『点と線』:: 'Tokyo Express'

When a book's blurb held dead bodies, detectives, love suicide or homocide, mysteries, it screams 'crime fiction'! Totally right up my alley. Borrowed it. 

Blinked when I realized that 'Tokyo Express' by Seichō Matsumoto (1909-1992) / 松本 清張『点と線』was originally published in 1958. Okaaaay. It was only recently translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood and published in 2023. (Reviews here, here and here.)

Set in post-war Japan in 1957, a couple is found dead on Kashii beach, dead, seemingly a suicide pact by potassium cyanide. The dead woman is 26-year-old Toki (real name Hideko Kuwayama), a waitress at a Japanese restaurant in Akasaka, Tokyo. The dead man is 31-year old Kenichi Sayama, an Assistant Section Chief at Ministry X. Their deaths were linked to the ongoing bribery investigation at Ministry X, and the head of division Yoshio Ishida.

Is this a classic case of love suicide, they say — or is it? First protagonist veteran Fukuoka detective Jutaro Torigai thinks otherwise — their behavior didn't add up. However, his boss and everyone else had the case neatly closed asap. But Torigai did some quiet investigation of his own. He soon finds an ally in a young Tokyo detective Kiichi Mihara, who was also conducting a separate government corruption investigation in Tokyo. He is also trusted by his bosses. He managed to make headway in the investigation.  

The more niggly points that Kiichi Mihara found out, the more he was convinced that Toki and Sayama weren't lovers to begin with, and their apparent double suicide, was a double murder. He found out some clues all leading back to Ministry X's Yoshio Ishida and narrowed down a suspect to a Tatsuo Yasuda, a businessman with close links to Ishida, and frequents the restaurant that Toki worked at. Even more chilling, he learnt just who and what his frail and ill wife Ryōko Yasuda is capable of. He found the link between Toki and Yasuda, and surprisingly, Ryōko.

A third through the book, I was wondering why is this investigation so... manual. Why on earth people would send telegrams instead of a text. Then I realized. OH. THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1957. Hahahaha. Even DNA testing used in gathering evidence and police work didn't happen till 1986. So we're reading about good old-fashioned detective work, long hours and that honed police instinct. This is quite an enjoyable whodunit.

In truth, however, the death of the Yasudas came as a relief. Why? Because there was almost no material evidence against them. Everything we had was merely circumstantial. It's a wonder we even secured a warrant for their arrest. If this had gone to court, there's no telling what the outcome might have been.

Nor was there much for us to pin on Division Chief Ishida. Of course, after the bribery scandal he was transferred to a different division, but I hear his new position is even better than his old one. Absurd, I know, but then government ministries are absurd places. There's no telling what he might on on to become: a bureau chief? A vice-minister? Perhaps even a member of the Diet. The ones we should feel sorry for are his loyal subordinates: to Ishida, they're nothing but stepping stones on his way to the top. And yet, as long as they think he's looking out for them, they'll keep slaving away on his behalf. Yes, careerism is a depressing thing.