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mekhalaiyengar 's review for:
The Honjin Murders
by Seishi Yokomizo
The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo is probably the best book I've read so far this year. It felt like a murder mystery play/ drama. The beginning was slow (or maybe I'm cursed bc I find all books to be slow at the start idk) but from chapter 2 the story slowly gets interesting. I was basically on the edge after chapter 5.
Yokomizo constructed the whole plot meticulously like a murder and triangular relationship with the narrator (detective author), characters, and Yokomizo (actual author) is just fascinating. This technique reminded me of Nabokov's triangular trinity: author, reader, and narrator. The author knew just when to pull the right strings and grab the reader's interest. I can't lie it was really clever.
And Kindaichi is such a cool character! He is definitely one to root for! I loved him from the moment he was described! But his character isn't revealed until chapter 7 and that build up works really well because the chapters after Kindaichi's arrival move fast as a bullet train (lol)
In the end everything wrapped up really well! My only complain is that some descriptive aspects were confusing. Maybe if I read this in the original language (or even heard it in the original language), the effect might definitely be different. (Side note: liked the inclusion of a character list at the start of the story)
Conclusion:
Did I love this book? Yes
Was it perfect? No
Will I read it again? Yes but in the original language I guess
Will I continue Kindaichi Series? Yes!!
Yokomizo constructed the whole plot meticulously like a murder and triangular relationship with the narrator (detective author), characters, and Yokomizo (actual author) is just fascinating. This technique reminded me of Nabokov's triangular trinity: author, reader, and narrator. The author knew just when to pull the right strings and grab the reader's interest. I can't lie it was really clever.
And Kindaichi is such a cool character! He is definitely one to root for! I loved him from the moment he was described! But his character isn't revealed until chapter 7 and that build up works really well because the chapters after Kindaichi's arrival move fast as a bullet train (lol)
In the end everything wrapped up really well! My only complain is that some descriptive aspects were confusing. Maybe if I read this in the original language (or even heard it in the original language), the effect might definitely be different. (Side note: liked the inclusion of a character list at the start of the story)
Conclusion:
Did I love this book? Yes
Was it perfect? No
Will I read it again? Yes but in the original language I guess
Will I continue Kindaichi Series? Yes!!