She Walks at Night

My book of the month, this is a brilliant novel at several levels, not least the translation by Jesse Kirkwood… An ingenious plot and a great read * The Critic *
A wonderfully strange blend of Golden Age puzzle mystery, Gothic melodrama and distinctly Japanese atmosphere… An impressively constructed puzzle * Crime Fiction Lover *
A fantastic whodunit * Albuquerque Journal *
The classic Japanese mystery of murder by sleepwalking * CrimeReads *
PRAISE FOR SEISHI YOKOMIZO * – *
Plenty of golden age ingredients… with a truly ingenious solution * Guardian, Best New Crime Fiction *
Kosuke Kindaichi is sort of a Japanese Columbo… [This is] a locked-room murder mystery involving a samurai sword, a three-fingered man, and a wealthy family who really didn’t accept their son’s new bride * Book Riot *
Readers will delight in the blind turns, red herrings and dubious alibis… Ingenious and compelling * Economist *
At once familiar and tantalisingly strange… It’s an absolute pleasure to see his work translated at last in these beautifully produced English editions * Sunday Times *
With a reputation in Japan to rival Agatha Christie’s, the master of ingenious plotting is finally on the case for anglophone readers * Guardian *
An iconic slice of classic Japanese crime fiction – Tom Hindle, author of ‘Murder on Lake Garda’
The premise alone is dazzling [and] the solution to this mystery came as a complete surprise - exactly what I asked for * New York Times *
A classic murder mystery… Comparisons with Holmes are justified, both in the character of Kindaichi and Yokomizo’s approach to storytelling - mixing clues, red herrings and fascinating social insight before drawing back the curtain to reveal the truth * Japan Times *
Yokomizo masterfully builds suspense with intricate puzzles, red herrings, and unexpected twists, keeping readers guessing until the final reveal… A must-read for a dose of classic detective fiction * GQ India *

Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan’s most famous and best-loved mystery writers. Born in Kobe, he spent his childhood reading detective stories before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan. The Honjin Murders, The Inugami Curse, The Village of Eight Graves, The Devil’s Flute Murders, The Little Sparrow Murders, Death on Gokumon Island, and Murder at the Black Cat Cafe are also available.

Jesse Kirkwood is a literary translator working from Japanese into English. The recipient of the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize, his translations include The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto, and The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi.

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