Seichō Matsumoto (1909-1992) was so prolific a writer with 450 published works that he was known as the Georges Simenon of Japan. Many of these were in the crime and mystery fiction genre, although he also wrote historical fiction and non-fiction. His writing themes often reflected his personal feelings in opposition to American and Japanese corruption.

Both the detectives we come in the book across are likeable—whether it is the young, energetic and intelligent Mihara or the older, somewhat self-deprecating Torigai who first suspects that all is not as seems to the eye. Neither of them like more modern detective fiction carry any great burdens, and I kind of liked having a book that was focused on the puzzle rather than the people for a change. Torigai is of course weighed down by past mistakes and long experience while Mihara is unsurprisingly more spirited. I wish Torigai had had more of a role in the investigation, though, since I’d enjoyed seeing him work on the case initially and examine things he thought seemed wrong. But it was good to see that whether it was the local police or those in Tokyo, none was content to simply take the matter at face value and move on. All wanted to find the truth. L’indagine, basata su dettagli irrisori e spiegata con stile giornalistico, è complessa ma viene resa in modo efficace e piacevole. Inutile aggiungere che, alla fine, nulla è come sembrava all'inizio. Due cadaveri su una spiaggia, a pochi chilometri da Tokyo. Giovani amanti, cianuro: è un suicidio, è chiaro. Ma: After a short opening chapter, the significance of most of the happenings of which we realise only later, we find ourselves on Kashii Beach in Fukuoka where two bodies are found, a man in western clothes and a young woman in a kimono, both of whom have consumed arsenic. Everything seems to point to a ‘love’ suicide, as the persons involved had been seen boarding a train together at Tokyo station and now some days later the bodies have been found side-by-side. But seasoned detective Jūtarō Torigai, of the local police is not entirely convinced, and begins investigating the possible course of events, which if anything, only deepens his suspicions that something doesn’t quite fit. Then one day, Torigai has a visitor, a young colleague from the Tokyo police, Kiichi Mihara, who shares his suspicions. With inputs from Torigai, Mihara begins to investigate the matter, with support from his immediate superior and soon, others up the hierarchy as well. The puzzle before Mihara is no easy one, and us readers go along for the ride as he works at it from different angles, trying to decipher what exactly happened that night at Kashii Beach. Matsumoto's works created a new tradition of Japanese crime fiction. Dispensing with formulaic plot devices such as puzzles, Matsumoto incorporated elements of human psychology and ordinary life into his crime fiction. In particular, his works often reflect a wider social context and postwar nihilism that expanded the scope and further darkened the atmosphere of the genre. His exposé of corruption among police officials as well as criminals was a new addition to the field. The subject of investigation was not just the crime but also the society in which the crime was committed.

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Le persone tendono ad agire sulla base di idee preconcette, a passare oltre dando troppe cose per scontato. E questo è pericoloso. Quando il senso comune diventa un dato di fatto spesso ci induce in errore. Il senso comune ha il sopravvento sulla ragione"

The self-educated Matsumoto did not see his first book in print until he was in his forties. He was a prolific author, he wrote until his death in 1992, producing in four decades more than 450 works. Matsumoto's mystery and detective fiction solidified his reputation as a writer at home and abroad. He wrote historical novels and nonfiction in addition to mystery/detective fiction.

La precisione è un requisito fondamentale per i mezzi di trasporto in Giappone e Seichō Matsumoto utilizza questo espediente per costruire l’intera narrazione: Tokyo Express è infatti un romanzo breve in cui un due persone, giudicate da tutti amanti, apparentemente si sono suicidate. Tic toc, tic toc” il tempo scorre inesorabile e ogni ora, minuto, secondo alla stazione di Tokyo si ferma un treno ogni binario, ciascuno con una precisa destinazione.

Le persone tendono ad agire sulla base di idee preconcette, a passare oltre dando troppe cose per scontate. E questo è pericoloso. Quando il senso comune diventa un dato di fatto spesso ci induce in errore E proprio questa esattezza matematica che permette un incastro ad orologeria tipo battaglia navale colpito - e - affondato è il punto di forza del giallo ma anche il suo punto debole, e alla lunga stanca. The puzzle that Mihara must solve is around railway lines and timetables, and of course the places where the suspect ought to have been and where they have actually proved themselves to be. His having to work though various railway routes and lines, timings, and stops was something I found especially fun since one of the few programmes I watch on TV these days is something called Japan Hour, on which one of the programmes featured is trips on local train lines in Japan where the hosts try to find original spots to visit. So, all the discussion and exploration of mainlines and local lines felt familiar territory. I think the book does carry a map and segments from the timetables but this was a bit muddled in the ARC.

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Ed è così che un lettore abbastanza sprovveduto sulla onorevole precisione giapponese, si incanta al rovello dell’investigatore di turno che vuole seguire il proprio istinto intorno a un caso apparentemente semplice, e dunque frettolosamente archiviato, di un doppio suicidio passionale.

Un giallo meticoloso, non eccezionale non malvagio, reso faticoso dai nomi, non tanto dei personaggi che si limitano ad una rosa anche abbastanza esigua, ma soprattutto per i luoghi geografici e i nomi dei treni i protagonisti incontrastati. Our unassuming detective, Torigai Jutaro, is convinced that the death of a young, attractive woman and man was not, contrary to what evidence suggests, a lover's suicide. Jutaro is certain that a key witness connecting the two deceased is somehow involved in their death. Trains and timetables are crucial to exposing this person, and Jutaro spends much of his investigation travelling trying to understand how to break his suspect’s alibi. Jutaro was kind of a blank, and I happen to prefer my detectives to be either pompous eccentrics or walking disasters. Jutaro has this vaguely hinted-at personality that doesn’t really emerge given the pace and brevity of the story. The culprit is revealed too early on, and I would have found Jutaro’s investigation more intriguing if that had not been the case. There is an attempt at a twist later on in the story which utilizes a femme fatale/vixen sort of figure, and I happen to have a love/hate relationship with this trope. Ma le cose sono davvero più complicate oppure a volte sono proprio come appaiono? E se si, come fare a dimostrarlo? I treni partono sempre alla stessa ora o c’è un piccolo lasso di tempo tra due viaggi che potrebbe ribaltare la vicenda? Tokyo Express", romanzo d'esordio di Seicho Matsumoto, scritto nel 1958 è un compendio di diversi stilemi del giallo classico, non ultimo quello del "giallo ferroviario" (anche se qui il crimine non avviene in treno ma la ferrovia fornisce l'alibi) frequentato dai più grandi giallisti a partire da Agatha Christie con "Assassinio sull'Orient Express" ma anche con "Il mistero del treno azzurro" e altri racconti, oppure da Freeman Wills Crofts con "Il mistero dell’espresso della notte".Torigai's, and then Mihara’s investigations, form the bulk of the story, in many ways they’re thinly-sketched figures yet somehow, they’re quite compelling. Shabby, world-weary, provincial Inspector Torigai’s a particularly sympathetic character, and his bond with the younger, overworked Inspector Mihara’s very effective. Their investigation, with its links to government corruption and bribery, provides a striking glimpse of the machinery of everyday life in post-war Japan, along with its many contradictions: an era of massive reconstruction resulting in a society caught between tradition and rapid change; a place weighed down by complex and damaging social and professional hierarchies, where industrialists thrive but the police are understaffed and poorly-paid. Matsumoto’s portrait of 1950s Japan’s obviously inflected by his comparatively left-wing politics, reminding me at times of the approach of radical crime writers like Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Front cover of the first English language translation published by Kodansha (orig. translation 1970). Image sourced from Goodreads. For the most part I enjoyed the train motif in this story even if it wasn't quite on the level of Agatha Christie's train-related whodunnits. I read Tokyo Express through its inclusion in the 2022 Year of Reading subscription from the English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. Tokyo Express presents its readers with an intriguing set-up that is somewhat let-down by the story giving away too much too soon. The premise made me think that this would be a whodunnit with some noir undertones, but it soon became apparent that the mystery driving the narrative was more of the whydunnit variety. There was a cat-and-mouse sort of dynamic that had the potential of elevating the story into the realms of a work of psychological suspense that is never utilised to its full potential (the characterization for both cat and the mouse is too surface-level). Nevertheless, the writing is concise and clear-cut, and the plot develops in a cogent manner. There are some unlikely coincidences (our detective is questioning someone who after claiming they can’t remember X or Y, all of a sudden come up with some vital bit of info). The atmosphere is the driving force of the story, as I found the setting (1950s Japan) and ambience in Tokyo Express to be strongly rendered.