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A review by hannahstohelit
The Meiji Guillotine Murders by Fūtarō Yamada
slow-paced
3.5
I have a feeling that the writer here was a fan of Chesterton, because a few chapters in, a particular conversation plus, let's just say, several elements of the set-dressing had me going "I am getting multiple vibes of a particular Chesterton story* here" and led me to predict both the murderer and a particular plot element. But it's also possible that I'd have guessed the murderer even without it, because how the hell else would Esmeralda know the answers to all the mysteries in so much detail so quickly, when we see so little investigative work ? Obviously the answer is meant to be that Kazuki figures it out himself privately but it's not totally satisfying and definitely raises suspicion, especially as we DO separately see puzzlement and attempts at solving the conundrums from Kawaji .
*The story I refer to isthe second one, The Secret Garden, which makes a murderer of- and kills off- the French policeman, Aristide Valentin, introduced in the first story. While I was misremembering some elements of Valentin's motivations, meaning that the initial conversation about whether the government should aim for absolute justice or not had a more generally-Chestertonian vibe to it than an outright paraphrase of this story in particular, that story too centered a policeman criminal with access to a bunch of heads of executed men for the purposes of concealing the true identity of another beheaded man .
It's hard to judge this as if I'd read it as part of its intended audience, because I really know almost nothing about Japanese history and Japanese names, meaning that I am sure a lot was lost on me and I also had a hard time keeping different characters apart and tracking characters across different narratives within the bookwhich of course meant that those cops being around the whole time was largely lost on me, though I did vaguely notice one or two of the names repeating themselves without getting the significance . The historical fiction part could also be kind of weighty and the pace was pretty slow. I'd add as well that the depictions of women were abysmal to the point of apparently completely purposefully so, which is frustrating as there was no reason WHY they should be! They're used as plot devices and stereotypes and basically nothing else for no really good reason- in fact, the lack of real involvement and dialogue from Esmeralda in particular is honestly obtrusive in the narrative. I get that the book was written in 1979, but I feel like even in 1879 writers did a better job at things like this.
I will also say- I enjoyed some of the underlying themes here, which from the beginning included "what does a detective novel look like in a society with no due process, and thus no real need to PROVE anything in a court of law?" That initial thought ended up being vital to the whole mystery, and leaves things on a really interesting note.
*The story I refer to is
It's hard to judge this as if I'd read it as part of its intended audience, because I really know almost nothing about Japanese history and Japanese names, meaning that I am sure a lot was lost on me and I also had a hard time keeping different characters apart and tracking characters across different narratives within the book
I will also say- I enjoyed some of the underlying themes here, which from the beginning included "what does a detective novel look like in a society with no due process, and thus no real need to PROVE anything in a court of law?" That initial thought ended up being vital to the whole mystery, and leaves things on a really interesting note.