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obsidian_blue 's review for:
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
by Sōji Shimada
I am reading this for "Locked Room Mystery": The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada. This apparently is a locked room mystery novel that has been getting rave reviews.
Wow all I have to say is that this book was great. More than anything I love clever books like this, and this was definitely very clever. I honestly was a bit worried for a couple of minutes that maybe I wouldn't be able to get the book since the setting is in Japan. But wow the author Soji Shimada is able to pretty much show you that murder is murder no matter where it takes place.
This book is broken into two time periods. The first is Japan in 1936 and the second time period is Japan in 1979.
In 1936, we are treated to a letter that is left by an artist named Heikichi Umezawa. Umezawa wants to "build" the perfect woman. We read of his obsession with women and their bodies as well as his comments on astrology. We realize that he plans on doing away with his children, stepchildren, and nieces (all female) and using parts of them to build his perfect woman and bring Japan back into a state of harmony.
Oh here's the problem, Heikichi Umezawa is found murdered in a locked room. Yet the murders still take place. Who could have decided to follow Umezawa's plan?
When we are back in1979 we follow two amateur detectives (Kiyoshi Mitari and Kazumi Ishioka) our Sherlock and Dr. Watson if you will. FYI that would tick Mitari off since he had some hilarious bad opinions about Sherlock. We find out that the murders are famous in Japan and many people have tried to figure out who killed the women after Umezawa was dead where the perfect woman was left. Just like Sherlock, Mitari is subject to depression, and Kazumi is hoping that the puzzle of the Tokyo Zodiac Murders will drag him out of his depression.
I was fascinated with Mitari since he is a respected astrologer and fortune teller. It seems an odd hobby for our amateur detective, but it makes sense when you get into the astrology aspect of this book.
There are a lot of characters in this one, but I was able to keep them straight. The author provides you the names of everyone up front and throughout the book. We really only get Kazumi's deductions and point of view since he is telling us the story. We do get glimpses of what drives Mitari though.
I loved the writing. Reading about headless corpses that were dismembered repeatedly may not be your thing, so be forewarned. The flow was great too. I also applauded the author for including illustrations of the locked room, and diagrams of other rooms, as well as the corpses being dismembered, and also people's names to family trees, etc. There are a lot of really good illustrations in this book and it made it for me, into a five-star read.
I will say that aspects of this story just thrilled me from beginning to end. Trying to work out how Umezawa was murdered and how an unexpected snowfall came into play was great.
I also loved thinking of Kyoto and cherry blossoms.
The reveal of who the murder was and how they carried it off was brilliant. I would imagine that Dame Agatha would have given this author kudos. Because once this was revealed I had to go back and re-read the clues that were spread throughout the book.
Wow all I have to say is that this book was great. More than anything I love clever books like this, and this was definitely very clever. I honestly was a bit worried for a couple of minutes that maybe I wouldn't be able to get the book since the setting is in Japan. But wow the author Soji Shimada is able to pretty much show you that murder is murder no matter where it takes place.
This book is broken into two time periods. The first is Japan in 1936 and the second time period is Japan in 1979.
In 1936, we are treated to a letter that is left by an artist named Heikichi Umezawa. Umezawa wants to "build" the perfect woman. We read of his obsession with women and their bodies as well as his comments on astrology. We realize that he plans on doing away with his children, stepchildren, and nieces (all female) and using parts of them to build his perfect woman and bring Japan back into a state of harmony.
Oh here's the problem, Heikichi Umezawa is found murdered in a locked room. Yet the murders still take place. Who could have decided to follow Umezawa's plan?
When we are back in1979 we follow two amateur detectives (Kiyoshi Mitari and Kazumi Ishioka) our Sherlock and Dr. Watson if you will. FYI that would tick Mitari off since he had some hilarious bad opinions about Sherlock. We find out that the murders are famous in Japan and many people have tried to figure out who killed the women after Umezawa was dead where the perfect woman was left. Just like Sherlock, Mitari is subject to depression, and Kazumi is hoping that the puzzle of the Tokyo Zodiac Murders will drag him out of his depression.
I was fascinated with Mitari since he is a respected astrologer and fortune teller. It seems an odd hobby for our amateur detective, but it makes sense when you get into the astrology aspect of this book.
There are a lot of characters in this one, but I was able to keep them straight. The author provides you the names of everyone up front and throughout the book. We really only get Kazumi's deductions and point of view since he is telling us the story. We do get glimpses of what drives Mitari though.
I loved the writing. Reading about headless corpses that were dismembered repeatedly may not be your thing, so be forewarned. The flow was great too. I also applauded the author for including illustrations of the locked room, and diagrams of other rooms, as well as the corpses being dismembered, and also people's names to family trees, etc. There are a lot of really good illustrations in this book and it made it for me, into a five-star read.
I will say that aspects of this story just thrilled me from beginning to end. Trying to work out how Umezawa was murdered and how an unexpected snowfall came into play was great.
I also loved thinking of Kyoto and cherry blossoms.
The reveal of who the murder was and how they carried it off was brilliant. I would imagine that Dame Agatha would have given this author kudos. Because once this was revealed I had to go back and re-read the clues that were spread throughout the book.