nerd teacher [books] reviewed The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
Refreshing in Unexpected Ways
4 stars
Content warning Describes but does not detail the ending.
Overwhelmingly, I really like this book because of the way it's structured. It's written in the way of a crime writer reporting on a crime that he's heard, using notes and inferences from the various storytellers and people who were present. It's quite interesting because of that, and it feels very different from other detective novels. It's also something I like about Yokomizo's work with his detective, Kindaichi Kosuke; while he is the central figure as the detective, sometimes he's not even the protagonist of the story. You still follow him through everything, but the perspective is placed less on him and more on others around him.
I do have to mention the ending. It is something that people can perceive as being inherently misogynistic (the reasoning by the murderer is but the presentation does not feel that way to me). The blame for the misogyny is still largely placed upon the murderer and other accomplices within the story. It is not described as being "correct," and it's kind of surprising considering when the book was written (which was originally in 1946).
