Japanese Fiction Thrillers

A ghostly visit from her former landlady draws Emma away from sleepy little Hillbilly Hollow to investigate a murder in the big city. But what seems like a straightforward case soon becomes entangled with an event from Emma's past and a personal quest for justice. With the attractive but bungling Sheriff Tucker at her side, will Emma be tempted by the chance to avenge an old wrong?

Flo is sick of Tokyo. She is stuck in a rut, her translation work has dried up, and she's in a relationship that's run its course. That's until she stumbles upon a mysterious book left by a drunken passenger on the Tokyo Subway.

Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido's life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man - her recently deceased husband, Daisuké. Upon his death she discovered that he’d been living a lie. His name, his past, his entire identity belonged to someone else, a total stranger.

Originally published in 1922 and translated by Takashi Kojima, this classic short story was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, about the murder of a samurai. Told from the perspective of multiple witnesses.

墨田区・大川公園で若い女性の右腕とハンドバッグが発見された。

In Hillbilly Hollow, even the dead want the last word...When an eccentric local artist meets an untimely end during the annual Flower Festival, Emma gets pulled into two cases at once. First, the murder investigation. Second, the hunt for a dangerous burglar who has the whole town on edge. After all-brawn-and-no-brains Sheriff Tucker declares the death an accident, Emma's search for the killer hits a dead end... until a vengeful ghost comes calling. Can Emma decipher the mad ramblings of the disgruntled spirit?

Danger awaits best friends on the island of Malta, where one will be accused of murder and the other of being a spy on the run. A missing journalist cannot tell the world he is still alive by becoming a mystery writer's alibi. When Hiromi came back to Paris to settle an old score, she had no idea her target might be hiding on the island of Malta. But, now, she has a chance to redeem her reputation by neutralizing a rogue agent and capturing the mystery writer who hides agency secrets in his novels.

Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news—the son of one of the island’s most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger—with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters’ lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can.

群馬県の山道から練馬ナンバーの車が転落炎上。

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend. In the 16th century, eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village. Centuries later, a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.

夏休みも中盤に突入し、向坂香織たち風ヶ丘高校新聞部の面々は、「風ヶ丘タイムズ」の取材で市内の穴場水族館である、丸美水族館に繰り出した。

特捜本部は栗橋・高井を犯人と認める記者会見を開き、前畑滋子は事件のルポを雑誌に連載しはじめた。

Rei Shimura, a California girl living in Tokyo, has an antiques business that's only slightly more successful than her love life. When her aunt enrolls her in the Kayama School of Ikebana to learn how to arrange flowers, disaster strikes. A mean teacher is found with scissors in her neck, and Takeo Kayama, the sexy billionaire heir to the school, considers Rei's aunt the main suspect.

風ヶ丘高校の旧体育館で、放課後、放送部の少年が刺殺された。外は激しい雨で、密室状態の体育館にいた唯一の人物、女子卓球部部長の犯行だと警察は決めてかかる。卓球部員・柚乃は、部長を救うために、学内一の天才と呼ばれている裏染天馬に真相の解明を頼んだ。アニメオタクの駄目人間に──。“平成のエラリー・クイーン”が、論理に磨きをかけて読者に挑戦！　第22回鮎川哲也賞受賞作。

Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case which terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines the circumstances of this watershed episode in modern Japanese history and brings into riveting focus the lives and motivations of the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes and the villains. As the shady networks linking corporations to syndicates are brought to light, the stakes rise, and some of the professionals we have watched try to fight their way through this crisis will lose everything—some even their lives.

As they do every year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote castle-like Water Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by an impossible disappearance, the theft of a painting, and a series of baffling murders. The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives to investigate.

In Bullet Train, underworld operative Ladybug was tasked by his handler Maria Beetle with retrieving a suitcase from a high-speed train in Japan. The job did not go according to plan. Will the unluckiest assassin in the world will find things easier this time around? All he has to do is deliver a painting to a hotel guest, a portrait made by his daughter. Easy enough, except when Ladybug makes the delivery, he realizes that the guest is clearly not the guy in the painting. Then he attacks Ladybug, they fight, and the guest ends up dead. How can such simple jobs always go wrong?

事故か、自殺か、殺人か――。母の手記と娘の回想が交錯し、浮かび上がる事件の真相とは。圧倒的に新しい、母娘ミステリー!

Japanese literary sensation Fuminori Nakamura’s latest novel is as a dark look into human psyche - what turns someone into a killer? Can it be something as small as a suggestion?

「奥様のほうでは、少しも御存じのない男から、突然、このようなぶしつけなお手紙を差し上げます罪を、幾重にもお許しくださいませ――」 美しき閨秀作家・佳子のもとに、一通の分厚い封書が届く。ファンから原稿が送られてきたものと思い封を開けるが、奇妙なことに、原稿用紙には表題はおろか署名すらない。そして、突然「奥様」という呼びかけの言葉で始まっていた。気味悪く思いながらも読み進めていく佳子だったが、そこに書かれていたのは、椅子職人だという男の、驚くべき告白だった……。推理小説、そして怪奇小説の名手として知られる鬼才・江戸川乱歩。2014年に生誕120年を迎えるのを機に、乱歩の短編の中でも随一の知名度を誇る「人間椅子」をオーディオブック化しました。朗読するのは、名優・篠井英介。美しい言葉で描写された仄暗い作品世界を、時に繊細に、時に大胆に表現します。奇抜な設定、そして意表を突く結末をお楽しみください。