Murder mystery set at the foot of MOUNT FUJI

14th April 2025

Murder at Mt. Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki, murder mystery set at the foot of Mount Fuji.

TR: Robert B Rohmer

This is a beautifully presented novel, with quality French flaps and a very eye-catching cover. But you would really have to look hard to find any mention of the translator, whose name appears in tiny print on the copyright page. It is a translation very much of its era (first published in the 1980s), so perhaps an updated version for re-issue of this “Japanese Classic” would resonate more with today’s readers. As it stands, some of the turns of phrase feel a little stilted and wooden.

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Jane Prescott has been studying in Tokyo and in order to make ends meet, she has been tutoring Chiyo Wada, a young woman from a wealthy family. She now has a New Year’s invitation to stay with the wider Wada family in their country house in the Asahi Hills, where almost all the homes in the area have been built “facing the southwest because that is where Mt. Fuji is”.

Nine people are assembled in a beautiful villa and one will soon be dead.

Having settled in, she meets Chiyo’s creepy youngest grand-uncle, Shigeru, (a dead ringer for David Niven, apparently – a comparison that firmly places the book in its era). Without a by your leave, he shares with her that all the male family members are lechers, so she would be wise to keep her counsel. Not a flicker of response from Jane upon receiving this unnerving information. By this point I was wondering if this book was for me….

Anyway, Chiyo comes down at the end of the evening, having killed someone. She is covered in blood and she is immediately dispatched, away from the crime scene, and the rest of the party laboriously goes through their paces to organise a ‘mise en scène‘, ready for when the police arrive.

This is generally a plodding narrative, with underdeveloped characters, a story that perhaps feels a little archaic for the current Zeitgeist. I struggled to engage with the novel.

Tina for the Tripfiction Team

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