Ryoichi Kirino of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Community Safety Cybercrime Unit was searching for information on a woman found dead on a certain PC.
The PC belonged to the perpetrator of the “Tanzawa Yamanaka Serial Murder Case” that shook the world. The murderer offers Kirino a deal.
Meanwhile, a huge amount of virtual currency is leaked.
Minori, Kirino’s lover at a security company, is contacted by a man who looks like a hacker …
Content warnings if known
So the first book contained references to child abuse, sexual assault, some consensual sex scenes, revenge porn, and torture. I have no idea what this book might contain, but be aware it might span quite a few things.
Why are you nominating this book: I enjoyed the first book in this series (although the tech explanations were a bit of a yawn) and found the writing style very approachable and easy. It is likely to have dark themes and also possibly corny. It’s a pulpy book, not a thinker. That said, if you’re like me and enjoy trash, it’s fine garbage.
You do not need to have read the first book to understand the second one. They’re standalone novels based on the same theme.
Can you forgive your father, a murderer? The standard-bearer of police novels depicts the limits of family in this suspense!
Kenjin Asano, who works for a major company, AZ Foods, receives a phone call from a lawyer he doesn’t know: "Your father has been released from prison. When Kenjin was 10 years old, his father was arrested for stabbing his mother and sister to death. Since then, he has lived a life of despair as the "son of a murderer. He has tried his best to forget his father, thinking that he is no longer with us. Kento is concerned about his father’s movements, but at the same time, he receives a threatening e-mail from Takeuchi, the president of AZ Foods, revealing the president’s personal secrets. Trusted by Takeuchi like a son, Kento is entrusted with the role of resolving the situation. …
Content warnings if known
None that I know of
Why are you nominating this book: This author is quite famous and I’ve been meaning to read their work for awhile now. I’m also a sucker for ‘tangled-web’ type stories so this is right up my alley.
Mysterious space, double doors, windowless children’s room: ----
What is the “fact” that I saw when I followed the mystery of the floor plan?
What is the “fact”?
An acquaintance of mine is considering purchasing a second-hand house in Tokyo.
It seemed to be an ordinary house with an open and bright interior, but the floor plan showed a "mysterious space.
However, there was a “mysterious space” in the floor plan.
When he showed the floor plan to an architect he knew, he was surprised to find that the house had “strange spaces” all over the place.
He said that the house had “strange and uncomfortable” spaces here and there.
I showed the floor plan to an architect I knew.
What did he see when he followed the mystery of the floor plan? …
What is the truth behind the puzzling floor plan?
Who is the “former resident” who suddenly disappeared?
Set in Tokyo over the course of one night, Aki and Hiro have decided to be together one last time in their shared flat before parting. Their relationship has broken down after a mountain trek during which their guide died inexplicably. Now each believes the other to be a murderer and is determined to extract a confession before the night is over. Who is the murderer and what really happened on the mountain?
In the battle of wills between them, the chain of events leading up to this night is gradually revealed in a gripping psychological thriller that keeps the reader in suspense to the very end.
Content warnings if known
None that I know of.
I’ve been wanting to read some Riku Onda, and after reading several summaries, I settled on this one. I love the title, and the setting was intriguing. It’s also been freshly translated into English. (I don’t plan to read it in English, but it’s still easier to read summaries and reviews in something other than Japanese…)
Murderous intent swirling in a family, shocking consequences! The quintessential Renjo mystery.
An ordinary family:a husband, a daughter, an ordinary life - that was supposed to be it. However, one hot summer day, someone murders her young niece at home and buries her in the garden. The murder triggers a series of shocking revelations about the breakdown of the family. A motive for the murder exists for everyone in the family. Who is the real murderer?
Content warnings if known
I don’t know of any.
I read a review about it and thought it might be interesting. It starts off with the crime itself, then we hear the story from multiple points of view, each one adding something new to the puzzle. It’s supposed to be easy to read.
At 7pm on 7 July, budding writer Masao Sakai died of cyanide poisoning. There was no suicide note, but the death was treated as a suicide of a dying man. Akiko Nakata, who works for a medical book publisher who had asked Sakai to do some editorial work for her, becomes concerned about the existence of Ritsuko Togano, whom she met by chance in his room, and begins to investigate on her own. Meanwhile, reportage writer Tsukumi Shinsuke is asked by a magazine company to write an article on the death of Sakai, a fellow fanzine writer, and as he investigates, he comes under suspicion that Sakai’s first novel after winning an award, which he finally managed to publish, is a plagiarised short story by a famous author, and pursues the editor Yanagisawa Kunio, who was feuding with Sakai.
The author is absolutely confident in his work. The author plays a superb trick on the reader with absolute confidence. A revised and definitive edition of his memorable debut full-length novel!
Content warnings if known
Not known.
This book was first published in 1973 under the title “新人賞殺人事件”, then it got renamed and republished in 2004. I read a favourable review about it. The part that I found most interesting was that the author apparently involves the reader in the solving of the case. There are supposed to be little details that don’t fit throughout the book, and an attentive reader can try and piece them together to figure it out. It sounded fun to me, especially in a book club setting.
That description is giving me serious House of Leaves vibes.
Okay, added Natively links to all my nominations! @cat do we want to cut off nominations at a certain number? Is there a limit to the number of options on a poll?
I’ve been considering nominating 孤島の鬼 | L37, but I don’t know if I’d be able to read it comfortably at my level or not. :\ Never read any 江戸川乱歩 before.
I was also getting House of Leaves vibes but didn’t know how many people would get the reference if I said it!
I can do two polls if needed. I’m not planning to do any more nominations myself but I am thinking of ways to make it easier for people to view all the nominations at once to make voting easier.
Also I love 江戸川乱歩 but he’s not an easy read, at least his books aimed at adults. 少年探偵団 and such is fine, but I tried reading 黄金仮面 last winter (admittedly a paper copy while trying to keep up with the audiobook ) and the sheer amount of new vocab combined with older writing styles forced me to give up. I recommend trying one of his short stories, ex 人間椅子 | L37 or 幽霊 | L35 to get an idea of what that work is probably like.
21st probably as I didn’t check my calendar when I set that date I’m going out of town immediately after work on the 22nd so will need to get things set up and read to go on the evening of the 21st, but for people in Europe/Asia/most timezones not the Americas it will already be the 22nd
But yeah, first iteration. Trying not to be too strict and also to get a decent chunk of nominations as I’ve noticed on Wanikani they tend to dry to a trickle after a first surge (at least for the Advanced Book Club)
Sounds good to me! I need to look around and see if I have anything else floating on my wishlist that fits the bill, though most of my to-reads are more just general fantasy.
Toru Akutsu is a famous detective. He has solved numerous cases, but he is to be tried in Japan’s first detective impeachment trial on charges of fabricating evidence and covering up his own crimes. His assistant, Tsukasa Himura, whose brother was left for dead, has been named as one of the six claimants for the trial, but an unexpected person is among them–! A genius who emerged from a project to discover newcomers, this debut novel is a must-read that had the judges in stitches!
Content warnings if known
Unknown
Why are you nominating this book: One of this author’s other books, 紅蓮館の殺人 | L30??, popped up on my radar, and while looking through their other works I found this, their debut work. The thought of a detective on trial for fabricating evidence and such sounds pretty interesting!
An impossible crime plan by an invisible man and too unexpected motive. An acrobatic courtroom mystery of a jury trial and an idol otaku. The mystery of a recorded crime scene and the modest special skills of a rookie detective. Abduction and confinement on a cruise ship, while an escape game event is going on–. A collection of gorgeous, colorful, and dense short stories, each one with a different plot and a different setting. This newcomer, who has attracted attention with the smash hit “The Murder in the Red Hall,” delves into the charms and possibilities of the authentic mystery genre.
Content warnings if known
Unknown
Why are you nominating this book: This is a collection of four short stories. I don’t think we’ve had any short story collection nominations yet, so I thought this would be a good addition.
I would love to participate in this but don’t have any recommendations since most people are likely reading at a way higher level than me without the training wheels (my level is probably still around lower N4 though I have read some stuff N3 level though I understood very little of the higher vocabulary without a dictionary ).
Might join in properly once I get into reading native level content and figure out what books would actually qualify for this kind of club.
Thought I’d post this here now as next week will be pretty busy for me and I’d like voting to be as easy as possible when it opens on the 21st (/22nd if you’re ahead of me in time zones).
I’d also like to take this chance to remind any readers uncertain of higher level books that you are 100% welcome to join and read slower if needed and absolutely welcome to ask questions about grammar, vocab, etc.
I’m planning to allow people to vote for up to 5 books since we have such an abundance of choice.
Oh, I love seeing all the covers laid out! Might be good to have links of some sort to the nomination posts in the home post as well, right?
Don’t hesitate to nominate low level books, or whatever you think you can handle! Our nominations so far have skewed towards higher-level stuff, but this club is, correct me if I’m wrong, absolutely supposed to be open to everyone of all skill levels. While that might mean struggling for lower-level learners if a higher-level book is picked, it also means higher-level learners needing to slow down for lower-level books.
I for one would love to see a lower-level book nominated and picked; it’s nice not to need a dictionary on hand for every other sentence, personally. ^_^;
cat listed some options for lower-level stuff here (+ a giant list of elementary/middle-school books), so this could be a good starting point to see if anything looks interesting to you! Slap the book description into deepl and go from there; it’s a surprisingly accurate translator!
Tbh, I’m not even sure what books or authors might have thrillers/mystery novels or short stories that would be lower level
Most of my books are recommendations from others or stuff I’ve picked up from language learning forums and articles. With the exception of a few that I knew about already, I’m not even sure what genre my own books are in
Oooh! This is a great idea! I’ve been meaning to read more mystery (I own a number of the recommendations but they’re gathering dust on my TBR stack.)
I guess you already have a large number of nominations, so I’ll refrain from adding to the pile right now. (Unless you want a huge number of suggestions.)