A Game of Cat and Killer by Jiro Akagawa [Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell]
Publisher: Quercus Books
Release date: 24 September 2026
Back cover blurb: Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and . . . women. When a young female student is found murdered, he's given two choices - review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women's College to investigate - and reluctantly opts for the latter. But the murders don't stop, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned her owner falls victim. Surely that's the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own . . . Introducing one the most iconic investigative duos in crime fiction - a hapless detective and his capable cat - A Game of Cat and Killer is a must for all readers of Japanese cat fiction and classic crime.
Release date: 24 September 2026
Back cover blurb: Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and . . . women. When a young female student is found murdered, he's given two choices - review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women's College to investigate - and reluctantly opts for the latter. But the murders don't stop, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned her owner falls victim. Surely that's the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own . . . Introducing one the most iconic investigative duos in crime fiction - a hapless detective and his capable cat - A Game of Cat and Killer is a must for all readers of Japanese cat fiction and classic crime.
A Game of Cat and Killer is the first in Jiro Akagawa’s long-running Mikeneko Holmes series, originally published in Japan in 1978 and now translated into English by Haydn Trowell.
Detective Yoshitaro Katayama, a rather unlikely Police Detective who has followed in his late Father’s footsteps is our lead protagonist.
Unlikely because it probably wouldn’t have been his own choice of career. Particularly as he is scared of heights, and rather inconveniently for a detective, blood.
He is also extremely nervous of the opposite sex.
Unfortunate when he is about be the lead detective on a murder investigation at a women only college!
When a student at Hagoromo Women’s College is murdered, Katayama is sent to investigate. Before long the College Dean is also dead, apparently murdered in a room that has been locked from the inside.
A locked room murder mystery if you will...
The Dean leaves behind his faithful companion, Mikeneko (calico) cat, Holmes, who attaches herself to Katayama and helpfully lends a paw to Detective proceedings.
What follows is a complex set of murders that need urgently solving. Is there an intellectual serial killer on the loose, or is the truth closer to home?
I really enjoyed this book and look forward to hopefully reading more in the series.
A Game of Cat and Killer is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.
Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.