraved but also highly intelligent; Yojiro also quite the ‘snake’, even if less dangerous than his brother and their sister Sawako, treated no better than a housemaid by the rest of the family. There is also Sonoe, Tajiro’s old mother (stepmother to the professor), partially paralysed whom Sawako looks after. In this house, there is a distinct feeling of evil, with a cursed Noh mask (a devil) adding to the atmosphere. Fearing something untoward, Tajiro through Koichi engages the services of the latter’s friend, our author, Akimitsu Takagi, known for his love of detective stories and fancying himself an amateur detective, to get to the bottom of things.

But before he can even meet Tajiro, the dance of death begins as Tajiro is murdered in a locked room scenario and the ‘murderer’ it seems has had three coffins sent to the house. Takagi is known to the police and is able to stay involved in the investigation while Prosecutor Ishkari is friends with Koichi and also shares his insights with them both. As the investigation proceeds, more bodies follow, but it turns out that it will not be Akimitsu Takagi but Koichi who ends up taking on the lead ‘detective’ role. Can they track down the murderer in time? How do things resolve?

With its combination of classical mystery elements and a unique structure, The Noh Mask Murder covers a lot of ground giving the reader a rich sense of time, place and culture. Being set in post-war Japan, the war and its impacts are unsurprisingly woven into the story be it in the form of the experiences of people like Koichi who served in the war to those who remained in the country to the changes (like the introduction of democracy) that the country is going through—these are not gone into in depth but are very much present through the book.

As a Noh mask (a cursed one at that) is involved in the mystery, we learn much about Noh performances as well including several nuances like how performers conveyed emotions even though the expression of a mask can’t be varied and also how the performances could reach their zeniths only with traditional forms of lighting which impacted the way they were viewed by audiences.

Besides these elements as Akimitsu Takagi has worked himself into the plot as a voracious reader and aspiring writer of detective stories, there is also much interweaving of and references to those. Christie is referenced of course and there is some of her influence one can see in some aspects of the plot but there is also S. S. Van Dine whose Greene Murder Case (also Bishop Murder Case) are spoken of, Takagi (the character) likening the case before him or trying to with Greene.

The manner in which Takagi presents himself is also intriguing; he comes in as a friend of Koichi, who fancies himself a detective or at least would like to be one based on his wide reading of detective stories and starts off as the one primarily working alongside the police. Yet it would seem, a least as Koichi sees it, that he is so absorbed in his knowledge of crime stories that his application of it to the case before him suffers. But we never see Takagi (other than in the Prologue) first hand; it is always either in the letters of Prosecutor Ishikari or more so, Koichi’s journal. But here too, there are some surprises in store for the reader.

The mystery itself is set around a family which rather reminded me of the as complex and dysfunctional one in The Devil’s Flute Murders with some unsettling truths and dissipated members from the greedy to the downright depraved and even some mentally disturbed. But using that structure, and other elements like a feeling of impending doom and deaths following each other in quick succession, Takagi (the writer) also gives us a mystery with its fair share of surprises. The denouement towards the end has one on the edge of one’s seat wondering whether the outcome will be one way or the other but even when that seems settled, there are more twists in store, of which that last one took me so entirely by surprise that it left me rather impressed.

A mystery I will definitely recommend, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading!

p. s. There are a couple of disturbing elements (nothing on screen but an incident of abuse is involved) confined to only parts of the book though their impact is wider.

4.5 stars rounded off (-0.5 for the dark bits)

[Willow Heath]

Akimitsu Takagi's follow-up to The Tattoo Murder is one of the most entertainingly strange and unique honkaku mystery novels you'll ever read! This is in large part due to its framing device, which sees the author himself tell the reader, in the prologue, how he had always wished to write a mystery story based on a true crime. And how he was given that chance, but it didn't play out how he had dreamed it would.

That true crime is this novel: the story of the Chizui family and the cursed hannya mask that portends death (several deaths, in this case). Takagi himself is given the opportunity to play sleuth, but he does a less-than-stellar job, and it is his old friend Koichi who, instead, takes the role of lead detective.

The novel is packed full of references to theatre, both within Japan and without, as well as to the tropes and traditions of the crime genre. It's a novel that toes a line between camp and gothic in a very fun and theatrical way, suitable for its aesthetics and its subject matter.

My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/japanese-myst...

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. At the very beginning of the book there is an awful lot of business. We have a story but first there is a letter and then we have a diary and it all seemed a bit much. And then, strangely, the story itself seemed too simple, the killer too obvious. But, it turns out, Takagi has created a very carefully constructed mystery here, one where you must stick with it to see all the ways in which it isn't what you think. A real hall of mirrors of a mystery, that's even better because for so much of it it seems anything but.

I did get a bit bored in the middle, but it was more than worth the ending. That made me want to clap. Clearly this was a book that was built, entirely, around all these sneaky little end twists (Shyamalan-y several decades early) but they were great twists and I was happy I stuck around for the end.

Locked room mysteries never interest me much, almost all of them are mechanical solutions and for modern readers it's often very difficult to picture all the weird business with keys and windows and strings that inevitably are explored as you search for the possible solution. The solution rarely interests me and luckily Takagi gets that.

Like many 20th century Japanese mysteries it has a deep love for the genre, is bursting with references and homages, and even if the plot can get a bit slow, it's worth the ride.

[alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bet this book is soooo satisfying if you’ve read Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and also are smart. The hardest part of a mystery novel is always the first ten pages though, and unfortunately I carelessly googled something in the first chapter and immediately spoiled the case. Still has a good payoff, so if you like locked room mysteries you’ll like this.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Not the most enthralling Japanese crime fiction I've read but it is certainly twisty with a lot of the most intricate ones happening right at the end, keeping you guessing at to what the final outcome will be until the final pages.

The Chizui family appears to be cursed by a Noh Mask held at the family home. Strange deaths and madness seem rife and when the head of the family is discovered dead in a locked room the mystery deepens. What follows is an attempt to unravel this and historical murders by a man employed at the Chizui mansion along with the author of the book, Akimitsu Takagi.

The book itself alludes to other classic locked room mysteries throughout but the solution is in a class of its own, taking the locked room mystery to the next level.

I never guess whodunit but I knocked off a star because I did in this case. I suppose this cones of having been addicted to Japanese crime fiction and locked room mysteries for far too long.

An enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the advance review copy.

[hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in a journal-styled narrative, the plot brought me to uncover a gripping murder mystery involving a familial curse of the Chizui family with the fearsome Noh mask that lured the victim of the household to a sudden mysterious death. Mostly narrated from Koichi Yanagi’s POV, the family’s chemist as well a close friend to the fictional Akimitsu Takagi who was being invited by Taijiro Chizui in an urgent plea to help his family troubles, it was set mainly inside the Chizui mansion with a stirring progress revolving around a locked-room whodunnit crime scene.

Its blend of suspense and deranged characters really hooked me, having too much suspicions with easy to guess motive yet quite puzzling to unravel the knotty string of deaths that were happening one after another. Of revenge and hatred, a family drama and conflict that both go so emotionally and psychologically driven. Although the amateur sleuth Takagi only appeared occasionally as a side character, I love how meticulous he goes in disentangling the clue and working it out with the help of the case’s prosecutor, Hiroyuki Ishikari.

I am still stunned on the final revelation that debunked the whole deduction by Koichi in chapter 10. Reading the journal of Ishikari in chapter 12 gets me a bit surprise— it was so ingenious and deceptively plotted, that littlest gap of the unseen truth; very enticing yet so audacious for the killer and to think about those deaths happening in between, it gets too depressive for me to see how each character’s life to end in that tragic.

“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth— that was all I wanted.”

Thank you Pansing Distribution for the gifted review copy!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled getting into this mystery because the translation was so poor. I mean, I hope Takagi doesn’t write this stilted and florid in the original version! I read his other book, The Tattoo Murder Case, and I do recall some scenes being over-the-top verging on the ridiculous so maybe the author’s style really is this melodramatic?

The post war setting is one I find consistently fascinating. After years of reading about WWII through the Allied lens, it is interesting to get the viewpoint from the other side. The mix of a traditional British murder mystery and postwar cynicism intrigues me. Now that I reflect on this, I guess the British golden era mysteries arose out of the ashes of WWI and the despair and cynicism that arose after both the war and the flu epidemic. So maybe it’s not strange at all?

The locked room mystery was clever. I guessed the biggest twist at the end because I have read so, so, so many mysteries it is hard to surprise me. Even with my prediction confirmed, I still enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t mindblowingly brilliant and that is fine, it’s not something I expect from every mystery I read.

I did find a few bits more lurid than one would find in a Christie or Sayers. I guess that’s the postwar influence? No sex scenes or foul language. Lurid in the sense of character behavior. This was darker than say a Miss Silver mystery.

I will keep an eye out for more books by Takagi, but not by this translator!

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mystery novel where the author is a character in the book?? Count me in.

This was a fast paced read & I enjoyed every moment of it. 4/5 stars only because some parts were a little confusing but also because I figured out who the murdered was halfway through the book. Although it had me questioning if I was right or wrong with all the twists and turns. The final twist though was spectacular. Did not see that coming.

I plan to read more from this author in the future, that’s for sure!

[Kerensa · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is kind of like if the characters from chapter 1 of Danganronpa V3 were boring* but the plot was good. i liked it overall. all of the women were defined by either their insanity or their tragic love except for the vaguely evil grandma, so that's unfortunate, but it's kind of balanced out for me by the author giving himself a self-insert character and then making the primary narrator be constantly kinda snarky about what a pretentious dumbass he is. that's really funny, objectively, and it certainly earns this book some extra points.

also i started to suspect who the murderer was like halfway through and i'm pretty proud of myself for that because i normally have NO clue what's going on in mystery plots unless it's extremely, extremely obvious.

*the characters from danganronpa V3 actually ARE boring, technically speaking, but they're also absurd, and the characters in this book are like, slightly more down to earth/normal. Slightly. None of them are out here claiming to be the world's best entomologist who was literally raised by bugs, is what i'm saying.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: this Chinese translation of Akimitsu Takagi's The Noh Mask Murder Case is a really old version, looks like the novel hasn't been given a re-print since 1999.

It's an enjoyable, effective murder mystery, and the final revealing of the murderer's true identity is really shocking; but after reading the story, my mother had criticized the book for being a rip-off of S.S. Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case, and I do agree that Mr. Takagi must be heavily influenced by Mr. Van Dine's novels because the influence shows throughout the story and there're a lot of S.S. Van Dine reference and quotes in the book. ^__^;;;

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading 50 pages of this story, I suddenly realized I had once read it before.........I'd just totally forgotten everything that happens in the story. LOL

The Noh Mask Murder Case is a neatly written locked room murder mystery, taking a lot of reference to S. S. Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case, I like how the murder mystery is explained in the end, I also like the twisted, terrible history of this family, plus the writing is nice too. Still, as a whole this novel doesn't outshine Mr. Takagi's first book: The Tattoo Murder Case in the creation of the haunting atmosphere and unique murder mystery.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a group of mysteries republished by the Pushkin Vertigo imprint. This wasn't the most captivating Japanese crime fiction but I was interested in reading more crime fiction from this time period so I carried on.

The Noh Mask Murder is told from several points of view, some from main characters and some from minimal side characters. The family reminded me a bit of the family in Knives Out, they were so unlikable. This book really could have used a character list at the front of the book to continually refer to. The characters of the two main "detectives" were unusual for this type of story as well. I can't say I'd ever read a mystery quite like this one before.

The book alluded to other classic locked room mysteries throughout, which was a treat to read, if you enjoy reading golden age mysteries.

[XOX · Rating 4 out of 5]

The journal of a witness is given to a prosecutor to be read. A family is taken over by evil doer and now the whole family at risk.

Murders happen. And according to the journal being read by the readers, who is the killer is revealed. 

There is a lot of plot twists. Yet the dead of the victims were already revealed very early on by the journal writer. 

The tone is very Japanese. The expectation of decent persons to act when face with wrongdoing is to take responsibility. If one person did wrong and do not do the right thing, then this is a selfish person, a coward. a not a good person. By that standard, many self centered persons are bad people. That's why there is a cultural divide on reading such novel. It is a mystery. 
OK read. 4 stars.

[Paromita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way the mystery unfolded was a bit too melodramatic for me despite the premise and resolution being quite compelling.
The ending made up for it.

[KDub · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Hey-maybe don't put a major spoiler about an Agatha Christie novel I've been wanting to read, in the damn prologue! Just a suggestion. 🙃

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published June 4, 2024.

Interesting set up for this book as the author tells you at the outset that he tried and failed to solve this locked room mystery but someone else managed to solve it. Later he received a couple of letters and then he decided to publish a full account of the event.

The case involves the Chizai family that was formerly headed by a well known and respected professor who died of a heart attack not too long before. Remaining in the professor’s house by the sea are his daughter, Hisako, who is mad and his son, Kenkichi, who has a heart valve problem and is not expected to live long. Also there are Taijiro, the professor’s brother, who is greedy, his sons, Rintaro, who is a terrible person and Yojiro, a nihilist, his daughter, Suwaho and his mother, Sonoe, who is bedridden.

Koichi Yamagi works for the family and he requests permission to involve his friend, the author, in the mystery. First, Taijiro is killed, behind a door that is locked from the inside. There is a strong smell of jasmine and a supposedly cursed Noh mask beside the body. Then there are other murders, each accompanied by the jasmine and a Noh accessory. Who is behind these killings?

This is a great example of a traditional Japanese murder mystery and a really good mystery besides (one obviously must keep in mind the time period during which the book was written.) Very entertaining. Recommended for those interested in the genre.

[Norshafarina Faharuddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi
Slow-paced, intense, and mind-blowing. Damn, mind-blowing! I need to digest before giving my POV review.

This classic Japanese locked-room mystery, originally published in 1949, blends eerie folklore, psychological suspense, and intricate detective work into one unforgettable story. Set in post-war Japan, this eerie whodunit revolves around a brutal killing inside the Chizurui family mansion, with an unsettling Noh mask and the lingering scent of jasmine as the only clue.

In the Chizurui family mansion, a mysterious figure wearing a Hannya mask (Noh mask) is seen lurking in the shadows. Soon after, the head of the family, Taijiro Chizurui, is found dead in his locked study, followed by the deaths of other family members, no visible wounds, no murder weapon, and only the lingering scent of jasmine and the discarded mask as clues.

Takagi, both the author and a character in the book, gets pulled into the investigation, uncovering tangled family secrets and a curse that might not be just superstition. The storytelling is layered with part mystery and part psychological drama, and the way it unfolds through letters and journal entries adds a unique touch.

As the secrets unravel, the mystery deepens beyond just a murder, deep dives into family secrets, old grudges, and the eerie legend of the Hannya mask. The tension builds slowly, but once the pieces start falling into place, the twists hit hard.

Highly recommended if you love slow burning, intricately woven mysteries with a cultural twist, absolutely. It’s a book that keeps you thinking long after you finish it. And the ending, if you love a good twist, you won’t be disappointed.

[Aman Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you randomly pick an unread book from your bookshelf and can't put it down. There's something eerie and chilling about the way postwar Japan is depicted in these mystery thrillers (like Seishi Yokomizo's books). I liked the dark parts and the scenes that make you uneasy.

It's a classic locked room mystery revolving around murders in the Chizurui Mansion, which holds countless secrets. They own a Hannya mask, said to be cursed and a key prop in the murder. (Fun fact: A Hannya mask is used in Japanese Noh Theatre.)

The author, Akimitsu Takagi, is part of the plot and helps in the investigation to find the killer. The format is interesting as the story is recounted through Koichi Yanagi’s diary entries. Yanagi, a friend of Takagi and a resident of the Chizurui Mansion, assists with the investigation.

The book is really underrated given its reach. I would definitely recommend it.

[Gayathiri Rajendran · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Noh Mask Murder by Takagi Akimitsu centres around the events that take place in the Chizui family. The family owns a supposedly cursed Noh mask and it’s worn by a peculiar figure wandering through their home. This sets off a chain of deadly events.

This book was such a surprise to me. I think this is the first book to have the author as one of the supporting characters. This is a classic locked room mystery and it starts off quite slow taking time to set up the characters and the setting. I also love the tidbits about the history of Noh masks which is expertly woven into the mystery.

The combination of a sense of foreboding,complex familial relationships,ambiguous characters and a unique plot structure with twists till the very last page made for such a thrilling read that I could hardly put down. The last couple of pages took me completely by surprise! Colour me impressed!

Thoroughly enjoyable! Would definitely recommend!

[Emma Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun reading this book. I love the unreliable narrator and how the story is told in diary entries and letters. I'm a big fan of locked-room murder mysteries, so this was a book I really enjoyed. I found myself unable to put it down when I got into the story because of the characters and the way the narrative was constructed. I like how even though the three narrators in the prologue, journal entries, and letters had different voices, they flowed well between one another. I really loved the prologue and the last letter. I think it helped to set up and finish the book in a good way. I also loved the Shakespeare references in the book, they helped to solve the mystery but the fact that my favorite play Julius Caesar was referenced in it and played a role in solving it was something I really liked.

[gee ☽ (IG: momoxshi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 out of 5 stars

An interesting tale of a lock room murder mystery. Did not expect that you should also be well versed in Literature and have literary analysis skills to be able to be a detective in this story.

Initially a bit of an annoying read for me because I felt there were no likable characters but the twists upon twists at the end were actually fun.

[Lillelara · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a classic locked room murder mystery, with multiple victims. I found the story slow to develop, however there were surprises throughout and a very neat twist at the end. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the

[Hailey Sawyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am batting 0-2 for December. Damn.

(A bewildering locked-room murder occurs as an amateur crime writer investigates strange events in the Chizurui mansion in this prizewinning classic Japanese mystery.

This ingenously constructed masterpiece, written by one of Japan’s most celebrated crime writers and translated into English for the first time, is perfect for locked-room mystery fans who can’t resist a breathtaking conclusion.

In the Chizurui family mansion, a haunting presence casts a shadow over its residents. By night, an eerie figure, clad in a sinister Hannya mask is seen roaming around the house. An amateur murder mystery writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate — but his investigation takes a harrowing turn as tragedy strikes the Chizurui family.

Within the confines of a locked study, the head of the family is found dead, with only an ominous Hannya mask lying on the floor by his side and the lingering scent of jasmine in the air as clues to his mysterious murder.

As Takagi delves deeper into the perplexing case, he discovers a tangled web of secrets and grudges. Can he discover the link between the family and the curse of the Hannya mask? Who was the person who called the undertaker and asked for three coffins on the night of the murder? And do those three coffins mean the curse of the Hannya mask is about to strike again?

The Noh Mask Murder’s legendary ending offers locked-room mystery fans the perfect coda to an ingenously constructed mystery.) ~ Blurb from Goodreads

I found the complicated friendship Koichi has with Akimitsu Takagi (the amateur detective) to be rather interesting. Despite considering severing his friendship with Takagi several times in the past, Koichi never actually went through with it. I think it's because, while Koichi sees Takagi as rather annoying, Takagi isn't actually a bad person. He just gets a little too caught up in himself sometimes in an effort to always be the smartest guy in the room and when it comes to solving mysteries, Takagi actually does net genuine success. It's honestly one of the best character dynamics in the entire novel that genuinely adds real weight to the scenes where they're working together to solve the mystery.

The potential motive behind Rintaro Chizui's beliefs was compelling too. So Rintaro is one of those people who believes that love is stupid and points out how hypocritical it is for people to see the murder of one person as evil, but not when the victim is a mosquito or a multitude of enemy soldiers. Now on the surface, he might sound like a stereotypical, one dimensional villain, especially considering that it's later revealed that he also took nude photos of his stepsister, Hisako, raped her, and gave her Neurosyphilis.. But one thing to keep in mind is that this novel takes place in post-war Japan and Japan saw a lot of death and destruction and ultimately lost the war. Rintaro also has syphilis (or more specifically, Neurosyphilis), which can have a major impact on the brain if left untreated. That combination of disillusionment and poor physical and mental health is such a brilliant and believable way of showing how someone could become so utterly evil.

That said, I have rather mixed feelings about the big reveal. So at first, it seems like Rintaro is the murderer. But in chapter twelve, it's revealed that Koichi was the one who actually committed the murders because he wanted revenge, roped Kenkichi, a teenaged member of the Chizui family with a severe heart condition, into helping him, and got away with it because a prosecutor named Hiroyuki Ishikari was sympathetic enough to Koichi's motive to not turn him in and falsify official records. It's also revealed in chapter thirteen that Ishikari willingly poisoned Rintaro without any prompting by Koichi and that Ishikari doesn't feel bad for what he has done. In other words, Koichi and Ishikari were basically working independently of one another to accomplish the same goal. Now, on paper, this sounds like an excellent twist. It's something that actually feels fresh and creative and shows that even when two people are working by themselves towards the same goal, they can sometimes end up walking the same path together and end up inadvertently helping each other out. In execution, however, it just flops harder than a Snorlax doing a belly flop into a pool. For one thing, Rintaro has been built up as this super obviously evil guy, so what the hell else could he possibly be besides a red herring? Second, even if Rintaro wasn't evil incarnate, there aren't even that many plausible suspects. Most living members of the Chizui family are either physically or mentally unable to pull them off on their own and Taijiro gets axed pretty early on. The maids and the police are also not established to have any sort of incentives for committing the murders either. So here's what I would do: Make one of the maids or police officers a suspect. Maybe one of the maids was mistreated or really doesn't like what's going on between the Chizui family and wants to put an end to it, but feels that she will be silenced or not believed if she tried to expose the family's dark secrets to the public. Maybe make one of the police officers have a daughter that died because of medical malpractice on Taijiro's part and, due to Taijiro's position as a doctor and Taijiro's vast wealth, getting justice the normal way is like trying to scale Mount Everest blindfolded as an earthquake is happening. Or perhaps even make more of the Chuzui family could be physically and mentally capable of committing and planning murders without significant assistance.

There's a really stupid moment in chapter two. So Taijiro tells Takagi that he knows the true identity of the mask wearer, but refuses to tell him over the phone for absolutely no reason and insists that he deliver the news at his mansion. A little while later, Takagi, Koichi, and a few members of the family who are staying at the mansion discover that Taijiro got murdered. Yeah, it's revealed in chapter twelve that Kenkichi was basically doing an impression of Tajiro's voice, but Takagi didn't know that. For all he knew, he was talking to the real guy. This moment makes even less sense when you consider Takagi's love of mystery novels. But the funny thing is that if Takagi tried to warn Taijiro that people in these situations end up getting murdered before they can share their important information and Tajiro brushed it off or if Taijiro said something like, "It's too complicated to explain over the phone." I would actually buy it.

This novel also has a really bad habit of infodumping and treating the reader like a lobotomized koala.

In chapter one, Koichi delivers paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition on how Taijiro (a relative of Professor Chizui) and his family are evil. Now I know Taijiro and his family are related to Professor Chizui, who supposedly died of a heart attack, and I know a prosecutor named Hiroyuki Ishikari asked how Professor Chizui's family was doing. But, one: It's still ungodly excessive and two: the reader actually gets to see these traits in action throughout the course of the novel, making it even more painful and pointless. On the subject of pointless rambling, in chapter two, Ishikari goes on and on about what Noh is, the history of Noh, and so on, making it seem like he's just reading an encyclopedia article about the subject. To add insult to injury, Ishikari is delivering it to Koichi like he's some dumb foreigner who doesn't know anything about Japanese culture. Like, why?

Speaking of chapter two, it's revealed in this chapter that a member of Professor Chizui's family named Sawako is in love with Koichi and is desperately trying to escape her life at the mansion because she's had vivid nightmares about the mask and suspects that something is seriously wrong. Despite the fact that this is very clearly shown to the reader, the novel still felt the need to include this line, "Clearly, Sawako knew something, and was using this dream of hers as a pretext to get me away from the house."

I have no idea if any of this was present in the original text or if this was the result of a translator who just didn't trust the reader to put two and two together. But either way, it was rather insulting to my intelligence, really dragged down the pacing, and could've been easily fixed.

For example, seeing as how Koichi has a close relationship with the Chizui family, maybe he chooses his words carefully so as to maintain honesty without sounding like he's ungrateful for everything they've done for him. This results in him providing just enough information to imply that something is seriously wrong with the family and that they clearly shouldn't be trusted. Not only does this trim a lot of fat while conveying the same idea, but it also provides a greater incentive for the reader to want to know what the hell is up with this family. As for the Noh lecture scene, you could cut almost half of it (especially the part where it talks about how the switch to electric lighting impacted Noh and the part where it talks about a temple putting on these kinds of shows) and lose absolutely nothing. Speaking of things that can be cut, the extra line in the Sawako scene? Yeah that can go too.

But the biggest issue I have with this novel is how it absolutely fails at its ultimate purpose. So based on the prologue, Takagi very much intends this novel to be a groundbreaking novel based on a real, in-universe crime. But here's the problem. Even if you take into account that this novel came out in 1949 or so, it is still very much reliant on tropes and cliches that have been done a million times before. There's an eccentric detective who likes mysteries. There's a rich, dysfunctional family hiding dark secrets. There's a locked room that seems like it contains no obvious way for the perpetrator to have entered, committed the crime, and bailed. A dying person's words are actually a clue to solving the mystery, and so on and so forth. Now, there's nothing wrong with using tropes and whatnot and I know sometimes life can imitate art. But this novel barely does anything new or creative with these tropes and cliches and even real life usually throws at least a couple of unique twists and turns into the mix. What makes it even worse is that this novel constantly references other murder mysteries in a "This thing is like this other thing" kind of way, most noticeably with the references to Van Dine. To be honest, the whole "I want this to be groundbreaking" thing should've just been scrapped or, if the author was really gung-ho about it, actually put in some thought and effort into doing something with the tropes and cliches. Like, have the dying person's words be a red herring, make the detective just some normal guy who lacks knowledge in mysteries, but has exceptional observation skills and extremely sharp senses, you get the idea. Hell, even drastically reducing the number of "this thing is like this other thing" moments would've been a big help.

Overall, The Noh Mask Murder was a novel with a few bits of genuine brilliance that sadly got overshadowed by a mountain of bullshit.

Overall Grade: D

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with classic Japanese mystery investigation book from Akimitsu Takagi Sensei. And I am so excite.

Since falling in love with Keigo Higashino's books I am start searching more into the genre from similar taste. The Noh Mask Murder cover is displaying classic vintage element into the design. It give me chills and goosebumps without any display of gore illustration. Such a strong design.

The story is written around 1950's so the early vibes was almost like Agatha Christie books. It is start with slower pace and take time to introduce the characters, atmosphere of the setting detailed case work and some mysteries surrounding the suspects. I always found that conversation from Asian literature translation is kinda lack emotions, but maybe it is just my things.

The plot itself following the investigation of traditional a locked room murder trope with family megadrama. The unique about this book is how the author inserted himself as supporting character. And the most funny is it is not even a competence character. I found it as refreshing experience and I absolutely will searching more reads from this author.



Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Vertigo from Pushkin Press for providing copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Expecting release date : 4 Juni 2024