Modern Library reissues Seicho Matsumoto's 1957 mystery Tokyo Express in new Kirkwood translation
A new English edition of Seicho Matsumoto's classic Japanese mystery novel, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, has been published by Modern Library. The book follows police investigating what appears to be a double suicide by lovers on a Kyushu beach, a death later complicated by a single suspicious receipt. The essay accompanying the release traces the novel's roots in Japan's shinjū tradition of lovers' suicide and its use as a plot device.