Points and Lines in Around the World in 80 Books

May 17, 2024 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: publdate-1950s, author-ofcolour, gorgeous-cover, 4-star, author-man, a-reviewed, z-read-gelesen-2024, transl-japanese, genre-crime, world-japan

I came for the cover (artist not credited in the kindle), I stayed for the plot. This is a puzzle mystery, with a fiendishly clever Rubrik's cube of a riddle. The solution of the crime hinges on the detailed and intimate reading and fitting together of the Japanese train and plane timetable. A note informs us that the novel actually uses the real-life timetables of 1957 which is mind-blowing. What is most mind-blowing to my train-weary self who experienced a total of eight hours train delays in I came for the cover (artist not credited in the kindle), I stayed for the plot. This is a puzzle mystery, with a fiendishly clever Rubrik's cube of a riddle. The solution of the crime hinges on the detailed and intimate reading and fitting together of the Japanese train and plane timetable. A note informs us that the novel actually uses the real-life timetables of 1957 which is mind-blowing. What is most mind-blowing to my train-weary self who experienced a total of eight hours train delays in the past month alone and regular chaos on platforms, inaudible announcements and endless bus replacement service horrors -- so what is most mind-blowing to 2024 me is the apparent utter reliability of Japanese trains in 1957, down to the last MINUTE. It is conceded that planes are sometimes late but trains: never. I was stunned by this punctuality.

Anyway, once I got over my boggling mind, I thoroughly enjoyed this intricately plotted piece of old-school detection. What is really nice to read is the way the several instances all worked together. The small-town grizzled old detective, the younger hotshot from the city and the hotshot's boss -- all co-operated, deferred to each other, expressed gratitude, appreciation and humiliation, and displayed none of that 'one man against the world and against a corrupt institution' bravado found, certainly, in most American crime novels and movies.

Interesting is also the Japanese cultural value of the love suicide which is, as google informs me, a Thing.

I liked very much the diagrams, and found the maps very helpful. Note: I did not discover a map of all of Japan until the very end. It is tucked away at the end but would have been super useful while reading; in fact, I had recourse to google maps.

There is an abrupt switch to another point of view on page 58 but as the story is told via unfocalised narration this switch was not super jarring. Still, I was starting to identify with the initial voice and not with the crime solution process itself! But this book is about teamwork, truly.

Caveat: some gender stereotyping of female characters. Copious people smoking cigarettes, indoors, outdoors, being offered cigarettes as a matter of hospitality. The 1950s, eh?

I seem to have been on a sort of mini crime-thriller spree later (not usually my cup of chai) and did not choose this for a reading challenge but it did happen to fit the #52 book club reading challenge of 2024 prompt nr 24: 'cover without people'. ...more

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