3.6

I always love a good Japanese crime thriller and even more so if it comes with a locked room murder mystery. Although this was my first time reading Seishi Yokomizo, I quickly fell into his amusing manner of storytelling. Translated for the very first time into English, The Honjin Murders takes us to the village of Okamura in 1937. When a newly wed couple is found dead on the day of their wedding, the wealthy Ichiyanagi family sets out to find the killer of their heir. As every murder mystery needs an eccentric detective to help solve the case, this story too has a young man with untamed hair and a stutter named Kosuke Kindaichi.

Very quickly it becomes clear that Yokomizo is a captivating writer. Although the story has certain grim details of the death, one can’t help but breeze through the book. What I loved was his ability to focus on the tiny details that pertained to 19th century Japanese culture. He describes the social status in great detail followed by various aspects of Japanese traditional architecture, which goes on to prove quite significant for the story. And most importantly, it was his locked room murder mystery that had me thinking.

This one had all the makings of a fantastic mystery and I see why it is still cherished as one of the classic murder mysteries. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that I loved the book until the end chapters. What threw me off was the usage of complicated and slightly confusing concepts to solve the murder. Perhaps this was why I couldn’t completely savour it. But it was in no way a bad book. Yokomizo’s ability to keep the readers hooked and second guessing about the killer was one of the highlights of this story.

But all said and done, I can’t wait to read more by Seishi Yokomizo. Big thanks to the publisher for the review copy ✨