三毛猫ホームズの推理

A college student at an all-girls university in the Tokyo suburbs has been murdered. Detective Katayama is sent to investigate, and finds more than he expected. He’s not a cool or hardboiled type, and feels unsuited for the job. Fortunately, he’s given some clues… from a charming little cat. The plot is fast-paced, with plenty of twists and humor. There were a couple of places where I felt like it dragged a little, but overall I found myself pulled along wanting to know what would happen next.

I was surprised by 赤川’s moderation in kanji usage. A Japanese review said they thought middle school students could read this, and if kanji is the deciding factor, then yes, they probably could. This book sticks closely to the most common kanji, and is surprisingly generous with furigana for anything above middle-school range.

For us language students, the challenge here is the range of vocabulary. There are plenty of unique words and I kept using the dictionary until the very end. IMO it would be a good idea to read this after you already have a solid grounding in the most common words used in fiction.