Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), better known by the pseudonym Rampo Edogawa ( 江戸川 乱歩), sometimes romanized as "Ranpo Edogawa", was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction.
I was curious to read this due to Detective Conan manga. (In the manga, the young detective is called Edogawa Conan, which is a double hommage to British author Conan Doyle & japanese author Ranpo Edogawa.)
This is a classic whodunnit novel, however I found it quite dated with clues revealed sometimes by magic near the end of the story, and a depiction of characters which is quite old fashioned.