Futaro Yamada
Tokyo, 1869. Two years after the Meiji Emperor took the throne, the country still reels from the aftermath of the Boshin Civil War. Yet, the government, now relocated to Tokyo (formerly known as Edo) tries to regain control and establishes an executive and judicial system after Western examples. The newly established Imperial Prosecuting Office is tasked with tackling the rampant corruption within the government itself.
Chief inspectors Kawaji and Kazuki are two brilliant detectives who are just the right people for this task. Together, and with the help of a shrine maiden who can summon the dead, they solve five impossible seeming murders of minor officials. However, are these murders as unconnected as they seem – or is there somebody pulling the strings from behind?
This historical crime novel is a fairly slow book. The first 100 pages or so only set the scene and introduce us to minor and major characters. The five cases are independent of each other and are solved as such. The puzzles are interesting and fun to solve, but there is no indication that there may be a mastermind behind all the murders; when his identity is revealed, it comes as a shock.
The introduction of the miko-medium to solve the murders seemed strange to me (Shinto doesn’t really deal with death), but since Yamada makes her a foreigner (who may have her own powers), I’ll forgive him for this.
Futaro Yamada was born 1922 in Hyogo Prefecture and studied medicine at Tokyo University. His first short story “The Incident at the Dharma Pass” was published in 1947, and he went on to write more than 100 novels and short stories in his lifetime. In Japan, his best-loved works are historical crime and ninja novels, and many of his books have been adapted for film or manga and anime. He died in 2001.
If you’re ready for something different with a long lead-in to set the scene, give this a try. You can get the book on amazon.