If the covers of the Strange Series (Strange Pictures and Strange Houses) caught my eye, Murder at the Black Cat Cafe did too. That was how I found my way to Seishi Yokomizo’s series, after being sorely disappointed by the ending of Strange Buildings (no review written). This marked the beginning of my rather grisly but enthralling reading journey.
So far, I’ve read four of Yokomizo’s books, and not one has let me down.
Who Is Seishi Yokomizo?
(Excerpt taken from Pushkin Press)
Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan’s most famous and beloved mystery writers, best known for creating the legendary detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who featured in more than 70 stories, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan. The Honjin Murders, the first Kosuke Kindaichi novel, is regarded as one of Japan’s great mystery novels and won the inaugural Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1948. The Inugami Curse, The Village of Eight Graves, Death on Gokumon Island, The Devil’s Flute Murders, The Little Sparrow Murders, Murder at the Black Cat Cafe and She Walks at Night are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.
Overall Thoughts on the Series
The intricacy of these plots blew me away, from The Honjin Murders to The Little Sparrow Murders. I’d compare the complex plotting to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries, though the prose itself reads simpler, likely a result of translation from the original Japanese text.
What struck me most wasn’t just the puzzle-box plotting. It was sitting with stories written decades ago, as with most books today, and feeling grateful that these translations, made in the recent years, found their way to me now. How enduring and inspiring literature could be!
About The Inugami Curse
The most recent title I finished in the series, The Inugami Curse, left me breathless, intrigued, and a little sad, all at once. Following the blood-ridden path of detective Kosuke Kindaichi, we’re introduced to the wealthy, enmity-riddled Inugami clan.
Sahei Inugami, the family’s formidable patriarch, leaves behind a will that seemingly pits his relatives against one another. Beneath buried secrets and hidden passions, there’s far more at stake than anyone expects.
Official Plot Summary:
(Excerpt taken from Pushkin Press)
In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami Clan dies, and his family eagerly await the reading of the will. But no sooner are its strange details revealed than a series of bizarre, gruesome murders begins. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan’s terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and hidden identities to find the murderer, and lift the curse wreaking its bloody revenge on the Inugamis.
The Inugami Curse is a fiendish, intricately plotted classic mystery from a giant of Japanese crime writing, starring the legendary detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
My Review (Not Spoiler-Free)
I read the novel with bated breath, believing I’d cracked the murderer’s identity the way I had with The Little Sparrow Murders, but I was wrong. Red herrings crowd every chapter, and the grisly murders themselves are unforgiving in how they unfold.
And it had all started with a will of great fortune that soon set off a bloody inheritance battle.
What I enjoyed the most, other than the intricate world of the story itself, was the distinctive character of the murderer, or aptly revealed, the murderess. She was headstrong, obstinate, and unapologetic; her heinous actions driven by a twisted logic and love that never wavered. She remained unrepentant to the end, right down to choosing her own final sentence on her own terms.
I don’t condone this kind of act in real life, but in fiction, it was rather refreshing to read about a villain whose malice grows out of twisted love rather than simple cruelty, and how unyielding she was throughout the tale. No remorse, no guilt. She never bends.
Sahei Inugami’s own backstory, revealed later in the novel, adds a tragic layer that echoes the conservative values of old Japan, values I recognised from my own heritage too. Beyond an unexpected queer relationship introduced earlier in the story, the later revelation lands harder: a love between Sahei and Haruyo, the wife of Daini stuck in a loveless marriage, that could never be acknowledged in its time, and having a child he so adored but couldn’t claim. Divorce was a topic of taboo and so Sahei and Haruyo had to hide their love from the world, never legal and never made known. Yet Sahei’s subsequent treatment of his mistresses was its own cruelty, and it shaped his three children who grew up cold, twisted, and full of resentment.
I also appreciated how the novel grounds itself in real postwar conditions. Men drafted into war came home scarred, physically and emotionally, and making it known that there can never be a victor on the battlefield. I felt for Aonuma Shizuma in particular, the illegitimate son, a man born under a doomed star and left disfigured by war. He was never more than a victim in someone else’s game, when he should be the rightful heir, loved and known to all.
If there has to be a victor in the story, it’s the lovely Tamayo, who inherits the fortune and having her love requited. Even so, she was still one to be pitied as well, with all the glory achieved after endless trials and tribulations. A lesser person would have been scarred, traumatised, and lost their mind. May the unwritten future of Tamayo and the grief-stricken, kind-hearted Kiyo, who had watched his mother commit those sins, be full of happiness and tenderness.
Ultimately, The Inugami Curse weaves traditions, forbidden passion, love, and greed into a compelling tale. It’s a story about excess, about how too much of anything, even love, can become someone’s undoing.
A bizarre murder marked by three iconic symbols: an axe, a chrysanthemum, and a koto, masterfully written.
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