Overview

A Japanese The Thursday Murder Club, taking healing fiction for a mystery-filled spin with this bestseller that has sold more than 200,000 copies in Japan. He’s not your average Grandpa. As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s no surprise that schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday mysteries more often than your typical twenty-seven-year-old. Solving them is another matter, though. For that, she turns to her beloved grandfather, who retains a keen sharpness of mind despite his dementia, and who was once a key member of The Waseda Mystery Club. From impossible locked room murders to confounding missing persons cases, the grandfather-granddaughter duo ""weave stories"" to get to the bottom of every mystery. But all the while, an insidious shadow from Kaede’s past slowly closes in on her . . . Steeped in references to classic crime from Christie to Chesterton to Poe, My Grandfather, the Master Detective plays with the genre, capturing readers' imagination in this Tokyo-set escapist mystery. Its charming characters and affectionate focus on relationships echo heartwarming Japanese titles such as Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

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Reviews

“Before the Coffee Gets Cold meets Agatha Christie. Neither age nor a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) can keep Grandfather from solving difficult cases. He’s as clever as Hercule Poirot and as observant as Miss Marple, a gentle, brilliant, and dynamic sleuth you won’t soon forget.” —Ellery Adams, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret, Book & Scone Society

A Beyond the Bookends Most Anticipated Mystery of March ""Heartfelt and clever, My Grandfather, the Master Detective expertly weaves together ideas of family and loss alongside homage to classic detective fiction spanning eras and countries. It’s a set of perfectly balanced mystery vignettes that all build up to a satisfying conclusion, with wonderful friendships and a hint of romance woven in. An utterly delightful ode to the power of storytelling in understanding the curve balls life throws at you.” —Kristen Perrin, New York Times bestselling author of How to Solve Your Own Murder “Before the Coffee Gets Cold meets Agatha Christie. Neither age nor a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) can keep Grandfather from solving difficult cases. He’s as clever as Hercule Poirot and as observant as Miss Marple, a gentle, brilliant, and dynamic sleuth you won’t soon forget.” —Ellery Adams, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret, Book & Scone Society “[A] rich emotional landscape. . . The mysteries often have a cozy, kind aspect to them while the realities of [Kaede’s] grandfather’s condition are heartbreaking. . . The novel will appeal to fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, Hisashi Kashiwai’s The Kamogawa Food Detectives, and Susan Fletcher's The Night in Question. Readers may also find themselves eager to experience the many classic novels Kaede and her friends discuss, most of which are mysteries.” —Booklist (starred) “Konishi updates the century-old trope of the armchair detective in this debut, a collection of six interlinked short stories featuring a most unusual sleuth. . . Brain-teasing mysteries presented in something like a fairytale framework.” —Kirkus “Konishi strikes a balance between the cozy mystery genre and the Japanese (and Korean) comfort novels in translation that are having a moment on the bestsellers’ lists . . . Much of the sense of calmness, control and, well, comfort, is down to the English translation by Louise Heal Kawai, who puts the reader at ease with her fluid translation.” —Asian Review of Books “[A] gentle, puzzle-focused crime novel in the vein of classic detective fiction . . . The beauty lies in ordinary, complicated people figuring out how to live as much as how to solve crimes.” —Crime Fiction Lover “Masateru Konishi has infused the fun and page-turning intrigue of a first-rate mystery story with profound filial love, respect, and compassion. A rare and multi-faceted mystery, My Grandfather, the Master Detective transcends genre. It’s guaranteed to delight and deeply affect fans of detective stories, readers seeking to explore the human condition, and everyone whose lives have been turned upside-down by this debilitating disease.” —Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Counting Backwards “Even when struggling with dementia, Grandfather is one hell of an armchair detective during his better, lucid moments . . . a warm recommendation and hopefully Louise Heal Kawai gets to translate the second and last book in the series. Fingers crossed!” —Beneath the Stains of Time

A Beyond the Bookends Most Anticipated Mystery of March ""Heartfelt and clever, My Grandfather, the Master Detective expertly weaves together ideas of family and loss alongside homage to classic detective fiction spanning eras and countries. It’s a set of perfectly balanced mystery vignettes that all build up to a satisfying conclusion, with wonderful friendships and a hint of romance woven in. An utterly delightful ode to the power of storytelling in understanding the curve balls life throws at you.” —Kristen Perrin, New York Times bestselling author of How to Solve Your Own Murder “Before the Coffee Gets Cold meets Agatha Christie. Neither age nor a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) can keep Grandfather from solving difficult cases. He’s as clever as Hercule Poirot and as observant as Miss Marple, a gentle, brilliant, and dynamic sleuth you won’t soon forget.” —Ellery Adams, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret, Book & Scone Society “Konishi updates the century-old trope of the armchair detective in this debut, a collection of six interlinked short stories featuring a most unusual sleuth. . . Brain-teasing mysteries presented in something like a fairytale framework.” —Kirkus “Konishi strikes a balance between the cozy mystery genre and the Japanese (and Korean) comfort novels in translation that are having a moment on the bestsellers’ lists . . . Much of the sense of calmness, control and, well, comfort, is down to the English translation by Louise Heal Kawai, who puts the reader at ease with her fluid translation.” —Asian Review of Books “[A] gentle, puzzle-focused crime novel in the vein of classic detective fiction . . . The beauty lies in ordinary, complicated people figuring out how to live as much as how to solve crimes.” —Crime Fiction Lover “Masateru Konishi has infused the fun and page-turning intrigue of a first-rate mystery story with profound filial love, respect, and compassion. A rare and multi-faceted mystery, My Grandfather, the Master Detective transcends genre. It’s guaranteed to delight and deeply affect fans of detective stories, readers seeking to explore the human condition, and everyone whose lives have been turned upside-down by this debilitating disease.” —Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Counting Backwards

Author Information

Masateru Konishi graduated from the Department of English and American Literature at Meiji University and now works as a writer for TV and radio. He has previously written for the stage as well as the novelization of manga, but My Grandfather, the Master Detective is his first completely original novel. Partly based on his own experience of caring for his father with dementia, the book won the twenty-first edition of the prestigious “This Mystery is Amazing!” Grand Prize.   Louise Heal Kawai has been a translator of Japanese literature since 2006, translating several different genres of contemporary fiction. Her published translations include The Cat Who Saved Books; The Honjin Murders; Daido Tamaki’s Milk, which appeared in the short story anthology Inside and Other Short Fiction; Tendo Shoko’s bestselling autobiography Yakuza Moon; and most recently Building Waves, a novel by feminist writer and poet Tomioka Taeko.

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