Revenge and injustice are the themes of this Seicho Matsumoto crime thriller. It is the third of his books that I have read, and it is on a par with Inspector Imanishi Investigates. Both novels are set in early 1960s Tokyo. And both capture the unique atmosphere and setting of the time and place. In fact, that is what separates Matsumato from so many other Japanese mystery writers. He evokes his era and place better than anyone else.

And for its time, Pro Bono takes on something of a controversial air. It presents one of the most complicated plots of revenge imaginable. But it is revenge made possible only by luck. In working these elements into his story, Matsumoto is walking between two worlds. On one hand, he allows the meticulous clockwork precision of a crime to play out before the readers' eyes. But it is also a storyline that is wrapped in the circumstances of modernism and nihilism, the factor of chance that really dominates everyone's life. In so doing, Pro Bono wanders through the worlds of both the classical detective and hard-boiled private eye.

The other component of Pro Bono is its social theme: the injustice wealth gives to access to the Japanese legal system. It throws the readers' sympathies in this book into a quandary. For justice to emerge at the end means an unjust act must be acquiesced to. Who to favor in those circumstances?

Outstanding fiction. ( )

Kiriko Yanagida, una joven humilde, viaja desde la isla de Kyushu a Tokio para solicitar la ayuda del famoso abogado Kinzo Otsuka. Su hermano ha sido acusado de asesinato pero Kiriko está convencida de que es inocente: ella cree que la única manera que tiene de librarle de la pena de muerte es lograr que Otsuka, el mejor penalista del país, se encargue de su defensa. Pero cuando este decide no aceptar el caso, pone en marcha una serie de sucesos que tendrán consecuencias imprevisibles.

La chica de Kyushu, como toda buena novela negra, no es solo una novela de misterio, sino que intenta también describir y cuestionar la sociedad en la que está ambientada; Matsumoto se ocupa en este caso de las dificultades que tienen las personas con menos recursos para conseguir un juicio justo.

Publicada por primera vez en 1961, La chica de Kyushu es una historia sobre la injusticia, el poder y la sed de venganza que da buena muestra de la pericia narrativa de su autor, uno de los más destacados autores japoneses de novela negra.