The Chrysanthemum Chain

Tetsuo Otani #2

by James Melville

Superintendent Otani of the Kobe Prefectural Police finds his investigation of the murder of a foreign national complicated by the victim's unsavory brother and an upcoming general election

Genres: Mystery, Japan

210 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Roy Peter Martin is an English author who has written under the pseudonyms James Melville and Hampton Charles.

James Melville was born in London in 1931 and educated in North London. He read philosophy at Birkbeck College before being conscripted into the RAF, then took up school-teaching and adult education. Most of his subsequent career has been spent overseas in cultural diplomacy and educational development, and it was in this capacity that he came to know, love, and write about Japan and the Japanese. His Superintendent Otani crime novels combines superb story-telling with a fascinating insight into modern Japanese life. He has also written an historical novel set in Japan, The Imperial Way.

Reviews

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book three times at intervals of about seven years, each time with equal delight. Melville who knows Japan well has written an ethnographic mystery saturated with detail. His books featuring supervising detective Otani have several strands. The one that sticks in my mind between reads is his off duty relationship with his wife, but the interplay between Otani and the people he works with is always newly fascinating and the unraveling of the crime intricate. In the Chrysanthemum Chain, the murder victim (like Melville) is British, so Melville also gets to write about another sub-society he knows well. Different from John LeCarre or Simenon but similarly engrossing.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is my first book by James Melville and I was very impressed. I think he portrayed a real Japan of that era, as well as realistic characters. I must admit, though, that I didn't quite follow exactly what happened at the end. It was probably meant to be murky, given the involvement of gangsters and politicians.

[JoeG · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave Melville a second chance and was again disappointed. This slow moving mystery about the death of a British homosexual. He may or may not have been involved in blackmailing high ranking ministers. An amateur sleuth from the British consulate and the prefecture of policed their work. Weak ending.

[Петр · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early Otani novel, great setting and good mystery though a little unclear towards the end. Much was left unexplained, intentionally perhaps?

[Kyrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving it the stars for the parts of the story where he wrote about the culture of Japan, and traditions. Loved the parts about funeral customs, geishas, kimonos, and home life

Honest to goodness, I have no idea what was going on through large parts of the story and the ending left me baffled.

A British professor in Japan was murdered and he may or may not have had dealings with the underworld. The powers that be didn't want the mystery solved until after the election, because powerful people may or may not have had a hand in the murder? Some man with the British embassy may or may not be banished from Japan for trying to investigate what happened to the victim.

I admit I mostly read late at night, but I'm not usually this muddle headed about plots.

[Tommyb]

Fiction

[Karen Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit lost /bored with the politics of this one. Melville's odd habit of adding in something sexual was presented in the thread of homosexuality. And of course the focus on breasts.
Enjoyed the cultural aspects again.