Mikaiketsu Satsujin Jiken Fairu

A book with three authors; two of whom did the bulk of the work while the other one got top billing for the simple reason that he is a retired bigwig from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and having his bio in the book lends it credibility. He actually wrote only about 40 of the books almost 400 pages, and even then said nothing that you couldn't have figured out for yourself. Most of his comments boiled down to "They should re-examine this case carefully and I hope they catch the murderers soon."

The two main authors actually did a pretty good job of researching and presenting the 19 unsolved murders which appear in this book. The cases themselves make for interesting reading throughout. The only problem with the book is that these two don't realize that murder cases are gripping enough even when unadorned; they don't need a coat of shellac. These two can't resist trying to dress up the cases by at times offering up all sorts of far-fetched conjecture. For example, in one case where a quite elderly woman and her son are killed by having their throats slashed the authors opine that the killer must have been a foreigner who had been specially trained in assassination techniques at a foreign training facility. Japanese just don't kill that way, you know.

One gets the impression they have watched too much television.

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