Near the end I looked at some of the Amazon reviews to see if I was the only one who thought it was a badly written book. There I found some people who talked about how much they enjoyed being introduced to some descriptions of post-war life in Japan and some elements of Japanese culture. This made me reevaluate my opinion.

I don't recall anyone talking about the language. Is this a good translation of the Japanese? The writing reminds me a little of the short staccato sentences of Hemingway, but done by a teenager, not too adept at writing. The short sentences went something like this: "He was at the bar." "Was he at the bar?" "He was at the bar." Is this how Japanese people speak?

The story begins with a murder in a rail yard in Tokyo. The victim's face has been bashed to a pulp, making him unrecognizable. Soon after we find that the Tokyo police have sent off a photo of the victim to a police station in another town as part of their investigation, asking if anyone there can identify him. What the heck?

There were many incongruities and far, far too many names and places for me to keep track of. Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the book as much as others did -- I was lost. ( )

First, I am a long-time resident of Japan, so I'm very familiar with Japanese culture, though not the same Japan as depicted here in 1960 Showa Japan. This book both compelled and exasperated me. I rather like the methodical research done by Imanishi as he pursues leads, many of which don't pan out. On the other hand, I hated the coincidences and leaps of logic that struck me as highly improbable. I truly hated the subplot about what turned out to be an unlikely murder weapon (which I won't describe, as it's a spoiler).The depiction of Imanishi's wife made me laugh. Her only function is to prepare meals and suitcases, relate gossip from the neighborhood, and entertain Imanishi's sister, In a movie version, her character was dispensed with, to no apparent disadvantage. This book compelled me to read on, but I found myself equally pleased and displeased at what transpired. I may have given this book too many stars, but somehow I like it. ( )

Cumulative effects work wonderfully in this novel. And not just the amassing of clues and facts you would expect for a crime thriller such as this. It also applies to the atmosphere, the period of Japan during the early 1960s, which is why I was interested in Inspector Imanishi Investigates in the first place.

I looked into this story because I wanted something out of time and place, whose environment would be nostalgic yet exotic. Tokyo and Japan in 1961 fit the bill perfectly. At first I was disappointed. There didn't seem to be much exotic about it at all. Just a drab, colorless train yard in a big city that, if anything, seemed reflective of American hard-boiled thrillers. Then, things began to change. Slightly. The environs of Tokyo gave way to more descriptive settings in the mountains and countryside. And the cityscape became more interesting. All of a sudden, the novel seemed to bring to life the transition Japan was undergoing at the time. Just a few years later, in 1964, the Tokyo Olympics would herald modern postwar Japan's re-emergence as a major economic and political power. That sense of unveiling is here, too, in Inspector Imanishi Investigates.

The bleak Tokyo landscape begins to acquire a unique character. Much like Imanishi himself, whose desperate crowded bonsai garden seeks to maintain a connection with the past, so does the new Tokyo, with its freshly sprouting apartment buildings barely coexist with the diminishing number of old prewar houses, literally casting them into shadows. Imanishi, his colleagues, and his family, nonetheless, have come to terms with the times. Amidst the gargantuan and at times inhospitable and inhuman nature of all the "Newness," the warrens of teahouses, noodle shops, and old stores provide a nest for tradition.

By chance, I happened to be reading The Pillow Book while also reading Inspector Imanishi Investigates. The courtly etiquette and mannerisms of that 1000 year-old book still linger in Inspector Imanishi, with the polished rituals of letter writing, the messaging through haiku, and even the symbols of old artisan craftsmanship as exemplified through the abacus maker and the handmade lacquered specialties. All the more poignant it is made to seem when Imanishi acknowledges towards the end that it is time to make way for a younger generation.

By the end, then, the novel has provided a unique and, for the Western reader, exotic look at a Japan quickly succumbing to the modern and the new, although Imanishi has put it off for just a while yet. That is what made it so enjoyable for me. Not to mention that the crime story itself is a puzzle piece masterfully brought together at book's end. I'll be reading more of Matsumoto's work soon. ( )

Very enjoyable. Great characters and an interesting puzzle to solve. If it were being written today, this would undoubtedly be the first of many installments, but in 1961 you could write a one-off. ( )

A carefully-plotted mystery, one solitary and thoughtful male detective (makes me think of a more melancholy Martin Beck), and detailed descriptions of the contradictions of postwar Japanese society ... turns out when these things are combined, it makes for a very interesting book. A slow-moving mystery that takes its time to build up the case. ( )