Asai is on a business trip to Kobe when he discovers his wife has died of a heart attack in Tokyo. But when he returns home he discovers her body was found in a shady part of town – what was she doing so far away from their house? As he begins to investigate, he finds out his wife has been leading a secret double life…
The premise of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel A Quiet Place has a lot of potential but none of it is realised. The “mystery” is unremarkable and unravels at a tediously slow pace with nothing interesting happening along the way. All of the characters are boring people, especially the protagonist unfortunately, and Matsumoto’s prose is flat and doesn’t muster up any tension.
The final act is rushed and horribly contrived. Out of nowhere, Asai does something rash and out of character that tries to give the book an unearned crescendo that instead ends up baffling. Following that is the forced introduction of two characters in an attempt to create an unconvincing dramatic finale but only underscores the feeble narrative.
I’m not really sure what the point of the book was. There isn’t really a message here – something about class differences keeps being brought up; how the privileged get put on the fast track through the civil service while the poor, like Asai, have to struggle to get anywhere. Uh huh – and? If the point was entertainment then it failed completely.
A Quiet Place is a dreary wannabe mystery thriller that’ll only put you to sleep. I recommend watching paint dry instead – it’s more mentally stimulating!
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