This book is part of the 金田一耕助 reading club. This is the second novel in the series, but can be read as a stand-alone.
The club has read this book before in 2022 – this is a second reading, for people like me who missed it first time around or anyone who wants to reread it.
Proposed schedule; page numbers from the Kadokawa bunkoban edition:
Week
Date
Chapter
Pages
Page count
1
Oct 4
Prologue, chapter 1
5-69
65
2
Oct 11
chapter 2
70-111
42
3
Oct 18
chapter 3
112-166
55
4
Oct 25
chapter 4
167-236
70
5
Nov 1
chapter 5
237-273
37
6
Nov 8
chapter 6
274-305
32
7
Nov 15
chapter 7 and epilogue
306-353
48
That’s a little bit lumpy but the simplest split if we’re all OK with a 70 page week. It should be easy enough to find somewhere to split weeks 1 and 4 if anybody would prefer that.
I got a slightly early start reading the prologue last night. Some good classic Yokomizu turns of phrase in there – ああ、それはなんという恐ろしい事件だったろうか. I do like the immediately post war setting of these stories: it anchors them in a very specific time and place in a way that murder mysteries often aren’t.
Done with chapter 2, and yeah, feeling it hard to get through, even through Yokomizo. And boy are there lots of Yokomizo-isms, like everyone being incredibly beautiful. That the victims will be the three sisters was telegraphed super hard, which also reminds me of Inugami. Boy are they awful/messed up. Also, is it just me, or is the writing kinda repetitive? Like Kindaichi cursed the ran the exact same way three times in 3-4 pages.
Yes; I wonder if we’re going to find out some reason why they’re like this, or if they’re just implausibly screwed up characters…
The geography of the island with this one road to the temple with separate forks down to the main and branch family houses is certainly convenient for figuring out timetables.
On chapter three (which I finished a bit earlier but forgot to say anything about):
At this rate we’re going to run out of sisters before the end of the book…
Given Kindaichi’s habit of keeping things to himself, I think a night in jail serves him right.
I really don’t think it can be the madman doing this: they may be tormenting him but the weird setups the bodies are left in seem too calculated. Besides, it’s a bit too obvious. On the other hand the branch family has the motive but nobody we’ve seen so far feels like they’re cut out for doing the actual killing.
Chapter 4: I suppose 早苗 has stopped listening to the radio because 一 is already back, hiding in the mountains / doing murders. That might be too obvious though? Either way, I don’t think the final sister is going to be alive when the search party gets back to the house.
Couple of brief notes and a theory before I start chapter 7:
I was definitely taken in by the “fugitive is Sanae’s brother” false trail…
My theory is that it’s the trio of the mayor, the priest and the doctor acting together. 嘉右衛門 left instructions to them when he died along the lines of “if my grandson doesn’t survive then…” and now they’re carrying them out. The haiku theming is something he or the priest might come up with, and they divided up the killings like this because they recognized Kindaichi and want to try to throw him off the scent.
I finished the book a couple days ago. The atmosphere was great, so I can see why it’s a classic. I didn’t predict the ending because I thought that surely 与三松 and the fugitive would be related to the crimes somehow.
Living on this island does not seem like a great time
I really should stop expecting Yokomizo characters to not be stupid and/or cruel… “Yeah it was our job to protect her but we figured she’d get murdered sooner or later so whatever lol” Really??
Phew, finally finished. Wasn’t wowed by it, but it might be the best Yokomizo I’ve read? Soooo much is predicated on people being ridiculous, cruel and/or stupid. Chimata knew his grandfather would try to kill his sisters, but didn’t say that specifically? Granddad couldn’t just will his estate to Hitoshi, instead of needing to have the sisters killed? Kindaichi… well, look at the meme from the previous post.
That being said, while everyone acts ridiculous, and we have a bunch of literally crazy people running around, and granddad is super misogynistic, there isn’t a bunch of weird abuse/rape stuff and middle aged men trying to bang teenage girls. Plus there are actual tricks and subterfuge behind the murders (although I think the fairness is a bit questionable considering how much hinges on stuff Kindaichi asks people about in the last chapter/off-screen), where Yokomizo’s solutions often feel incredibly arbitrary.
