July 12, 2023
This is historical fiction, a book of short stories all featuring the same characters. The fact that there are 34 books in the series tells you what to expect: a cast of regular characters, the event/mystery of the week, maybe a little development of character relationships between the regulars if you’re lucky. It’s set in and around the Edo inn named in the title, so the mystery in each story is mostly triggered by “some new guest shows up at the inn”. These stories had a mix of some of the usual Edo-period tropes (thieves, floods, geisha, samurai seeking revenge, etc) and a few more original elements. Perhaps just a touch harder to read than some of the other historical fiction I’ve read, and definitely not as good as 藤沢周平’s work, but I enjoyed it anyway. I’ll probably read another in the series at some point when I want an “I know exactly what I’m getting” read.
pm215 graded
