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  • Published: 11 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241688748
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $36.99

Twilight in Musashino




From the best-selling author of Tokyo Express, a chilling tale where Japanese tradition and Western crime collide – now available in English for the first time

Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play – but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence.

At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman’s connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy.

As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seicho Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted.

  • Published: 11 August 2026
  • ISBN: 9780241688748
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $36.99

About the author

Seicho Matsumoto

Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was one of Japan's most acclaimed and popular writers. Self-educated, he published his first novel when he was forty years old and his books, including Tokyo Express, Inspector Imanishi Investigates and The Little Black Book, became huge bestsellers that were made into movies and TV series. He pioneered the social school of detective fiction, exploring human psychology and Japanese post-war malaise through twisting, dark mysteries. He received the prestigious Akutagawa Literary Prize in 1950 and there is now a prize in Japan in his honour.

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Praise for Twilight in Musashino

Seicho Matsumoto's books are packed with lean prose and twists yet they’re also educational. If you want to understand Japan, Matsumoto is a disquieting place to start

Telegraph