Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho Crime) [Paperback]

Akimitsu Takagi (Author)

Book Description

Series: Soho Crime | Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Etsuko has fallen in love with a shy, studious lecturer at a university. But she has to tell her parents she's pregnant to force their agreement to her marriage. Their objection is to the rest of her fianc's family: his father was a war criminal; his deceased younger brother, a murderer. His only respectable relative is a research chemist who says he's too sick to come to the wedding. And then the groom is called away on the first night of the honeymoon by an urgent telephone call. His body is found the next morning and State Prosecutor Kirishima must discover who killed him, and why.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The ghosts of World War II hover over this richly detailed 1965 mystery, written by Japan's most famous crime writer, Akimitsu Takagi. Etsuko Ogata is engaged to be married to a university lecturer, but her father, suspicious of the groom's past, hires a private investigator. The PI uncovers a link to a notorious war criminal. The bride's father, a former prosecutor, also finds a younger brother with possible criminal connections who died in a suspicious fire. "One black sheep is bad enough, but he has two in his family," he tells his daughter. "One can't help thinking there must be an ominous streak in him, too..."

But the young woman is 26 and just getting over an infatuation with a man who married one of her friends. Inevitably she goes against her parents' wishes and marries Yoshihiro Tsukamoto--despite noticing other kinds of strange behavior in him. On the night of their wedding, just before they are to leave on their honeymoon on the super-express train to Kyoto, Yoshihiro gets a call which he says is from a university official, demanding his immediate presence on campus. He leaves the hotel and never returns; his strangled body is found later that night.

The prosecutor put in charge of the case is a rising star named Saburo Kirishima--the same man Etsuko pined for before he married her friend Kyoko. (He also appears in the equally excellent but very different The Informer.) His investigation focuses on the person who called the groom at his hotel. Was it the bride's father? Or a young colleague in his law office who wanted to marry Etsuko himself? Or could it have been someone connected with the groom's family? As the meticulous details pile up, we learn as much about middle-class Japanese life in the 1960s as we would from any nonfiction book--but this way, we get to have fun trying to solve the mystery. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

This early mystery (1965) by Takagi was originally published in this country in mass market by Playboy Press. Takagi's masterful psychological portraits here recall those of Patricia Highsmith or William Irish in their depiction of individuals enveloped by intrigue that threatens to destroy them. A young woman, Etsuko Ogata, is being pressured by her father to marry a rather pedestrian lawyer, Tetsuya Higuchi, whom she respects but does not love. Quietly, Etsuko rebels and begins to seek a relationship with Yoshihiro Tsukamoto, a lecturer in industrial management whom she meets by chance. Against the backdrop of a culture rapidly changing amidst recovery from the devastation of WWII, Etsuko avoids Higuchi and pursues Tsukamoto despite doubts about his family's past. Eventually she marries her beloved, but the wedding night has barely begun when Etsuko's new husband rushes off and is murdered. As the plot of this involving mystery progresses, State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima (who also appears in The Informer, reviewed above) must use all his subtlety to untangle the strands of jealousy and greed that have made Etsuko a bride and a widow on the same night. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569471541
• ISBN-13: 978-1569471548
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #894,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars intriguing and intelligent!, April 5, 2000

By 

yaotsu1 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho Crime) (Paperback)

The story was a fascinating look at a conservative Japanese culture which is steeped in tradition. The rules are much stricter than in more liberal countries. It is not only a person's ability and character that determine his/her fate, but also his/her family background. Having a "black sheep" in the family may block a person from making a respectable marriage match or joining the staff of an elite university or firm, no matter how capable or brilliant the person. Also, the author revealed fascinating details of Japanese law, such as the rules regarding inheritance and patents as well as the criminal investigation procedure itself. The mystery was very suspenseful and kept me guessing until the very end. The investigation was conducted in a steady, logical manner and built up to a dramatic conclusion. In many ways, the investigation resembled a more in depth version of an episode of the excellent TV series "Law and Order" except for the Japanese setting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and also recommend the other two English translations of Takagi's works, namely "The Tattoo Murder case", and "The Informer". Also, fans of Takagi may also enjoy, the mystery "All she was worth", by Miyuki Miyabe.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imagine a Japanese Anne Perry, May 17, 2000

By 

Martha W. Bonney "Bonney_Blue" (Syracuse, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho Crime) (Paperback)

Like the Inspector Monk series by Anne Perry, which is set in Victorian England, this book is much more character- and culture-driven than plot-driven, which may be why one reviewer complained about the slow pace. There are many similaries between 1960s Japan and Victorian England, too. It's socially unacceptable to ask pointed questions; often what people don't say is more important than what they do. Women are stereotyped as fragile flowers in need of protection, despite their behavior to the contrary. And policemen are somewhat looked down upon, as though soiled by the act of crime solving. I'd much rather read a book like this, well written and from a new, culturally unfamiliar perspective, than the 47th fast-action, formulaic potboiler by an author who's long since run out of fresh ideas.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a literary Japanses detective story, December 4, 2000

By 

Karen Higgins (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho Crime) (Paperback)

I enjoyed the cultural differences that made the mystery story more faceted, made more so by the Australian translation. I read it in one evening. I was caught up by the charactization of Etsuko and the problem of her and her parents choice of a husband for her. Then her husband's secrets. Then his disappearance and the process of the crime being solved the the prosecutor. The pacing of the ending was too quick - a bit out of sync with the rest of the book. But otherwise an enjoyable read. Upon finishing it, I immediately ordered the other two books by the author.