Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I draw attention to a virtually unstudied English detective novel, H.R. Keating's *Zen there was Murder* (1963). I use the analysis of this novel as a starting point for a broader examination of the "Zen detective novel," a type of detective story that uses Zen tropes and ideas

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I draw attention to a virtually unstudied English detective novel in which a figure modelled on DT Suzuki appears in a crime mystery. That novel is H.R. Keating's _Zen there was Murder_ (1963). His “Utamaro” clearly is a representation of (the popular perception of) Daisetz Suzuki, from his physical appearance (especially the “bushy black eyebrows”) to his refusal to answer any question directly. He always appears in a black kimono, claims that Zen is no religion, quotes liberally from koan collections and stories, denies that Zen is about ethics, and, as if this was not enough, he is also a martial artist. Clearly, Keating is satirizing the popular representation of DT Suzuki that Jane Iwamura has characterized as the “oriental monk.” But he does more than satirize Zen. He also establishes a connection between solving koan, the riddles the Rinzai Zen curriculum is structured around, and solving a crime. Police questioning, for example, is understood as a koan interview. This connection would prove to be an influential one is subsequent iterations of what I call “Zen detective fiction,” a type of detective story that uses Zen tropes and ideas. As I show, prominent Zen detective authors, such as the prodigious Janwillem van de Wetering, also used ideas from Daisetz Suzuki in their writing. As a type of world literature, the detective novel then is one very important way Zen ideas were diffused and continue to be diffused to reading audiences across the world.