A Japanese mystery, anyone?

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A Japanese mystery, anyone?

1SqueakyChu
sep 16, 2007, 10:06 am

I'll be joining The Reading Club to read Out by Natsuo Kirino in October.

If you're interested in reading this book, please join us. This selection's discussion will be moderated by Neuilly of BookCrossing.

2gscottmoore
okt 5, 2007, 11:18 pm

I joined BookCrossing but dang it's a confusing interface. I haven't managed to find activity proper related to "Out", but also haven't yet read the book either. I think it's been about 15 years since I read a mystery and godamighty it was terrible. I won't say which to avoid offending mystery lovers.

-- Gerry

3SqueakyChu
Redigeret: okt 6, 2007, 8:09 am

Just to clarify. BookCrossing and The Reading Lounge are two entirely different web sites.

BookCrossing can be found here.

The Reading Lounge can be found here.

You must join The Reading Lounge (free to join) to see or participate in the discussion about Out. The invitation to join the club for Out can be found here. The discussion questions that go with Out can be found here.

Sorry about the confusion. I knew Neuilly from the BookCrossing website. I invited her to join The Reading Lounge where she opted to lead a discussion about
Out. I had fully intended to join the discussion, but can't seem to finish my current two reads quickly enough. :-(

4gscottmoore
okt 6, 2007, 12:32 pm

Oops! My bad. I did join both discussion universes on the same day, and confused the names. But once at TheReadingLounge.com I did push all the right buttons, it seems.

Good to know because navigation is a bitch. It's funny how many hundreds of dicussion sites there are, but almost all of them inexplicably have to continually write their own brand new quirky interface. Seems on the internet all interaction has to be the result of solving logical puzzles.

In any case when I first subscribed and joined the "discussion" there were not yet any posts, so I didn't realize I had reached the target yet. Now I see the discussion is underway.

I'm going to try to pick up the book later today, and hopefully address it by early next week.

Thanks for the clarifications.

-- Gerry

5SqueakyChu
Redigeret: okt 6, 2007, 1:11 pm

--> 4

gscottmoore, I find website navigation on The Reading Lounge particuarly annoying. A non-member can see the upcoming book clubs and the archives, but not the current book clubs. How frustrating is that?!

(...and which is why I had you join before I told you to go look for the Out discussion.) I'll see if I make it into this book in time. Most likely not. I missed The Liar's Club discussion entirely. I'm still trying to work my way through that book, and I believe I was one of the people who suggested it in the first place. :-(

I've been too busy playing with the wiki here at LT to bother with reading. ;-)

6Larxol
okt 7, 2007, 10:15 am

#4 -- Congratulations on becoming a member. You'll find that Out is more about dismembers, though.

7tros
apr 13, 2008, 11:01 am


Masako Togawa is an old favorite. Only 4 books.
The lady killer
A Kiss of Fire
The Master Key
Slow fuse

8roulette.russe
okt 28, 2008, 10:46 am

I'm not sure if you were looking for Japanese mystery titles or just inviting us to this discussion, but here are a few books that might be enjoyable:

MIYABE Miyuki's «Kasha» is set after the bubble economy burst and is kind of a...financial thriller, written by a woman. I really loved this book, and the characters are far from being 'the usual detective' and 'the usual suspect'. Refreshing.
I'm not sure of the English title, so I gave the Japanese one. It's also translated in French.

SEISHI Yokomizo, «INUGAMIKE NO ICHIZOKU» written in 1976 is about a detective living with a family and trying to figure out who the killer is in the family circle, without puting his life in danger. Classical but intelligent.

All of the Edogawa Ranpo are very very interesting. For those who don,t know, he named himself after Edgar Allen Poe (pronounced in Japanese). «INJU» is one of his very good books.

Also, I read OUT last year and I really loved it. During my stay in Japan this summer, I read Natsuo's other bestseller, GROTESQUE. It's VERY trash but also quite interesting, if you are ready to read a whole 600 pages about daily life in prostitution. OUT seamed more complete and less 'artificial', thought.

9JackFrost
okt 29, 2008, 1:26 pm

Kasha was published here in the US as All She Was Worth and I'll second the recommendation. Very interesting crime fiction set right just prior to the 1990s economic bust.

I liked Out way more than Grotesque as well, though Grotesque was still worth reading for me. There was a part about underaged male prostitution that was supposedly cut from the English release. Having read it in Japanese, how much of the plot did I miss?

Returning to the Miyabe novels, I really cannot recommend them enough. There are several already in English, including Crossfire, Shadow Family and The Devil's Whisper, not to mention her YA book Brave Story.

10roulette.russe
okt 30, 2008, 1:29 pm

Humm...
The only part of the book concerning male prostitution that I can remember is in Zhang's report. I believe it's an important part of the story, since it explains the situation Zhang was living in China before fleeing to Japan. He basically is a high class prostitute for a very rich woman, who ends up being the daughter of some influential Chinese politician. I don't remember the details...
This really was not in the edition you read?

11JackFrost
okt 30, 2008, 3:58 pm

No, Zhang's story was in there. I'd read in a newspaper or magazine book review that some parts were cut, though they didn't get into specifics.

12Pendrainllwyn
Redigeret: dec 18, 2023, 7:33 am

Finished Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada today. Very rarely for me I figured out who the killer was before the big reveal. Nevertheless, a thoroughly enjoyable read. I have also enjoyed locked room mysteries by Yukito Ayatsuji and Seishi Yokomizo. I probably like Yokomizo's work the most of the three. No doubt from being written 30 years earlier his works have a greater Japanese flavour.

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