My Grandfather, the Master Detective

The heartwarming, award-winning Japanese sensation, My Grandfather, the Master Detective is an affectionate, cosy whodunit – and a story of living your days to the fullest. Perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

There used to be a cafe called Mon Cheri at Nishi Waseda where members of the Waseda Mystery Club spent day after day frothing in excitement over the latest mystery novels, and now he and Kaede solve mysteries together . . .

As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s perhaps no surprise that twenty-seven-year-old schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday mysteries more often than your average person. Solving them is another matter, though, and the person she always heads to for guidance is her beloved grandfather – who, despite having dementia, retains a keen sharpness of mind.

From impossible locked-room murders to confounding missing person cases, the granddaughter and grandfather team ‘weave stories’ in master-and-apprentice fashion. Together, they get to the bottom of case after case. But, all the while, a shadow slowly closes in on Kaede, posing a more insidious threat . . .

Filled with charming characters and steeped in references to classic crime – from Christie to Chesterton to Poe – My Grandfather, the Master Detective is a touching, charming mystery by Masateru Konishi. Translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, winner of the Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Traslation Prize 2025.

Review

The author nails the ending -- Nozomi Ohmori, Judge of the 'This Mystery is Amazing!' Prize

Sure to please the mystery buff in us all, with nods to classic mysteries. A variation of Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme. -- Fumiro Kayama, Judge of the 'This Mystery is Amazing!' Prize

The characters are appealing. Their conversations sparkle! . . . Masateru Konishi will write appealing stories for years to come . . . -- Asayo Takii, Judge of the 'This Mystery is Amazing!' Prize

About the Author

Masateru Konishi graduated from the Department of English and American Literature at Meiji University, and now works as a writer for TV and radio. He has previously written for the stage as well as a manga story, but My Grandfather, the Master Detective is his debut novel. Partly based on his own experience of caring for his father with dementia, the book won the 21st edition of the prestigious ‘This Mystery is Amazing!’ Grand Prize.

Louise Heal Kawai has been a Japanese-English literary translator since 2006. Her first publication was Shoko Tendo’s bestselling autobiography Yakuza Moon. She has gone on to translate a large number of crime fiction titles, including Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders, and works by Soji Shimada and Seicho Matsumoto. Her literary translations include Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, and Hideo Yokoyama’s Seventeen, which was a finalist in the 2018 Believer Book Awards, and longlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award. She is also the translator of Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved Books. Louise comes from Manchester in the UK, and currently resides in Yokohama.