Description: "In post-war Tokyo, still recovering from the devastating wartime bombing raids, a patrolling policeman passing the Black Cat Cafâe makes a gruesome discovery: the body of a woman, lying in a hastily dug-out hole, with a dead black cat by her side. The woman's face is disfigured beyond recognition, and the cafeâs black cat seems alive and well, so where did the two corpses come from, and why were they buried in the cafâe's garden? As the legendary scruffy sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi investigates, he realizes the cat's enigmatic madam, Oshima, has a past shrouded in secrecy, and what exactly is her relationship with the owner, Itoshima?"-Publisher description.
Review Quotes: "Fans of Golden Age mysteries will enjoy trying to solve Kindaichi's whodunit alongside the rumpled detective, as well as exploring the details of the novel's postwar Japan setting."
--Library Journal
--Kirkus Reviews "Almost a half century after his death, Yokomizo remains an evergreen favorite for his skillfully constructed multilayered puzzles, expertly keeping readers' suspicions twisting and turning."
--Shelf Awareness "For fans of Japanese detectives, historical fiction, puzzle mysteries, and novellas!"
--Book Riot "His novels are the literary equivalent of a Rubik's cube: all the bits of the puzzle are there, but it's up to you to get them in the right place"
--The Times (UK)
"Excellent stories with much puzzlement"
--The Critic (UK) "Seishi Yokomizo has been likened to Agatha Christie, and Murder at the Black Cat Cafe [is] impeccably plotted"
--Financial Times
"The story is as spare and streamlined as any of Inspector Maigret's investigations, and as fiendishly complicated as a Sherlock Holmes puzzler"
--Irish Times "Murder at the Black Cat Cafe serves up two sinisterly cerebral cases cracked by Kosuke Kindaichi, Seishi Yokomizo's sublime series detective... showcasing Yokomizo's talent for atmospheric mysteries, multilayered puzzles and brilliant deductive leaps"
--Crime Fiction Lover