Gold Mask is Edogawa Rampo's sixth novel featuring detective Akechi Kogorō, as he investigates the crime spree of the uncanny costumed “Gold Mask.” Lovers of crime fiction will be delighted to discover that this resourceful thief, confounding Akechi’s every move, is none other than Maurice Leblanc's famous "gentleman burglar," Arsene Lupin! Given Lupin's obvious influence on Rampo's own Fiend with Twenty Faces, this work serves as a fascinating precursor to his Boy Detectives series, and marks another major step in the development of Japanese detective fiction in the period between the Wars.
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Akechi Kogorō, detective extraordinaire.
In Japan, this is a name that fires the hearts and imaginations of readers young at heart. Cool and sophisticated, Akechi moves effortlessly through the world of Japan in the golden era between the wars, defeating masterminds and saving the day. He has been the hero of Japanese children for generations, and starred in a host of movies.
The stories in this volume predate all of that; his secret origin, if you will. Readers familiar with the exploits of the great detective Akechi Kogorō might have some difficulty recognizing the impeccably dressed and universally respected man of action in the amateur detective, an eccentric twenty-something of little means with disheveled hair and a shabby kimono. The Akechi who appears in this volume is a hobbyist in crime whose identity is not yet fixed either in the eyes of the reading public or in the mind of his creator. Supporting characters such as Akechi's wife and his young assistant have not yet been introduced, and the first confrontation between the great detective and the Fiend with Twenty Faces is still a decade away.
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Edogawa Rampo's The Fiend with Twenty Faces
—A Tale of the Boy Detectives Club
EDOGAWA Rampo
Translated by
Dan LUFFEY
The Fiend with Twenty Faces, the first in the Boy Detectives series by Japan's master of mystery Edogawa Rampo, helped create a new genre in Japan and enthralled thousands of young readers.
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Murder in the Red Chamber, first published in Japanese by Bungei Shunjū as part of its "Mystery Masters" series, is set in the world of the original Dream of the Red Chamber, the masterwork of eighteenth-century Chinese fiction by Cao Xueqin. Building skillfully on that famous background, Ashibe plays out a most formidable murder mystery set in Peking during the late Qing dynasty. The tale opens with the visitation of Jia Yuan-chun, esteemed daughter of the prosperous Jia family and newly instated concubine to the emperor.
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Ōsaka Gō: A Japanese author deeply in love with Spain, guitars and flamenco
Kurodahan Press is proud to present the first English translation of “Red Star of Cadiz,” an international suspense thriller that won author Osaka acclaim as a new master of the genre in Japan. The work has won three prestigious awards: the 96th Naoki Prize, the 40th Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and the 5th Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. The perfect hard-boiled introduction to Japanese crime and suspense fiction!
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The Edogawa Rampo Reader
Stories and essays by EDOGAWA Rampo
Edited and translated by Seth JACOBOWITZ
With an introduction by TATSUMI Takayuki
Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Tarō, 1894-1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan's golden age of crime and mystery fiction. He is also a major writer in the tradition of Japanese Modernism, and exerts a massive influence on the popular and literary culture of today's Japan.
The Edogawa Rampo Reader presents a selection of outstanding examples of his short fiction, and a selection of his non-fiction prose. Together, they present a full and accurate picture of Rampo as a major contributor to the Japanese literary scene, helping to clarify his achievements to the English-speaking world.
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The Black Lizard and
Beast in the Shadows
by EDOGAWA Rampo
Translated by Ian HUGHES
With an introduction by Mark SCHREIBER
Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Tarō, 1894-1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan’s golden age of crime and mystery fiction. Kurodahan Press takes great pleasure in presenting the first English language translations of these two short novels.
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