The Honjin Murders Seishi Yokomizo 1946

Recommended by Marilyn Stasio, the mystery novel columnist in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, this is the best known work by the man considered to be the dean of Japanese mystery novelists.  Yokomizo revered John Dickson Carr and especially Gaston Laroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room, classic ‘locked room murder mysteries” and created his own contribution to that genre with this book written in 1946 and translated in 2019.  The hard-to-recall Japanese names of the characters are made easier with a list of characters at the front of the book, and the tale moves along swiftly with many a surprising turn. The double murder is solved by a private detective, Kosuke Kindaichi, the recurring character in Yokomizo’s novels.  The story revolves around Kenzo Ichiyanagi and  his wife Katsuko Kubo who are found murdered on their wedding night.  Glad I read it to become acquainted with a classic mystery author, but doubt I’ll read his other works.