The Terrible Gift and Other Stories

A harmless-looking parcel tears a New York apartment apart. A doctor faces an interrogation in a sweltering police station. A blind masseur tells his customer how he lost his sight. A physiologist believes a dog can identify a murderer with scientific certainty.

In these four complete stories, Kosakai Fuboku makes the search for explanations as gripping as the crimes themselves. The title story follows a baffling series of bomb attacks, while “The Fool’s Poison” turns a family tragedy into an intricate contest of suspicion and reasoning. “The Masseur” moves between bodily horror and sly humor, and “A New Method of Detection” tests an eccentric researcher’s confidence in his own invention.

A physician as well as a pioneering Japanese mystery writer, Fuboku brought medical knowledge, curiosity about human behavior, and a taste for macabre reversals to detective fiction. These stories preserve their period voices and uncomfortable assumptions alongside their narrative ingenuity. This new English translation includes concise notes on names, measurements, memorial customs, and textual uncertainties. AI-assisted translation, prepared and edited by Valentin Sarić.