Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Die rätselhaften Honjin-Morde

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Die rätselhaften Honjin-Morde by Seishi Yokomizo

22 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo was this month’s book club pick and I’ll also be using it for my reading the world challenge for Japan!

There are a lot of characters to keep track of that could be confusing. And sadly we don’t get much of a look into each character, they’re just sort of there as background/plot devices. I think it’s because the storytelling style is detached, and written from the perspective of the author telling us the story as it happened ten years earlier.

This was a quick read, and felt very similar to the detective style of Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (could be because I just watched Glass Onion) 😁 You never really know who it is and the detective takes all the info over the course of the story and finally ties it all together to reveal how the crime was committed in one big monologue! I kind of wish there was more insight into some of the information that was only mentioned once the solution was given to us, instead of lots of info dumping throughout.

I did enjoy getting a glimpse into parts of Japanese culture during the early 20th century!

Overall a quick and easy read that was fairly enjoyable. It follows the typical murder mystery/detective novel so it’s not really anything unique in this genre, especially since it often mentions other novels that inspired the twists. I should note that I’m not a big detective novel fan so if you enjoy them, this could be a perfect book for you!

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mandkips's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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flyawaybooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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uranaishi's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was an interesting read but it was also a little disappointing. I was really enjoying this to begin with but then I didn't find the second half as compelling and the conclusion wasn't completely satisfying to me. There was a lot hidden from the reader which meant it was hard to figure out the solution before the end. However I did like the premise and the narrative style and I enjoyed the experience of reading a classic crime novel which wasn't set in the UK.

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house_of_hannah's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The first third of this book is just ok, but then Detective Kindaichi is introduced, which picks up the pace considerably, and makes the story much more intriguing. It's fun trying to put the pieces together as more clues are revealed, but there are some things that are kept from the reader, so you are never going to be able to put together the whole picture on your own. I was able to guess some of the reveals though, so I still felt a sense of accomplishment.

This book is not told from the Detective's perspective. We are relayed information from a third party years later who uses interviews, notes, and police records to piece together the full story. For example there are several back-to-back chapters that are told from the village doctor's perspective, as he wrote down what had happened the day he was there. I thought this was interesting as these types of books are generally told from the perspective of the person trying to solve the case.

The last few pages of this are surprisingly dark ! It's a depressing ending that is essentially an epilogue as to what happens to the family after. It did catch me off guard a bit, so I finished the book with a different feeling than I had just a few pages earlier. However, I am interested in seeing how many books are in this Detective Kindaichi series, and if any more are at my library.

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