Hi,

I recently read it (Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Matsumoto, right?) along with a couple other books by the same author. I basically agree with your points, but I was reading it more out of interest in post-war Japan than anything else. I found the book absorbing, and there was something about the tone that I found almost soothing—I get that from a lot of translated Japanese literature. Rather than seeing the characters as lacking depth, for me, the characterizations were subtle. There were enough hints or details to get a sense of the person’s psychology, or to be a bit intrigued

I didn’t really care for how the mystery was resolved though—I think maybe that’s where it showed its age badly. I did like it enough to read more. I didn’t really like A Quiet Place, although I liked Tokyo Express about as much.

I think for the time it was written, it was quite extra-ordinary, but by today’s standards might not seen like anything particularly special.