Set in 1946, this is the second in the series featuring detective Kosuke Kindaichi. The action takes place on an island inhabited by fishing communities and features several murders.

Firstly, despite the blurb, this novel bears very little relation to 'And Then There Were None' in style, plotting, setting or methodology. The solution to the main murder has more affinities with the impossible crime school and JD Carr, and is mildly preposterous.

As with the three others I have read in the series, most of my interest was from the insights to be gained into Japanese society- here in the immediate aftermath of WW2, rather than from the rather tedious detection.

The translation reads well and the publishers are to be lauded for making the books available in English. However my enjoyment of the series has not increased the more I read. Certainly I liked this more than 'The Village of Eight Graves', but I am still far from being a fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Vertigo for the digital review copy.

3.5 stars.

(3 1/2, rounded to 4)

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Vertigo for allowing me to read this ARC!

Content Warning: death, violence, murder, misogyny, alcoholism, rape apologism.


During the war, the famed private detective Kosuke Kindaichi finds himself befriending a young man from a strange, isolated island called Gokumon-to -- Hell's Gate. When this man, Chimata Kito, sadly dies on their repatriation ship, he makes Kosuke vow that he will go to Gokumon and protect the lives of his three young sisters. Although there are rumors of the island's strangeness, Kosuke is surprised by how insular the community is, relying primarily on Chimata's family for their livelihoods. Welcomed by the island's Buddhist priest, Ryonen, Kosuke quickly discovers that this mysterious place holds many secrets -- and no one is eager to let them go...

Upon my initial request for this book, I didn't realize that it was actually the second in a series, and I was a bit concerned about how this might impact my reading. I didn't have the chance to fit the first in before I read this one, but I'm happy to report that while it certainly would make you more familiar with the characters, it doesn't seem to be necessary at all to understand or enjoy this installment!

Yokomizo is considered one of the finest Japanese mystery writers, one of many who thrived and, indeed, created Japan's Golden Age of detective fiction. This book is referred to as a "locked room mystery," but I think that's a bit misleading. This is heavily influenced by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, something I also saw in another revered Japanese classic, The Decagon House Murders. In spite of the fact that it's obviously inspired by Christie's work, this novel is decidedly its own, and its uniqueness is what made it work for me.

I'm afraid I have to admit that Yokomizo's famous detective, Kosuke, is not all that interesting (at least not in this book). He's a bit milquetoast, a kind of springboard for the brilliance of the criminals, but I was pleased that he's not so magnificently-minded that he never makes any mistakes. I warmed up to him over the course of the novel, but its true strength lies in the many side characters, full of eccentricities and described shrewdly and cleverly. The female characters in particular interested me, but they are, naturally, put on the backburner (and there's some rather aggravating misogyny to boot). This was written somewhere around 1947/1948, I believe, so it's not exactly surprising, but disappointing nonetheless.

The mystery itself kept me engaged, and while the writing style is dry, it has that classic Japanese feel that lends itself to both introspection and readability. It's only because of some very convoluted explanations that this doesn't quite get the full four stars, but readers of classic mysteries will find a lot to be pleased with in this intriguing story.

Recommended. It's entertaining and full of fascinating insights into Japanese culture, and I will definitely be looking into Yokomizo's other books!

Pushkin Vertigo continues to rerelease classic mysteries in translation and I'm so here for it.

Detective Kosuke Kindaichi arrives at Gokumon Island to tell the family of one of his squadmates that he died in the war. He is viewed as an outsider by the islanders, especially as the three heiress sisters start dying gruesome deaths.

This is a locked "island" mystery with a limited number of suspects. I didn't figure out the real perpetrator due to plentiful misdirections and red herrings.

I hope more of the Yokomizo books get republished. So well done! 4.2/5

When I saw Death on Gokumon Island described as a Japanese version of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, I knew I had to read it. I can see why it is pitched as such (the remote, island setting and, of course, murder mystery) but it is also such a unique little read that has it's very own charm.

Translated from its original Japanese, I found the flow really easy to get into and while there were a lot of characters introduced at first, once they were all committed to memory, a really fun read. It keep the suspense thrumming and delivers on a clever plot -what more could you want?

Seishi Yokomizo is definitely an author I'd read again. "Death on Gokumon Island" (nearly) has it all: inexplicable murders, a good main character, red herrings, interesting characters and relationships, as well as a vivid post-WWII Japan.

Kosuke Kindaichi used to be a great detective - and then the war came and paused all that. In the army, he met Chimata, the son of a fishing mogul on the (fictional) Gokumon Island; and Chimata, while not a coward, had a single fear: of dying before getting back home.

But die he does, on the return trip, and he charges Kosuke Kindaichi to go to Gokumon Island and save his three sisters, who will be murdered. The letter of recommendation he's given is addressed to three people: the priest, the mayor and the doctor who live on the island.

Gokumon is an interesting world: slightly more traditional than the mainland, it's populated by an isolated people, perceived as odd and a bad lot because they're descended from prisoners and pirates. In fact, even the author suggests, poverty might have more to do with that, and prosperity is fairly recent on the island. Chimata's grandfather was the one who brought more affluence and who had a passion for culture and the arts, going so far as to take islanders by boat to see shows elsewhere. (His tastes, it's specified, aren't amazing; still, it's a leap forward.)

The sense of a changing world, of lives put on pause, of post-war chaos are wonderfully represented: abandoned military infrastructure, underwater mines, a temple bell that was recquisitioned for the war effort (and later returned, because it hadn't been melted yet), a scarcity of cotton, military boots that everyone seems to have, news on the radio about soldiers returning home, careers put on pause, people missing and presumed dead. (As someone born in 1921, Seishi Yokomizo undoubtedly had first-hand knowledge of what Japan looked like at the time, even if "Death on Gokumon Island" itself was only first published in 1971.)

Even so, the islanders are traditional, living in a nearly feudal relationship with the fishing chiefs, and offering great respect to the three worthies (by way of their professions): the priest, the mayor and the doctor. And as is the way of many traditional, small places, everyone knows everyone, and they gossip about the affairs of the important people, with underlying assumptions and conventions about how the world around them functions, to the point where events are perceived on a nearly theatrical level.

When Kosuke Kindaichi arrives, the murders start happening. The first woman is found hanged upside down from a plum tree, tied with the obi of her kimono - and things only get odder from there. The criminal is hard to identify; the one person who would have the most to gain from the deaths still hasn't returned home from the war, and the only newly arrived person on the island (and who might therefore be a hired killer) is Kindaichi himself... Until he digs deeper and everyone seems to have potential opportunities or motives: a pirate who has escaped to the island by swimming and who may be the cousin set to inherit the business if they die; the girls' father, who is a locked up madman, and who hates them; the branch family who might be making a bid for power, or at least getting revenge out of hatred.

The solution is a bit contrived (but much less so than I'd feared), but the atmosphere - ah, that's so well done! I loved it.

Kosuke Kindaichi, the rumpled Japanese private detective, has returned from the defeat of war, bringing news of a fallen comrade to his bereaved family. The comrade worried on his deathbed that his three sisters would soon be murdered and this worry causes Detective Kindaichi to start an investigation on his late friend’s behalf. Something is wrong on the island, but who is behind it all and why?

Death on Gokumon Island is an enjoyable murder mystery, with a wide cast of suspects and some intriguingly elaborate clues. The satisfying conclusion is well worth five stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the e-ARC! Death On Gokumon Island is a murder mystery novel by famous classic Japanese author Seishi Yokomizo. This is part of a series following a famous private detective Kouske Kindaichi. Normally, I would never start a series from anywhere other than the beginning but this reads well as a stand alone novel. The cast of characters was a little difficult to get acquainted with at the beginning but the character list at the beginning helps with keeping everyone identified. Overall, a pretty straight forward standard mystery novel but I would be interested to read more of Yokomizo’s work in the future.

I didn't know how much I needed this book in my life until I read it! Old-school locked room mystery set in post-war Japan that I checked out on a whim but was a delightful surprise. A hostile close-knit community, plenty of twists, wildly elaborate murder scenes (yes, I had to suspend my disbelief wrt: plausibility, but it was fun enough that I didn't mind), and plenty of interesting cultural seasoning with the backdrop of insular Japan in the aftermath of WW2. Full disclosure: I didn't bother to guess whodunnit, though the elements were there, because the book is a short read and flows smoothly enough that I didn't want to put it down. The only nitpick is that some of the cultural context / nuances didn't fully translate; as for the writing style it definitely feels a bit stilted and old-fashioned, but in a way that IMO really suits this kind of book.

I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat, but I was really charmed. 3.5 stars rounded up because I definitely haven't read anything like this before, and really appreciate the chance to enjoy some variety in my murder mysteries.

I had my expectations high for this book after reading The Village of Seven Graves but I couldn't dive deep into the book. I simply kept losing focus and felt kind of jumbled with all the extensive characters. And hence I had to put down the book. Maybe I would read it later.

It's been so much fun, as a lifelong fan of whodunits and detective novels (and someone who doesn't know Japanese) to have these translations of Seishi Yokomizo's classics available! I've loved getting to see the classic puzzle mystery (and boy are they puzzles) in this midcentury Japanese setting, though sometimes the writing feels detached and quite stilted in a way that might be a translation issue, or might be reflective of the original text. (I would usually lean toward the former, but there are some specific aspects of the story that would have been especially tricky to translate and which seem quite natural in English, so kudos to the translator for that!)

As for the plot, I always feel that the mark of a great mystery is when the reader figures out some elements of the solution but not everything, and that everything they haven't worked out for themselves makes them feel like "Ah, of course, I should have gotten that!" Death on Gokumon Island gets some of this - I worked out a bit but certainly not all (more the who, much less of the how), though the answers ultimately given didn't all feel like things I reasonably could have worked out as a reader. Still, the less than plausible complexity is in keeping with the genre, and does hold together in the end. (It's definitely a fair play solution, with no sly narrative tricks up the author's sleeve.)

It's a surprisingly slow-feeling pace for a story that's both fairly short and has more than its share of bodies piling up, but by the end, the atmosphere, situations, and solutions were eerie, chilling, and definitely intriguing. Fans of Agatha Christie and other Golden Age mystery novels should certainly check out Yokomizo's work, and be grateful for the new English editions being put out by Pushkin Vertigo!

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This 1971 Japanese mystery novel, now available in an English translation, is the fourth book in Yokomizo’s Kosuke Kindaichi series to be published in English by Pushkin Press, but actually the second in original publication order. It works as a standalone, with a few references to Kindaichi’s first case, The Honjin Murders, so you could easily start with this one if you wanted to.

Death on Gokumon Island is set in 1946, just after the end of the Second World War, and nearly ten years after the events of The Honjin Murders. Kosuke Kindaichi is on his way to the strangely named Gokumon – or ‘Hell’s Gate’ – Island to deliver the sad news of his army friend Chimata Kito’s death. Kindaichi knows this will be a difficult task, but what really worries him is a prediction made by the dying man that his three half-sisters, who all live on the island in the family home, are going to be murdered.

Arriving on Gokumon Island, Kindaichi gets to know the members of the Kito household, including Chimata’s father who is said to be mad and kept locked up behind bars, as well as another rival branch of the family who live nearby and would benefit from deaths in the main Kito family. The scene is set for a classic murder mystery – and it’s not long before the first murder does take place. Kindaichi begins to investigate, but the islanders are suspicious of newcomers and are reluctant to answer questions.

I struggled to get into this book at first; I felt that we were being introduced to a lot of characters all at once and it was difficult to distinguish between them. I’ve found that with all of the Japanese mysteries I’ve read the authors seem to be more concerned with puzzle-solving than with character development, although Yokomizo is better in that respect than some of the others. After a few chapters I had settled into the story and began to enjoy it. It was good to see more of Kosuke Kindaichi than we did in The Village of Eight Graves; he’s quite endearing with his nervous stammer and head-scratching and the way he makes mistakes and isn’t afraid to admit to them.

Louise Heal Kawai’s translation is clear and easy to read (she also did the translation for The Honjin Murders, although not Eight Graves, which was translated by Bryan Karetnyk). I’m sure Japanese must be a difficult language to translate into English and I do wonder if any nuance is lost along the way, but I was impressed by the way she managed to capture the meaning of the wordplay, poetry and haikus that form part of the plot. I felt I was learning quite a lot about Japanese culture, as well as post-war life in a country that had been on the losing side.

This book has been compared with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, but I don’t think they have much in common other than that they are both mysteries set on islands. This is a very different sort of island, for a start – unlike Christie’s, it’s inhabited, with a fishing community, a mayor, doctors, priests and barbers (to name just some of the characters we meet) – and although there may be a few similarities in the way the murders are carried out, the solution is completely different. It’s a solution I didn’t manage to guess at all; I was convinced I had picked up on an important clue halfway through but it turned out to be a red herring!

Now I need to find time to read The Inugami Curse, the other Yokomizo book currently available in English.

This book was very fun and engaging. It's a great quick read if you're looking for a little murder mystery. I didn't realize it was a sequel when I requested the galley, but it was still readable without having read The Honjin Murders (which I do intend to read eventually). I will absolutely be reading this series as the translations are released. The only thing I wasn't as huge a fan of was how repetitive the character descriptions were. It was like every time a character was mentioned you had to be reminded of their role on the island. Overall, a great book!

This is my third outing with Kosuke Kindaichi, known as the “greatest detective in Japan” by many in Japan after his solution of the Honjin murder. The setting now is in 1945, in the months after the end of the war in Japan. Japanese soldiers are in the slow process of being repatriated to their homes. Families don’t know if their husbands, fathers or sons have survived the war. Kindaichi is on his way to Gokumon Island to fulfill a promise to a dying comrade, to personally tell that family of his death. What concerns him is the cryptic comment his friend made about the well-being of his half sisters after his death.

Arrival at Gokumon Island brings an aura of heavy mist, an imposing landscape, unusual people who temporarily cow our detective. As he works out the relationships of the families, the townspeople, local traditions, it happens that his sleuthing skills will be needed. For murder also visits the island.

I recommend this book and all of the series that has been translated into English. Kosuke Kindaichi is an interesting character with human skills and foibles. He also enjoys people. The novels are full of Japanese period history as they were written at the time. They also reflect many social and cultural aspects of Japanese life that add so much to the stories. Enjoy!

A copy of this book was provided by Pushkin Vertigo through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Anyone with a passing familiarity with this blog knows that I love thrillers. It's my favourite thing to read when I need to unwind, or when I need to wind myself up, or when it's a day ending in y. But it's also a genre you can get stuck in, as a lot of novels do follow the same routine. This is why it was high time for me to step outside of familiar territory and get to know Japan's classic private eye, Kosuke Kindaichi! Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In the sea there lies an island, with a ferry slowly moving towards it. Upon this ferry are a few key characters, whose news will stir up the quiet island known as Gokumon. It is a brilliant opening and it tells you a lot about the setting immediately. Islands are great settings because they give you a closed community with a long past, which may not respond well to outsiders. Tensions run deep, agreements go back generations, and secrets are known by everyone and yet kept quiet. What really got to me, however, was the way Yokomizo depicts the ending of World War II. He truly shows it to have a major impact, not just onto the soldiers sent abroad to commit horrible crimes, but also on those who stay behind, on the communities that suffer, on the families that are fractured. While Death on Gokumon Island is a dramatic novel, sure, it nonetheless has its roots in something real and serious.

Gokumon Island is a strange place with a mysterious past. Above all, however, it is isolated from the world and is home to a close-knit community that doesn't like strangers poking in. Enter Kosuke Kindaichi, returning from the Second World War with the tragic news that the heir apparent of the main family of the island has passed. But this is only the beginning, as more death awaits on the horizon. Can Kosuke prevent these deaths? Or is there more going on than even he could imagine? Death on Gokumon Island is one of those locked-room mysteries, in that the limited cast of the novel is all stuck on an island together, a murderer amongst them. Yokomizo makes sure to give the reader plenty of information, from time stamps to maps to clues, to allow them to think along with Kosuke. And yet I could not have seen the solution coming. I really enjoyed Death on Gokumon Island; for all its oddities, it was utterly gripping.

Seishi Yokomizo is a must-read in Japan, in the way that Agatha Christie is in the West. If you like thrillers and suspense, you go to Yokomizo. And I can see why, now. Gokumon Island combines a whole lot of things I love, from a Gothic spooky angle to a sly sense of humour. It must be said that the style of this novel is very different from what readers of Western thrillers may be used to. The main thing I noticed is that we don't get as much introspection. We have an insight into the main character, Kosuke, to a certain extent, but we don't get pages upon pages of his thoughts, worries, concerns, or memories. The author and reader are at a little bit of a distance from it all, which makes it more of a puzzle to solve than a harrowing emotional rollercoaster. This felt like an absolute breath of fresh air to me, in comparison to the last thriller I read. There is definitely a feel of "classic" about Gokumon, as we know it from Agatha Christie. Kosuke is like Poirot in his oddities and attention to detail, but loveable in a different way. There is an enthusiasm to him, but also a sensibility that keeps him truly human. I will definitely be looking into Yokomizo's other Kosuke Kindaichi novels so this shall not be my final foray into Japan.

Death on Gokumon Island truly does feel like a classic. While it may take some time to get into the style of these novels, I can wholeheartedly recommend them.

DNFed and won’t be “revisiting at a later date”.

Really couldn't get into this one at all. There are too many characters, no one stood out, and they're all just the same. I stopped reading at 33%. Thoroughly disappointed.

Death on Gokumon Island (1971; 2022) by Seishi Yokomizo (Trans. by Louise Heal Kawai)

It has been quite a while since I have sampled any classic Japanese crime fiction, seven years in fact. Shocking I know! But I think reading The Decagon House (1987) by Yukito Ayatsuji may have put me off, due to the dryness of the prose. Yet the recent translations from Pushkin Press Vertigo (The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse), have incrementally been piquing my curiosity, so I finally decided to give one a go.

Synopsis

‘Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news—the son of one of the island’s most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger—with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters’ lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can. As Kosuke Kindaichi attempts to unravel the island’s secrets, a series of gruesome murders begins. He investigates, but soon finds himself in mortal danger from both the unknown killer and the clannish locals, who resent this outsider meddling in their affairs.’

Overall Thoughts

You know you are off to a good start when your book commences with a map! I think this was a smart move on the publishers’ part as the illustration really helped me to visualise the island and therefore take on board the various alibis I encountered later in the story.

After that we have a prologue which tells the reader about the pirating history of the island. There is more than one theory as to how the island got its name, Gokumon, meaning Hell’s Gate. The island unsurprisingly has a violent past history, and we are also told of its insularity. From the translation style I could tell a conversational tone was being striven for, yet I still found a dry prose style creeping in. However, thankfully overall I would say this book suffers from it less than The Decagon House Murders, although I must confess that my mind did glaze over when one of the murder methods is explored by the sleuth. There was a little too much maths and physics for my liking! Another thing I noticed stylistically is that there are sections periodically in the narrative which are heavy on description and in the first quarter of the book I would say the plot moves quite slowly. The speed does pick up later.

If like me you have not read any other stories featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, you don’t need to worry about starting mid-series as chapter 1 provides a recap on what he has been doing since solving The Honjin Murders. I found this useful as it helped me to orientate myself and I also didn’t feel that this earlier mystery was spoilt. I found Kindaichi’s entry into the story interesting, as the text uses clothing as a way of describing his otherness, a facet often linked to the role of detective:

‘At the far edge of the stern section, there was an odd-looking passenger. The man was dressed in a traditional serge hakama skirt. On his head was a shapeless, crumpled felt hat. These days even peasant farmers would wear Western clothes, or at least an approximation of Western clothing at home. Off on a trip, the world and his wife would be dressed Western style. Right now, on this ship there was only one other man in traditional Japanese clothing, and he was a Buddhist priest. In those days, to persist in wearing traditional Japanese dress took some stubbornness, but this passenger didn’t look stubborn.’

This sense of him being an outsider felt very applicable given the closed off nature of the community he was visiting. I was also surprised to learn that at this stage there was this preference for Western clothing. I guess I thought this interest might have developed later.

Although Death on Gokumon Island was originally published in the 1970s, the story is set in 1946 and I felt this was a really engaging time period to situate the mystery in. I have read a lot of Western classic crime fiction which explores the short term and longer-term consequences of WW2, such as Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced and Elizabeth Ferrars’ Hunt the Tortoise, but I hitherto had not read any from a country within the Axis powers. This aspect of the story was really fascinating. Kindaichi, we are told, was drafted into the army, and became stranded at Wewak in New Guinea. It transpires that his regiment had become largely forgotten by both sides in the conflict, yet it was decimated by illness and malnutrition.

Given that Japan was on the losing side of the war I wondered what attitudes the writer would bestow on his characters regarding it. War in the narrative is not glamourised and instead WW2 is regarded as ‘ridiculous’ and a greater focus is put on the devastating effect the conflict has had on the landscape as well as the people. An example of this can be found near the beginning of the book:

“This area isn’t even the worst. If you head west – because we’re close to China, the islands are full of big craters. They look like beehives. There was even one island that was secretly making poison gas. Now they have no idea how to deal with all the gas that’s left there.”

The same character continues, expressing annoyance at the military impact on Gokumon island, where they had dug massive holes for anti-aircraft guns: “The poem goes, ‘Destroy a country, but its mountains and rivers remain,’ but it’s more like ‘Destroy a country and completely mangle its mountains and rivers beyond recognition.'”

When the story opens Kindaichi has been demobbed. We are told what his mission is in going to Gokumon island. He is asked by a dying comrade to go to his home and save his sisters, who he believes are going to be murdered once he is dead. It is not until the end of the mystery that we can fully understand why this dying soldier has these anxieties and why his death would precipitate the violent demises of his siblings.

I don’t think I had any preconceptions of what these sisters would be like, yet I was actually quite surprised by how unpleasant they were. I wonder if this is because their horribleness is fuelled by extreme self-obsession and juvenile and immature personalities. They are meant to be older teenagers, yet their actions and speech suggest a much younger person. In a child they might have been deemed precocious, but as young adults such behaviour feels less acceptable. Kindaichi perceives them as gorgons, not least because ‘they’d been more concerned with their hairstyles […] than by their own brother’s death.’ And when they begin to die there is no sobering up of the remaining siblings. It occurred to me that maybe the writer was deploying the trope of the unpleasant victim, or victims in this case, as none of them are characters you are sad to see go.

Some authors give their fictional detectives particular mannerisms or traits. Hercule Poirot has his love of symmetry and order and Miss Silver coughs so much in some of her cases that you can become alarmed that the book will conclude with her being diagnosed as suffering from TB. Yet in today’s read I have found a new trait for a sleuth to be allocated and that is… DANDRUFF! Kosuke Kindaichi scratches his heads so much that I wanted to ask him if he had head lice or whether he wanted some Head and Shoulders. Surprisingly, Kindaichi’s dandruff does impact those around him as at one point he: ‘immediately began to scratch his head, a look of joy on his face. He scratched so hard that dandruff flew in clouds around him. Shimizu was forced to take a good few steps backwards to get out of the line of fire.’ Seriously how much dandruff does this man have?

One thing which surprised me when reading this book, was how the prose style, at times, took on the tone of an English drawing room drama. I am not sure if this is present in the original text, with the author leaning into this style deliberately, or whether this is an element which has come out of the translation process. The passage which exemplifies this the best is this one:

“Yes, I heard that last night Hana-chan was found murdered in this place, and the whole village is talking about it. People are claiming that at my instigation, Ukai-san lured Hana-chan here and that he and I killed her together. Isn’t that the most outrageous thing you ever heard?”

“I see. Well, that is indeed a terrible thing to say. However, Oshiho-san, don’t you think that one might say that there is no smoke without fire? Are you sure that you didn’t do something along those lines?”

“Me? I am devastated that even you, Ryonen-san, would cast such aspersions.”

Maybe because I was not expecting it and because I felt very grounded in the realities of post-War Japan, I found this style a bit disconcerting, as though it didn’t quite fit in.

I think my biggest bugbear with Kindaichi’s approach to sleuthing is that he belligerently refuses to tell the local authority figures and police, even the policeman he is good friends with, why he has come to Gokumon island – i.e., to save the lives of his comrade’s sisters. His reluctance to reveal this information hampers him at the start of his investigation as he is treated with grave suspicion, as the only newcomer to the area before the first murder occurs. As the body count rose, I was completely baffled as to why Kindaichi still thought that revealing his mission would endanger the lives of the women he was supposed to protect, since clearly by not telling anyone, he had not saved anyone either. You could argue that his silence might have aided the guilty party.

Repeatedly the narrative tells us after one of Kindaichi’s actions or decisions that he was going to have regretted doing this later and he does make some serious mistakes. I would say at times he makes Had-I-But-Known heroines look competent! Having not read The Honjin Murders, I am unsure whether Kindaichi is consistently this fallible.

Reflecting on the ending of the mystery as a whole I think there is perhaps some logic and reasoning behind the author’s decision to not have Kindaichi reveal his mission openly until the end, but for the character this action does not make a lot of sense. I managed to spot a red herring solution, but the correct answer was not one you can get a hold of properly. It is a solution which is attached to an extensive backstory which is given at the 11th hour, alongside some very creative thinking on Kindaichi’s part. The explanation of the crime also includes conversations which take place with witnesses off the page. This arguably might have been to cut down on the page count, but I think there were earlier passages which could have been excised in order for these dialogues to be included.

This is a shame as the crime has a wonderfully unusual motivation and there is a surprisingly powerful moment of emotional poignancy at the end. I think it gives the denouement an ironic twist and reminded me of the work of Francis Iles and Henry Wade.

Despite having some issues with the construction of the mystery I did enjoy this mystery which had Japanese culture and history firmly and engagingly woven within it.

Rating: 3.75/5

Source: Review Copy (Pushkin Vertigo via Netgalley)

Finding a specific sub-genre is a really cool thing, and I've recently found that in 1900s Japanese murder mysteries.

Death on Gokumon Island is the 4th installment of the Detective Kindaichi Mysteries series, but they can be read out of order. In this novel, Detective Kindaichi is sent to Gokumon Island by his dying friend with the request to save his three younger sisters from being murdered.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. The writing was intriguing, it left me guessing as to who the murderer was. It's unlike anything I've read before. The parallels & connections made (without spoiling what they are) were very well done and seeing more of that in today's murder mysteries would be amazing. It's definitely a little bit creepy as well in how the murders are described, which adds to the mysterious atmosphere of a small island inhabited by an unknow murderer.

However, there are a few things that didn't draw me in and that are a bit dated & today are problematic. To start with what didn't draw me in, the set up was not very engaging, it took 20% before getting interesting, and until that point I had no pull to pick up the book. There's also a few instances where narration says "dear reader" and tells you directly something that happened in a previous book. It only served to pull me out of the story. And the problematic part is how mental illness is used as a plot device & many ableist terms are used.

This is a good 3 star read, but is limited to 3 stars from me because of the ableism. Without that, it would definitely move up to 4.

CW: murder, death details, ableist language, mental illness to aid plot

Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience

4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience

3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience

2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others

1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone

I was excited to know this is written by the same author of ‘The Village of Eight Graves’. I managed to read a few chapters before it expired and I enjoyed his writing enough to request for this.

Kosuke Kindaichi arrived in Gokumon Island to inform a family of their loss for a deceased comrade. He was initially reluctant to do so but man’s last words aroused his curiosity. Kosuke made a promise to prevent the man’s sisters from getting murdered. Things got more puzzling when he met the inhabitants of the small island. Soon, the first sister is found dead and Kosuke realized he needs to figure out who the murderer is before another sister is murdered. In a small island full of secrets, can Kosuke race against time to solve this mystery?

This is a classic Japanese murder series which involves a detective trying to solve unique murders. Like solving a puzzle, the whole story is very calm and strategic amidst the rush against time to solve this mystery.

I love puzzles so I really enjoyed how the plot come together! The story is not thrilling or particularly heart stopping but it is all about solving the puzzle. The story builds up slowly as each of the suspect is introduced. All the suspects had reasons to kill but who is the final piece of the puzzle? I also love the eerie atmosphere of the island and how unique the murders were! it really gives the plot more character and depth.

Overall, I really love reading these kind of puzzle mysteries and will be on the lookout for more!

Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the arc.

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.

Kosuke Kindaichi was drafted by the army and forced to join the war. Kosuke's division suffered a crushing defeat in their final battle and took to their heels. The survivors met up with other divisions and regrouped. That was when Kosuke met Chimata Kito. But Chimata died on board that brought soldiers back to Japan.

Kosuke was requested to come to Gokumon Island by Chimata. In his final dying words, he asked Kosuke to prevent the killing of his sisters. He just knew beforehand that these killings were likely to occur.

Three separate murderers were each committed single-handedly. There were separate cases, which took place one after the other. Was it about family fortune or just a feral lot that was full of bad manners and customs?

My personal rating 4.5 ⭐

Thanks to @netgalley and @pushkin_press for providing an arc. This copy will be published on this July 5th.

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