Review: The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

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The Honjin Murders was serialized in a Japanese magazine in 1946. My copy also has a 1973 copyright which I guess is when it was published as a book. The English translation by Louise Heal Kawai was published in 2019.

I usually read hardboiled detective and noir stories but this is an old school, golden age style, locked room mystery and I found it a fun book to read and a style I'll probably dip back into occasionally.

The "honjin" in the title refers to an inn that served only nobility and as descendants of the owners of such a honjn, the well-to-do Ichiyanagi family has a high social rank. The heir and eldest son, Kenzo, has insisted on marrying a schoolteacher, Katsuko, against the wishes of his family. On their wedding night, everyone is awakened by screams and wild music from a kobo, a traditional string instrument. 

Rushing to the estate Annex where the couple is staying, the building is found to be locked tight. After breaking a shutter, the men enter and discover Kenzo and Katsuko stabbed to death. No one is found in the building and with no footprints in the snow everyone is mystified at who could have killed the couple and escaped. To further confuse matters, the murder weapon, a katana, is found outside with the blade buried in the ground.

This is a high profile case and soon police officers and detectives are on site. Katsuko's uncle and father figure, Ginzo, thinks something funny is going on with the Ichiyanagi family and sends for a private detective he previously sponsored in America, put through college,  and helped get started with his detective agency in Japan. This detective is Kosuke Kindaichi who has been able to solve many complex cases and is something of a national figure. He considers Ginzo his uncle and comes right away. With Kosuke's arrival, the game is afoot.

This is a locked room mystery which makes it is not only a whodunnit but a howdunnit. Something I didn't expect but enjoyed is that the author has his narrator talking about classic detective novelists and the locked room mystery. John Dickson Carr is much appreciated by the narrator. This should not be a surprise because Yokomizo is known as the Japanese John Dickson Carr.  The author also mentions one of my favorite, if not well known outside of classic mystery fans, locked room stories, The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne. There is even a chapter titled A Conversation About Detective Novels.

Katsuko is nothing like anyone's expectations for a private detective. He is young, has a slight stammer, an untidy appearance, and a disheveled shock of hair. About his methods he is quoted:

The police investigate footprints and look for fingerprints. I take the results of these investigations and by piecing together all the available information logically, I am able to reach a conclusion. These are my methods of deduction.

As he told Ginzo, in an investigation he'd use his head rather than a tape measure and magnifying glasses. He's a little like Hercule Poirot, he solves crimes with his little grey cells. 

Unlike what you find with most hardboiled detectives, Katsuko is fully embraced by the detectives on the case and made part of the investigation. The police are not portrayed as fools but see the facts differently.

I didn't see the solution coming so I am reluctant to go into details about the investigation to avoid spoiling it for the reader. but I can say that Katsuko is an engaging character and great fun to watch work. The story is well plotted with interesting twists and turns and revelations. This is thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended especially if you like a good, solid, classic detective novel. Katsuko features in 76 more detective novels but I think only one other has been translated, The Inugami Curse.

The book is a translation from the Japanese and I think Louise Heal Kawai has given it a good smooth flow. I probably wouldn't have known that it was written in a different language just from reading. Making a book easily accessible outside of its native language is such a creative endeavor that the translator is rightly up there with the author.

Keywords: locked room mystery, detective stories, Japanese detective stories, private detectives