The ghosts of World War II hover over this richly detailed 1965 mystery, written by Japan's most famous crime writer, Akimitsu Takagi. Etsuko Ogata is engaged to be married to a university lecturer, but her father, suspicious of the groom's past, hires a private investigator. The PI uncovers a link to a notorious war criminal. The bride's father, a former prosecutor, also finds a younger brother with possible criminal connections who died in a suspicious fire. "One black sheep is bad enough, but he has two in his family," he tells his daughter. "One can't help thinking there must be an ominous streak in him, too..."

But the young woman is 26 and just getting over an infatuation with a man who married one of her friends. Inevitably she goes against her parents' wishes and marries Yoshihiro Tsukamoto--despite noticing other kinds of strange behavior in him. On the night of their wedding, just before they are to leave on their honeymoon on the super-express train to Kyoto, Yoshihiro gets a call which he says is from a university official, demanding his immediate presence on campus. He leaves the hotel and never returns; his strangled body is found later that night.

The prosecutor put in charge of the case is a rising star named Saburo Kirishima--the same man Etsuko pined for before he married her friend Kyoko. (He also appears in the equally excellent but very different The Informer.) His investigation focuses on the person who called the groom at his hotel. Was it the bride's father? Or a young colleague in his law office who wanted to marry Etsuko himself? Or could it have been someone connected with the groom's family? As the meticulous details pile up, we learn as much about middle-class Japanese life in the 1960s as we would from any nonfiction book--but this way, we get to have fun trying to solve the mystery. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
This early mystery (1965) by Takagi was originally published in this country in mass market by Playboy Press. Takagi's masterful psychological portraits here recall those of Patricia Highsmith or William Irish in their depiction of individuals enveloped by intrigue that threatens to destroy them. A young woman, Etsuko Ogata, is being pressured by her father to marry a rather pedestrian lawyer, Tetsuya Higuchi, whom she respects but does not love. Quietly, Etsuko rebels and begins to seek a relationship with Yoshihiro Tsukamoto, a lecturer in industrial management whom she meets by chance. Against the backdrop of a culture rapidly changing amidst recovery from the devastation of WWII, Etsuko avoids Higuchi and pursues Tsukamoto despite doubts about his family's past. Eventually she marries her beloved, but the wedding night has barely begun when Etsuko's new husband rushes off and is murdered. As the plot of this involving mystery progresses, State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima (who also appears in The Informer, reviewed above) must use all his subtlety to untangle the strands of jealousy and greed that have made Etsuko a bride and a widow on the same night. (June) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Takagi (The Tattoo Murder Case), a popular Japanese mystery writer who died in 1995, wrote this novel in 1965. Etsuko Ogata, the unmarried daughter of a highly respected lawyer, has fallen in love with a university lecturer. Her parents do not approve of him because of his father's criminal past; her father wants her to marry a junior partner in his law firm who has already asked for her hand. Etsuko refuses his offer. In desperation, she lies to her parents and tells them that she is pregnant, and they reluctantly agree to let her marry her lover. On the night of their honeymoon, the groom receives a mysterious, urgent phone call. He leaves his young bride at the hotel and never returnsAhis body is found the next day. The state prosecutor, Kirishima, is a typical detective whose methods, though routine and predictable, make for a solid mystery. This well-translated work is recommended for larger public libraries.AJanis Williams, Shaker Heights P.L., OH Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Honeymoon To Nowhere ($12.00 paper; Jun. 10; 288 pp.; 1-56947-154-1): The first US trade edition of the 1965 novel by Takagi (The Informer, above, etc.), previously published in mass-market paper in 1977. Here, Etsuko Ogata overcomes her family's many objections to her marrying the unsuitable Yoshihiro Tsukamotoonly to have her bridegroom disappear on the first night of their honeymoon and turn up dead the next morning. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Etsuko has fallen in love with a shy, studious lecturer at a university. But she has to tell her parents she's pregnant to force their agreement to her marriage. Their objection is to the rest of her fianc's family: his father was a war criminal; his deceased younger brother, a murderer. His only respectable relative is a research chemist who says he's too sick to come to the wedding. And then the groom is called away on the first night of the honeymoon by an urgent telephone call. His body is found the next morning and State Prosecutor Kirishima must discover who killed him, and why.

About the Author
Akimitsu Takagi was born in 1920 and graduated from Kyoto University. His first job was as an engineer for the Nakajima Aircraft Company. He won the Japan Mystery Writers Club Award and wrote fifteen popular mysteries.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Etsuko has fallen in love with a shy, studious lecturer at a university. But she has to tell her parents she's pregnant to force their agreement to her marriage. Their objection is to the rest of her fiance's family: his father was a war criminal; his deceased younger brother, a murderer. His only respectable relative is a research chemist who says he's too sick to come to the wedding. And then the groom is called away on the first night of the honeymoon by an urgent telephone call. His body is found the next morning and State Prosecutor Kirishima must discover who killed him, and why.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This early mystery (1965) by Takagi was originally published in this country in mass market by Playboy Press. Takagi's masterful psychological portraits here recall those of Patricia Highsmith or William Irish in their depiction of individuals enveloped by intrigue that threatens to destroy them. A young woman, Etsuko Ogata, is being pressured by her father to marry a rather pedestrian lawyer, Tetsuya Higuchi, whom she respects but does not love. Quietly, Etsuko rebels and begins to seek a relationship with Yoshihiro Tsukamoto, a lecturer in industrial management whom she meets by chance. Against the backdrop of a culture rapidly changing amidst recovery from the devastation of WWII, Etsuko avoids Higuchi and pursues Tsukamoto despite doubts about his family's past. Eventually she marries her beloved, but the wedding night has barely begun when Etsuko's new husband rushes off and is murdered. As the plot of this involving mystery progresses, State Prosecutor Saburo Kirishima (who also appears in The Informer, reviewed above) must use all his subtlety to untangle the strands of jealousy and greed that have made Etsuko a bride and a widow on the same night. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Takagi (The Tattoo Murder Case), a popular Japanese mystery writer who died in 1995, wrote this novel in 1965. Etsuko Ogata, the unmarried daughter of a highly respected lawyer, has fallen in love with a university lecturer. Her parents do not approve of him because of his father's criminal past; her father wants her to marry a junior partner in his law firm who has already asked for her hand. Etsuko refuses his offer. In desperation, she lies to her parents and tells them that she is pregnant, and they reluctantly agree to let her marry her lover. On the night of their honeymoon, the groom receives a mysterious, urgent phone call. He leaves his young bride at the hotel and never returns--his body is found the next day. The state prosecutor, Kirishima, is a typical detective whose methods, though routine and predictable, make for a solid mystery. This well-translated work is recommended for larger public libraries.--Janis Williams, Shaker Heights P.L., OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Honeymoon To Nowhere ( paper; Jun. 10; 288 pp.; 1-56947-154-1): The first US trade edition of the 1965 novel by Takagi (The Informer, above, etc.), previously published in mass-market paper in 1977. Here, Etsuko Ogata overcomes her family's many objections to her marrying the unsuitable Yoshihiro Tsukamoto—only to have her bridegroom disappear on the first night of their honeymoon and turn up dead the next morning.