SOURCE: “In the Steps of a Japanese Gumshoe,” in Chicago Tribune Books, January 2, 1994, p. 6.

In the following review, Markey outlines the central themes of Dance, Dance, Dance.

Haruki Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance is a mystery that requires the reader to do some sleuthing. Without providing much background, it picks up abruptly where the author's earlier novel, A Wild Sheep Chase, ends—inviting the reader to speculate on the riddle of Sheep Chase and at the same time puzzle through this book.

The story takes place in today's Japan and involves tangled adventures and grisly crimes, but the lure of the uncanny clearly inspires the author more than conventional whodunit plots. For him, authentic suspense (and wisdom) rests less in the real world than in other worlds—those outside of the everyday and perhaps buried within the psyche.

In Dance Murakami creates an alternate universe, a timeless, magical zone...