The master key by Masako Togawa.
In postwar Tokyo, the K Apartment House for ladies is about to be moved intact in a highly publicized engineering feat. Then, flashback seven years to one of its occupants and her confederate--a man dressed in woman's clothes--as they bury a child's body in an unused communal bath beneath the building. A second flashback tells of the kidnapping of four-year-old George Kraft, son of an American army officer and his Japanese wife. The stage is set. The actors are a few of the present-day occupants of the K apartments--single, lovely, obsessed, neurotic--each life a novel in itself, told in a spare, unembellished style that never lapses into the sentimental. Manipulated by hidden strings, their actions and reactions lead to suicide, murder, and some final surprising revelations.
This surprised me. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was different. Unique. 4*.

Thank you to the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I’d rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Such a clever tale! Weaving seamlessly from one narrator to another, each one connected to the other in ways they can't understand.

A sad book too, as so many of its inhabitants live such lonely lives, lives they no longer know how to take pleasure in.

It was more than just a clever reading of words. It was a lesson in growing old, in gossip, secrets, and solitude. It had an air of suspense, making the reader feel like one of the most,neighbors, straining to hear a bit of gossip.

This mystery kicks off with news of a kidnapped child and takes the reader into an apartment complex only for women in Japan. Two receptionists man he front desk and take notice of the comings and goings of the occupants. On top of that the whole building is being moved and once this happens a big secret is revealed, the body of a child buried underneath. As this mystery is uncovered it is clear that there are more secrets locked away in each apartment all linking the residents. While I did have a bit of confusion at certain parts in the narrative this was definitely a compelling puzzle I was working to solve and found it had a very clever resolution. Would love to read more by this author.

*Possible spoiler*

Thanks to Pushkin Press and Netgalley for this one. I love books set in cultures that are different than mine, and this one didn't disappoint. Although I had a little trouble keeping the characters straight, I loved getting a peek into their lives. It didn't dawn on me until a few days later that the building never actually got moved (in the story). I had no idea that it was going to end how it did. Total surprise.

It’s such a lovely feeling to finish a mystery novel after the realization that the author not only fooled me once about what really happened in the book, but twice! Masako Togawa’s The Master Key, translated by Simon Grove, is a terrific and unusual mystery set in the K Apartments for Ladies, in Tokyo, in the late 1950s. The usual part of the novel is that it follows the travels of the apartment’s master key around the building as it is stolen and returned by various inhabitants. As the key changes hands, we enter the perspectives of those woman who take it upon themselves to spy on each other and investigate each other’s crimes.

The first crime to take place at the K Apartments is the death and burial of a child underneath the building. One of the people responsible becomes a recluse, while the other is killed in a car accident. Then, years later, we are given three clues about what might have happened through a series of short chapters in which we also learn a lot about the women of the Apartments. I’m trying not to reveal too much about The Master Key, because the plots are so much fun to read and take apart one’s self.

There were times when I go so interested in the other women in the Apartments that I lost sight of the original crime. By the time this short book is over, we learn about a kidnapping, a stolen Guarneri violin, an arson, a cult, and more murder-y shenanigans. For a building full of middle-aged and elderly women of limited means, they sure get up to a lot. Of course, they all have a lot of time on their hands. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that a five floor building of single women would contain so many secrets.

The Master Key is another novel rescued from obscurity (at least obscure to English speakers, I don’t know how popular this book was in Japan) by Pushkin Vertigo. It was originally published in the early 1960s. I’m so glad they’ve rereleased it. It’s complex, brilliant, and very, very sly. I enjoyed every page.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

First published in Japan in 1962; published in translation in 1985; published by Pushkin Vertigo on March 27, 2018

The first chapter of The Master Key establishes a central mystery. The novel then tells a series of interlocking stories about apartment building residents, revolving around nosy neighbors and the secrets they uncover about other residents. The plot is intriguing and suitably mysterious, but the characters (aging women who are driven by loneliness to spy on each other) make this novel special.

The story begins when a man dressed as a woman, wearing a red scarf on a snowy day, is killed in a traffic accident. The woman who was awaiting his return continued to wait. That story dovetails with the kidnapping of a four-year-old child and the burial of a small corpse in the basement of an apartment building.

But before any explanation begins to emerge, the novel introduces some of the residents who occupy the 150 apartments in the ladies’ apartment building where almost all of the story take place. One of those residents has spent years preparing a manuscript of her husband’s academic writings — a manuscript that contains surprising content discovered by a nosey receptionist. Another resident sneaks about at night in search of the heads and bones of fish.

Playing a central role is an elderly violin teacher and the story of a violin that was stolen in 1933. One of the saddest stories involves a former teacher who finds a sense of purpose by writing to each of her former students, giving her an opportunity to reflect on the educational reforms and social changes that followed Japan’s defeat in World War II. The reply she receives from a former student whose son was kidnapped years earlier causes the retired teacher to embark on an investigation of her own, one that involves another retired teacher who lives in the same building.

By stealing the master key to all the rooms, Noriko Tamura learns the secrets of some of the building’s residents. And by stealing it again, Yoneko Kimura learns more secrets. But a priest from the spiritualist Three Spirit Faith sect purports to discover even more secrets (not to mention healing persons and property) through séances that become increasingly popular with the residents.

A wrap-up chapter at the end provides a solution to most of the novel’s mysteries. It ties together the various storylines, leaving no loose ends. The cleverness of the plot construction can’t be fully appreciated until that chapter unlocks nearly all the puzzles — except for the final mystery, which awaits resolution in an epilogue. Suffice it to say that events that seem to be improbable coincidences while the story unfolds are neither improbable nor coincidental by the novel’s end.

As much as I enjoyed the plot, the novel’s real pleasure is the window it offers into the lives of aging women in Japan after World War II. They are nearly prisoners in an apartment building that prides itself on maintaining high moral standards. Many of the central characters rarely leave their rooms; most of those are suffering from what would now be recognized as severe depression. Their nosiness drives the story, but it also creates sympathy for characters who are bored and lonely and wasting away in a society where they are not valued. The novel’s insights into the role of women in post-war Japan adds meaning to the story, making The Master Key more compelling than an ordinary mystery.

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In a word: Masterful! The way the puzzle pieces fit together left my head spinning. The residents of an apartment building for unmarried women are getting ready for a big move. The whole building, in fact, is being lifted, rolled and relocated so that a road can be widened. Once this happens, a big secret will be revealed: a child, buried under the building. But this is not the only skeleton in these ladies’ closets, and all will come to light in a chain reaction caused by petty jealousy and aided by a master key. Such a key gives its bearer access to all the apartments and all the secrets hidden within. The misdemeanors quickly turn to crimes. Each chapter revealing a different story that ties to another. A mysterious and cult-like religious organization may be linked to everything. I was pretty engrossed throughout the novel, but the epilogue was so unexpected and perfect, that it left me speechless. If I could give this book a standing ovation, I would. This is a masterpiece.

There's an off putting sense of distance and flatness here - which doesn't lead to a whole lot of anything until the last like 20 pages, which is too long to indulge in this kind of nonsense.

I am always looking for authors who use the familiar structure of the mystery genre as inspiration for a new approach to the classic crime story. Sometimes that translates to a shift in tone or style, while other times a decidedly antiheroic protagonist is given center stage. (In their inverted mysteries where a scheming, unlikable murderer is the narrator, Anthony Berkeley and Richard Hull excelled at this darkly comic, flipped perspective.) With The Master Key, Japanese author Masako Togawa delivers an ensemble story with a unique setting and several mysteries intertwined, and one where the traditional genre-defining detective is nowhere to be found.
The intrigue takes place in the K Apartments for Ladies, an all-women building that workers are readying to move to a new foundation, in compliance with city planning. The residents, for their part, remain in their rooms staring at glasses of water, as the contractors have assured everyone that the transition will be so placid that not even a drop of liquid would be spilled (!). While the move itself may be seamless, at least two women are preoccupied not with water glasses but with what might be uncovered under the basement cement once the work begins.

The story is told episodically and out of chronological sequence, and at the start of the novel we are given glimpses of both the secretive hiding of something sinister into the ground and the accidental, almost fated death of a man in women's clothes at a crossroads. We then get introduced to some of the residents, and as their tales begin to unfold, the strengths of Masako Togawa as a storyteller interested in delivering objective, quirky characterizations become clear.

Suwa Yatabe, a former prodigal violinist who now pushes through her days teaching indifferent children the rudiments of musicianship, finds that an unknown person seems to be intent on bringing a shameful past incident – specifically, the accusation that she stole a priceless violin from her mentor decades ago – back into the present. Another woman, retired schoolteacher Yoneko Kimura, becomes obsessed with proving that a neighbor was involved with the kidnapping of an ex-pupil's child. There are other characters too, well defined and off-kilter, including an eccentric who stalks the building in search of discarded fish bones for a stew she believes to be therapeutic, and a religious zealot who brings a questionable guru into the apartments, determined to use the man's brand of mysticism to force new light on dark subjects involving the tenants.

The separate stories are engrossing, and the shifting focus from one character to another as one story gives way to another is successful. I was consistently reminded of the same style of observational distancing that is a hallmark of Japanese poetry and prose. The author never judges or moralizes when presenting her characters, but at the same time we are allowed to see and understand each woman's emotions, motivations, and personal beliefs through simply stated writing. For most of this relatively brief book, the characters, their plights, and their fears or suspicions were more than enough to stay engaged.

It is only in The Master Key's ending, when Masako delivers her version of the detective dénouement where everything is explained away by yet another character, where the story falters. Two reasons for this: ironically, it's not a novel that really needs an extra twist where the reader realizes that more has been happening than the busy events which have been presented; and choosing to give a heretofore incidental or off-stage character the responsibility of explaining all of the points makes the "resolution" feel superficial and rushed. I know this twist and this section is supposed to satisfy, but instead it reads like outline notes rather than an organic new layer to the intriguing events that have come before.

The Master Key was brought to my attention on the review site Netgalley, where Pushkin Vertigo Press is launching a reprint of this 55-year old novel. I received a reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I'm glad to have read it, and the book is worth a look for fans of international mysteries and unconventional crime fiction.

Where do I even start? Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

An amazing book! I was caught up with the characters and the puzzle. I thought I had it all figured out and then there was a twist and then another! And what a great twist! Totally believable. I'm still puzzling over it and reliving it. Really wonderful! Just need a friend to read it so we can talk it over. Great book group book.

Excellent under rated Japanese noir. Really outstanding psychological thriller. A

A very well-crafted and quirky mystery novel which hooked me from the very beginning. I really enjoyed how the different stories of each character all came together in the end and the mystery kept being unveiled until the very last page. All the characters were so unique and well-rounded and the story of each individual was also compelling on its own. It was definitely refreshing, a mystery very unlike the usual ones and definitely one which deserves everyone's attention.

It took some time to get used to the going backwards in Time part. Lots of mysteries and interesting parts. A bit of a creepy read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this re-issue of Masako Togawa's 1962 novel, The Master Key. While this novel certainly falls into the mystery genre in the absolute sense (crimes are committed and solved), there is more nuance with this one, and someone looking for a rocket-fast pace might be disappointed. However, the appeal of this book, I believe, would fall beyond the deep, but narrow well of mystery fans. This book is a slow burn and the story passes the baton of focus around among the residents of the K Apartments, that house unmarried women. There are elements of Kanae Minato's Confessions; Agatha Christie; and John LeCarre's early novels to this. A fun and enjoyable read with delightful surprises.

Firstly thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with the opportunity to read an advance copy of this publication. I really wanted ot enjoy this book, but I'm afraid it was all just a little bit too tame for me. I perserved, but in honesty that was out of obligation to finish it on account of being given access to advance read it. although not really my cup of tea, I don't doubt that it is well written, tells a decent story and will be of liking to plenty others

"The whole of human life is contained in books" and that's especially true of The Master Key, by Togawa Masako. It's a cross-section of the lives inhabiting a ladies-only apartment building, more like a series of interconnected stories than a novel.

"At the age of twenty-five, instead of marrying a young man, she settled down as receptionist manageress of an apartment block full of young women. Day in and day out she sat at the front desk, dreaming her dreams, and determined to better herself. She would watch the young ladies of her own age going out to their work, and she would secretly read and read — several books a day, sometimes, keeping them hidden on her knee under the desk. Well, the whole of human life is contained in books. Love, desire, success and failure, death and grief... they're all there, in the world of books.

"So she went on sitting at that desk, and her straight little back gradually began to bend a bit, but still she went on reading books and fed and nourished her mind in that way. And one day, before she had time to notice what had happened, she woke up to find that she was forty years old. Suddenly the shadow of tragedy passed over her at that moment — she didn't know why it was so, but she felt it, and that's what matters."

This is a quiet book of small and forgotten mysteries, the secrets of women's pasts.

The Master Key was originally published in Japan in 1962, and it has justly survived as a classic, to be reissued by Pushkin Press. Apart from a very few details (like the very fact of a ladies-only apartment building), it remains timeless and universal.

This is not a conventional mystery, with a detective investigating a clear criminal situation, and it may not be for everyone. You will not get a linear narrative and complete resolution. But there is an unsolved kidnapping, a stolen violin, a hoarder, a cross-dresser, a cult, a séance, and a missing master key. And a prowling cat.

As engineers prepare to shift the building about four metres along rails to make way for a widened road, the foundations are laid bare and the building's secretes begin to come to light. More a character study of a building's inhabitants than action-driven, The Master Key is smart and elegant and demure like its residents.

I tried to read this book several but I couldn't get past the dead child in the bag. I believe people get the entertainment they deserve, and I didn't feel like I deserved this image in my mind. I am fan of noir, and saw this author mentioned on a TV show about noir writing so I was looking forward to reading a new genre of noir.

The K Apartments are a tower of residences reserved for single women. The young ladies in residence since the war, and the staff, have now grown to become old maids.

The book's opening recounts a car accident in which someone is killed outside the K Apartments. Surprisingly the victim, dressed as a woman, turns out to be a man. What was a man doing in the K Apartments dressed as a woman?

Togawa twists this initial mystery as he introduces us to a series of unhappy women who were involved in this scandal and its aftermath. Resentments and jealousies between them lead to acts which compound the scandal, all of it set against a backdrop of an impending construction project that may reveal the grim secret of the K Apartments.

This is an unusual crime story. There is no central investigator character and the plot gets developed through the agency of several characters who gradually learn more about what is going on. For most of the book I felt that this was pretty mundane, but Togawa pulled off some plot twists towards the end that totally reversed my opinion. I'm definitely going to seek out more of his work.

This book is being released in a new series of international crime novels from Pushkin Vertigo. I've read this one and Emma Viskic's "Resurrection Bay" and both were very good, so it looks like this imprint is worth keeping an eye out for.