Wednesday, January 14, 2026

'Suspicion' by Seicho Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

14 January 2026

Having enjoyed 'Tokyo Express', Seicho Matsumoto's intriguing Hitchcockian mystery novel set in 1950s Japan (reviewed here in June 2024), I came across another book by Matsumoto, 'Suspicion' (also recently translated by Jesse Kirkwood). This is more a novella than a novel - a short tale told through the eyes of a journalist who talks to the lawyers defending a woman with gang connections who is suspected of murdering her husband. Loosely based on an actual crime from 1974, 'Suspicion' was first published in Japanese in 1982. It's a slight story but is still a satisfying puzzle, beautifully written in that same lovely polite style (feeling more 1950s than 1980). 

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