Translated by Haydn Trowell

On Sale: Sep 29, 2026
Page Count: 240 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781538786710

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Introducing one the most iconic investigative duos in crime fiction – a hapless detective and his capable cat – A Game of Cat and Killer is a must for all readers of Japanese cat fiction and classic crime, written by one of Japan’s most beloved novelists.

Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and . . . women. When a young female student is found murdered, he’s given two choices – review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women’s College to investigate – and reluctantly opts for the latter.

But the threat escalates with additional murders, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned when the dean himself falls victim. Surely that’s the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own . . .

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The Casebooks of Mikeneko Holmes

Born on February 29th, 1948, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Jiro Akagawa is one of Japan’s most prolific and celebrated mystery writers. In a career that spans several decades, he has written over 650 books and sold more than 330 million copies. Working as a salaried employee for twelve years after graduating high school, he won the All Yomimono New Mystery Writers' Prize for a short novel titled Ghost Train while working a full-time job. In 1978, he became a bestselling novelist with the Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri which recounts the adventures of a detective and his adopted cat; the beloved series continues today with over fifty-five novels, seventy including short stories. It was only then that he quit his corporate job and turned his full attention to writing. He won the Kadokawa Novel Prize in 1980 with Requiem for an Evil Wife, the Japan Mystery Literature Award in 2005, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature in 2016 with Tokyo Year Zero. Many of his hit titles have been adapted for the screen and stage, including award-winning films such as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), Detective Story (1983), Early Spring Story (1985), Who Do I Choose? (1989), and Chizuko’s Younger Sister (1991). The first Mikeneko Holmes book has also been made into a film and two television series that aired from 1979 to 1984, as well as in 2012.

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Jiro Akagawa

About the Author

Born on February 29th, 1948, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Jiro Akagawa is one of Japan’s most prolific and celebrated mystery writers. In a career that spans several decades, he has written over 650 books and sold more than 330 million copies. Working as a salaried employee for twelve years after graduating high school, he won the All Yomimono New Mystery Writers’ Prize for a short novel titled Ghost Train while working a full-time job. In 1978, he became a bestselling novelist with the Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri which recounts the adventures of a detective and his adopted cat; the beloved series continues today with over fifty-five novels, seventy including short stories. It was only then that he quit his corporate job and turned his full attention to writing. He won the Kadokawa Novel Prize in 1980 with Requiem for an Evil Wife, the Japan Mystery Literature Award in 2005, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature in 2016 with Tokyo Year Zero. Many of his hit titles have been adapted for the screen and stage, including award-winning films such as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), Detective Story (1983), Early Spring Story (1985), Who Do I Choose? (1989), and Chizuko’s Younger Sister (1991). The first Mikeneko Holmes book has also been made into a film and two television series that aired from 1979 to 1984, as well as in 2012.

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