Reviews - Death on Gokumon Island

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545 reviews for:

Death on Gokumon Island

Seishi Yokomizo

3.75 AVERAGE

eirwen_22's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

rosie505's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

theburningclem's review against another edition

4.0

Yokomizo’s habit for including elaborate mechanical devices in his murders isn’t to my taste, but this is still a devilish mystery with real bite.

zelalshara's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

atalea's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

louisee's review against another edition

Wasn't my favourite of Seishi Yokomizo's mysteries. Maybe it's because this is the fourth one of his mysteries I've read but I was able to guess the murderer very early on. It was still an enjoyable read but not the most captivating mystery I've ever read.

zoolmcg's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I’ve been a fan of Yokomizo’s Kindaichi series since I first read The Honjin Muders last year, with Death On Gokumon Island bringing me up to date with the English translations. I found this one to be just as enjoyable as some of the others, and a lot better than the last one (The Village of Eight Graves). As soon as I picked it up, I knew it was going to be a great one and it truly did not disappoint.

What I loved from the get-go was the fact that Kindaichi was going to this place for reasons other than being a detective. Of course, Chimata had told him his sisters were to be murdered, but his primary directive to relay the news of his death meant he became embedded in the setting of the Kito household as a guest rather than a detective (which has caused some friction in the earlier novels of the series). He enters this island, getting to know the inhabitants naturally, and I found a lot of the descriptions used in these parts very entertaining and engaging. Pretty much every conversation he has with the barber,
Seiko, were as much informative as they were gripping, because in novels like these you come to learn how every detail
matters.

That being said, I once again failed to correctly guess the murderer in this case, but this just makes me love it more, as it proves how Yokomizo can make such great twists in the plot worth one’s time. Still, with a lot of them, these twists do often come quite late in the novel, around the last 30-40 pages and I personally find the initial shock more confusing than pleasantly surprising.

For example here, Dr Koan, Ryonen, and Araki are given most of their characteristics and character development right at the very end as a way to explain their motives. While earlier in the story they are present, hardly any detail is shone onto them beyond a few simple actions or phrases (like the “out of reason/season” part, and Koan’s drunkenness), and so it becomes much easier for Yokomizo to then pull out a large swath of dandy-like explanations from Kindaichi to wrap it all up at the end. My initial instinct throughout reading was to cast suspicion on Sanae, as Chimata’s final words brought up his cousin, of which he had two, and Ukai, due his affiliations with the sisters at the beginning. When they ended up being almost irrelevant, I couldn’t help feel just a little bit disappointed, but looking back now, despite having literally just finished it, stories like these require good red herrings and misdirection and misplaced investment to keep you reading on and to maintain that feeling of shock at the end.

So, as I said, the final solution does become quite satisfyingly genius once all the pieces are explained and one can recall all the foreshadowing placed earlier on. The structure of Yokomizo’s novels always draws me in, especially in the abundance of cliffhangers left at the end of chapters and sections.

The only think I might’ve wished from this that holds me back from awarding it my usual Yokomizo 4.75 stars is the amount of characters. What I adored in The Inugami Curse so much was the large array of characters in their family, from cousins to staff members to strangers - it was so easy to get lost in and appreciate the scale of the inheritance dispute. Here, however, I found a lot of them to be under-utilised, including the murderer themselves. The Kito branch family, Ukai, Yosomatsu, and even the sisters themselves were examples that I would’ve loved to be more involved. Tsukiyo, Yukie and Hanako were all characterised as naïve and young, but that made them practically indistinguishable, and so other than their differing ages, they were pretty much identical. I would’ve loved to have gotten to know them more (e.g. with their relationships with other family members or Ukai etc.) in order for the impact of their deaths to hit harder.

All in all, from the setting this story in a secluded and isolating island to the classic set-up of feuding families and in-fighting, I absolutely adored this one, and getting to know all the characters and coming up with your own solutions, whether correct or incorrect, is so much fun. I’ll always enjoy Yokomizo’s mysteries, and I’ll always recommend them to anyone wanting to get into the genre. Can’t wait for the next translation, whatever it may be!