Thursday 15 April 2021

Book Review: The Inugami Curse (sometimes called the The Inugami Clan) by Seishi Yokomizo

I don't often read Detective Fiction, although I love a good Noir detective movie. I read this when I signed up to a coourse in Japanese Crime Fiction at City Lit in London. I have read a couple of the Pushkin Press Vertigo Imprint Crime series and enjoyed them before and had been meaning to combin my love of Japanese novels with this. So this was my first foray. 

I found it a quite dry, very analytical novel. The character of the detective is not well developed but then it is only the second in this series, but it is very clear to follow even thught it is a convoluted plot with multiple murders, and imposter characters, and the characters are linked by historical family events - the story set in post war Japan essentially begins by reading the complex will of the deceased Head of the successfull Inugami family. I suppose this is quite a traditional murder mystery in that the 'star' detective wrestle with people's manners, words and deeds, until the end when everyone left standing gathers for the reveal of the murderer. 

An quick and easy read, the main facts and times of the story line being summarised at various points and the detective has a sidekick of the policeman to play off as his internal thoughts are relaid to the reader partially through the interactions between these two people.


View all my reviews

No comments:

Post a Comment