The Graveyard Murder and Other Pieces for Boys

On a bright May morning an old temple servant sweeping azalea petals finds a body in the graveyard behind his temple, stripped to its underclothes so that no one will ever know who the dead man was. The case falls to Tsukahara Toshio, the boy science detective, who works with a microscope, an earpick, a camera and a train ticket to Nagoya.

Kosakai Fuboku (1890-1929), physiologist, toxicologist and mentor of Edogawa Rampo, wrote for young readers in order to teach them to think. The Graveyard Murder (1928), serialized in six instalments with chapter-end questions to the reader, is one of his most intricate Toshio cases. It is joined here by his preface to the first Toshio collection, a short life of Edward Jenner written for the boys' magazine Shōnen kurabu, and a patriotic tale of an international shooting match.

Each piece is translated complete and unabridged from the Japanese, with a translator's note, endnotes and source information.