Murder in the House of Omari, Taku Ashibe
Murder in the House of Omari, Taku Ashibe
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Murder in the House of Omari

Author: Taku Ashibe, Bryan Karetnyk

Narrator: David Shih

Unabridged: 10 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/29/2025


Synopsis

Use your powers of logic and deduction to solve this classic honkaku puzzler—the Japanese tradition of detective fiction—in this delicious twisty murder mystery!

In Osaka, dark secrets haunt a wealthy merchant family throughout the first half of the twentieth century . . .

In 1906, the young heir to the Omari family business climbs to the top of a Panorama and vanishes.

In 1914, a fight between two mysterious figures on a bridge tragically ends with one falling to their death.

In 1943, as war rages on, the once illustrious family has fallen. Both potential heirs have been drafted into war, and a string of strange and violent happenings has beset the house of Omari.

Combining the classic honkaku mystery and Golden Age crime writing with the trappings of historical fiction, it's easy to see why Murder in the House of Ōmari is an award-winning sensation in Japan! Set in Semba (modern-day Osaka), this gripping murder mystery twists and turns with dark secrets, red herrings, and the turbulent history of Japan in the early twentieth century.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Carolyn on March 25, 2025

Prawdopodobnie jedno z najbardziej irytujących możliwych zakończeń kryminału, w ogóle czasem można było zapomnieć, że jest tam jakaś zagadka do rozwiązania, ale chyba przez to żywię cieplejsze uczucia do tej książki - dużo wyniosłam o życiu w Osace/Sembie podczas wojny i kupieckich zwyczajach, a win......more

Goodreads review by Andy on July 22, 2025

This is an entertaining classic Japanese ‘locked-room’ (or ‘closed garden’) murder mystery with a bit more to it, and it’s the journey, rather than the destination, when the book is at its best. Essentially it is a multigenerational saga set in Osaka with the large part of happening towards the end......more

Goodreads review by India (IndiaReadsALot) on April 12, 2025

This book is not helping my 2025 reading is an underwhelming viewpoint! Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book. 2.5 stars I enjoyed the family dynamics and the discussions on how the Second World War affected ordinary Japanese residents. But the pacing was super slow, the author o......more

Goodreads review by Life on May 01, 2025

Big fan of this one, I think it's great to more Ashibe in English, especially as Murder in the Red Chamber was really cool. If I had to describe this novel in one sentence, it'd be Ashibe's take on The Greene Murder Case. Not that the solutions are the same, or even similar, but the way that the holo......more

Goodreads review by Michael on July 24, 2025

i thought this book was good, not great. i love thrillers and detective stories, and although there were not many thrills, the suspense kept me reading on to see what happened to the Omari family. i did feel things dragged on quite a bit, and there were maybe too many characters to keep track of for......more