The whole case has left a bad taste in my mouth. Sitting here at home, completely relaxed, a glass of cold beer at my elbow, I don't have the satisfaction I generally feel when a case is solved and the criminal has been turned over to the Public Prosecutor. This is a very long letter; I trust you were not bored. I expect to take my vacation this autumn and, at your kind suggestion, my wife and I will visit you in Kyushu.
With best wishes,
Kiichi Mihara
Seichō Matsumoto
Seichō Matsumoto was born in 1909 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu. Now Japan's foremost master of mystery, Matsumoto was forty years old before he launched his literary career. His first work appeared in the influential Weekly Asahi in 1950. Two years later, he received the coveted Akutagawa Literary Prize for his Aru kokura nikki den. He also received the Japan Detective Story Writers' Prize for his short story Kao (The Face). Ten to sen, the Japanese version of Points and Lines, became a best seller and created a Matsumoto boom. Several of his short stories have been translated into English. A prolific writer, his work includes novels and essays, as well as detective stories.
