Informer [Paperback]

Akimitsu Takagi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Based on an actual incident, The Informer is ranked among the top one hundred mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the reasons we read foreign mysteries (no matter where we live) is because they let us weave our way quickly into the cultures of other countries, using crime as the common thread. Akimitsu Takagi's books are uniquely Japanese: they are slightly stiff and formal at first, apparently treating bloody subjects in a calm and formal manner; only later do we realize how deeply we've become involved.

Takagi, born in 1920, wrote his first mystery at the age of 28. He quickly became Japan's most famous mystery writer--a self-taught legal expert whose heroes in the dozens of books he produced until his death in 1995 were usually prosecutors or police investigators. But in this story (part of the publisher's ambitious plan to introduce Takagi's books to a worldwide audience), the focus is on a young stock broker named Shigeo Segawa, trained at a giant brokerage house whose motto was "Money Is Everything." As Takagi tells us, "the pleasure of having money, the admiration for it, the longing for it, and the misery without it--these emotions had eaten their way into Segawa's bones long ago."

Crushed and made desperate by a stock market crash in the 1960s, Segawa gets involved in a shady industrial espionage scheme, and twice betrays one of his oldest friends--by seducing his wife and trying to steal the formula for a new chemical process. When his friend is murdered, Segawa becomes the logical suspect. But a sharp young prosecutor named Kirishima begins to think that perhaps the blame lies elsewhere--with the informer who told the dead friend what Segawa had done. Other Takagi classics available in paperback: Honeymoon to Nowhere and The Tattoo Murder Case. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

There are many webs and one or more deadly spiders spinning them in this intricate tale of deceit and murder from the late Japanese master (1920-1995); the book is one of two by Takagi that Soho will publish in June (see review below). Shiego Segawa should have listened to the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." The young stock-market trader has been enjoying all the benefits of Japan's burgeoning postwar resurgence until he overreaches and is caught short when the market tumbles. Allowed to resign from his company, he starts his own, only to see it fail. Then he is offered a wonderful job opportunity: Mikio Sakai, the owner of a small new firm, Shinwa Trading Co., asks him to come on as salesman, for a high salary and higher prospects. But Sakai's real aim is industrial sabotage, and Shiego soon finds himself on a slippery slope where he must juggle women and ethics while betraying an old friend. When Shoichi Ogino, his putative target, discovers the betrayal and then is murdered, Shiego is the obvious suspect. But State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima is never satisfied by the obvious, and his deft probing gradually strips away the cobwebs to reveal an elegant solution.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Soho Crime (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569472432
• ISBN-13: 978-1569472439
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening glimpses of Japanese culture in 1965., June 27, 2002

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Informer (Paperback)

Almost 40 years old, this novel has no scenes of violence or sex--or humor! The language and style are very formal, and the characters, virtually all male, are generic, not individualized--not surprising in a culture in which "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." Nearly all the characteristics one associates with the best modern mystery thrillers are absent here, yet Takagi's novel is fascinating and its plot intriguing, both for the inherent complexities and for the light shed on Japanese business and culture in 1965.

When Shigeo Segawa, a failed stocktrader, is offered a job at an outrageous salary, he finds himself working, not surprisingly, as an industrial spy, ferreting secrets from Shichiyo Chemical, a company in which a college friend is a high official. Segawa shows no qualms of conscience, despite the fact that Eiko, the love of his life, is now married to the friend. Manipulating the women in his life, all of whom are regarded throughout the novel as brainless ornaments or conveniences, he also fails, eventually, at his spy tasks, becoming the prime suspect when his friend turns up murdered. When two more deaths further implicate Segawa, Takagi shows his enormous skill at creating red herrings, using the intricacies of corporate Japan and the traditional restraint of police and prosecutors to keep the reader occupied and diverted.

Differences in legal procedures are stunning here. The police abandon the crime scene because "people were showing up to pay respects [to the widow]...and the atmosphere was no longer suitable." Police and prosecutors make appointments to speak to clients' lawyers and wait patiently till they can be seen. The police give details of confessions to people they are interviewing and seem to share information with whoever wants it. Industrial espionage by itself is not a crime. Careful readers may figure out early who is responsible for the murders, but this novel provides unusual glimpses of Japanese culture, enough to keep a curious reader fascinated and involved till the end. Mary Whipple

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and intelligent, April 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Informer (Hardcover)

Having failed as both a stockbroker and an entrepreneur, Segawa is desperate for money and takes on the morally dubious job of an industrial spy. His target is a secret chemical process of a company run by his old friend Ogino. To complicate matters, Ogino is married to Segawa's former girlfriend. When Ogino is murdered, Segawa becomes the prime suspect. In a fast-moving plot involving adultery and betrayal, we learn fascinating details of Japanese culture such as the Kabutocho (the Japanese Wall Street), industrial espionage and the Japanese legal system. The criminal investigation by prosecutor Kirishima and inspector Yoshioka proceeds in an orderly and logical manner and builds up to a tense and dramatic conclusion. The reader is kept guessing until the very end in this intriguing and intelligent mystery. Readers who enjoy this book will also enjoy the other two available translations of Takagi's works, namely "The Tatoo Murder Case" and "The Honeymoon to Nowhere".

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enjoyable, but ending left me hanging, June 2, 2001

By 

Buckeye (Harvard, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Informer (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book until the last few pages or so. It reads kind of like Harushi (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) Murakami throughout most of it - very interesting examination of Japanese society, believable characters with real, every day kinds of issues and problems, etc. But the end had one major disappointment, that being that the reader is left wondering what in the world becomes of one of the key characters in the book. It doesn't really impact the "mystery" aspect of the story, it's just that it left me with a lack of a sense of closure about this one central character. Other than that, I thought it was a great read.