Firstly, huge thanks to Pushkin Vertigo and Edelweiss+ for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Publication Date: 06/02/2020
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Translated Fiction | Japanese Fiction | Detective Fiction

CW: graphic depictions of death

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.

GoodReads

Review

I have heard a lot about Japanese detective fiction but I have never read one for myself so when I saw The Inugami Curse available to review I jumped to the chance! I’m now very excited to read more of it in the future too!

Even though this novel is the sixth one in a series, that didn’t really matter as you can easily get a grasp on the character of Kindaichi. I really liked the fact that he had a sense of humour and I also liked his interactions with the Chief of police. I also thought the dynamic between family members was really interesting, they definitely weren’t what you consider the stereotypical family and they seemed to become even more fractured as the novel continues. As interested as I was in finding out who was behind the murders, I was also just as interested finding out the many secrets that this family appeared to keep. Yokomizo does a brilliant job of crafting these characters that I could have easily read an entire novel on just the history of the family. 

I really liked the way that the novel unfolded and how the narrative progressed. At times it was difficult for me to follow how much time had passed or what events happened at what time, however, Kindaichi does create his own timeline of events and explains things very well so it was easy to get caught up. I thought that there were a lot of really brilliant red herrings; however, I also found that I preferred the explanations of some of the red herrings to the actual reveal. Then again, the final reveal was also quite satisfying even if it didn’t leave me shouting in disbelief at the book. 

I did really enjoy this novel and I will definitely be checking out more of the Kindaichi series in the future, as well as other Japanese mystery novels!