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In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, setting off a chain of bizarre, gruesome murders. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan’s terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and disguised identities to find the murderer.
Seishi Yokomizo is Japan’s most popular mystery writer. His novels have been made into numerous movies and television dramas in Japan.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Inherit The Wind,
By Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Inugami Clan (Paperback)
Japanese popular fiction is much under-represented in the US, while film and anime do quite well. So out of interest in all things Japanese I sought out the few volumes of popular mysteries that have been translated. What I've found is that, while the Japanese approach to storytelling is different from what is common in the USA, it is equally interesting.
Japanese writers, of whom Seishi Yokomizo is a notable example, unfold their tales differently. For example, it's not uncommon for the reader to be told what is going to happen even before events begin to unfold. The narrative descriptions of the crimes, while often grim tend to be clinical by our standards. Thus, in the Inugami Clan, which was a Japanese best seller, a strange will will left by a wealthy man reveals a peculiarly twisted set of relationships and triggers four deaths and several other attempts. The killings are carefully presented, but never overwhelm the story. And the story isn't the murders, but the unfolding of a complicated set of relationships that seem to shift with every glance. The crimes, investigated by Kosuke Kindaichi (a Japanese Sherlock Holmes) become the bitter framework, upon which three sisters and the heirs to the fortune perform a stately, yet terrible dance. The ghost of the end of World War II and a chilling winter add to the sense of desolation. Yokomizo excels at descriptive moments, whether he is focusing on people or the settling. He brings the landscape to life in a fashion which has been lost to the action oriented writing of the west. This is true to such the degree that a reader, unused to the differences and expecting something out of a Hong Kong fight film is likely to blame the translation rather than realize that the small, chess-like motions of the tale are the intent of the author. The translator, Yumiko Yamazaki does a very good job of capturing this flow. Hopefully we will see more tales by Seishi Yokomizo reach translation in the near future. This is an opportunity to experience something uniquely Japanese in an unexpected context. To see what can be done outside the western mystery story.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Japanese family disintegrates, violently,
By A Customer
This review is from: Inugami Clan (Paperback)
Set in the 1940's, this is the first in a series of mysteries featuring private detective Kosuke Kindaichi. The elderly patriarch of a wealthy Japanese family of the title, dies, inexplicably leaving a will that virtually ensures a bloody battle for his fortune. Kindaichi is summoned by the family's attorney to snow-covered northern Japan, where the gore-soaked feud plays out. Slowly, the family's sordid secret history is revealed as the members are ritualistically murdered, one by one. Kindaichi is a likable character, an eccentric whose odd mannerisms (like a nervous tic of head-scratching) hide his superior intelligence. The translation is a bit stiff at times, and some plot elements seem forced, but otherwise this is an enjoyable mystery. The atmospheric setting (the Inugami family's labyrinthine lakeside villa, in the winter) brings the reader to a region of Japan not well known in the West.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keeping Murder in the Family,
By Mo Brien "Banshee" (Kettering, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Inugami Clan (Paperback)
This is a good juicy murder mystery full of family secrets and grudges. It blends post-WWII noir with a pinch of Poeish grotesquerie and a good old-fashioned "house party" mystery. You also get to meet the famous series detective Kosuke Kindaichi, whose rumpled demeanor and unseemly headscratching cover a brilliant and kind mind. (His cases were the subject of many films, and his grandson is star of <I>The Kindaichi Case Files</i> manga, anime, and live action series.)Btw, to the reviewer who thought this showed how Japan had changed for the worse thanks to Westernization? I think you'll find that's not the point at all, if you consider the timelines and motivations. Many of the vices that caused the trouble were part of pre-Meiji culture, sadly. But it's not a pro-Western novel, either. Anything this noirish is bound to be full of inconveniently gray areas.
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