oldmansimms 's review for:

Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomizo

3.0

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A fine mystery, mainly notable for its interesting cultural context, very intertwined with Japan's experience in World War II, and indeed that provides the impetus for the mystery: the novel's central detective, Kosuke Kindaichi, has been demobilized after the war and is sent to the titular Gokumon Island by the dying words of a comrade-in-arms (ironically dying of illness on the way home after surviving the war). A disappointing aspect of the story: Kindaichi is sent to prevent the predicted murders of his late friend's sisters, but completely fails to do so and is left only to solve their murders after the fact. Certainly escalating body counts are not uncommon in the mystery genre, and we don't usually judge Hercule Poirot or his ilk too harshly for failing to stop subsequent murders in one book, but given that his explicit goal was to save them from the start it still felt like it dinged his reputation as one of Japan's greatest private detectives.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC.