James Melville Books in Order

Otani's first case begins with the murder of an Irish Catholic priest at a Zen study center. Among monks, foreign students, and clashing assumptions, he has to uncover the truth without losing sight of the people involved.

The murder of a British man in Japan lands Otani in a case tangled with sexual secrets, bad family ties, and political nerves before an election. It is an early Otani mystery, full of police work and cross-cultural friction.

After an earthquake near Kobe, Otani finds a German businessman dead in a warehouse, with no clear sign of murder. A loyal dog, a possible judo hold, and questions of honor make the case as tricky as it is unusual.

A hostess is found murdered in a hotel love suite, and Otani notices an ivory netsuke hidden at the scene. The tiny carving belongs to a set of nine, and its history opens the door to scandal, suspicion, and kidnapping.

A murder case collides with Inspector Noguchi's private life when the son he had with a Korean woman surfaces in a drug-smuggling ring. Otani must investigate, even as the case cuts painfully close to his own team.

While visiting family in England, Otani is pulled into the murder of a powerful Japanese businessman. Away from Kobe and on unfamiliar ground, he must navigate British habits, expatriate lives, and a case with roots back home.

The suicide of one foreign student and the hit-and-run death of another seem connected, and both men belonged to the same student society. Otani's team follows the trail through politics, personal loyalties, and rising tension among outsiders in Japan.

A falling chandelier kills a businessman, then a foreigner is strangled at a fashion show. Otani has to connect two elegant deaths and follow the trail through Kobe's glossy world of style, ambition, and hidden dealings.

When a Dutch woman dies in a fire, the case points toward a yakuza feud and Otani's missing son-in-law, Akira. Forced to step back officially, Otani guides the inquiry from the shadows while his daughter's marriage wobbles.

During a holiday on Awaji Island, Otani remembers an earlier case involving a murdered American missionary at a Shinto shrine. Fox spirits, an exorcism, and long-buried desire make this one of his strangest investigations.

An embittered ex-convict wants revenge on the judge who sentenced him, and his chosen target is the judge's tennis-star daughter. Miss Seeton, sketchpad and umbrella in hand, gets caught in the middle before menace turns to murder.

A luxury cruise between Venice and the Greek Islands sounds like a reward, until one of a group of feuding art experts ends up dead. Miss Seeton must sort through vanity, suspicion, and danger at sea.

Miss Seeton heads to Buckingham Palace amid fears that a royal retainer may be a Russian agent. She also stumbles onto whispers of a major jewel theft, turning a formal outing into a very busy investigation.

A murdered professor at the temple of Araku-in draws Otani into a case that links academic intrigue to organized crime. Kyoto, Kobe, and their quieter corners all start to look dangerous as the investigation widens.

Otani tells this final case in his own voice, older, touchier, and looking hard at his life. After trouble at home and a sniper's bullet, the retired superintendent is drawn into a mystery that feels unusually personal.

At an elite tea ceremony in Kyoto, Otani watches the Grand Master collapse with a bullet in his forehead. The investigation leads from ritual calm into political blackmail, old secrets, and questions about who the real target was.

Newly posted to Hungary, cultural attaché Ben Lazenby expects an easy art convoy mission. Instead he gets a missing truck, a Finnish journalist with a dangerous tape, and several intelligence services convinced he is playing spy.

Ben Lazenby is pulled into espionage again, this time in Indonesia, where he is told to penetrate a secret microbiological research lab. What begins as reluctant service turns into a dangerous game around a discovery with global stakes.