A successful businessman who once committed a crime with a partner now wants to keeps tabs on him...

A rising movie actor who is very cautious about his newfound success due to his secret murder of his lover - to which a single person was witness, and who is now his worst nightmare come to life...

A bar hostess so desperate for real love that she would arrange for pretenders to be murdered with other women as bogus love suicides...

A bank clerk hell-bent on revenge from a former co-worker who seduced his sister and left her for dead to cover up their affair...

A terminal-cancer stricken haiku poet who is tricked to be used as a pawn in the murder of another woman...

All these are examples of the short stories you'll find in this great book. Matsumoto's short stories really dazzle you as the criminals' motives are explained slowly and carefully. Adam Kabat does a terrific job in his translation. Mesmerizing... not to be missed!

Since this book is often mentioned in the same breath as Takagi's Tattoo Murder Mystery I started it with high expectations. Yet, in despite of its brevity and interesting cultural context, the plotline was thin and predictable.

Having been raised on the likes of Le Carré and Deighton I read mysteries in full submission to the plot-twisting/reversing will of the author. As such, I am not among the readers whose greatest drive is to figure out the villain before a book's final revelation. Even in this see no suspect hear no suspect mode the plot line of this book has such a giant black hole that I was way beyond the event horizon after chapter three.

While I agree with previous reviewers that the cultural context of this story still has some interesting point, the hapless reiteration of timelines throughout the book turned the final revelation in a most embarrassing event.

I'm sure that Seicho Matsumoto, in writing Points and Lines may have never meant to do this but he did present a slice of Japanese culture that is both a treat and insightful.

In chapter 11 "The Stubborn Wall", Matsumoto explores the relationship between Ishida and Sayama - the former is the high level official in Ministry X while the latter is an assistant section chief. Mind you, we are getting this in a discussion between Mihara, the novels protagonist and his chief Kasai. Juxtaposed as this is, it makes you wonder if the same relationship exists between Mihara/Kasai as it does for Ishida/Sayama. Matsumoto writes:

"A man holding the position of assistant section chief is a veteran; he's full charge of everyday business of the office. Division chiefs and sections chiefs seem to leave all the routine matters to these experienced assistants. They don't do this deliberately; what happens is that they themselves simply aren't familiar with the day-to-day affairs of the section. They're too busy climbing the ladder of success. They have no time to learn the office routine. Their assistants, on the other hand, have been handling it for a long time; they know the work thoroughly. They are like experienced craftsmen. But they can't go very far. They have to stand by and watch the younger men, the university graduates with the proper qualifications, get promoted and go past them. Most of them are resigned to this situation. They resent it, of course, but they know that to show their feelings will get them nowhere."

Now, contrast that to the rich and vibrant relationship the Mihara and Kasai have. Seicho Matsumoto writes in the same chapter but a few pages earlier:

"Mihara stared at him (Kasai - inclusion mine). He realized that while he was in Hokkaido invisible currents had been eddying around the chief. Yet Inspector Kasai, after all, was only one of the figures in the investigation. 'We didn't have much luck there either,' Kasai stated bluntly. 'Tatsuo Yasuda apparently visits his wife once a week. So it's more likely that he has affairs with other women. But there's no evidence of this. If he does have a mistress, he's very clever about keeping it a secret. This is merely an assumption, of course; Yasuda may be a faithful husband. They seem to be a devoted couple.' Mihara nodded. This had been his impression also when he called on Mrs. Yasuda. 'It would appear that Otoki, Sayama and Yasuda, if he does have a mistress, are all very skilled at keeping their love affairs secret.' His words struck Mihara forcibly. What had been only a slight hint suddenly becomes clear. 'Chief, has there been some new development?' He tried to suppress his excitement. 'Yes,' Chief Kasai replied. 'The section chief has become interested in this double suicide!'"

Now the questions go beyond a double murder mystery but also ask us to question our basic sociological assumptions about Japan and Japanese life. Is it a question of either/or or both/and. What is key to note in these fictional characterizations is the intense involvement into the details of Mihara's investigation by Kasai. Is the Supervisor/Subordinate relationship as Matsumoto writes about in the first quote - that meek subservience and more importantly that hands off attitude by Ishida to defer the details to Yasuda or is it more like the relationship formed by the supportive Kasai to his hard working subordinate Mihara?

Yoshi Sugimoto, in his groundbreaking work "An Introduction to Japanese Society" explores the dominance of the Public Bureaucracy and the notion of amakudari (landing from heaven). He writes:

"It is widely acknowledged that the state, particularly the government bureaucracy, holds supreme authority over private-sector companies in Japan. Throughout Japan's industrialization, the central government was the engine of economic transformation. To optimize this process the national bureaucracy has recruited talented university graduates as career officials chosen for management ability and provided with high prestige and official status. Able, dedicated, and often arrogant, these bureaucrats are believed by many to be the real power-holders in the nation. The perception is consistent with some state practices relating to the private sector. Government ministries hold power of licensing, permitting, authorizing, and approving a wide range of production, distribution, and sales activities, thereby regulating the private sector even in trivial details. Furthermore, without statutory grounding, public officials are empowered to provide relevant companies in the private sector with administrative guidance (gyosei shido) on levels of production, pricing, and quantities of imports and exports, in the name of national interests. Career bureaucrats often retire from officialdom in the late stages of their careers to take up positions in large corporations, a practice referred to as amakudarai (landing from heaven). These three conventions exemplify the power and privilege of elite bureaucrats in Japan."

The quote from Sugimoto certainly lends credence to Matsumoto's depiction of the Ishida/Sayama relationship of an arrogant, qualified candidate for amakudarai leaving Sayama to take charge of all the details of running the section. Once again, in the same chapter, it is clearly indicated that Ishida, concerned about the questioning regarding Yasuda sends yet another assistant Kitaro Sasaki to do his running. Where does that leave all that discourse between Mihara and Kasai? Is it false? Is it wishful thinking on the part of Matsumoto? It would be naïve to think that this situation or that situation exists in exclusivity. I posit that the closer observation will lend itself to a both/and rather than an either/or scenario. I don't see why both scenarios can't exist since a mutually supportive Supervisor/Subordinate model can work just as well as a traditional one. Just a small slice of Japanese sociology and very thought provoking.

Miguel Llora

I think the author is good at writing stories in both short story and the novel format. He was brilliant in Ichinenhan mattete (Wait for one and half years) and same can be seen in points and lines.

This book unlike other mystery books does not cheat you by keeping all the secrets to itself till the end. It is more like a gradual revealation. The feeling was of discovery with the author than by the author.

The book deals and magnifies minor nuances of Japanese life like hostess bars, tightly controlled train schedules, intricate politeness in formal situations. All these are brought together in this magnificient tale. It also makes this very locational as it can happen only in Japan. I sincerly thank the translator for bringing this masterpiece to life in English.

I was reading this book and missed my train stop, and things like this normally do not happen to me.

I just read Inspector Imanishi Investigates and quite enjoyed it. It's a procedural whodunnit set in Japan in the fifties. I'm intrigued by the style and dialogue, but I'm most struck by how much I want to go to Japan and see the locations described.

There were a number of twists and dead ends throughout the book, but I especially liked the final twist.

Do not expect too much when you read this story. It says in the back cover that this story belongs in the shelf with Christie's and Simenon's writings. I would be inclined to say it is not. It is more like the writing of Grisham. That does not mean it is bad (I gave it 4 stars); it means, on the other hand, that it is not a typical mystery.

When I started reading it, I thought it was a collection of short stories, and I wanted to read concurrently with the last part of the "Lord of the Rings," because it really bored me to death. And having started reading it, I realized that it was a novel, and a large one with 313 pages. I could not stop at the first chapter to go to ring bearer, so I decided to read it all over.

It is a nice introduction to the Japanese lifestyle. And other than that I would have given it 3 stars for the plot. It is a bit slow. Inspector Imanishi, is not your Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Miagret, Arsen Lupin, nor Ellery Queen; no, he is a simple guy, like me and you (more like me, because you might be a genius after all). He gets clues by mere chance, in an article in the news papers, in the talk of neighbours, in movies, ... etc.

He is in his fifties, so he is more in the Poirot's and Miagret's criterion. He is slow-minded, and needs time to get things together. He writes Haiko poetry, and likes to pour tea over his rice bowel (a thing I would never do in a million years). He likes plants, and has got a passive wife, who speaks with her husband in formal term.

The murder occurred somewhere unknown in the beginning of the story, and the body was left on the railroad of some train. Nothing is discovered in the first chapter. Inspector Imanishi had to make a number of trips to many parts in Japan (two on the expense of the police, and the rest are on his expense, which means that he is a determined cop after all).

He discovered some facts about dialects in Japan. And here I must tell you that you should be comfortable with some Japanese terms, like san means Mr., and sensie means teacher, and so on.

I read the story in 4 days, and that means that I did not find it boring, because I have spend about 3 months reading the "Lord of the Rings," and did not finish it yet.

I am sure you are not going to be bored reading this story.

When I told my mother, who is Japanese, that I had found a great Japanese mystery writer. She was shocked. Her response was "I read his books when I was young!". But we both had to agree that Matsumoto Seicho was a classic murder mystery writer. Just classic - people don't write mysteries like that anymore. He has written so many books, I wish more would be translated into English. If you are not a Japan-phile, you will enjoy this book emensely!