This book cover lies! Some guy at the Los Angeles Times called this book "A superb thriller... tantalizing," but I don't think he read the book.
Because Seicho Matsumoto's Inspector Imanishi Investigates, a.k.a. Suna no Utsuwa, a.k.a. Vessel of Sand as the book was called in Japan, is not a thriller. It's a police procedural and a very good mystery, but its pace is far too slow and it spends far too much time on cold leads and dead ends to be a thriller.
However, in addition to an excellent mystery, it also contains a detailed and fascinating picture of Japanese culture in the early 1960s.
It tells the story of Imanishi Eitaro, an inspector in Tokyo, and his work to solve a murder that ends up hatching two more murders. One morning, some men find a body beneath a train before they get the train moving. The body has been strangled, and its face bludgeoned to prevent identification. This heinous crime gets huge attention by the police department, but after a few dead leads, the investigation goes mostly cold.
Imanishi spends the next few months unraveling the mystery, taking several trips across Japan, meeting many interesting people, and trying to figure out not only who was the victim, but why he was killed.
The prose is detailed and smooth. The descriptions are vivid, the characters nuanced and interesting, the settings varied and sometimes unusual.
The book has a few minor problems, like a somewhat abrupt ending, a somewhat weird sci-fi shift, and a suspect change late in the book that isn't very thoroughly justified, but it is also one of the most relaxing reads I've gone through in a long time.
If you are interested in police procedurals or Japanese culture, and if you can deal with a slow pace, check this book out. I highly recommend it.
If you want some spoilers and other details, check out the Spoiler Section of the embedded video, starting at 10:02.
Grab a copy here.
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