雲から贈る死

by Shizuko Natsuki

As members of her family--all connected to the family electronics corporation--begin dying, Toko takes the investigation of their murders into her own hands

Genres: Mystery, Japan, Fiction

Paperback Bunko

First published April 1, 1988

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

[alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well.. quite normal and better than average; I don't have much experience with mysteries as a genre but this was quite interesting...
I honestly don't mind that the killer was so obvious it felt fake, felt more like predetermination rather than a traditional
"whodunit" vibe. Especially given some of the ambiguous magical realism elements, wherein several characters have premonitions in dreams come true + the ambiguity around whether one of the deaths was really an accident or not.
I think this is a novel where you should cast off expectations based on genre conventions. It's not about SOLVING a mystery, even if eventually you do find most of your answers. It's more of an intuitive rambling through the landscape and setpieces of the work.
I do think the characterization was weak or just average (for Toko, the main character), more like moving playing pieces around a board rather than fully fleshed out individual characters, but alas.
Simple, light read. Something to occupy an afternoon but not anything to write home about.

[JoeG · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written narrative of a series of murders. Regretfully, the story becomes a bit simplistic as the book moved toward the ending and the solution became more obvious. Some story lines were dropped to the detriment of the overall story e.g. the first death.The ending was typical Natsuki with the final chapter explaining all.

[Saturnina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up from the library by random, wanting to read a Japanese detective story. Unfortunately this one was a big disappointment. The prose is just sloppy, tacky, and awkward. The characters are shallow, both by description and by nature. The plot could have been okay, but not told in this manner.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

FM A mystery about a Japanese executive dying mysteriously. Interesting book mostly because of what you learn about Japanese culture.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the other books I've read by this author, but still fun.

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A run-of-the-mill detective story with some fancy cars.