Welcome to Litsy!

“That‘s quite the life of leisure that you are leading. Tell me, do you have any injuries or ailments? Just looking at you, you seem to be in good health.”
“No, nothing particularly wrong with me at all. Of course, my spirit is completely burned out.”

📚
I liked the idea more than I enjoyed the book itself. Set in post WWII Japan, originally published in 1948. Easy read, odd characters, something seems lost in translation, & ending ran too long.

Kosuke comes to Gokumon Island immediately after WWII with the news of the death of Chimato on board a vessel repatriating Japanese soldiers. The village is then rocked by the murders of Chimato's sisters.

The background of immediate post War Japan was interesting but although the how and the who was ingeniously worked out by Kosuke I found out the motivation too implausible. I wonder if it struck the original Japanese readers that way.

Seventeen miles south of Kasaoka, falling right on the border between Okayama, Hiroshima and Kagawa Prefectures, in the middle of the Seto Inland Sea, there‘s a tiny island.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

#teaandabook

While not my favorite of the Kosuke Kindaichi mysteries I‘ve read, there is still a lot to like about this one. Fulfilling the last request of a dying friend, Kosuke travels to Gokumon island in a, he soon discovers, futile attempt to prevent a series of murders. Discovering the reason behind the macabre murders, as well as the perpetrator behind them, will take all of Kosuke‘s ingenuity. Atmospheric and more entertaining than not.

#Two4Tuesday

1. Yep, two big bags from Costco. We close our street so kids have a safe place to trick or treat—lots of fun and if the weather is good, lots of kids.

2. Secrets, murder, Japan

@TheSpineView

Sequel to The Honjin Murders. This one is loosely based on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Renowned detective Kosuke is tasked by his dying comrade to go to Gokumon. We get an island with an insular way of life, creatively staged murders, many suspects, several people who clearly know more than they are telling, and haiku.

Counting the minutes until I start my vacation. Can‘t wait to start this mystery. It‘s using the same premise as And Then There Were None.

This book took 80 pages to get to the murder, and the reveal felt implausible. I did like that Kindaichi and Inspector Isokawa got to solve a case together again though.