In wartime Senba, Osaka, Mineko marries into the Oomari family, proprietors of the once-prosperous Oomari Hyakuyakukan cosmetics wholesaler. Surrounded by eccentric relatives and household servants, she is drawn into a series of strange incidents that shakes the family, as this traditional detective novel pursues a mystery spanning the history and secrets of a merchant household.

A traditional detective novel set in wartime Senba, where the secrets of a wealthy merchant family meet a series of strange incidents.

A story from the linked short-story collection Five Seasons with a Detective, in which Mido approaches the secret hidden behind an anecdote she hears while traveling.

The urge to look into other people’s true nature becomes the engine of the mystery.

A short story in which the clockmaker detective untangles the alibis in two incidents that occur at the same time.

One timeline connects two crimes.

A six-volume critical anthology tracing the history of short-form mystery fiction from the nineteenth century to the present.

Read the lineage of short mystery fiction through both stories and commentary.