Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Tokyo Express

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Tokyo Express by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle, Seichō Matsumoto

20 reviews

lolovg__'s review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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imogenlj's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

This intricately plotted and deftly paced detective novel had me hooked and reading it in one sitting, even if it was rather reminiscent of the old maths question, ‘if a train leaves the station at 6:10 goes 100mph…’! Deserving of its status as a classic, I enjoyed the glimpse into life in 1950s Japan and the brain-teasing read.

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lkriv25's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Very good mystery, places the reader in the setting well and focuses well on the mystery at hand. Satisfying conclusion. As others have mentioned the detective can be a bit slow, giving the reader a chance to feel clever when they're ahead of the protagonist.

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streberkatze's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I devoured this book. I found the resolution through the letter in the final chapter a little unsatisfying, but this was a small issue compared to everything I enjoyed about this book! I’ve read a few books from Japan at this point, both mysteries and others, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one of them (The Honjin Murders remains one of my favorite murder mysteries of all time.), and I am starting to wonder whether I’ve just been lucky and happened to read books that were really good fits for me, or if there is something in the Japanese literary tradition that works really well for me. One thing I noticed about this book in particular was that the slow pace was not an issue for me at all. I oftentimes get to a point where I feel a little bit frustrated with the slow pace about halfway through a GAD novel, but I found Mihara’s whole process and the way we gradually learned more about the characters thoroughly enjoyable while reading this book.

The frequent ups and downs — i.e., Mihara thinking he finally had a breakthrough, just to be disappointed again the next moment — were especially fun. What a rollercoaster. Also, the plane thing! Before that was revealed, I literally thought, multiple times, “But what about planes? Mmh, I guess they weren’t a thing then.” So when the role of air travel was finally revealed, that made me smile. (As did the fact that you could just randomly book a flight a few days before departure using any random name.)

Overall, I think Japanese (crime) fiction is definitely becoming a staple in my reading life.

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boodrow's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A fast-paced classic of detective fiction that’s all plot and no character. It moves along swiftly but is fairly repetitive: detective follows a lead, reaches a dead end, suddenly remembers an important detail in a ‘how could I forget!’ moment of inspiration, follows another lead, and so on…

It’s not very sophisticated by today’s standards and the investigation involves a lot of tedious detail about train timetables, but it’s entertaining enough if you’re looking for a quick read.

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