Popular Asian Crime Books

Find crime books written by authors from Asia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (21)

11.

Penance by Kanae Minato EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
'Kanae Minato is a brilliant storyteller' Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven When a group of young girls are approached by a stranger, they cannot know that the encounter will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Hours later, Emily is dead. The surviving girls alone can identify the killer. But not one of them remembers his face... Driven mad by grief, the victim's mother demands the girls find the murderer or else atone for their crimes. If they do neither, she will have her revenge. She will make them pay... From the critically acclaimed author of Confessions, Penance is a dar... continue

12.

Some People Need Killing : A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Philippines flag Philippines
Description:
TIME’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A “riveting” (The Atlantic) account of the Philippines’ state-sanctioned killings of its citizens under President Rodrigo Duterte, hailed as “a journalistic masterpiece” (The New Yorker) “Tragic, elegant, vital . . . Evangelista risked her life to tell this story.”—Tara Westover, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Educated LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, CrimeReads, The Mary Sue “My job is... continue


14.

The Borrowed by Haoji Chen EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / China flag China
Description:
From award-winning Hong Kong writer Chan Ho-kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a Hong Kong detective who rises from constable to senior inspector over the span of several decades, from the 1960s to the present day, and becomes a legend in the force, nicknamed "the Eye of Heaven" by his amazed colleagues. Divided into six sections told in reverse chronological order -- each of which covers an important case in Kwan's career and takes place at a pivotal moment in Hong Kong history -- the novel follows Kwan from his experiences during the Leftist Riot in 1967, when a bombing plot... continue

15.

The Devil's Disciple by Shirō Hamao EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Two stories originally published in Japanese in 1929 in issues of Shinseinen.

16.

The Ginza Ghost by Keikichi Ōsaka EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The Japanese form of Golden Age detective fiction was re-launched in the early 1980s as shin honkaku by Soji Shimada and Yukito Ayatsuji, but the original honkaku dates from the 1930s and one of its pioneers was Keikichi Osaka. The Ginza Ghost is a collection of twelve of his best stories, almost all impossible crimes. Although the solutions are strictly fair-play, there is an unreal, almost hallucinatory quality to them. Osaka, who died tragically young, was an early pioneer and master of the genre, whose work is only now starting to be re-discovered. Readers of LRI's The Decagon house Murder... continue

17.

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
One of Japan's greatest classic murder mysteries, introducing their best loved detective, translated into English for the first time In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions around the village. Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi household are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music. Death has come to Okamura, leav... continue

18.

The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
An ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery, set in post-war Tokyo and steeped in the illicit subculture of Yakuza tattoos 'Like voyeurs, we follow Takagi down the charred streets of bombed-out Tokyo to scenes of fastidiously executed decadence' New York Times Can you solve the mystery of the tattoo murder? Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals her full-body snake tattoo to rapturous applause. Days later she is gone. A dismembered corpse is discovered in the locked bathroom of her home, but her much-coveted body art is nowhere to be found. ... continue

19.

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The Thief is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in a tailored suit, he weaves through Tokyo crowds smoothly stealing wallets from nameless, faceless strangers. He has no family, friends or connections, but his past catches up with him when his old partner offers him a job he can't refuse. Tie up an old rich man and steal the contents of his safe. Only afterwards does he learn the man was a prominent politician, who was brutally murdered after the robbery. This tangle might be too difficult for even the Thief to escape.

20.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
The Woman in the Purple Skirt is being watched. Someone is following her, always perched just out of sight, monitoring which buses she takes; what she eats; whom she speaks to. But this invisible observer isn't a stalker - it's much more complicated than that.