I've never had a murder mystery inspire me to try to make a thousand origami paper cranes in prayer for a friend's husband who's about to start a course of chemotherapy.
Until now.
I spotted A Death in Tokyo on the new books rack at Lithgow Public Library. I think I was a third of the way through it before I realized it’s the third in a series. It didn’t matter, because the details of the private life of police detective Kyoichiro Kaga are sparse. It’s the inner workings of his mind that are key to the story.
Kaga is a quiet presence, single-minded, persistent and determined. He is an original thinker, and refuses to accept what appears to be the obvious answers.
The case in question seems to be open-and-shut. A man, Takeaki Aoyagi, is found dead near the famous and historic Nihonbashi Bridge. He has been stabbed, and appeared to have walked some distance from where he was attacked to where he died. A few hours later, a man runs into the street and is hit by a car. When Fuyuki Yashima is taken to the hospital, in a coma, he is found to have Aoyagi’s wallet on him.
A mugging gone wrong? Well, there may be more to it than that. Aoyagi, who held a management position in an industrial plant, was involved in covering up employee accidents. Yashima had worked as a temp in the factory—and had gotten hurt. He had a motive to get back at Aoyagi.
Kaga is not convinced. He follows his nose through the oldest neighborhoods of Tokyo, and finds his clues to the solution in some Shinto shrines—and a thousand paper cranes.
This is a fast-moving and absorbing mystery, told from the point of view of several characters. But it is Kaga and his contemplative intelligence that are at its heart, along with the fascinating city of Tokyo. I’ll be headed back to the library to check out the first book in this series. But first, I have some folding to do.
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