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    The Master Key: the fiendishly creepy Japanese locked-room mystery
    Unavailable
    The Master Key: the fiendishly creepy Japanese locked-room mystery
    Unavailable
    The Master Key: the fiendishly creepy Japanese locked-room mystery
    Ebook189 pages3 hours

    The Master Key: the fiendishly creepy Japanese locked-room mystery

    By Masako Togawa

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The prizewinning debut mystery from one of Japan's best-loved crime writers

    The K Apartments for Ladies in Tokyo conceals a sinister past behind each door; a woman who has buried a child; a scavenger driven mad by ill-health; a wife mysteriously guarding her late husband’s manuscripts; a talented violinist tortured by her own guilt. The master key, which opens the door to all 150 rooms, links their tangled stories. But now it has been stolen, and dirty tricks are afoot.

    A deadly secret lies buried beneath the building. And when it is revealed, there will be murder.

    Masako Togawa (1931-2016) was born in Tokyo. Her father died when she was young, and she spent the rest of her childhood living with her mother, in an apartment building for single women, which provided the inspiration for the setting of The Master Key. After leaving school, she worked as a typist for some years, before stepping onto the stage as a cabaret performer in 1954. She soon began to write backstage during the breaks between her performances, and in 1962, her debut novel The Master Key was published, and won the Edogawa Rampo Prize. She went on to become a hugely successful crime writer, but continued to lead a colourful parallel life as a singer, actress, feminist, nightclub owner and gay icon. She died in 2016 at the age of 83.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPushkin Vertigo
    Release dateNov 9, 2017
    ISBN9781782273868
    Unavailable
    The Master Key: the fiendishly creepy Japanese locked-room mystery
    Author

    Masako Togawa

    Masako Togawa (1931-2016) was one of Japan's foremost writers of crime fiction. Born in Tokyo, she worked as a cabaret performer before beginning to write crime fiction backstage, during her breaks. Her debut thriller The Master Key (also available from Pushkin Vertigo) won Japan's prestigious Edgowa Rampo Prize, and Togawa went on to become a hugely successful author, while continuing to lead a colourful parallel life as a singer, actress, feminist, nightclub owner and gay icon.

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    Reviews for The Master Key

    3.5/5

    54 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I had high expectations for this novel based on its initial hype. I'd heard everything from murder mystery, puzzle mystery, finely honed characters to cultural commentary and fateful tale. After having read it, however, I think a better title might have been Lost In Translation. Lost in the sense that if you boil it down it's no more than a collection of vignettes loosely tied together by the ever allusive master key. I will be the first to admit I enjoyed these character vignettes individually but overall never saw them jell into a unified whole. I only have to point to the last chapter prior to the epilogue to make my point. I thought I'd been promised one thing only to find in the last few pages I'd been duped. I had not been provided with enough facts and details about what was going on to even offer a half boiled explanation of what ninety-eight percent of the novel really had to do with itself. That was left till that last chapter and the epilogue where the author sat me down, explained what was really happening thus rewriting whatever I thought I was reading by telling me all of the things I should have been fed along the way to truly get any appreciation of the tale. If that sounds like sour apples that's because it is. If this is a puzzle mystery or even if it's not there has to be some rhyme or reason dictating a logic on how the lives of these characters should be connected.
    • 3/5
      Rounded up. Short book but it took me a while to get through because it never really grabbed me. Told out of order and with many characters, it’s got neat little connections from one story to the other that help tell a larger story, but then it twists were the story you thought it was leading up to wasn’t the one solved and so you end up with all the build up and none of the resolution until the epilogue (which feels tacked on and very different than the rest of the book) just spills all like an answer key to a quiz. Yes, it’s a twist but it feels fake and gimmicky.
    • 4/5
      The Master Key by by Masako Togawa, Simon Grove (Translator) is a 2017 by Pushkin Vertigo publication. Originally published back in 1962, this ‘puzzle’ mystery has been translated into the English Language and is now available in digital format. Although I consider myself somewhat well versed on mystery novels and the various sub-genres, I wasn’t quite sure what was meant by ‘puzzle mysteries’, which, of course, piqued by interest, on top of the cultural aspects and the vintage/classic angle I’m always a sucker for. The story is centered around the K apartments for single ladies, which is about to be moved due to the widening of a highway. As the story progresses the past and present slowly merge as the truth behind the death of an infant is revealed amid shocking revelations.The apartment's master key plays a prominent role in the way these tightly held secrets emerge from the shadowy corners of loneliness, obsession, and sorrow, and the deceptively benign activities transpiring at the K apartments for women.The story is short, but it packs a big punch. It was almost like reading a group of connected vignettes with the post war backdrop of Tokyo creating a stunning atmosphere. These ‘vignettes’ are all a piece of the puzzle, which gradually comes together, piece by piece, to give the reader the full, entire picture. Fate! It can stab you in the back any time, upsetting the most carefully thought out activities. Fate doesn't care what the upshot is.Very clever! The definition of a puzzle mystery is rather vague, but it is supposed to focus on solving the puzzle, without spending a great deal of time on the development of the characters. However, I did get a nice glimpse into the secret lives, and human foibles, of these women, as a tragic story unfolds. I’ve never read a mystery quite like this one, and the more I pondered on it, the more appreciation I had for the author’s ingenuity. I am very interested in reading more books by Masako Togawa if I can locate any with translations. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries that are a little outside the box, are masterfully written, and keeps you guessing or if you enjoy vintage mysteries.