The Nameless Town

The Nameless Town is a full-length mystery novel by Keigo Higashino, published in 2021, with the simplified Chinese edition released almost simultaneously with the Japanese edition. It is the first installment in the Takashi Kamio series. The story takes place in a small town drained of vitality by the pandemic: retired teacher Eiichi Kamio was beloved by his students. Three weeks earlier he had agreed to attend his students' fifteen-year reunion; a week later he was found dead in his own backyard, the body discovered by a student who came to visit. On the very day of the reunion, the students gather again in their old classroom—a bank clerk, an izakaya owner, an IT company president, a popular manga artist—each with something on their mind. Then the classroom door is pushed open, and standing in the doorway is the already-dead Teacher Kamio. At this point the deceased's younger brother, Takashi Kamio, makes his entrance—a former magician famous in Las Vegas, now running a small bar. Relying on superb sleight of hand, keen observation, and leading questions, this unreliable "black magician," together with his niece Mayo Kamio, closes in step by step on the truth amid lies and concealment. The novel interweaves magic performances with deductive investigation, and also incorporates realistic details such as remote work and sluggish business, pointing to the human ties, interests, and old secrets of the town.