Name: Alisa 's review of The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
Item: The Honjin Murders
Rating: 3.75
Author: Alisa

Seishi Yokomizo

Japan's greatest classic murder mystery, translated into English for the first time In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour – it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village. Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music – death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. The murder seems impossible, but amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of it. Seishi Yokomizo (1902–81) was one of Japan's most famous and best-loved mystery writers. He was born in Kobe and spent his childhood reading detective stories, before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan. The Honjin Murders is the first Kosuke Kindaichi story, and regarded as one of Japan's great mystery novels. It won the first Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1948 but has never been translated into English, until now.

The classic locked room mystery

The Honjin Murders

"In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a daughter of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village.Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiniyagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music - death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. The murder seems impossible, but amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of it."--Publisher description.

liya blair

Cerys

A mystery with a great setting. Although it wasn't something super surprising (if you've had your fair share of mystery), it had me glued to it for some parts. A bit dry at first with pure descriptions of family relations, but it is a solid detective story. The conclusions came a bit out of nowhere at some points, but most of it was based in proof. 

A lot of name dropping of famous authors, which is a bit unnecessary but gave me new recommendations for upcoming mysteries. 

<spoiler> Only what happened to Suzuko left me a bit confused. Was it due to the war that she died? Was it an accident? Why leave it open like that? </spoiler>

Alisa 

A mystery with a great setting. Although it wasn't something super surprising (if you've had your fair share of mystery), it had me glued to it for some parts. A bit dry at first with pure descriptions of family relations, but it is a solid detective story. The conclusions came a bit out of nowhere at some points, but most of it was based in proof. 

A lot of name dropping of famous authors, which is a bit unnecessary but gave me new recommendations for upcoming mysteries. 

<spoiler> Only what happened to Suzuko left me a bit confused. Was it due to the war that she died? Was it an accident? Why leave it open like that? </spoiler>

Eva Ströberg

The locked-room murder mystery is always interesting, and this one particularly because it took place in early 1920s Japan (or whichever year that was, I couldn't remember). It does remind me to Detective Conan anime series (or manga) from the 1990s. It's that complicated murder thing that makes you stop and think twice, but exciting nonetheless.

I hadn't expected to enjoy a detective story but I loved reading it a lot. This is one of those classic detective fiction set in 1930s rural Japan where the master of a powerful family in the village gets murdered along with his young wife on their wedding night. From the beginning, I was hooked and as much as it pains me, I wasn't able to suspect who the murderer is at all but my guess was very close. Also, the setting of the village was beautiful and I really enjoyed reading that. Certainly, going to continue the series.

sani

mimansa 

** spoiler alert **
           Loved it. 
The entire plot was so direct and clear cut, and the whole narration from a third person pov was amazing. I like the idea of murder mysteries that take inspiration from other murder mystery novels. 
I kept writing notes and highlighting clues so that i could try and find out who the killer was, but the classic plot twist was something that i could not predict. 
Overall, it was very clear cut i think. An unsolvable murder takes place and a smart detective arrives and solves it in no time. But this isn’t actually the main thing in the story, the true beauty of this is how and why the murder takes place. 
Its not the murder mystery of my choice but i enjoyed it a lot.

Cait🪼

This was such a beautifully written mystery! 

I'm not normally a fan of locked-room mysteries, primarily because of their predictability, but this book is undeniably in a class of its own. I suspected the twist ending, and the gratification felt when the truth was revealed made the book 5*s for me. All of the characters had their own crafted identities, and none felt surplus or expendable to the story. A wonderfully written classic murder mystery that I would readily recommend!!

Ziggy

well that was fun and silly! also really liked the translation work on this one

Set during the 1930’s in Japan. My first acquaintance with delightfully eccentric amateur detective Kosuke Kindaishi.  Here, the narrator talks to the reader, pointing some elements to remember, somehow get you involved almost actively to the solving of the crime. Different and enjoyable! 

Barbara

Author writes from his own perspective breaking the fourth wall in book form which was a little confusing at first (had to google it lol).

A classic murder mystery with heaps of plot twists, i honestly wish i could read it again for the first time.

Set in 1937 feudal Japan (sick!!). 

Author writes from his own perspective breaking the fourth wall in book form which was a little confusing at first (had to google it lol).

A classic murder mystery with heaps of plot twists, i honestly wish i could read it again for the first time.

Janice Hopper

A Japanese mystery novel set in the period just before (I think) WW2. I'd read about this somewhere as an early example of a mystery set in Japan by a Japanese author, and I was curious how it was to read.

It starts out as a typical locked-room murder mystery. Everybody's stumped at how a man and his new bride could be killed on their wedding night by a katana. And the katana itself is out in the yard, stuck in the ground, with NO FOOTPRINTS leading to it or away from it. And there was a mysterious man with only 3 fingers on his right hand in the neighborhood. Could he be the killer????

The story basically lays out the plot in the first half or so, ending with the police being stumped. But one of the family of the dead man knows a very clever young man who is an AMAZING detective. He calls him in to help solve the mystery.

What follows is a huge chunk of exposition where Everything Is Explained. :) The young man with the unruly hair and itchy head is an ok Sherlock Holmes stand-in. The writing (in translation) was fine, given the story and the structure of the story. I was interested to note that a couple of the characters needed to make a trip and they took bicycles to and from their destination.

The only thing that was left a mystery to me was (view spoiler)[ just HOW LONG ARE KOTO STRINGS??? Jeezopete  (hide spoiler)]

Fraser Simons

This requires a lot of suspension of disbelief—too much for me, personally. The resolution is so contrived there’s no way to guess the particulars, and I’m not convinced it’s even possible in the time frame given. But if you can get over that, there’s some things about this that are enjoyable.

For one, it’s an interesting mystery. It’s the first appearance of this particular character, and they’re both a private investigator and amateur detective in a similar vein to Sherlock in methodology. If you like not being able to figure out every detail, you’ll also like this. I was able to guess a few things, but like I said, the actual conclusion feels so out there I’ve no idea who could guess it. And that did make it seem more contrived as the story progressed. It also has a bit of an interesting, but also odd point of view. It’s a Watson type character who is a mystery writer and travels around looking for good ones, apparently. And so the narrative shifts around, attempting to lend credence to particular sections via fictional eye-witness testimony of the villagers. And it begins not with the inciting incident, but a survey of the grounds at a much later date. Which was an odd choice. But different.

Had it actually been written well apart from the construction of the mystery, I’d have like this much better. I have no idea if some of it is translation issues or if additional information was added by the publisher or translator, but it goes out of its way to use terms and then explain them for a western audience sometimes. Which is odd because it makes a point of saying it was only recently translated, and sometimes these points are helpful and other times pure common sense. 

Then, the actual prose are just not that well written. It’s Hemingway-esk, but done poorly. Weasel words, stale diction choices, very inactive sentences. Dialogue escalates into melodrama which is a trope, but feels more hammy due to the sentence construction choices. Also feels like it’s trying to make people sound really “natural” and the expense of actual good dialogue. And just some bad similes, which is kind of a staple of sophomoric writing, to me. There was a loud thump like a sliding door fell. First of all, I don’t want to find the sentence again but they didn’t have a comma in there, and then the use of “like” for things the characters and reader definitely already know the sounds of, really bugged me. Because it is a sliding door falling. It is the sound of Koto strings, you said so already so it isn’t _like_ that, it _is_ exactly that thing. 

Anyway, if you can go with the flow and want an unexpected and fairly fun, but contrived mystery, check this out. You’ll probably like it more than me. I have the second book in the translated series; here’s hoping it improves.

Jemima Scott

Christine Liu

This baffling locked room murder mystery introduces the character of Kosuke Kindaichi, the famous fictional detective who would go on to appear in 76 more mystery novels. When a couple is found dead inside their room on their wedding night, Kindaichi is called upon to help make sense of the seemingly impossible circumstances of their death.

This book was first published in 1946, and it definitely reads like a story from another era. When the killer's motives are revealed, it's clear that they belong to a different time, so I think it would be difficult for a modern audience to solve the mystery. But if you're interested in the genre, this one is worth reading as it's considered to be a classic.

Anyaconda

An extremely intricately woven vlosed-door murder mystery set in Japan. This was one of my first ever murder mystery reads and while I like the creativity and setting, I don't think murder mysteries are "my thing". 
It was entertaining and I don't regret venturing out and trying new genres, but I believe I stick with fantasy and fiction.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

Cerys &
The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

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