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(3.10/5)General:
- I think you will enjoy this if you like big twists and like to figure out mysteries
- Each case gets explained a lot - so if you're not into someone explaining to you in detail over several pages how a crime specifically happened and what clues led them to the conclusion, it will probably be a bit tedious/boring (at least it was for me!)
- If you're trying to get into detective/crime books, this might be a good start! Due to the over explaining vocab gets repeated quite a lot and
An interesting attempt
It's difficult to write a review on this book; so much of what is available to talk about happens in the last 20% of the book, but I'm not all that invested in writing a review for those who've already read it (see my review in the forum for that). Instead, I'll say this:
Basic summary: mystery novel writer 香月史郎 (こうげつ • しろう) teams up with spirit medium 城塚翡翠 (じょうづか • ひすい) in order to solve murders.
This was not a
I Can See Why It Won So Many Awards!
I often don't expect too much from popular novels but this was one of few that blew me away!
Mystery author Koutsuki Shiro ends up teaming up with beautiful medium Jozuka Hisui to solve murders. Each chapter is a contained murder mystery with intervals describing the actions of a serial killer throughout.
At first glance this seems like your average Japanese mystery--each chapter a contained story, male detective lead, attractive innocent young women with mysterious powers. But then you get to
Confused by the contradictory reviews? Let me help.
If you read the review here below me or elsewhere, you will notice that some people loved the book and others hated it. This made me reluctant to read the book, but when I finally got to read it, I decided to understand what the hell is going on. The results are the following:
STRUCTURE:
- If you know about mystery tags: 本格的なミステリー + 霊媒
- 4 main chapters (3 unrelated cases + 1 final big spoiler chapter)
- chapters 1-3 are almost unanimously agreed to be mid tier in terms of mystery novels.
- ch
one for the "solve the puzzle" mystery subgenre fans, maybe
I think you'll probably like this book best if you enjoy the mystery subgenre which is almost a puzzle game played with the author, where you make a serious effort to think about the bits of evidence you see and come up with the logical solution, and the author tries to lead you down the garden path with red herrings but ultimately "plays fair" in giving you the necessary information, and having a good clever puzzle is the most important requirement for a satisfying reading experience. The autho
A superficial collection of tropes
For the first three chapters of the book, the crime writer narrator teams up with a beautiful medium to solve crimes they somehow keep coming across. The mini-mysteries are simplistic, their solutions overexplained. The characters, as cliché and two-dimensional as they come.
Most of the book reads like an adolescent fantasy, with the smart man and the oh-so-beautiful but vulnerable woman by his side. Her appearance is described to death. In fact, if I had a yen for every time her green eyes are
There's a nice twist in the story. Really didn't expect it. But this was mostly boring stuff and repetitive descriptions up to that point. Characterization isn't the strong point of this book either. And the big reveal excitement won't last for long, maybe 2-3 pages. Because author immediately floods you with info dumps to justify the twist. Very interesting idea behind the twist but reading 400 pages to get there? Not worth it.