The Black Swan Mystery

About

A body is found on a train, the alibi appears airtight, and the investigation turns on the precise mechanics of 1960s Japanese railway timetables. Ayukawa's prize-winning mystery is a classic puzzle plot — fair-play clues, devious misdirection, and a solution that rewards readers who pay attention to departure times as carefully as the detective does. For fans of golden age whodunits, this is the real thing: a mystery where the pleasure is intellectual, the construction is meticulous, and the twist is genuinely surprising without cheating. Ayukawa treats the railway system as both setting and instrument of murder, with the precision of an engineer and the imagination of a conjurer. A locked-timetable mystery that proves the most satisfying puzzles are the ones with all the pieces in plain sight.