This is a real 'locked-room murder mystery' that young private detective Kosuke Kindaichi is determined to solve.
During the wedding night, the head of the Ichiyanagis and his bride are brutally killed. When they were found in the morning, no traces were found in the fresh snow around the building, all the shutters were closed and the door was locked from the inside. How could the murderer have escaped? What happened? This mystery is written with many twists and turns. On the one hand, the reader thinks he is on the trail of the murderer, but soon realises that he is looking in the wrong direction.
It was a very exciting and amusing read. ( )

An uneasy feeling remains after reading The Hojin Murders. Does it have to do with the lock? Does it have to do with the fact that throughout the book it is said that this or that would later prove to be important in this case? That names and places are mentioned with only the initial letter? I can't bring it home. Even though I enjoyed this book, the characters, Japanese words and customs, I would like to give the author a few words of praise. The positive point is that he is able to mislead you about who or what and how. Just like Agatha Christie, but a bit more flawed because after a while it became clear to me that the supposed murderer could almost be removed from the list after the first few pages. It's not bad, it's not special. But I look forward to another title from this author. If only to know whether he has refined his writing style over the years. ( )

Conveluted crime story ( )

This book gets points for being somewhat of a page-turner and for its depiction of early Showa Era village life. However, the story did not age well, and the solution is unrealistically complicated. Moreover, all the surviving characters seem unaffected by the murders and spend all their time cheerfully trying to figure out the solution, like they're playing a game or acting out an Agatha Christie re-enactment. I half enjoyed this book. ( )

In the winter of 1937, the wealthy Ichiyanagi family was preparing for the wedding of Kenzo Ichiyanagi, the eldest son of the main Ichiyanami family, and Katsuko Kubo, a teacher at a girls' school. Kenzo's mother was disapproving of Katsuko, who she viewed as nothing more than the daughter of a tenant farmer, but Kenzo was determined to marry her.

Shortly before the wedding, there are rumors of a strange man with only three fingers on his right hand being sighted around town, asking for directions to the Ichiyanagi family's home. For some reason this man visits the Ichiyanagi family home the day of the wedding, delivering a note to Kenzo. That night, strange koto plucking sounds and a possible cry for help are heard, and the rest of the family, fearing an emergency, rushes to the Ichiyanagi annexe house where the newly married couple is staying. What they find is a katana embedded blade-first in the snow and no footprints anywhere. When they get inside, they discover Kenzo and Katsuko slashed to death. A knocked over folding screen is nearby, with a bloody, three-fingered handprint upon it.

Scruffy amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi arrives at the request of Ginzo, the bride's uncle, to help with the investigation, which initially points firmly towards the strange three-fingered man as the most likely person to be the killer.

This is the sort of mystery where you're meant to be more interested in the puzzle presented by the murder than in the characters involved. Most of the characters in this book aren't particularly memorable - for me, that included Kosuke Kindaichi. I was intrigued enough by the locked room mystery, though, that that didn't matter much.

This was largely okay, up until the ending, which annoyed me with its intricacies and complexity. I had trouble picturing how everything was set up. Although there was an illustration of the Ichiyanagi annexe house that laid out what the crime scene looked like, I'd have appreciated another illustration showing how the killer did everything. I just couldn't wrap my brain around it, which seriously interfered with my enjoyment during the final revelations.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )