It keepd the mystery going but I hink this one fails on the psychological thriller sense. It didn't have that thrill for me. This can be due to the translation or the story in itself. I found it quite slow and boring at times to the point I didn't want to pick it up.

I have been meaning to try this author for a while, so I looked forward to this one.

Asia was on a business trip when he received news that his wife, who had a weak heart, had died. When he finds out what happened, and where, he is puzzled as to why she would be there, and starts to look into things. Was his wife leading a double life?

I enjoyed reading the cultural aspects of the book, but found the protagonist both deeply unpleasant and rather boring. He makes a bit of a tangle for himself as the story goes on, and the outcome was satisfying if unsurprising. I recently read The Jealous One by Celia Fremlin, in my opinion, a much more successful psychological thriller. I'm glad I finally got to read this author, and may try more of his work if I come across it.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

A Quiet Place is a Japanese mystery novel in which a husband investigates his wife's death only to find out her secret double life. Tsuneo Asai is a civil servant on a business trip in Kobe when he finds out that his wife back in Tokyo has died. Initially, it makes sense as she had a heart condition, but he wonders why she was in the neighbourhood she was. As he investigates the local love hotels, looking for proof of why she was there, he starts to discover more about his wife's recent life, which leads him to become torn between his personal and professional life.

This novel was originally published in Japanese in 1971 and it really centres around the rules and conventions of Japanese society at that time, particularly in terms of reputation. There's a mystery at the heart of the story, but it also becomes a psychological thriller similar to something like The Talented Mr Ripley, showing a man caught between paranoia and his outward reputation as a government official. At the start of the novel, it might seem like there's a lot of focus on Asai's job and his aspirations there as well as the story of his wife's death, but it becomes apparent that neither part can be separated from the other because they are all part of Asai's motivations and what governs how he acts.

Having read Matsumoto's Tokyo Express, I was expecting a straight murder mystery, but instead this is an understated thriller with a fascinating protagonist.

Seichō Matsumoto’s *A Quiet Place* is a slow-burning psychological thriller that explores the quiet desperation beneath the surface of a seemingly ordinary bureaucrat’s life. When Tsuneo Asai’s wife dies unexpectedly in a part of Tokyo she had no reason to be in, his need for answers propels him into a subtle yet gripping investigation that exposes secrets, lies, and the emotional detachment at the heart of his marriage. With elegant prose and a methodical pace, Matsumoto masterfully builds tension without resorting to melodrama, offering a nuanced portrait of obsession, social constraint, and moral ambiguity. It’s a quietly haunting novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

Asai is a classic Japanese salaryman who is so focused on his career progression that he is willing to minimise all other aspects of his life. This changes when his wife suddenly dies while he is away and he is a number of niggling questions about what happened. I went into this relatively blind but after finishing this book I'd 100% agree that A Quiet Place is reminiscent of Highsmith.

At times the pace could feel quite slow, particularly as it wasn't clear whether Asai even had anything to investigate, but the final third of the book has a great drive to it. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as someone's first foray into Japanese crime fiction if they don't have much contextual knowledge of the country as I think a lot of the narrative does rest on subtleties. However, it is a great one to read as part of the excellent selection that is being translated at the moment!

A Quiet Place is an interesting time capsule to 1970s Japan. It is a story that is so steeped in Japanese social customs that it would be impossible tell if set anywhere else. In that regard, it reminded me quite a bit of 'Silent Parade' by Keigo Higashino. While I found Silent Parade a little too convoluted, A Quiet Place was ultimately too straightforward for me.

Asai is a hardworking man with a government job. Starting from the bottom, he hasn't had the advantage of family connections or a prestigious university education to accelerate his career. He carefully cultivates a reputation as a reliable hard worker instead. When he receives a call in the middle of a business dinner that his wife has unexpectedly passed away, Asai extracts himself with maximum discretion. Whatever the circumstances, he wants to cause the least disruption possible to any burgeoning deals. When the customary mourning period has passed, Asai visits the shop where his wife collapsed to thank the saleswoman who attempted to help her. It is only then that he faces the incongruity of his chaste, homebody wife visiting such a seedy neighbourhood. He becomes obsessed with the idea there was more to Eiko's passing than simply her weak heart.

I found Asai a fascinating character. "Asai hadn’t loved Eiko to the extent that his heart would never recover from the shock of her death" and yet, his need to uncover more about her life and death consume him for reasons of his own. I steadily lost interest in the back half, though. There was a lot of office politicking I skimmed over.

This slow burn psychological thriller shows Matsumoto at his best, he shows himself to be in the same league as Patricial Highsmith in this tales of a man striving to succeed in his Ministry job. When his wife dies suddenly he finds himself obsessed with trying to work out her final movements which leads him down a path of self destruction. Matsumoto is known for Tokyo Express and the puzzle solving which goes on within the novel whereas A Quiet Place is much more a dark, spiralling psychological read.

A must for fans of Japanese mystery/crime reads.

I have read a couple of other books by Seicho Matsumoto and was so excited to read A Quiet Place. This differed somewhat from the other Matsumoto books that I’ve read. This wasn’t a murder mystery, but more of a psychological thriller.

Tsueneo Asai is mid-ranking civil servant whose wife Eiko dies whilst he’s away on a business trip. Upon his return to Tokyo, he wonders why his wife was not in their home when she died. He has more questions - why she was in a distant part of Tokyo and what she was doing there at the time of her death.

Asai begins to investigate and then enlists the help of a detective agency to assist. It becomes clear that his and Eiko’s marriage was a loveless one and that he really didn’t know her. Despite this, Asai is driven to find out what happened to EIko.

It was originally published in Japan in 1971 and the book has a real sense of time and place in Japan. Whilst Asai is driven to investigate what happened to his wife, he is restricted by societal conventions. His fear of anyone knowing that he’s investigating what happened to his wife and how it could impact his career. I found this fascinating. The psychological tension builds gradually and Asai becomes consumed with guilt, jealousy and paranoia which take over his life.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Penguin Press UK, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Eerie and unsettling, nothing like Christie, very like Highsmith

This was a strange, slow and disturbing read, which I found as dislocating and uneasy, and, also with a certain dark glee in the quirky dysfunction of the central character as also happens with Highsmith. The fact that there is no detective, and it is only the central character, whose nature the reader is taken into, also means that the reader is kind of on his side, and not really wanting to be, as events begin to unfold.

Adding to that sense of dislocation and feeling out of one’s comfort zone, and almost without one’s moral compass, which I find with Patricia Highsmith, was intensified with this, as it is set (and written ) Japan, in the very early 1970’s . Like Highsmith again, the focus is very much on individual psychology, especially its shadow side, and the individuals in this case are within a rather rigidly structured and hierarchical society.

From a poor family, Tsuneo Asai, an outwardly conformist middle-aged man in his 40’s, of greater talents and skills than many of his more privileged superiors, has carefully worked his way up through the various strata of the civil service in his particular department, kowtowing as needed, making himself indispensable, bolstering the ‘face’ and reputation of his superiors. His reward has been steady promotions. His is a life deeply wedded within correct awareness of status and bureaucratic layering.

Following the death of his first wife, he has gone through traditional channels and is married to Eiko, a younger woman in her 30’s. Presumably Eiko accepted Asai’s courtship because he could provide financial and status security, enabling her not to work, but follow various hobbies which take her interest, and are acceptable for females, like haiku composition and crafts. Eiko turned out to have a weak heart. Advised to avoid exertion and excitement ,this has resulted in the couple abstaining from sex. Asai, anyway, has a very low libido, so this has been less problematic than might otherwise have been the case.

Whilst away on a business conference, as always, being the intelligence behind the public face of his rather clueless, well-connected superior, he gets news that Eiko has unexpectedly had a heart attack one afternoon, when she had gone out shopping. It turned out that she was taken ill visiting a small, out of the way, very expensive cosmetics shop. His distraught sister in law, staying with Eiko for a few days, has to pass on the terrible news, and helps with the funeral arrangements. Though Eiko had a weak heart, the place of her death is somewhat odd, as the shop is an outlier, in a wealthy residential district. Wishing to understand more of what has happened takes Asai into some darkly reflective places, and the investigations become complicated.

The level of detail about rather mundane things, such as the formalities of very nuanced polite behaviours maintain face and status for all, within the various echelons of junior, middle and upper management within the civil service do make this a slow read, but, paradoxically, add to the tension, and are slyly amusing.

I probably enjoyed this particularly because there was no detective, but only the very correct, obsessive, rather bland character, slowly becoming incrementally more peculiar, both more creepy, more damaged, and more weirdly amusing.

The translation is by Louise Heal Kawai. I was not aware that I was reading something in translation, which is a tribute.

I’m certainly interested in reading more by this author. Read as a digital ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley

A Quiet Place is an interesting take on the whodunnit: what starts as a slow-burn detective story suddenly shifts into a fast-paced thriller. I thought the mystery itself was a little underwhelming and too easily uncovered; a few red herrings wouldn't have gone amiss.

This new edition's reference to Matsumoto as 'Japan's Agatha Christie' feels a little reductive - this is very much a crime novel in the Japanese tradition. In turning your expectations on their head, you can clearly see he's the forerunner of writers like Kigashino and Kirono.

A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto was first published 50 years ago and is being republished by Penguin.

The story sees Tsuneo Asai find out that his wife has died whilst he was away on a business trip. What then follows is Asai trying to find answers to why his wife died where she did which only results in his life spiralling out of control with dramatic consequences.

The book is well written and translated and kept me engaged throughout as I found out what happened to Asai.

A very enjoyable read.

A death above suspicion, or perhaps not at all, especially if the search for truth in turn creates other culprits, as in a game of Chinese boxes, or Japanese given the author.

Una morte al di sopra di ogni sospetto, o forse non proprio, specialmente se la ricerca della veritá crea a sua volta altri colpevoli, come in un gioco di scatole cinesi, o giapponesi visto l'autore.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

One of my 2025 goals is to read more fiction in translation and this is an excellent example of it! I had never heard of Matsumoto but I love classic mysteries so decided to give this one a try - I’m so glad I did. As Tsuneo uncovers his wife’s real life I was increasingly intrigued. I loved the setting as well.

'A Quiet Place' (no relation to the film series) was first published in 1975, but it is just as readable 50 years later and in translation. It is rather like a murder mystery, although the dead person died of natural causes, so the mystery is not around who killed her or how, but what she had been doing in the neighbourhood she was found in. It's more of a psychological thriller than a class whodunnit in style, but either way it is very absorbing.

The viewpoint character is Asai, a dedicated civil servant who lives for his work, but is nonetheless fond of his wife, Eiko, who dies suddenly whilst he is on a business trip. Eiko had a weak heart and rarely left the house, so why was she walking up a hill in an area with no attractions other than a misplaced cosmetics shop and a hotel used for assignations? Asai is unable to leave the mystery alone and eventually uncovers information that suggests there may have been more to Eiko's death than it first appeared.

Asai is a sympathetic and interesting character. I felt I had a lot in common with him despite being a different gender and living on the other side of the world and fifty years later. It's rare to read about characters who are very dedicated to their mundane jobs and don't see that as a bad thing, maybe because such characters don't often have interesting enough stories to write about. I felt I could identify with his determination and his frustrations at being treated as lesser than workers from more privileged backgrounds.

The story developed in a way I really didn't expect and is very cleverly plotted, and the final quarter is really compelling. It's very easy to read - the style is plain and clear, and it must be well translated because you forget that is has been translated. The cleverness is all in the plot and characterisation and in that Matsumoto deserves the comparison to Agatha Christie - a comparison that is made for many authors but is not always deserved.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers or mystery stories, I would highly recommend this novel.

This is my second read by this author, seicho Matsumoto and I loved it. The story is narrated from the perspective of Tsuneo Asai, this isn't like a classic whodunnit but rather study of how crime is committed and how guilt acts. I felt the ending couldn't be anymore perfect. It starts slowly and builds the tension that keeps us at the edge of the seat. I would recommend this for any thriller fan.

I've read a lot of Japanese murder mysteries there seems to be a trend at the moment for translating older Japense mysteries into English. As a genre this works quite well as the Japanese writers were heavily inspired by English language writers such as Agatha Christie. So despite cultural differences the story tends to translate quite well to an English speaking audience.

This one is no different. Where it is different is there is no Detective, just a random civil servant trying to piece together the circumstances of his wife's death.

The end is a bit sudden for my tastes but it's an interesting piece of psychological literature and definitely worth a read if you are into mystery I read it in one sitting, it is short enough to do that if you have a few hours and engaging enough that I wanted to, but it isn't a "traditional" mystery if that will put you off.

Soon to be printed as a Penguin Press classic, I was lucky to discover this book, otherwise it wouldn't have been on my radar at all. I've read a few Japanese thrillers/mysteries and can't help but to have a fondness for the author Edogawa Rampo, so unintentionally I had high expectations for this particular book.

I did enjoy the mystery and intrigue to this story, I had a few predictions that were correct, but the rest of the story takes some turns that are shocking and change the entire narrative and original focus. Rather than investigating and finding out the truth behind his wife's death, the main character, Asai, finds himself in the sticky web of his own crime, instead of a mystery it turns more into a psychological thriller. I did enjoy this twist, but the book did feel a little slow and not overly logical- but once again, I admit to comparing to one of my favourite masters of mystery, Rampo.

Luckily the book is fairly short and easy to read, and I enjoyed seeing Asai's' emotions and actions reflected in the way the story is written. His character is deeply flawed, and the ethics and culture influences him too, so I liked seeing him inevitably unravel. The ending wraps up rather quickly, we get this dramatic, almost uneasy build up leading towards a heart pounding conclusion, but then suddenly it ends, and we're given a paragraph hinting at the outcome to the story. I admit, I felt a little disappointed that there wasn't more, but then again it almost fits the hasty, desperate theme of the book.

Overall, this novel is definitely worth a read if you're a fan of mysteries and seeing a character slowly descend into almost a crazed state, fans of psychology will equally adore picking apart this character. Whilst not the most intelligent book, its questions will leave you turning the pages to find answers.

3/5 🌟