Literary mysteries set in the climate-controlled corridors of the Tokyo art world, in which Senior Registrar Keiko Ito solves cases the way she was trained to work: through the documented record.
What order should I read them in?
Each novel tells a complete case. Starting with The Joseon Retrospective is best, because it introduces Keiko, the museum, and the questions the series keeps asking — but no book will strand you.
Keiko Ito has spent nineteen years as a registrar. She does not investigate crimes. She reconciles records. Then a Korean provenance researcher is found dead in a basement service corridor, having left a seven-line annotation, handwritten in Korean, on page four of Keiko’s own condition report.
Case Two · Open
Six months after the Joseon investigation, the National Art Center, Tokyo is preparing a landmark retrospective of the Meiji master Akiyama Renzan. But a routine infrared scan of his most famous folding screen reveals a quiet, unsettling anomaly: a hand beneath the paint that should not be there.
Cases Three – Five
Three more cases are planned.
Publication dates, cover reveals, and the four free documents from the world of the novel are all filed in one place. Open the file and you will hear about each new case as it is recorded.
