Death on Gokumon Island

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2022 by Pushkin Vertigo.

ISBN:
978-1-78227-741-5
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4 stars (9 reviews)

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 Kosuke 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.

Loosely inspired by Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the fiendish Death on Gokumon Island is perhaps the most …

1 edition

reviewed Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomizo (Kindaichi Kosuke)

Enjoyable and Intriguing.

4 stars

This book was actually quite surprising. It was less surprising for the solution and the mystery itself, but I wasn't expecting for a mystery novel to kind of tackle the idea of 'outsiders' and the supposed suspicious nature of people within a small town while also recognising that there are different cultures within the same country that impact how we think and behave.

Rather, I was more surprised because the handling of the issue wasn't immediately structured in a way to make all the 'small town' people inherently unlikable, unintelligent, or 'beneath' the protagonist (which is something that is annoyingly common in texts that utilise this structure). This is actually something that Yokomizo's books seem to handle well because Kindaichi never seems to hold himself above the people he's around. The locals are shown to be somewhat suspicious and cautious, friendly to a point, but with some still believing that …

Not as compelling as I had hoped

3 stars

I was somewhat disappointed by Death On Gokumon Island. As a classic crime novel, it has all the necessary ingredients, but there was something about the way they were blended together which left me cold which was a shame as I had previously enjoyed The Inugami Curse and had hoped for more of the same. The well-crafted atmosphere from that previous book seemed missing from Death On Gokumon Island and I didn't feel as though as much care had been taken over the characterisations either. 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! While the crime narrative itself is suitably complex and convoluted so the book did keep my interest, I found myself more casually reading rather than being absolutely gripped by the tale.

Pushkin Vertigo, the English language …

Review of 'Gokumon Island' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

I thought this one was OK, but not terribly exciting. It’s an easy read with some interesting insights into post-war Japanese culture, but the characters aren’t particularly well drawn or realistic and I never felt invested in them. In particular, the Kito sisters are shallow stereotypes who are only there to drive the plot forwards. There are lots of info-dumps as characters tell the detective what has gone on which get a bit boring. The summing up takes about 20 pages. I’m not itching to read the other books in the series.

Review of 'Gokumon Island' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An enjoyable sequel to The Honjin Murders with plenty to like. Multiple murders intertwined into a single central mystery, the post-war setting looming over everything, a solid cast with rival families at its core, a cool island map with a pirate fortress, and a set of final answers that I thought were really satisfying (as someone who doesn't really care about puzzling out solutions before they are explained).

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