Among stunningly prolific Japanese mystery writer Jiro Akagawa's 650-plus books is the Casebooks of Mikeneko Holmes series, with more than 55 titles and still expanding. The intriguing first volume, originally published in 1978, arrives in the U.S. as A Game of Cat and Killer, smoothly translated by Haydn Trowell. Akagawa writes with a charming nonchalance reminiscent of the popular cozy mystery genre, but the body count may disqualify this title from those shelves.
Akagawa opens with a quick first murder: a student using sex work to make fast money is killed by her client. Katayama, 28, is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective assigned to the case, although he's "squeamish at the sight of blood" and even more afraid of women. But go he must to a women's university, where Dean Tomoo Morisaki alerts Katayama about a potential prostitution ring on campus. Katayama also meets Holmes, Morisaki's lucky calico cat. Morisaki's conviction that "cats may understand people far, far better than we think" proves prescient, especially after Morisaki is murdered and Holmes chooses Katayama as her next person. With a paw, a tail flick, a plaintive meow, Holmes knows exactly how to move an investigation along. But more murders happen before Katayama and Holmes figure out who's done what to whom and why.
Katayama's bumbling-but-possibly-brilliant persona is undoubtedly endearing enough to launch a series, although it's his feline accomplice who remarkably and readily remedies what he may lack in investigative (and people) skills. Amid the multilayered, didn't-see-that-coming revelations, Akagawa also presents Katayama with first love, sibling secrets, family legacy, and more. At least he'll now have lucky Holmes by his side. --Terry Hong