Seicho Matsumoto: Seicho Matsumoto (1909–1992) did not see his first book published until he was in his forties. He was a prolific author, producing in four decades more than 450 works. He is considered Japan's most accomplished writer of mystery and detective fiction.
Matsumoto’s first full-length detective fiction, Ten to sen ('Points and Lines'), after running as a newspaper serial from 1957 to 1958, was a big hit as a book in 1958, selling over a million and a quarter copies. In 1961, Suna do utsuwa ('Vessel of Sand', 1961, published in English as Inspector Imanishi Investigates, 1989) sold four and a half million copies and became a movie box-office hit. 'A Quiet Place' was originally published in Japan in 1971 as Kikanakatta basho. This is the first time it has been translated into English. It was written about half way through Matsumoto’s writing life.
Louise Heal Kawai: Louise Heal Kawai comes from Manchester. She has spent the past twenty years in Nagoya, Japan, as a translator and teacher. Her published translations include Daido Tamaki’s Milk, Tendo Shoko’s best-selling autobiography Yakuza Moon; and most recently Building Waves, a novel by Tomioka Taeko.
