Matsumoto wrote this book in 1975 but it was not translated into English until 2016. The new 2025 edition is an exact copy of the 2016 edition which is now out of print. There is no biography of the translator, Louise Heal Kawai, which I think is a shame as it seems like she put a lot of effort into making the book accessible to Western readers. Matsumoto is highly regarded as a writer in this genre and I had previously read and enjoyed Tokyo Express so my expectations were high.

The book opens with the protagonist, Asai, on a business trip and throughout the book there is great emphasis on his work. The flow of the book is often spoiled by too much detail about his job and the hierarchy of the company which becomes quite boring. Asai spends the majority of the book trying to track down his wife’s killer but his detective skills and attempts at disguise come across as woefully inadequate. He makes assumptions which are not backed up by evidence and wears sunglasses at night in order to not be recognised!

Overall, I was quite disappointed. I felt the book lacked momentum and contained too many plot holes and things that didn’t really add up. That said, I will keep an open mind and read Suspicion soon as I have been sent a copy to review. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe this is not one of his best works.

I do love many of the Japanese mysteries and this, too, was enjoyable in many ways. The civil servant whose wife has died in mysterious circumstances begins with a grief-stricken husband but builds into something quite different as the story unfolds. This doesn't play out like many of Japanese stories with a detective of sorts and often a sidekick. It's even quite different from Tokyo Express, another book by Matsumoto. I found it did have a natural progression but it's one that gets more shocking at it goes along. I will admit it may take many a while to slog through the earlier part of the story but it definitely picks up in the latter half.

Overall, I give this 3.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Classic for providing a free advanced reader copy. I have shared my feedback under no obligation.

The Japanese do crime thrillers like no one. Very thrilling, very well written and kept my attention the entire time. Liked it a lot.

3.5 stars, rounded down. It was hard to know how to rate this, as it was really quite a book of two uneven halves. The first two thirds of the book is a Japanese civil servant learning hai wife has died, and beginning to investigate it at slow pace. About two thirds of the way in, he seems to have a complete personality flip and does something out of character, the effects of which then play out and unspool his life for the last third of the book. I can’t say I particularly gelled with the character, unfortunately - he seems to undergo too huge a change from scrupulously polite and rule following at the start, to the kind who would prepare for the action he later takes (no spoilers, but he takes something with him on the visit to the sanitorium) - that is preparation, not spontaneity… it was out of character.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

this was a hard miss for me!!!
first, it was dragged and boring and second, there was no mystery at all!
this should have been a novella! the book has 240 pages and the writer took 170 pages to tell us that she cheated which any reader might have guessed in the very beginning!

thanks to publisher for the copy!

I really think this book is going to be like marmite, your either going to enjoy it and the deeper meaning laying behind it.

I enjoyed seeing how Asai changed throughout the book, how his grief and his determination to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s death changed him. I found myself at points feeling really sorry for him and questioning what I would have done.

From the writer of Tokyo Express comes another story that really plays with the idea that we never really know the people we love nor what we are capable of when this love is tested.

Tsuneo Asai is a businessman who is more lickspittle than success. He is with a boss he is trying to ingratiate himself with when he is given the news that his wife, Like, has died suddenly. At first Asai accepts that Eiko has merely died from over-exerting the weak heart she was diagnosed with. But as time goes on he begins to uncover a web of lies and he makes plans to find out the truth and take revenge.

Asai is an interesting character who seems to blunder from one disaster to another. Just as you think he's getting somewhere he finds himself in even more trouble. Where the train timetables played a starring role in Tokyo Express, here it is the inept Asai.

The story does meander a little at times but the action, when it comes, is quite shocking.

I really enjoyed it. If you liked Tokyo Express you'll enjoy this.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the advance review copy.

A Quiet Place had me completely hooked from the start. A slow paced, but high intrigue story from Japan’s master of crime thrillers. I couldn’t put this down but I did find the pace helped keep me grounded and I enjoyed the building or rather unraveling mystery than try to power through, I was able to savour the mystery, the writing and the execution of the plot.
The main character, Tsuneo Asai, was a great protagonist to follow as he tries to find out the truth about his wife and her death. If you are a lover of crime thrillers this is a must read, alternatively if you haven’t branched into the genre before this is the perfect place to start.

A Quiet Place is a typical mid-20th century Japanese crime novel in the sense that it focuses on what crime tells us about Japanese society, rather than solely on how fiendishly the crime puzzle is. Seicho Matsumoto is arguably the best known author of this type of crime novel on the English market, but you can find similar themes in the work of Tetsuya Ayukawa and many others. These types of novels methodically follow the investigation and the process of collecting of evidence, and yes, train timetables are often involved. I enjoy these novels for the unobtrusive social commentary, meticulous detail and some good old slice of (detective) life.

In A Quiet Place, Matsumoto did something quite interesting with the crime novel structure genre conventions. We do not follow a traditional investigator, private or institutional, but focus on a recent widower trying to uncover the affair that led to his wife's death. Then something happens to turn the narrative on its head. The novel provides a vivid sense of place, focusing on a specific upmarket neighbourhood in Tokyo and the social changes within it. The social commentary and sense of context was limited by just how few characters we meet in this novel - Matsumoto's Tokyo feels deserted. I was intrigued by the structure and quite enjoyed the twist and what followed, but the build up was tremendously slow and uninspiring. Pacier editing of the first 60% or so would have made the novel tighter and more enjoyable.

Low ranking and fairly boring government official Asai finds out his wife died of a heart attack while he is on one of his many work trips. As the months pass after her death he realises that she might not have been the equally boring person he thought her to be. The deeper he digs, the worse things become.

What a ride! This book is a mystery first, then comes the murder, and then psychological torment that reminded me faintly of The Telltale Heart. I thought it was absolutely brilliant but it might not speak to fans of classic murder mysteries since we are not trying to find the murderer. We are just building up to the motive and then the act, really.
There were some things that bothered me that made little sense. Asai never asks his wife’s sister, who she was close with, any questions and the detective agency he employs never comes forward after the murder when they surely could have made the connection easily…
But overall it was great joy to read this expertly written and beautifully translated (by the GOAT Louise Heal Kawai) book that really stands out among the many murder mysteries out there. You feel for Asai, you know he is not really a bad guy, he just really wants to protect his comfortable, hard earned, beige life and he really did not deserve any of this, or did he? He is not all that different from a detective like Imanishi, star of some of Matsumoto’s other books, an average Joe, just on the other side of the law here. If you want a very un-scandalised writing style, a good story and a different approach, this one is for you as it was for me.

A Quiet Place is an original mystery full of fascinating details about Japanese culture. It’s dark and sinister, but never boring — the story slowly draws you in and keeps you hooked from start to finish. What really stands out is the deep psychological exploration of the main character. The author does a sharp and honest job of showing human nature, with all its complexities and flaws. The main character feels real and layered, making the story much more than just a mystery. The other characters are also interesting and colourful, adding richness and variety to the story. The ending is perfectly satisfying. The translation is excellent, capturing the original text without losing the mood or tone.
I really enjoyed reading A Quiet Place and can’t wait to check out more from this author.

A different type of Japanese novel for me. "A Quiet Place" by Seicho Matsumoto still has the reservations placed by society and it was slow paced. It was also very thorough in the translation with things being repeated several times (probably the same in the original). However what shocked me is how a very quiet man turned into a killer. Shocking but intruiging.

When Tsuneo Asai receives news that his wife has died whilst on a business trip it leads him down a path to uncover the true identity of his wife. Whilst shy and reserved with Tseuno is there another side of her that has led to her sudden death?

I was gripped by the slow unravelling of Tseno as he became more and more obsessed with finding out what really happened to Eiko. It was a slow thriller that had I had to finish on one sitting. I've never been disappointed with a Seicho Matsumoto novel and can't wait to start my next one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

A Quiet Place is a quiet mystery novel set in Tokyo. Tsuneo Asai is away on a business trip when he receives a phone call informing him his wife has died suddenly from a heart attack. After a visit to the owner of the boutique in which his wife died in he becomes fixated on why she would have been in that particular area of Tokyo and tries various means to find answers.
I felt that this was very slow in its plotting, so slow that I thought I might not finish it. However, I kept with it and it finally took off around three quarters of the way through. I really enjoyed it from this point but it took a while! I felt that the early parts got a bit bogged down with descriptions of the main character’s job but it becomes clear later in the story why that is so. It is a slow burner but pays off in the end.
Thank you #NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for #AQuietPlace #Ad

While away on a business trip, the work obsessed Tsuneo Asai gets the news that his wife has passed away from a heart attack, weak heart aside he is shocked to find his calm and shy wife died in a rather shady neighbourhood near a villa known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. Was she living a double life?

This was a slow moving but enjoyable story from one of Japan's oldest mystery writers that kept me wondering. Throughout. Though being honest im not really sure if japan's christie is a good tagline. Other than both being veterans of the craft I'm not seing many links.

Seicho had a simple but direct writing style that is used well here and I enjoyed following the intelligent Tsuneo as he set off on his own
investigation

Credit to Louise Heal Kawai for the translating efforts and my thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for this ebook copy gifted to me in exchange for my thoughts, no other goods or services were exchanged or promised, thank you

A Quiet Place
Tsuneo Asai, a Japanese civil servant, is on a business trip to the Kusia region of Japan. He is accompanying, Shiraishi, the new Director General, on a tour of food processing factories and sites. Asai aspires to become a Director General in the future and has diligently worked his way up despite coming from a poor background unlike Shiraishi. Work is his life as he regards ‘relaxing is for idlers.’ As a result, he is seen as the ‘go to’ man in his department.
And then a phone call from Tokyo changes his life as he is told that his wife, Eiko, has collapsed in the street from a heart attack and died. He hurries back after first making his apologies to Shiraishi and begins the preparations.
Eiko was his second wife and they had married a year after his first wife died. Akai was 35 and Eiko was 27. She had already had a mild heart attack two years ago and so they became a celibate couple as a result. However, Asai seems quite scornful of her, describing Eiko as being ‘not that great looking’ But he loved and indulged her hobbies despite taking no interest in them. Eiko also has no interest in his career plans. She had been studying haiku with a female poet in Shuginami Ward for two years and her teacher considered that Eiko had real talent.
After the funeral and the seven day Buddhist memory service had been observed Asai visits the place where Eiko died and wonders why she was there. It was not an area that she had ever talked of visiting. It’s an area of ‘couple hotels’ where people who are looking for ‘a quiet place’ to have a liaison. There is also a cosmetics shop and it was its owner who helped Eiko. As Akai begins to puzzle over it, he becomes convinced that Eiko was having an affair and thinks he had found clues in her haikus. He revisits the place and discovers that the cosmetics shop and a neighbouring house have been demolished and a new couple hotel has replaced the. He discovers that it is named after the shop’s owner and is called Hotel Chiyo. She is in partnership with a local man and Asai begins to be convinced that he was Eiko’s lover. And as he digs deeper and deeper, events begin to build up to a dangerous climax and Asai’s dull, orderly life will be turned upside down.
Asai was somebody that I really wanted to shake. He was the epitome of dullness and obedience and I couldn’t imagine life being much fun being married to him. So I was genuinely surprised at his actions. They seemed so out of character especially near the end when everything he had worked for and held dear was gone. The rituals of Japanese society were well described and in fact it was these that destroyed him.
However, the book was a little slow for me as I normally prefer them more fast paced. I liked the way in which the author depicted Asai’s descent into madness and obsession. Who knows what what people can be driven to do?

Asai is away on a business trip when he find out that his wife has died, as she had a heart condition it is not unexpected that she died of a heart attack, what was unexpected was where she died. Sikorsky was very reserved and only went out rarely, so why did she die in a shady part of Tokyo? Asai needs to find out, discovering that he did not really know his wife.
Well written and enjoyable read, my thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

This is a not so much a crime novel as a portrait of Japanese society at a particular moment in time. It is more about the the main character's state of mind than about crime itself. The language is stripped of most emotions and the reader enters into the mind of this man whose career seems to be the only thing that really matters. He fixates on solving the death of his wife, who he never really knew and gets stuck in a downward spiral that leads to the somewhat unexpected and ironic ending. I enjoyed this because Matsumoto makes his character and his obsession utterly believable and at the same time provides us with an insight into the world of Japan at that time.

I quite enjoyed this classic. Definitely looking forward to reading more books from this author, Thank you so much for inviting me to read this book!!

"In that moment, all ties to his consciousness had been severed."

Seicho Matsumoto's story is about Tsuneo Asai, while on a business trip to Kobe, he receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack, she did have a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her death left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood? When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life.

The author has been described as Japan's Agatha Christie. I have read one other novel by this author which I enjoyed. His writing does take on that who done it classic detective feel. The main character quickly becomes obsessed with looking for clues that were always there but he didn't quite see them until his young wife passed away.

You get this sense from his pov that he believes his wife was hiding her true self from him. Once he begins down this path it leads him to events he would not have dreamed of.

I enjoyed the suspense and frustrations Tsuneo faced, the way he was spiralling whilst maintaining the image of an upstanding civil servant and to not rock the boat with his peers at work. A lot of cultural expectations are touched on, with what it means to be a husband at home and a hard worker in his professional life. It later makes him question how much was he really there for his wife and those feelings fester leading him to something he can't comprehend.

If you're looking for a quick but detailed mystery novel then this one is definitely worth picking up.