This book is part of the 金田一耕助 reading club. This is the 9th book we will be reading together and (chronologically) the eighth novel-length story, but can be read as a stand-alone.
I’m ready! I’m finishing up some things this week so I can concentrate more fully on this. I expect I’ll need a little bit to adjust to the writing (and level) again.
The 天銀堂事件 described here is a lightly reskinned version of the real life 帝銀事件 of 1948. The main difference is that the real crime was at a bank, not a jewellery store. I’ve seen this crime referenced in a Japanese mystery novel before.
There’s a lot of offhand references in this introduction to former or soon to be former nobility, so I thought I’d better look up the historical background. These are the 華族, the hereditary peerage set up as part of the Meiji restoration by combining the daimyo and court nobles. By 1944 there were just over a thousand noble families. The action in the book takes place in 1947, which is the year the post war Japanese constitution came into effect. Specifically, it took effect on the 3rd of May, and article 14 abolished the peerage: “Peers and peerage shall not be recognized. No privilege shall accompany any award of honor, decoration or any distinction, nor shall any such award be valid beyond the lifetime of the individual who now holds or hereafter may receive it”.
The viscount disappeared on the 1st March, and his body (or somebody’s body ) was found on the 14th April. I was wondering if there was going to be some kind of relevance to whether he died before or after the abolition of noble status, but with these dates it doesn’t seem like it. It certainly feels like we’ve been hinted that maybe he didn’t die as early as immediately after he disappeared.
By the way, in the intro to this thread I said this was chronologically the eighth story, but that’s just because I added one from the last book we read. If anybody who understands the Kindaichi chronology wants to correct me I’ll edit the thread header…
According to the Wikipedia page for the series it was published right after (also a bit concurrently with) 女王蜂, making it the eight books published. Chronologically it is set somewhat earlier I believe, or at least that is what our narrator said… :shrug:
Speaking of our narrator… Laying it on a bit thick with the shocked reactions there, haha. I’m happy we got 金田一 right from the start of the book and this time. Lots of setups so far, next week should see some more action. It’s a wonderfully disfunctional, formerly noble family again.
Me too… I don’t think we have enough information to draw any conclusions yet, so I guess I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks for the history lesson.
Not yet, but it has got me curious in it. Is seems at least 5 people on Natively have marked it read, but I don’t recognize anyone from the book clubs.
Thanks for mentioning all this - I was confused about why he was going to lose his title and thought it had something to do with how his wife’s family regretted letting him marry her.
I like the setup so far. And I think Mega Jusuke is just a great name.
This has been a rough week for me; When this day is through I’ll have spent over 70 hours at work. Accordingly I didn’t get much reading done, with my page count going down to 0 the last few days. It’s been a long time since I didn’t even have time (or energy) for at least a few pages multiple days in a row.
With a bit of luck today will be a slow day and I can squeeze in a bit of reading. (Though honestly my low energy levels might actually be the bigger hurdle today…) With a bit more , next week I won’t have to do any overtime. Here’s to hoping.
I notice that this mysterious looks-like-the-viscount figure didn’t actually play the flute beyond a few notes, which leans me towards thinking it’s somebody else.
My guess about the locked room problem is that there’s a secret exit, which would explain the killer locking the main door (to give them time to get away if anybody should disturb them) and leaving it that way.
I do really like the atmosphere and writing style of these books. The author has their stylistic tics which can be quite noticeable sometimes, but I have a lot of fun reading them.
The mark of the true irredeemable villain is obviously use of romaji…
The Y/Z mixup is interesting. Wikipedia says the QWERTZ layout is used in Germany, Switzerland, and places formerly in the Austro-Hungarian empire, so we’re looking for somebody who learned to type with a German typewriter. They really ought to have retyped the whole thing, but maybe they were too pressed for time or didn’t want to risk borrowing the typewriter again. They also romanise based on old kana spellings (izeiye rather than ie), but in 1947 that would have been normal given that the kana spelling reform was only formally made in November 1946.
Spoilers up to chapter 9/10 (I don’t think much new was added wrt what I talk about, but I have read chapter 10 at the time of writing this.)
I’m thinking along similar lines. That business with the demonic symbol in the sand and those two guys messing about there, as well as no on noticing it from the door’s window previous to entering makes me think it might have been added later.
I thought that was really interesting, especially since the main text doesn’t have any!
Typing with reverse Y/Z seems like such a stupid mistake to make though… Also, striking it out and correcting it in pencil? Just doesn’t seem like a smart move to make as the villain. It kind of makes me think it’s all a red herring meant to direct our (or Kindaichi’s) focus in the wrong direction. Of course it’s possible it’s really because they were pressed for time (why was it important to implicate the victim at that time rather than say a day or two later?) or simply that, at the time of writing, things like that didn’t usually lead to a culprit being caught.
I hadn’t know it was that specific, but it’s true it’s used in Germany.
Same here! I like the atmosphere a lot. You know who you’re reading the whole book through.
I guess the typist wasn’t familiar with that particular keyboard, couldn’t see the keys in the dark, and didn’t want to risk going back to the shelter to type up a new copy.
Made a big push today! Got through chapter 12, so still behind, but much closer now…
Yeah, that was my thought as well. The person grabbed Mineko’s keyboard, took it to the bunker, typed out the message in the dark, then when they got back they realized/noticed the Y and Zs were mixed up, but couldn’t/didn’t want to risk taking the typewriter again. Mineko did say it was a special Swiss keyboard, so it would make sense if it was QWERTZ. That means that it would be someone who wasn’t familiar with Mineko’s keyboard, which eliminates Mineko, Kikue, and Mishima (assuming it isn’t a ridiculous double-bluff).
I also think the symbol in the sand was added after they broke into the room, since nobody claims to have seen it before they entered the room. Ofc, Mineko is the only person who claims to have seen the bloody sand at all, but she looked directly at it and said there was no symbol. There’s a question of how they could’ve done it so quickly without getting noticed, but perhaps they had a stamp or something? They could’ve done the same thing in the dark at the fortune-telling as well. Ofc, if the symbol really was added after this also begs the question of whether the person who made the symbol is different from the killer, since presumably the killer could have just made that symbol after committing the murder.
aw nuts, i thought i was caught up, but didn’t realize last week was 4 chapters instead of 3 (so I’ve read through ch18 instead of ch19)
Anyway, I feel like this might be the best Yokomizo I’ve read so far? There’s, like, no casual underlying misogyny, it feels like? (And, unlike Eight Graves, it’s an actual mystery.)
End of ch18 Since they confirmed Tsubaki’s corpse, it seems like we do have a doppelganger (whether that’s the guy currently walking around or the corpse idk), but this isn’t the first Yokomizo we’ve read with a convenient lookalike so…
I also don’t like the setting change this time. It’s pretty common in Yokomizo stories, but this is the first time it’s irking me. Probably because usually the entire cast uproots and moves to a new location so the action can continue, but here it’s just Kindaichi so (so far) it’s just been one big exposition dump.
Yeah, it didn’t quite work out neatly at three chapters a week. But next week is just two chapters and then after that we’re back on the three-a-week til the end of fhe book.
Yeah, I get where you’re coming from with this. We had a fun setup with the usual dysfunctional family, and now we’ve left them all behind to do some digging up of the past on the other side of the country…
Spoilers to end of chapter 19:
And now we have a second murder. Looks pretty obviously like a coverup job, but doesn’t this rule out most of the suspects we had from the initial cast because it’ll be easy to show they weren’t anywhere near the island? Is it really going to be “the viscount’s doppelganger is doing all the murders” and we just need to find out who that is? I did like that Yokomizo didn’t try to make the foreshadowed death of the nun a surprise but instead went for “you’re thinking she’s been killed, Kindaichi thinks she’s been killed, the detective thinks she’s been killed, and yes your forebodings are all correct”.
I’m also liking all the details in the narrative that show the immediate post war setting. You get a sense of the massive impact the war had on everybody and everywhere. Burned out areas, temporary barrack style housing, people we can’t interview because they died in the war, memories of it being hard to get hold of fresh food. (Of course Yokomizo lived through it himself so he knows what he’s writing about.)
That reminds me, I was going to ask about something back in chapter 14, page 207:
The ryokan owner is explaining why the viscount had difficulty in finding anywhere to stay:
Am I right in interpreting this as that most ryokans either insisted that their guests were couples, or else had effectively moved into the sex trade, becoming informal brothels? (Presumably these are two different groups of inns, rather than a single inn doing both kinds of trade…)
) was found on the 14th April. I was wondering if there was going to be some kind of relevance to whether he died before or after the abolition of noble status, but with these dates it doesn’t seem like it. It certainly feels like we’ve been hinted that maybe he didn’t die as early as immediately after he disappeared.
today will be a slow day and I can squeeze in a bit of reading. (Though honestly my low energy levels might actually be the bigger hurdle today…) With a bit more 
, next week I won’t have to do any overtime. Here’s to hoping.