One of the reasons we read foreign mysteries (no matter where we live) is because they let us weave our way quickly into the cultures of other countries, using crime as the common thread. Akimitsu Takagi's books are uniquely Japanese: they are slightly stiff and formal at first, apparently treating bloody subjects in a calm and formal manner; only later do we realize how deeply we've become involved.

Takagi, born in 1920, wrote his first mystery at the age of 28. He quickly became Japan's most famous mystery writer--a self-taught legal expert whose heroes in the dozens of books he produced until his death in 1995 were usually prosecutors or police investigators. But in this story (part of the publisher's ambitious plan to introduce Takagi's books to a worldwide audience), the focus is on a young stock broker named Shigeo Segawa, trained at a giant brokerage house whose motto was "Money Is Everything." As Takagi tells us, "the pleasure of having money, the admiration for it, the longing for it, and the misery without it--these emotions had eaten their way into Segawa's bones long ago."

Crushed and made desperate by a stock market crash in the 1960s, Segawa gets involved in a shady industrial espionage scheme, and twice betrays one of his oldest friends--by seducing his wife and trying to steal the formula for a new chemical process. When his friend is murdered, Segawa becomes the logical suspect. But a sharp young prosecutor named Kirishima begins to think that perhaps the blame lies elsewhere--with the informer who told the dead friend what Segawa had done. Other Takagi classics available in paperback: Honeymoon to Nowhere and The Tattoo Murder Case. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
There are many webs and one or more deadly spiders spinning them in this intricate tale of deceit and murder from the late Japanese master (1920-1995); the book is one of two by Takagi that Soho will publish in June (see review below). Shiego Segawa should have listened to the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." The young stock-market trader has been enjoying all the benefits of Japan's burgeoning postwar resurgence until he overreaches and is caught short when the market tumbles. Allowed to resign from his company, he starts his own, only to see it fail. Then he is offered a wonderful job opportunity: Mikio Sakai, the owner of a small new firm, Shinwa Trading Co., asks him to come on as salesman, for a high salary and higher prospects. But Sakai's real aim is industrial sabotage, and Shiego soon finds himself on a slippery slope where he must juggle women and ethics while betraying an old friend. When Shoichi Ogino, his putative target, discovers the betrayal and then is murdered, Shiego is the obvious suspect. But State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima is never satisfied by the obvious, and his deft probing gradually strips away the cobwebs to reveal an elegant solution. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Wall Street Journal
". . . Based on actual events, The Informer was a bestseller when originally published in Japan."

The Washington Post Book World
"Intricate . . . one of Japan's most popular writers."

From Kirkus Reviews
Having already failed at both his stockbroking job (he got caught covering his speculations with clients' money) and his own firm, Shigeo Segawa doesn't expect much from his next job. So he's pleasantly surprised when a tip from Kazumi Yamaguchi, an ex-lover who's still carrying a flame for him, leads him to Mikio Sakai, owner and manager of the fledgling Shinwa Trading Company. There's only one catch behind the generous salary and the promised partnership that Sakai dangles before him: his work selling massage machines is only a cover for Shinwa's real business, industrial espionage. Is Segawa willing to earn his way back to the big time by tricking his former friend Shoichi Ogino, executive director of the Shichiyo Chemical Company, into giving him a peek at the formula for the new wonder compound paramizol? Before you can say ``major yen,'' Segawa's wormed his way back into Ogino's confidence and his wife Eiko's bed, and he's making real progress with Setsuko Kondo, secretary to paramizol wizard Tatsuji Nishiwaki. Then, without warning, a murder brings all Segawa's plans to a screeching halta murder for which he's the obvious suspect. The cops work hard, but the detection here is less interesting than the proposed crime. Before murder spoils everything, though, Takagi (The Tattoo Murder Case, 1998) achieves some of the brilliantly brutal effect of a more polite David Mamet. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Based on an actual incident, The Informer is ranked among the top one hundred mysteries.

Language Notes
Text: English, Japanese (translation)

About the Author
Akimitsu Takagi is the author of The Tattoo Murder Case and Honeymoon to Nowhere, also available from Soho Press.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When the Tokyo stock market crashes, adultery and industrial espionage lead to murder.

Segawa had a good job as a stock market trader, but the "private" hedge fund he operated suffered big losses and he was fired. He is down and out when he is approached with an offer of highly paid work. How can he resist? He agrees to become an industrial spy, even when he discovers the target is his old schoolmate-who married Segawa's girlfriend-and his company. Ogino, the old friend, is murdered, and Segawa seems to have been the last person to visit him. He panics, fakes an easily disproved alibi, then tries to flee. He would seem to be the obvious culprit. Who else could have done it? The widow? Segawa's other girlfriend? The dead man's uncle or some of the other ambitious directors of the company? Ogino's secretary, who happens to be his greedy sister's lover? State Prosecutor Kirishima must solve a baffling crime to save Segawa from hanging for a murder he did not commit.

The Informer, based on a real incident, was a runaway bestseller in Japan when it was published in 1965.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

There are many webs and one or more deadly spiders spinning them in this intricate tale of deceit and murder from the late Japanese master (1920-1995); the book is one of two by Takagi that Soho will publish in June (see review below). Shiego Segawa should have listened to the old adage, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." The young stock-market trader has been enjoying all the benefits of Japan's burgeoning postwar resurgence until he overreaches and is caught short when the market tumbles. Allowed to resign from his company, he starts his own, only to see it fail. Then he is offered a wonderful job opportunity: Mikio Sakai, the owner of a small new firm, Shinwa Trading Co., asks him to come on as salesman, for a high salary and higher prospects. But Sakai's real aim is industrial sabotage, and Shiego soon finds himself on a slippery slope where he must juggle women and ethics while betraying an old friend. When Shoichi Ogino, his putative target, discovers the betrayal and then is murdered, Shiego is the obvious suspect. But State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima is never satisfied by the obvious, and his deft probing gradually strips away the cobwebs to reveal an elegant solution. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Having already failed at both his stockbroking job (he got caught covering his speculations with clients' money) and his own firm, Shigeo Segawa doesn't expect much from his next job. So he's pleasantly surprised when a tip from Kazumi Yamaguchi, an ex-lover who's still carrying a flame for him, leads him to Mikio Sakai, owner and manager of the fledgling Shinwa Trading Company. There's only one catch behind the generous salary and the promised partnership that Sakai dangles before him: his work selling massage machines is only a cover for Shinwa's real business, industrial espionage. Is Segawa willing to earn his way back to the big time by tricking his former friend Shoichi Ogino, executive director of the Shichiyo Chemical Company, into giving him a peek at the formula for the new wonder compound paramizol? Before you can say "major yen," Segawa's wormed his way back into Ogino's confidence and his wife Eiko's bed, and he's making real progress with Setsuko Kondo, secretary to paramizol wizard Tatsuji Nishiwaki. Then, without warning, a murder brings all Segawa's plans to a screeching halt—a murder for which he's the obvious suspect. The cops work hard, but the detection here is less interesting than the proposed crime. Before murder spoils everything, though, Takagi (The Tattoo Murder Case, 1998) achieves some of the brilliantly brutal effect of a more polite David Mamet.