Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan's most famous and best-loved mystery writers. He was born in Kobe and spent his childhood reading detective stories, before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan. The Honjin Murders, The Inugami Curse, The Village of Eight Graves, The Devil's Flute Murders, The Little Sparrow Murders, Death on Gokumon Island and Murder at the Black Cat Cafe are also available from Pushkin Vertigo.Jesse Kirkwood is a literary translator working from Japanese into English. The recipient of the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize, his translations include The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto and The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi (available from Pushkin Vertigo).