The Publisher Says: Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news—the son of one of the island’s most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War.

I wonder if this is because their horribleness is fuelled by extreme self-obsession and juvenile and immature personalities. We have soldiers being demobbed, families listening to the radio each evening, keenly awaiting repatriation news, people finding themselves not having progressed in their work (like Kindaichi’s old friend Inspector Isokawa who remains an Inspector), remains of airbases and wartime infrastructure, now fallen into disuse, and underwater mines still going off from time to time. The priest then asks about someone named Chimata, which captures Kindaichi's attention, sparking a conversation among the three men. Because there is a deeply unpleasant truth I must face in reviewing this book: I love a puzzle so much that, when I'm offered it wrapped in enough sweetly seductive mystery, I will just keep reading and ignore my squicked-out "but this is appalling!He is often described as “scruffy” and is known for digging his hand into his knot of hair and scratching furiously when engaged in deep investigative thought. It drops its passengers until there are only three left, all heading for a small island, Gokumon-to, which translates to Hell's Gate Island. You should make your readerly decisions based on your personal tolerance for unpleasant-to-you subject matter.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Though there can be some fun in getting lost in the twisty, complicated details of a crime novel, Gokumon Island is keen to hand-hold, and the reader is better for it. Initially I was just watching events unfold as Kindaichi explored the village and talked to its people, and then the murders began to occur with no real clue as to who the possible culprit might be. Como si las artes oscuras fueran la única forma de ejercer poder que las mujeres niponas hubieran tenido a lo largo de los siglos.At the same time, I bought a dvd of the 1977 film made from this novel, directed by Kon Ichikawa, which I watched after finishing Death on Gokumon Island.

There are lots of Japanese references such as traditional classic stage plays, haiku poetry, and significant myth or legend that act as puzzles in the crimes committed. In fact, at one point, if we want to find out about an Inspector who appears on the scene, we are directed to go and read a previous novel! Since this book will be released in English in June 2022, I would like to try to clear out the marketing premise the publisher went for. There is a lot of Japanese vocabulary here which might be quite confusing to some but there are definitions of these available here. I could say the murder's methods are not exactly similar but they bear a similar method which you will understand once you read the book and also if you have read And Then There Were None.

There are some aspects that the modern reader may find problematic, like the assumption that since Gokumon was an island of priests and convicts, its people are strange, crazy even.

Kindaichi is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious statement and to protect the three women if he can. In terms of its fictional setting too, the book gave us an interesting look into an isolated, insular fishing community, rather suspicious of outsiders.Với tư cách là một người phụ nữ, khi đọc cuốn sách, mình không thể nào hiểu nổi làm sao kẻ thủ ác có thể có cái suy nghĩ xem mạng sống phụ nữ rẻ mạt đến thế… Và cái sự thật kiểu plot twist “đấm vào mặt” ở khúc cuối đã biến tất cả những giết chóc này trở thành một tấn bi kịch đầy ám ảnh cho gia tộc Kito trên Đảo Ngục Môn. The protagonist is Kosuke Kindaichi, an eccentric private eye that we’ve met in earlier mysteries by Seishi Yokomizo. The atmosphere sexism created in the third book, The Village of Eight Graves, is one of the main reasons that book got two stars. Haiku is also something we see a lot of in the book, and which has a part to play in the plot as well, though I won’t say what for that will be a spoiler.