{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0816650268?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0816650268","authors":["Sari Kawana"],"book_id":"9780816650262","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/murder-most-modern-9780816650262","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780816650262.jpg?v=18a0f4dfd3b94f0a","description":"The quintessential international genre, detective fiction often works under the guise of popular entertainment to expose its extensive readership to complex moral questions and timely ethical dilemmas. The first book-length study of interwar Japanese detective fiction, Murder Most Modern considers the important role of detective fiction in defining the country’s emergence as a modern nation-state. Kawana explores the interactions between the popular genre and broader discourses of modernity, nation, and ethics that circulated at this pivotal moment in Japanese history. The author contrasts Japanese works by Edogawa Ranpo, Unno Juza, Oguri Mushitaro, and others with English-language works by Edgar Allan Poe, Dashiell Hammett, and Agatha Christie to show how Japanese writers of detective fiction used the genre to disseminate their ideas on some of the most startling aspects of modern life: the growth of urbanization, the protection and violation of privacy, the criminalization of abnormal sexuality, the dehumanization of scientific research, and the horrors of total war. Kawana’s comparative approach reveals how Japanese authors of the genre emphasized the vital social issues that captured the attention of thrill-seeking readers-while eluding the eyes of government censors. Sari Kawana is assistant professor of Japanese at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780816650262","publication_date":"20080328","publisher":"University of Minnesota Press","slug":"murder-most-modern","subtitle":"Detective Fiction and Japanese Culture","title":"Murder Most Modern"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"LIT008030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Japanese Literary Criticism","score":0.7962,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004230","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mystery & Crime Crit","score":0.7711,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO004030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Japanese Literary Collections","score":0.7687,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"LIT008030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Japanese Literary Criticism","score":0.7962,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004230","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mystery & Crime Crit","score":0.7711,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO004030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Japanese Literary Collections","score":0.7687,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"LIT004230","confidence_band":"high","label":"Mystery & Crime Crit","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LIT008030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Japanese Literary Criticism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Japanese Literary Criticism","score":0.7962,"slug":"japanese-literary-criticism"},{"label":"Mystery & Crime Crit","score":0.7711,"slug":"mystery-crime-crit"},{"label":"Japanese Literary Collections","score":0.7687,"slug":"japanese-literary-collections"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in detective fiction’s role in Japanese modernity","Good for readers interested in social issues in interwar Japanese fiction"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Seicho Matsumoto","Jesse Kirkwood","Amor Towles","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780593979044","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593979044.jpg?v=1a3dde4877b1d631","score":0.7539,"title":"Tokyo Express","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593979044"},{"authors":["Ellery Queen","Satoru Saito","Satoru Saitō","Yasutaka Tsutsui"],"book_id":"9784805315521","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9784805315521.jpg?v=d198c4f20e45fcf3","score":0.7442,"title":"Ellery Queen's Japanese Mystery Stories","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9784805315521"},{"authors":["P. D. James"],"book_id":"9780307743138","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307743138.jpg?v=48a182c6d2027afa","score":0.6924,"title":"Talking About Detective Fiction","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780307743138"},{"authors":["Manuel Garand"],"book_id":"9781454961796","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781454961796.jpg?v=2d5b14f00f3f1b5c","score":0.6826,"title":"Murdoku","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781454961796"},{"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"book_id":"9780679743460","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679743460.jpg?v=44d517af45b7ada8","score":0.6797,"title":"Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679743460"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Detective fiction and modernity, Privacy and urbanization, Censorship and social critique.","Reading lane: Japanese Literary Criticism and Mystery & Crime Crit.","Publisher: University of Minnesota Press."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.92,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in detective fiction’s role in Japanese modernity","Readers interested in social issues in interwar Japanese fiction"],"themes":["Detective fiction and modernity","Privacy and urbanization","Censorship and social critique"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":5,"goodreads_ratings_count":31,"goodreads_reviews_count":5,"quality_score":0.8521}}