{"id":113611,"date":"2026-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?post_type=product&#038;p=113611"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:30:58","slug":"murder-in-the-crooked-house","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788","title":{"rendered":"Murder in the Crooked House"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery &#8220;reminiscent of Agatha Christie&#8221; from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (<i>Wall Street Journal)<\/i>!<\/b><br \/> <b> <\/b><br \/> <b>&#8220;One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.&#8221;<i> -New York Times Book Review<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p> The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion&#8217;s rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow.<\/p>\n<p> Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Crooked House sits on a snowboard cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself &#8211; a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion&#8217;s rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[406],"product_tag":[27028,26816,26896],"class_list":["post-113611","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-crime-thrillers","product_tag-classic-crime-fiction","product_tag-crime-mystery-fiction","product_tag-fiction-general-literary","pa_book_author-shimada-soji","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-895-636-edition23","pa_edition-reprint","pa_imprint-pushkin-vertigo","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8497","pa_publisher-pushkin-vertigo","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Murder in the Crooked House<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery &quot;reminiscent of Agatha Christie&quot; from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! &quot;One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.&quot; -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion&#039;s rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murder in the Crooked House\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery &quot;reminiscent of Agatha Christie&quot; from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! &quot;One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.&quot; -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion&#039;s rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archway Bookshop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-logo_512-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Archwaybookshop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/\",\"name\":\"Murder in the Crooked House\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery \\\"reminiscent of Agatha Christie\\\" from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! \\\"One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.\\\" -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion's rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buy Books\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/buy-books\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Crime &amp; Thrillers\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/product-category\/crime-thrillers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Murder in the Crooked House\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Archway Bookshop\",\"description\":\"Axminster&#039;s Beautiful Bookshop\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Archway Bookshop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png\",\"width\":454,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"Archway Bookshop\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Archwaybookshop\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/archwaybookshop\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Murder in the Crooked House","description":"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery \"reminiscent of Agatha Christie\" from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! \"One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.\" -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion's rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Murder in the Crooked House","og_description":"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery \"reminiscent of Agatha Christie\" from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! \"One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.\" -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion's rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/","og_site_name":"Archway Bookshop","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-logo_512-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Archwaybookshop","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/","name":"Murder in the Crooked House","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-07-07T00:00:00+00:00","description":"A delightfully comic Japanese murder mystery \"reminiscent of Agatha Christie\" from a master of the genre-now available for the first time in English (Wall Street Journal)! \"One of those locked-room head-bangers that invite . . . the reader to decipher the clues and solve a murder along with an all-seeing detective.\" -New York Times Book Review The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself-a disorienting maze of sloping floors and strangely situated staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny, lifesize dolls. When a man is found dead in one of the mansion's rooms, murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and powerless to protect the party of house guests as more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth, famous for unmasking the culprit behind the notorious Umezawa family massacre. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders he will. But you have all the clues too-can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/product\/9781805335788\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buy Books","item":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/buy-books\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Crime &amp; Thrillers","item":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/product-category\/crime-thrillers\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Murder in the Crooked House"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/","name":"Archway Bookshop","description":"Axminster&#039;s Beautiful Bookshop","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#organization","name":"Archway Bookshop","url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cropped-cropped-logo_512-1.png","width":454,"height":368,"caption":"Archway Bookshop"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchwayBookshop\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Archwaybookshop","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/archwaybookshop\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/113611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=113611"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=113611"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.archwaybookshop.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=113611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}