Welcome to Litsy!

I originally requested this in order to maybe read during #cloakanddaggerchristmas, but there were few copies in the library and it didn't arrive until this week. Which is fine, as I wouldn't have gotten to it in December and it makes solid lunch fare. Accompanied today by grilled ham and cheese and fries, because a) Friday and b) it's been one of of those weeks 😏

I very much enjoyed this first mystery featuring the private detective Kosuke Kindaichi and which was only recently translated into English. The solution was fine, but what I particularly liked was the set up of the characters and intricate plot and learning a little bit about historical and post WWII Japan. A locked room mystery, newlyweds are found murdered the morning after their wedding. Suicide? But why and how?

#12Booksof2022

Enjoyed this as a locked room mystery even though the ending was a little convoluted. It does give a view into the Japanese feudal and honour system.
Contemplating getting the other books by this author. 🤔
My last #roll100 for the year

Great read of a locked room mystery.

Sort of a meta detective story. The narrator is a writer of detective novels who gets evacuated to a rural village following the Allies' bombing of Japan, which happens to be the site of a "real life" locked-room murder mystery that occurred years earlier. The story is the narrator's attempt at reconstructing what happened based on the recollections and notes of various individuals, some of whom had more direct involvement in the case than others.

Finally finished this. It took me forever because it was a snooze to be honest… It‘s apparently a classic of Japanese murder mysteries but I don‘t plan to keep reading the series 🤷🏻‍♀️

Why hello there… (just another photo of a book cover taken while working the circulation desk)

Enjoying this short suspense novel. Unusual narrator's voice but engaging all the same...

Aaaaand finally... December's #12booksof2021 pick has got to be The Honjin Murders.

I'm a sucker for a locked room mystery and although this one was as ridiculously convoluted as Dame Agatha Christie's efforts, I really enjoyed it and will be ordering the next one.

Happy New Year, all of you!

Lots of Love 💕💕💕

I love this kind of thing. Taking inspiration from the greats, Seishi Yokomizo gives us a compelling and enjoyable locked room mystery.

It gives nothing away to say that the solution is - as always with these golden age dramas - completely batsh*t crazy, but who cares? Highly recommended for fans of Agatha Christie.

#cloakanddaggerchristmas - read a mystery with an amateur sleuth

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love it when a murder mystery has a map so I can pretend to get my amateur sleuthing cap on... 🧐🤔

#cloakanddaggerchristmas

Locked room mystery in 1930s rural Japan 🇯🇵 This is a classic mystery novel with a bit of metafiction, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. #Japan

Another great read of Japanese crime fiction inspired by Golden Age authors. A bridal couple are found dead in a locked annexe, the family nearby hear their screams, as they rush across the garden to witness the gruesome scene, there are no footprints on the freshly fallen snow, how did the killer get in or out?

An elaborate 1946 puzzle box murder mystery that launched a quirky private investigator & his long-running series. I was enthralled by the intricate crime and its framing - a mystery writer is retelling the events after the fact, referencing classic detective fiction. Cheeky.

But I found the ultimate solution so disturbing it marred my enjoyment. The novel‘s characters being disturbed right along with me was the difference between a pick & a pan!

(louise heal kawai translation)

thanks for the book ideas, murderer.

In the opening chapter, the narrator tells us that the locked room murder mystery is “a genre that any self-respecting detective novelist will attempt at some point.” First published years ago in Japan, this twisty puzzle of a novel has only recently been translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai. Perfect for fans of classic locked room mysteries. #translation

“The ground was carpeted in those red spider lilies sometimes known as equinox flowers. I couldn't help thinking that they were soaked in the blood of poor, sweet S---.“

(Photo courtesy of my friend Rika in Yokohama.)

Unlike other kinds of musical picks or plectrums, the koto pick resembles a false fingernail attached to a ring. If you were wearing koto picks, your fingerprints would be obscured.
(That‘s me in the photo, learning how to play a koto.)

The collection comprised every book of mystery or detective fiction ever published in Japan....

(I've not heard of any of the Japanese authors.)

I quite liked this book, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. It‘s a bit formal and breaks the fourth wall in a couple of odd ways, but I exclaimed out loud when the solution was revealed, enjoyed the shout-outs to Carr and Leroux, and ended up looking for videos of koto playing so I could hear what it sounded like. So a good read!

Gosh I've been reading a lot of Golden Age crime novels recently! It's nice to have one from a different cultural background, and this has some fun Japanese quirks, despite its deliberate use of Western crime novel tropes. I loved the detective Kosuke Kindaichi, and the villain, and crime, are suitably chilling. The resolution is ingenuous, and there are nice digs at the injustice of feudal attitudes and traditional class arrogance too ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It was interesting to read a non-Western mystery story! I always find reading in translation a little stilted, though, and this one is so powerfully inspired by e.g. John Dickson Carr (it's even in the plot). It didn't do wonders for me, I'm afraid.

It‘s a three day holiday weekend thanks to the emperor‘s birthday so I‘m reading away! I‘ll pop out for a walk tomorrow but in the meantime catching up on the TBRs. This book is the first of a long series with the tousle haired Japanese cross between Colombo and Holmes that spawned tv series & movies all with dreaded family secrets and bizarre murders. It‘s classic golden age but I found it stilted and stiff compared to the movies it inspired.