Join the HCSF Reading Group to discuss Tokyo Express By Seicho Matsumoto
In-Person Meeting
Sunday, May 3, 2026
4:30-6:00 pm Pacific
In-Person, San Francisco
Meeting location and details emailed to registrants the week of the meeting
HCSF Members: Free, but RSVP required
Non-Members: $10 Not a member? Register here for membership!
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Registration ends Friday, May 1
Tokyo Express (2022 Kirkwood translation)
aka Points and Lines (1970 Yamamoto/Blum translation)
Seicho Matsumoto 1958
Matsumoto is often called Japan's Agatha Christie, and this, his first novel, is considered his masterpiece. Amor Towles has praised the book for "the elegant spareness of the prose," but it's the book's ingeniously coiled plot that has drawn in generations of readers.
In a rocky cove at Hakata Bay, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing on the cold beach, the police see nothing to investigate: The flush of the couple’s cheeks and the empty juice bottle speak clearly of cyanide, of a lovers’ suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, the weary provincial senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun sent from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime. (Penguin)
"The story is built on the meticulous examination of data; timelines and maps, and train schedules figure prominently. Its underlying message about malignant corporate growth in the aftermath of World War II adds poignancy and raises the novel above the genre’s parameters." (Kirkus Reviews)
Questions about our meetings or how we choose our books?
Contact Kirsten Miclau
HCSF Reading Group Organizer
readinggroup@harvardclubsf.org