The Hit List: Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated

This list was originally supposed to be a follow-up to last years "Curiosity is Killing the Cat: Detective Novels That Need to Be Reprinted," a lengthy list of reprint suggestions of frustratingly rare, long out-of-print mystery novels, but "Curiosity is Killing the Cat: Non-English Detective Novels That Need to be Translated" proved to be trickier than anticipated – limited to what I happen to know is tucked away behind numerous language barriers. So, in order to have given the list a semblance of substance, it would have been mostly French and Japanese mysteries with a handful of Dutch novels in a desperate attempt to conjure up the illusion of variety.

It would have ended up being a poorly done, overwritten copy-paste of Ho-Ling Wong's blog and John Pugmire's "A Locked Room Library." That would have been a cop-out. I hate cop-outs when it comes to detective stories. So what's a hack reviewer to do? Well, I took a hacksaw to the idea, completely butchered it and present whatever remained as one of those blistering original top 10 list. Why ring in the New Year with short, tidy list of suggestions for the future.

I think it actually worked as it didn't become a badly disguised, personal wishlist of locked room mysteries with a greater variety and more depth to the selection. A list covering detective novels from four different continents written in six different languages, but there are some notable absentees. I, too, wish and pray a brave publisher would dare to take on the daunting task of translating Nikaido Reito's complete, multi-volume Jinrojo no kyofu (The Terror of Werewolf Castle, 1996/98), but wanted to give ten choices with a somewhat realistic chance of getting translated. Unfortunately, I don't think "the world's longest classic detective novel" is realistically going to appear in English anytime soon. And, exactly for the opposite reason, I ignored many of the French titles on the previously mentioned "A Locked Room Library." John Pugmire's Locked Room International has that part of my wishlist covered. So it's only a matter of time, before LRI publishes an English translation of Pierre Véry's Les quatre vipères (The Four Vipers, 1934) or Jean Alessandrini's La malédiction de Chéops (The Curse of Cheops, 1989).

So, if you wondered why some obvious choices are absent, now you know. However, I would still like to hear your (local) suggestions. This list is limited to what has come to my attention over the years, but obviously missed a ton of stuff that I'm simply not aware of. If there are enough of them, I can do "The Hit List: Top 10 Non-English Detective Novels That Need to Be Translated, Part 2" with all of your suggestions. Let me know. And with that out of the way, let's go down the list.

 

La notte impossible (The Impossible Night, 1937) by Tito A. Spagnol

In 2019, Locked Room International published a translation of Franco Vailati's Il mistero dell'idrovolante (The Flying Boat Mystery, 1935) and came with a short essay by Igor Longo discussing "The Italian Mystery Novel." Longo briefly goes over the history of the Italian detective story and some of its most successful or important writers. One name standing out is that of screenwriter Tito A. Spagnol, "the fourth ace of the Italian Hand," who was among the Italian mystery writers inspired by S.S. van Dine and Ellery Queen – creating a Van Dinesque detective, Al Gusman. Longo highlighted The Impossible Night as a "novel of murder in a closed mansion with a strong Queenian flavour" and "the only use of this very original trick in novel form." One of the "Italian masterpieces of murder and detection." Despite what the book title suggests, The Impossible Night is not a locked room mystery ("...Gusman solved no impossible cases").

 

Six crimes sans assassin (Six Crimes Without a Killer, 1939) by Pierre Boileau

This is one of the most famous and celebrated of all French roman policiers. Not to mention a classic of the locked room mystery, which strings together half a dozen seemingly impossible murders and disappearances ("...resolved with impeccable fairness by the time of the sixth and final death"). Annoyingly, the novel has this pesky French habit of refusing to speak any other language and has been resisting getting translated for decades. Rumor has it Six crimes sans assassin had been translated, but The Phantom Strikes Six Times remained unpublished. I presume the translation dates from around the same time as the original French publication and that could mean the outbreak of World War II could have been responsible for it getting axed. More recently, John Pugmire attempted to correct that historical oversight, but the current copyright holder apparently refuses to work with print-on-demand publishers. So... ball's in your court, Pushkin Vertigo!

 

Un muerto en la tumba (A Dead Man in the Tomb, 1946) by Rafeal Bernal

I first read of Rafeal Bernal's A Dead Man in the Tomb in The Anthony Boucher Chronicles: Reviews and Commentary, 1942-47 (2009) praising this Mexican detective novel as "the best-characterized, meatiest and funniest whodunit yet produced in Latin America" – complete with "fascinating sidelights on archaeology and politics." The story centers on a murder unearthed in an ancient Mayan tomb at Monte Albán, Oaxaca, solved by the priest Teódulo Batanes. A character modeled after G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. I want a translation of A Dead Man in the Tomb more than any other novel on this list, because I love a good archaeological detective story and a glowing review from Boucher ("a must for connoisseurs") can be taken as a Seal of Quality. Just one more, Pushkin Vertigo!

 

Um crime branco (White Murder, 1950) by “James A. Marcus”

On the GADWiki, you can find an early, short-lived attempt to catalog the classical detective fiction published in non-English speaking countries. Henrique Valle contributed a short piece, "Portuguese GAD," discussing the most important authors who tried their hands at the classical detective story in Portugal. One title that stood out to me is White Murder. The name on the cover is the shared "pseudonym of two cousins with diabolical legal minds" who constructed an amazingly cunning, maze-like plot with "one of the most compelling and convincing pieces of detective reasoning" that could "pass for an excellent GAD British mystery book."

 

Koude vrouw in Kralingen (Cold Woman in Kralingen, 1970) by Cor Docter

Cor Docter was a Dutch pulp writer whose prolific output, published under various pseudonyms, were the backbone of the local bookstores and lending libraries throughout the 1950s and '60s – earning the title "Prince of the Lending Libraries." During the early 1970s, Docter wrote three legitimate, classically-styled detective novels respectively tackling the whodunit, impossible crime and dying message. The first novel, Droeve poedel in Delfshaven (Sad Poodle in Delfshaven, 1970) is arguably the best of the three Commissioner Daan Vissering mysteries, but Cold Woman in Kralingen holds a special place in my heart as the first legitimate Dutch-language locked room mystery. More importantly, the locked room situation is completely original in both presentation and solution. Something I've never seen before or since reading Cold Woman in Kralingen. But they really should be translated and published as a complete set.

A note for the curious: Ho-Ling has also reviewed all three Daan Vissering novels (here, here and here).

 

11 mai no trump (The Eleven Cards, 1976) by Tsumao Awasaka

I can easily fill pages, and pages, with Japanese detective novels I would like to see get translated, but, once again, it would just be a copy-paste of Ho-Ling Wong's blog. There is, however, one particular title that has always intrigued me. Tsumao Awasaka's The Eleven Cards immerses the reader in the world of magicians, stage illusions and the art of misdirection with a story-within-a-short-story-collection structure. Ho-Ling called it "an ingeniously plotted mystery novel" and "a showcase of how to properly clue a mystery." Amazingly, The Eleven Cards was only Awasaka's first detective novel. So a translation can't appear (as if by magic) soon enough!

 

Muerte en la costa del rio (Death on the River Bank, 1979) by María Angélica Bosco

María Angélica Bosco, an Argentinian mystery writer, proved with La muerte baja en al ascensor (Death Going Down, 1954) that not every debut is a classic, but some mystery writers need time to improve and mature. One of her later, so far untranslated mysteries sounds rather promising. Death on the River Bank takes place in Colonia, Uruguay, where a group of tourists on a boating holiday become suspects in a shocking murder. A murder case full with twisted alibis, forensic shenanigans and a genuine whodunit pull.

 

Tobie or not Tobie (1980; title is a bilingual pun) by René Réouven

Back in 2011, Patrick, of the now dormant At the Scene of the Crime blog, posted a fascinating review of René Réouven's Tobie or not Tobie. A novel taking "the Biblical Book of Tobit and rewrites it as a mystery" and "even manages to construct the mystery around an impossible crime." While the story takes it time to build everything up, the plot is reportedly solidly constructed with a wonderful solution to the impossible crime and "great wit and originality," stylistically. Patrick called it a veritable masterpiece and from all the untranslated French mysteries, Tobie or not Tobie always impressed as one of the most worthwhile novels to translate.

 

De laatste kans (The Last Chance, 2011) by M.P.O. Books

The Last Chance is the classically-styled, normally British detective novel presented as a Dutch politieroman (police novel) with a dazzling, kaleidoscopic plot and one of those brilliant, all-revealing, but cleverly hidden, tell-tale clues. A high note for the Dutch detective story. Ho-Ling also reviewed The Last Chance ("a recommended read as a fun detective novel that actually delivers") and interestingly compared its story-structure to the "zapping system" in video games. A translation is more than warranted.

 

John Dickson Carr no saishuu teiri (John Dickson Carr's Last Theorem, 2020) by Hajime Tsukatou

Well, it was inevitable another Japanese title would appear on this list, but the problem, once again, was picking just one title from the sea of honkaku and shin honkaku mysteries. So decided to go full fanboy and picked Hajime Tsukatou's John Dickson Carr's Last Theorem, which is set during the 2006 centenary of the master of the locked room mystery and Ho-Ling described a truly fascinating premise – centering on cryptic hints Carr left behind about some real-life, unsolved impossible crimes ("the so-called 1938 East End Spontaneous Combustion Case"). Naturally, there's another impossible murder in the present-day storyline. I would unapologetically fanboy all over a translation of John Dickson Carr's Last Theorem.

 

A special and honorable mentions: I already mentioned the non-English detective fiction page on the GADWiki and one of its four entries is "Japanese Impossible Crime Mysteries" that also includes a list of Taiwanese impossible crime and locked room novels and short stories, which sometimes sound too good to be true. For example, Ji-Cing's Sorcery Delusion (2004), "a story full of black magic," deals with a headless body who's seen walking about and a disappearance from a locked house. Or Ling-Che's short story, "The Haunted Crossroad" (20??), in which a speeding motorcycle and a car "miraculous pass through each other." So much is still out there to keep the translation wave going for many more years to come as we inch closer towards that Second Golden Age.