Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan

A kind reader in Twitter has asked whether can we recommend a good Japanese/Asian Detective fiction book outside of Shimada, Arisugawa, Ayatsugi, Matsumoto, Yokomizo, or Rampo?

I’m afraid that both, The Puzzle Doctor and myself did answer the same: I’ll be honest, I’m not that well read in that aspect of the genre. Sorry.

The following is a private note that might be of interest to some readers: (Source: Wikipedia)

Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan (Honkaku Misuteri Sakka Kurabu) is a Japan-based organization for mystery writers who write honkaku (i.e. authentic, orthodox) mystery. The organization was founded on 3 November 2000 by Yukito Ayatsuji, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Hiroko Minagawa, Kaoru Kitamura, Tetsuya Ayukawa and other mystery writers. It is currently chaired by Rintaro Norizuki and claims about 170 members. It presents the Honkaku Mystery Awards to writers every year and produces the annual anthology.

Honkaku mystery: Honkaku (i.e. au­then­tic, or­tho­dox) mys­tery is one of sub­gen­res of mys­tery fic­tion that fo­cuses on “fair play”. Mys­tery nov­els writ­ten dur­ing the “Golden Age” of the mys­tery novel (e.g., the Ellery Queen nov­els) are re­garded as ex­am­ples of honkaku mys­tery.

Presidents




1. Alice Arisugawa (2000–2005)
2. Kaoru Kitamura (2005–2009)
3. Masaki Tsuji (2009–2013)
4. Rintaro Norizuki (2013– )

See also

• Honkaku Mystery Best 10
• Golden Age of Detective Fiction#Enduring_influence
• Detective fiction
• Japanese detective fiction
• Whodunit 
• Mystery Writers of Japan

External links

• Official English page

So far I have in my Kindle:

1. The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows by Rampo Edogawa
2. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
3. Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
4. Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada
5. Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
6. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

And on my wish list:

1. A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto
2. The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi
3. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
4. Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
5. The Silent Dead by Tetsuya Honda
6. Confessions by Kanae Minato

Though I need to investigate further. I’m not sure if all the above titles can be qualified as Honkaku. Your views are welcome.

Picture: Edogawa Ranpo