Murder in the House of Omari

 

Murder in the House of Omari is an intricate and unsettling locked room historical mystery by Taku Ashibe. Originally published in 2021, this English language translation from Penguin Random house on their Pushkin imprint was published 29th July 2025. It's 288 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.  

This historical mystery stretches over several generations with the targets belonging to the once-prosperous Omari family. It's written more as a multigenerational saga than directly as a murder mystery. The author does a nice job of scattering references to both Japanese literature and western mysteries (Christie, Phillpotts, and Queen) throughout the story. 

The story hops from timeline to timeline and with a large cast of characters which can be a bit disorienting and confusing. The author/publisher have included a helpful dramatis personae list which can be consulted to keep the characters and their interrelationships somewhat straight. 

The translation work by Dr. Bryan Karetnyk is mostly seamless. The place names, many of the literary references, and the overall aesthetic is indelibly Japanese, but the scansion and word choices are good and the narrative seems to be true to the original story and won't be a problem in context for western readers. 

Three and a half stars. Difficult and disjointed, but worthwhile to see these gems being translated for western audiences. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, or possibly as a mystery bookclub selection or buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.