The Master Key is a fascinating read that defies easy categorization. The cover of this Pushkin Vertigo reissue features a quote from a review in The Times that describes it as an ‘atmospheric Japanese Thriller’ yet while it has suspenseful moments, I think that gives a slightly inaccurate impression of what the book will be like.

Instead I think the book is best described as a series of puzzles and revelations that the reader slowly pieces together to form a clear impression of what has happened. Events are told out of order and often seem to be unconnected yet Togawa works them together in the most extraordinary way in the closing chapter and epilogue to make sense of them all.

The book is also somewhat unsettling, dealing as it does with the secret burial of a child and the sense of intrusion into our private spaces both physical and emotional. While there are few instances of violence explicitly shown, the reader is at times experiencing intrusions from the perspective of the person whose space is being violated and at others from the perspective of the voyeur. And, as we read, we come to see that the boundaries between those situations are less clear than they initially seem.

Togawa’s story is set in an apartment building inhabited exclusively by single women. At the start of the novel we are told that the building is about to be relocated a small distance to enable the road to be widened. The residents have been told that this can be achieved without their even needing to leave the building and that if they were to place a glass of water on a shelf during the move it would not spill.

As residents retreat into their rooms preparing to carry out this experiment at least one person within the building is aware that a secret will be unearthed when the foundations are exposed. We also learn that there is a nervous energy building among the residents as a master key that can unlock every door in the building had been stolen several months before, leading residents to feel uneasy in their own homes and that, at any moment, their secrets may be revealed. This is a truly unsettling idea that plays off our wish to believe that a locked door is a permanent barrier and it is incredibly effective.

From this starting point Togawa weaves a complex and often unsettling web of stories that overlap and inform each other. We learn a lot about the various inhabitants and the ways they have been disappointed in life as well as some of the cruelties and crimes they have committed. We are left to question, at points, who has taken the master key, what secret they are trying to reveal and why. Sometimes the answers to these questions are less clear than they seem.

Her characters are each well constructed and given the number we meet I was very impressed by how complex they were. Although the novel is quite short, I was surprised at just how developed they each were. Learning these women’s stories and seeing how they will all fit together was really satisfying.

I found this a really remarkable work and devoured it quickly. This was the first novel I have read by Masako Togawa and I was really impressed both by the depth of characterization as well as the sense of unease she builds in this world. At times I was left curious how some elements could be fully resolved, making the ending all the more striking and powerful. I hope more of Togawa’s work becomes available in translation soon.

The book started off very well. It was intriguing and pique your interest immediately. You are enthralled by the mystery of the lone woman who waited for 7 years for her companion. And this introduction was a perfect setting for the mysteries and secrets of the residents of the K Apartment .it was a strange story, but the characters were very interesting, with double identities that was very well hidden. There is a great ambience of regret and loneliness that touches your heart. I’ve greatly enjoyed reading this book. It’s easy and pleasant to read. I would recommend it to my friends.

This was a strange, surprising delight. It's set in a Japanese apartment complex/boarding house for unmarried women. The entire building is going to be picked up and moved to make way for a new road – the residents are assured that they will barely notice it moving, so much so that they could put a glass of water on the table and it won't spill. The fact that just about all of them DO put a glass of water on the table and then stare it it shows you how deeply unexciting their lives are. However, there is a dead child buried beneath the building, and soon all will be revealed.

My favourite part of this book was the characters – they're so brilliantly drawn, and so strange. Each has her own history and quirks, all of which come to light after the theft of a master key which unlocks any apartment door. One woman, a professor, obsessively copies out her late husband's research papers, even though they're gibberish. A hoarder digs through the kitchen bins to steal fish heads to stave off the calcium deficiency she falsely believes she has. A failed violinist tells a child that her paralysed middle finger is caused by witchcraft. As the women's stories unfold, the sense of loneliness, regret and claustrophobia builds. Also, Simon Grove's translation is great – the prose flows beautifully, and I was hooked from the start.

If you're used to a more immediate, formulaic crime novel then this might feel strange initially, but if you're looking for a more offbeat mystery then I'd recommend this.

Well, this debut novel proves itself to be a dark and thoroughly clever read, but is too complex and unusual for its own good at times. A woman gets fatally run over on a road crossing in early 1950s Japan – except she doesn't. Meanwhile, a stolen child, a stolen violin, stolen futures – all are hidden behind the doors of a woman-only apartment complex by the title item. The core story is a fine one, but it is buried in so much that is peculiar – even a weirdly successful and prescient cult, of all things – that you cannot possibly see the wood for the trees. Switches in style, and unsuccessful jumps in time and narrator, only add to the early confusion, which may well make some people drift off, unconvinced there is a fine resolution to it all to be eventually had.

This novel was first published in 1962 and is one of the new Pushkin Vertigo re-issues, which re-print international crime classics. “The Master Key,” is set in an apartment block for single women, called ‘The K Apartments,’ in 1951. The whole building is about to be lifted, and moved four metres, in order to enable the widening of the room. This dark, unusual story, is built around this event and goes backwards in time, introducing us to all of the characters and the possibility that the builders will unearth the many secrets of the apartment inhabitants.

Secrets, there certainly are. From the burial of a child’s body (this occurs virtually in the first scene, so isn’t a spoiler), a popular religious cult, a woman who hordes rubbish and lives within a cupboard, the lonely, lost and dysfunctional. All of these women, now mostly elderly and retired, who endeavour to fill their days; while within the building the pass key – the master key which opens all of the apartments – is lost and means that nobody is truly safe from prying eyes. This really is a very creepy read. I really do enjoy the Pushkin Vertigo series and have discovered some very unusual authors through this imprint. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.