![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Devil Comes and Plays His Flute
Feb. 25th, 2024 11:38 amBook Review: The Devil's Flute Murders, by Seishi Yokomizo
This is the third of Yokomizo's novels featuring Kosuke Kindaichi I have read (see The Honjin Murders and Death on Gokumon Island). Set in 1947, it concerns the extended household of the dispossessed aristocrat (by the constitution of that year) Viscount Tsubaki who appears to have committed suicide earlier in the year. Yet even those who identified the body are not entirely convinced of his death, as his behaviour was mysterious in the lead up to his death, and apparent sightings of his figure continue. In a classic sense, members of the family all have their obscure secrets and rivalries; which of these are pertinent is veiled cleverly by the author until the end.
As I've previously written, Kinchaich is identifiable most as a Holmes-like character, although he has no regular sidekick and works with the investigating police. This novel is interesting in that its storyline feels less stretched: the gruesome plot and dark history that emerges does not have the apparent supernatural characteristics (although the divination is rather like a séance, it's plain that most of the participants are just humouring one of the characters by it) or motivations of the earlier novels, and could mostly be realised in a Western context without too much alteration. Perhaps that's because it is written rather later than the others, published in Japan in 1973. There is some strangeness in the translation, where it attempts to convey regional accents; this becomes an important point in the plot, so it's reasonable if not always convincing.
This is the third of Yokomizo's novels featuring Kosuke Kindaichi I have read (see The Honjin Murders and Death on Gokumon Island). Set in 1947, it concerns the extended household of the dispossessed aristocrat (by the constitution of that year) Viscount Tsubaki who appears to have committed suicide earlier in the year. Yet even those who identified the body are not entirely convinced of his death, as his behaviour was mysterious in the lead up to his death, and apparent sightings of his figure continue. In a classic sense, members of the family all have their obscure secrets and rivalries; which of these are pertinent is veiled cleverly by the author until the end.
As I've previously written, Kinchaich is identifiable most as a Holmes-like character, although he has no regular sidekick and works with the investigating police. This novel is interesting in that its storyline feels less stretched: the gruesome plot and dark history that emerges does not have the apparent supernatural characteristics (although the divination is rather like a séance, it's plain that most of the participants are just humouring one of the characters by it) or motivations of the earlier novels, and could mostly be realised in a Western context without too much alteration. Perhaps that's because it is written rather later than the others, published in Japan in 1973. There is some strangeness in the translation, where it attempts to convey regional accents; this becomes an important point in the plot, so it's reasonable if not always convincing.