Tetsuya Honda's series about Lieutenant Reiko Himekawa of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Homicide Division are best sellers in Japan. THE SILENT DEAD is the first to be translated and introduced to a Western audience. Himekawa oversees a squad of officers investigating a body wrapped in plastic found near the edge of a park. Himekawa's intelligence enables her to determine that the body is one of many which makes the mystery even more complicated.

I may have read Japanese mystery stories in the past, but I don't remember anything that has immersed me in a Tokyo police department and shown me the multitude of differences in how procedures differ.

At 29, Reiko is relatively young for her position, and some of her colleagues resent her rise. She is also unmarried much to the consternation of her family and more than one of her officers have crushes on her which make her relationships challenging but also more in-depth. The characters themselves have nice complexity, a perfect balance of bad and good that demonstrates human frailty. It would be seen as sexual harassment in the U.S. but seems to be expected practice in this varied culture. She banks most on her instincts, ambition and a defiant attitude to danger. Allusions are made to past events that may have influenced this behavior. Honda uses flash backs to expose her back story.

Solving the grisly murders—all of the bodies have been mutilated by torture--take Himekawa and her team into dark Tokyo and the horrors of a killing cult called Strawberry Night. Honda moves the plot forward quickly and efficiently, giving us details to help us envision Tokyo as well as some of its grim underpinnings.

There are many differences besides the way women are treated in the police, and while bribes and bullying likely take place in other departments, it seems to be business as usual for this Tokyo department. I found it fascinating to learn the ins and outs of a Japanese Homicide squad, much as I enjoy learning the differences of police forces in Britain and other European countries. I am so programmed for the "heroine winning out in the end," that is the traditional finale for Western crime fiction that the more cathartic finish of this tale took me a while to process. I enjoyed the twists and turns of THE SILENT DEAD as much as the learning and hope the rest of the series will eventually hit the American market.