Seicho Matsumoto is one of my favourite mystery writers. I loved the first book of his I read, Inspector Imanishi Investigates, and have highly recommended it. Another of his mysteries, Points and Lines, is also highly recommended and both appear on the Tozai Top 100 Mystery Novels of the East and West voted on by the Mystery Writers of Japan, which he was the president of from 1963 to 1971. Points wins spot #3 and Imanishi earns #53.
I was very excited to discover a translation of his 1961 book Kiri no Hata.
Vertical, Inc. publishes a lot of great foreign authors and this was just released in English with the title Pro Bono.
Matsumoto created a new tradition of popular crime novels which dispense with puzzles and incorporate human psychology and ordinary life. Pro Bono is a methodical crime novel, with lots of details revealed so you can follow along and not be left in the dark as in a mystery.
Set in the early 60's, Kiriko travels from Kyushu to Tokyo to implore a famous lawyer to take on her brother's case. He has been accused of killing a moneylender, but she is adamant he is not guilty. The lawyer is very reluctant as she is both interrupting his plans for the day, and cannot afford his fee. She begs him to read the case and help out of compassion. He declines. Her brother is then executed, leaving Kiriko distraught and the lawyer remorseful and guilty over his conduct.
This begins the story of how Kiriko becomes a Tokyo bar hostess with other people from Kyushu and inadvertently gets involved with another murder, being the only witness who can save the accused on death row, and how the lawyer feels compelled to investigate her late brother's case from a sense of neglected duty, which nags away at him.
Kiriko's involvement in the new murder, and the lawyer's quest for belated justice, soon weave together into a final twist ending.
Pro Bono was, like his other novels, less of a mystery. The plot turns on the evidence, and the details of the cases are gone over several times from different characters points of view. The subject of the investigation is not just the crime but also the society in which the crime was committed.
The main theme of the novel exposes the failings of the justice system, where you can only get proper counsel if you can afford it, and the society at large, where individuals are defined more by their inactions than their actions. The unwillingness to step outside of your position, or open yourself up to a stranger is the cause of numerous false moves down a road you cannot return.
I'd recommend Pro Bono if you like crime based mysteries, but I'd rather send you to my favourite Inspector Imanishi Investigates for the best from a master Japanese mystery writer.
1961 / Paperback / 284 pages
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