Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto

A Quiet Place is a Japanese crime novel by Seich Matsumoto, translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai. Tsuneo Asai, a softly spoken government official, is away on business in Kobe when he hears that Eiko, his wife, has suffered a fatal heart attack. Her weak heart makes the death unsurprising, yet the place where she died, a small shop in a seedy part of Tokyo, makes no sense for such a shy, retiring woman.

As Tsuneo quietly pieces together her final months, he finds a nearby house known as a meeting place for lovers and begins to suspect a secret life. Matsumoto, a leading figure in Japanese social crime fiction, builds tension through character and atmosphere, making this an absorbing choice for readers of slow-burning psychological mysteries.

• Author: Seich Matsumoto
• Translator: Louise Heal Kawai
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback, 231 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780241744208