Death on Gokumon Island

by Seishi Yokomizo

Description

A fiendish, classic locked room murder mystery, from one of Japan’s greatest crime writers

Loosely inspired by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the brilliant Gokumon Island is perhaps the most highly regarded of all the great Seishi Yokomizo’s classic Japanese mysteries.

Detective 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. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger–with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters’ lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can.

As Kindaichi attempts to unravel the island’s secrets, a series of gruesome murders begins. He investigates, but soon finds himself in mortal danger from both the unknown killer and the clannish locals, who resent this outsider meddling in their affairs.

My thoughts: Another entertaining entry in the Kosuke Kindaichi series. Maybe not quite on par with The Honjin Murders and The Village of Eight Graves, but still a good setting and mysterious murder series. As always the cover work is brilliant.