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十津川警部
神祕列車消失記
目的地不詳的神祕列車，熱鬧地載滿四百人從東京出發，過了一夜卻消失了蹤影。難道果真印驗「神祕」的命運，自此從人間蒸發？
日本國鐵時代為了挽救每下愈況的營業赤字，推出許多受歡迎的特別企劃列車活動。這次由大阪鐵道管理局負責企劃推出的「目的地不詳的神祕列車」，徵求四百名乘客卻湧進了二十倍的報名者。空前轟動的盛況，讓所有幸運參加者興奮莫名，因為三天行程不知開往何處的神祕列車，充滿著令人期待的旅遊魅力。
午夜時分，配掛上了「？」車頭標誌的藍色臥舖特快神祕號，載滿來參加的所有情侶檔、全家福、男女老少，開離了東京車站，目的地不明的神祕列車要開往何方呢？過了一夜，雜誌社卻等不到上了車的記者電話，詢問了車站，列車到抵第一站京都後，旅客確實參加了梅小路機房區的參觀行程，但接下來卻得不到其他訊息，難道神祕列車就此消失？
特別列車行駛在日本最繁榮的東海道本線，行經人口最密集的東京到關西，軌道沒有意外事件的回報，一切狀況正常，列車除了人間蒸發，似乎沒有其他的答案。這一列車、四百名乘客，到底在哪裡？歹徒終於來電要求一筆十億日圓的贖金，這是國鐵員工的犯罪？還是什麼魔術高手將一整列長距離臥舖列車變不見的案件？犯人究竟是怎麼樣讓神秘列車消失，並且把四百名乘客與六名工作人員帶走的呢？人命關天，國鐵局、警察部門、十津川警部如何推敲與歹徒間的鬥智競爭，一場與時間賽跑的激烈競局。
日本國鐵時代為了挽救每下愈況的營業赤字，推出許多受歡迎的特別企劃列車活動。這次由大阪鐵道管理局負責企劃推出的「目的地不詳的神祕列車」，徵求四百名乘客卻湧進了二十倍的報名者。空前轟動的盛況，讓所有幸運參加者興奮莫名，因為三天行程不知開往何處的神祕列車，充滿著令人期待的旅遊魅力。
午夜時分，配掛上了「？」車頭標誌的藍色臥舖特快神祕號，載滿來參加的所有情侶檔、全家福、男女老少，開離了東京車站，目的地不明的神祕列車要開往何方呢？過了一夜，雜誌社卻等不到上了車的記者電話，詢問了車站，列車到抵第一站京都後，旅客確實參加了梅小路機房區的參觀行程，但接下來卻得不到其他訊息，難道神祕列車就此消失？
特別列車行駛在日本最繁榮的東海道本線，行經人口最密集的東京到關西，軌道沒有意外事件的回報，一切狀況正常，列車除了人間蒸發，似乎沒有其他的答案。這一列車、四百名乘客，到底在哪裡？歹徒終於來電要求一筆十億日圓的贖金，這是國鐵員工的犯罪？還是什麼魔術高手將一整列長距離臥舖列車變不見的案件？犯人究竟是怎麼樣讓神秘列車消失，並且把四百名乘客與六名工作人員帶走的呢？人命關天，國鐵局、警察部門、十津川警部如何推敲與歹徒間的鬥智競爭，一場與時間賽跑的激烈競局。
304 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1982
1 person is currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Kyōtarō Nishimura
338 books18 followersKyotaro Nishimura (pseudonym of Kihachiro Yajima, born 6 September 1930 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese writer of mystery stories. Nishimura is best known for his "train series" mysteries. He won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1981 for The Terminal Murder Case.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 26, 2025
WOW! What a great mystery novel ... The story revolves around police efforts to find the passengers of a train that disappeared while on tour. It is a crime novel as much as it is a mystery. Aside from enjoying the novel, which is by far one of the best that I have read, you will learn about the train system and the police hierarchy in Japan. It is difficult to say more without revealing a spoiler, but let me say that this novel is much more than a simple mystery about a train that disappeared. It is a far more complex crime/thriller novel with lots of twists, which makes it truly a joy to read.
June 23, 2019
Title pretty much tells the story of this 1982 Japanese detective plot. Perpetually bankrupt Japanese National Railway started to run special mystery trains for railway enthusiasts using their elite sleeper car trains as a way to make money. Destination is a mystery, those winning the lottery application process get tickets to show up at station in Tokyo to board with no idea where they will go and what they will do. And then one with 400 passengers disappears, a ransom is demanded, and the clock starts ticking for police detectives to solve all, rescue the hostages, arrest the kidnappers, and save the ransom money.
This was clever, fun, and not an obvious solution from the begining. There was some wit to it as well, such as everyone's disbelief that the train had disappeared because after all, it left on time! However...the writing was often stilted which may be the result of the translation or could be the style these mysteries are written. And several times I was thinking that obvious and even routine lines of investigation were being ignored until very late in the book, making the police detectives look incompetent.
The author Nishimura is one of Japan's most prestigious mystery writers, and this is the first English translation (from 1990) of one of his more popular series featuring trains. I don't think many of these have been both translated and remain in print, but should I find any, I will read them!
This was clever, fun, and not an obvious solution from the begining. There was some wit to it as well, such as everyone's disbelief that the train had disappeared because after all, it left on time! However...the writing was often stilted which may be the result of the translation or could be the style these mysteries are written. And several times I was thinking that obvious and even routine lines of investigation were being ignored until very late in the book, making the police detectives look incompetent.
The author Nishimura is one of Japan's most prestigious mystery writers, and this is the first English translation (from 1990) of one of his more popular series featuring trains. I don't think many of these have been both translated and remain in print, but should I find any, I will read them!
July 3, 2019
Promosso!
Un bel thriller, sebbene a volte sia difficile orizzontarsi nella mappa del tracciato, sarebbe stata comoda una piccola cartina dell'itinerario del treno, qualche schizzo delle stazioni, capisco che per l'edizione supereconomica in mio possesso ciò fosse fuori discussione, ma davvero avrebbe aiutato. Interessante e avvincente la trama, un po' meno coinvolgenti i personaggi (e non molto intelligenti e deduttivi alla Sherlock Holmes, si limitano a seguire tutte le indicazioni dei rapitori senza colpo ferire).
Penso che questo libro sarebbe un ottimo spunto per una puntata televisiva di genere giallo e mi piacerebbe vederla sia nell'originale ambientazione giapponese che, magari, in una italiana tra i treni di periferia.
Considerando l'andamento delle ferrovie giapponesi, la loro puntualità, pulizia e quant'altro, fanno sorridere i commenti disincantati di certi personaggi sul come siano gestite male, capisco che abbiano dei buchi di bilancio, ma vogliamo parlare di Trenitalia? In questo libro i treni vengono lavati ogni giorno... in compenso si scopre che anche nel civile Giappone la clientela maleducata getta le lattine nelle aiole e binari e non nei bidoni, tutto il mondo è paese.
Un bel thriller, sebbene a volte sia difficile orizzontarsi nella mappa del tracciato, sarebbe stata comoda una piccola cartina dell'itinerario del treno, qualche schizzo delle stazioni, capisco che per l'edizione supereconomica in mio possesso ciò fosse fuori discussione, ma davvero avrebbe aiutato. Interessante e avvincente la trama, un po' meno coinvolgenti i personaggi (e non molto intelligenti e deduttivi alla Sherlock Holmes, si limitano a seguire tutte le indicazioni dei rapitori senza colpo ferire).
Penso che questo libro sarebbe un ottimo spunto per una puntata televisiva di genere giallo e mi piacerebbe vederla sia nell'originale ambientazione giapponese che, magari, in una italiana tra i treni di periferia.
Considerando l'andamento delle ferrovie giapponesi, la loro puntualità, pulizia e quant'altro, fanno sorridere i commenti disincantati di certi personaggi sul come siano gestite male, capisco che abbiano dei buchi di bilancio, ma vogliamo parlare di Trenitalia? In questo libro i treni vengono lavati ogni giorno... in compenso si scopre che anche nel civile Giappone la clientela maleducata getta le lattine nelle aiole e binari e non nei bidoni, tutto il mondo è paese.
July 23, 2011
Reflecting the real police work. Tedious.
August 22, 2011
Un mystère ferroviaire : le train disparaît. Pas mal même si ça sent le roman-mystère écrit à la chaîne
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews