The Master Key

Originally published in 1962, Togawa’s first novel is an outstanding puzzle mystery. In a prologue, set in 1951 Tokyo, an unidentified man, dressed as a woman, tries to cross a busy street against the light and is fatally struck by a van. A nameless woman living in the K Apartments for Ladies waits alone for seven years for the dead man’s return—and is still waiting. Flash back to three days before the accident. The man carries a traveling bag containing a child’s corpse to the woman’s apartment. Hours later they bury the body in the building’s basement, an act witnessed—unbeknownst to them—by a third person. Most of the action takes place seven years after these events, when the tenants of the building, mainly women leading secluded and lonely lives, are scheduled to be moved and their numerous secrets are threatened to be revealed. The gradual, logical, but still surprising unfolding of the Russian nesting doll of a plot is a delight. (Mar.)