Death on Gokumon Island

This is the fourth Yokomizo mystery I’ve read, and as per usual, he did a great job establishing the atmosphere, setting, and tone of the novel. There is also some interesting insight into post-WWII Japan. However, it was very slow-paced novel, though with a plot as complex as this one, I understand it was necessary for Yokomizo to take the time to establish all the character histories and plot devices. The last 100 pages or so were somewhat quicker, but it took me days to get through this novel as my attention just wasn’t held, and perhaps because of that, I just wasn’t as interested in seeing how things would ultimately play out - hence the three star review. Course, the solution to the mystery was very clever, like his other books, but the motive behind the murders felt underwhelming and almost contrived. 

It’s also important to note that while this is the fourth Kindaichi mystery to be translated by Pushkin Vertigo, it’s actually the second in the series, following The Honjin Murders (and there are many references to The Honjin Murders throughout, though you won’t necessarily have to have read it first to follow along with this one). Death on Gokumon Island, however, is set after a significant time skip - nine years have passed since the events of The Honjin Murders, and we are reintroduced to our protagonist Kindaichi as he is returning from Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. This explains why, then, when Kindaichi was described in The Honjin Murders as a young man in his early twenties, I was taken completely aback. When I’d read The Village of Eight Graves (the first Kindaichi novel I picked up), I'd gotten the impression the detective was middle-aged. Reading that age in The Honjin Murders led me to question why I’d thought that in the first place…now I know.  

I believe I liked this one about as much as I did The Inugami Curse, which is to say, less than The Honjin Murders. I am hoping that the next Puskin Vertigo translation of Yokomizo’s work, The Devil’s Flute Murders, proves as enjoyable as The Honjin Murders or, even better, The Village of Eight Graves.

"Kosuke Kindaichi. Reader, if you happen to have picked up the mystery The Honjin Murders, you will already be familiar with him. It was back in 1937 that he solved a mysterious murder … At the time, he was a young man of around twenty-five. 

What had he been doing since then? 

Well - nothing. Just like every other young man in Japan, he was drafted by the army and forced to join the war. 

The best years of his life became a kind of void."