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Murder, he wrote
Jan. 11th, 2022 07:59 pmBook Review: The Honjin Murders, by Seishi Yokomizo
This book dates from 1948, though the story is set in 1937 and the translation is from 2019. As such it fits more-or-less into the "golden age" crime fiction bracket, and certainly feels as though it belongs there. It's interesting to see that although there are obvious differences - in dress, architecture, rituals and to some extent social structures, there are also similarities with western fiction of the period - a high-status family with tensions between its members, the puzzled local police, the detective who is an outsider, and so on.
Although the story is gruesome - one wedding and events that will lead to a number of funerals - the storytelling is quite playful and the translation retains or gives it character. The author chooses the perspective of a crime fiction writer relating a tale from some years ago, with narrative constructed from conversations he has had with people in the village or the notes taken by their ancestors. (Given this is Japan in 1937 written about in 1948, it must also have seemed a world apart, and perhaps some of the motivation for the format is nostalgia for a more secure age.) But there is also very conscious reference to other detective fiction. The character of Kosuke Kindaichi is readily identifiable as a Holmes, an apparently lazy and somewhat bohemian young genius. One of the family members has a bookshelf full of crime fiction, including "locked room" mysteries, of which the case turns out to be a classic example. The clues and red herrings are cleverly handled; although the conclusion seems rather fantastical, it is not out of place in the genre.
This book dates from 1948, though the story is set in 1937 and the translation is from 2019. As such it fits more-or-less into the "golden age" crime fiction bracket, and certainly feels as though it belongs there. It's interesting to see that although there are obvious differences - in dress, architecture, rituals and to some extent social structures, there are also similarities with western fiction of the period - a high-status family with tensions between its members, the puzzled local police, the detective who is an outsider, and so on.
Although the story is gruesome - one wedding and events that will lead to a number of funerals - the storytelling is quite playful and the translation retains or gives it character. The author chooses the perspective of a crime fiction writer relating a tale from some years ago, with narrative constructed from conversations he has had with people in the village or the notes taken by their ancestors. (Given this is Japan in 1937 written about in 1948, it must also have seemed a world apart, and perhaps some of the motivation for the format is nostalgia for a more secure age.) But there is also very conscious reference to other detective fiction. The character of Kosuke Kindaichi is readily identifiable as a Holmes, an apparently lazy and somewhat bohemian young genius. One of the family members has a bookshelf full of crime fiction, including "locked room" mysteries, of which the case turns out to be a classic example. The clues and red herrings are cleverly handled; although the conclusion seems rather fantastical, it is not out of place in the genre.