• Author: Seishi Yokomizo
• Series: Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #3
• Genre: Mystery
• No. of pages: 320
• Dates read: 24.01.2022 – 31.01.2022
• Star Rating: 2 stars

Plot: Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the Sixteenth Century eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village. Centuries later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates.

So, I first started this series with a 5 star rating and now here we are… This book does something completely different to the other two where the narrator is a first person account of someone directly affected by the case rather than the standard 3rd person following our detective which is what I am used too and I think this change in narrative is probably the main reason this book didn’t work for me.

One of the major draw ins from this series is I love Detective Kindaichi. I think he is super interesting and I love watching him go about solving the mystery and baffling everyone as he does it. Unfortunately, we don’t really see much of him at all. I would say he is in about 20% of this entire book and I felt that the book was missing his presence a lot. The main character of this novel, Tatsuya, works hard to try and fill his place as we watch him try and uncover what’s happening in this village but it just doesn’t feel the same.

The mystery itself had a lot of promise, everything was set up really nicely and I had a couple theories going but I ultimately I was left disappointed by the end. For me, the ending came out of nowhere, Tatsuya’s investigation didn’t really do much in terms of learning who the murderer is and we just get told by Kindaichi at the end who it was and etc. I personally thought they were setting it up to be someone completely different but boy was I wrong.

Also, I didn’t really care for any of the romance elements of the novel. It just didn’t work for me, it felt very insta-lovey and there wasn’t really much development. It all felt quite forced.

I will give the 4th book a go as it was inspired by one of my all time favourite murder mysteries but I am not sure how long I will continue with this series.

The next book I will be reviewing is staying on theme and that’s A Taste for Poison by Dr. Neil Bradbury.