'Murder and time travel collide' Publishers Weekly

In the middle of the family New Year's gathering at his home, Grandfather Fuchigami is murdered. But not for the last time.

For his grandson, Hisataro, has fallen into a mysterious time-loop, in which he must relive the same day again and again.

Every morning after his grandfather's death, Hisataro wakes up with a chance to find the culprit and prevent the murder. But day after day he fails, despite stumbling across clues aplenty in the shape of secret plots, illicit love affairs and jealous rivalries.

With an extremely large inheritance up for grabs, everyone is a suspect - and Hisataro is beginning to wish he could leave this day behind...



Yasuhiko Nishizawa (1960-2025) was born in Akashi, Japan. He studied Creative Writing in the United States, before returning to Japan and beginning to write murder mysteries while working as a university assistant and high school lecturer. His book Serial Murder was shortlisted for the first Tetsuya Ayukawa Award in 1990, and he has been highly praised by authors such as Soji Shimada. The Man Who Died Seven Times is the first of his novels to be translated into English. On his death, it was hailed in the Japanese press as 'a landmark in the history of Japanese crime fiction.'



An ingenious and highly entertaining riff on the themes of time and chance



A massively entertaining mash up of murder, mystery and teenage time travelling. With a great central premise and a snarky protagonist older than his years - literally - this is a real page turner



An irresistible mash-up of science fiction and murder mystery



The blend of Agatha Christie and Groundhog Day works a treat



A wildly inventive fusion of sci-fi and murder mystery... Think Groundhog Day meets Knives Out, with a clever plot and a snarky lead. It's smart, fast-paced, and seriously hard to put down



This brilliantly intricate mystery has it all: a family gathering, a country house, the murder of a patriarch and a fortune to inherit... Hugely entertaining and satisfyingly twisty



Charming, witty and clever... Hugely entertaining... The first thing that strikes the reader is the ingenuity and the colour of the story



A murder mystery with a fun twist



A clever head scratcher of a yarn



Murder and time travel collide in Nishizawa's charming English-language debut... Nishizawa stitches elements from Clue, Groundhog Day, and Toshikazu Kawaguchi's Before the Coffee Gets Cold into a mischievous tale that stands on its own two feet. This lighthearted whodunit will please anyone who likes their murder mysteries with a dash of whimsy



Tricksy, time-switching entertainment. On steroids



Nishizawa mixes Groundhog Day with a classic locked-room mystery. For fans of The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and those who enjoy some speculative elements in their crime fiction



A modern Japanese variant on Hercule Poirot's Christmas... The teen protagonist is a delight, irresistibly reminding British readers of Adrian Mole, while the last twist revealed in the denouement is so clever, and so apposite



Tremendous fun. Nishizawa takes full advantage of his unique premise to build a satisfying and complex mystery... The Man Who Died Seven Times stakes everything on the pleasure of a challenging puzzle-and succeeds



The novel is buoyed by an earnestness that takes such irreverent delight in its own puzzles that it's ultimately impossible not to do the same



A compulsively readable puzzle... A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist



Nishizawa's imaginative mystery blends science fiction and classic detective tropes in a gripping tale... A genre-bending take on modern crime fiction



A murder mystery take on Groundhog Day... A metaphysical masterpiece that never hesitates to show both humor and heart



For fans of translated murder mysteries and time loops!



The most enjoyable book I have read so far this year... a delight. It is a smart and playful read. It is also something of a literary unicorn: a high concept piece that remembers it needs to entertain. Happily, this does that very nicely, telling a fun and fascinating story in good style. Highly recommended



Arresting and interesting



Timeless entertainment... Yasuhiko Nishizawa's "classic time-loop murder mystery" may be 30 years old, but it has lost none of its clever, comical charm



A landmark in the history of Japanese crime fiction



Richard Osman meets Groundhog Day in this mischievous mystery



One of the smartest and well-crafted versions of [the time-loop] sub-genre ever written