Struggled to finish this one. I read that it was made into a couple of movies, which makes sense, because it's as much a police procedural as anything I've seen on the screen. Ups and downs with that, I think — the titular murder mystery is a vehicle for cultural and bureaucratic encounters, but it's a slow-moving beast. Back cover blurbs make it out to be a page-turner, but I struggled.

Lots to recommend here if you're interested Japanese (or maybe Tokyo-specific?) family and institutional hierarchies, less so if you're looking for a crime story that hooks with plot.