Inspector Imanishi Investigates (砂の器)

⚖The case for it

Imanishi works by train timetable, regional accent and formal letters between police stations, which is “hard work, careful observation and patience” rather than deduction as performance. Around it Matsumoto builds 1960s Japan in dialect and postwar poverty and local craft, so the “peaceful scenery of rural Japan meets the dark underbelly of Tokyo.” The inspector goes home to his wife, his haiku and his bonsai, which gives the case somewhere to sit. The book cuts away from the investigation at intervals to widen what the reader can see. Readers say the “reader practically steps into detective’s shoes.”

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Clues keep arriving through Imanishi’s own family and social connections rather than through work, “a little too neatly dropped in his lap,” and one reader retitles the book “Inspector Imanishi Meanders About Aimlessly And Some Clues Fall Into His Lap.” The victim is not even identified until deep in. The connecting logic then arrives as one long explanation near the end: “Show me, don’t tell me.” The murder method strikes readers as gimmicky against the grounded procedure around it. Some editions carry errors that suggest “no effort to produce a quality product.”

— the honest librarian

4h

honest hours

6

sittings