Soji Shimada –The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is a must read for the Honkaku genre. It did, in fact, start the Shin Honkaku movement in the 1980s. It is a very entertaining read, even though somewhat convoluted. I liked the fact that everything happens years after the actual murders, when most people implicated have already passed away due to old age. The author himself butting in and telling you, “Hey, all the elements are here to solve the murders, so please try if you haven’t figured it out already” was … interesting. And somewhat arrogant ? He does it twice even! Talk about being confident. There is a whole part where we do not follow the detective, but his sidekick going on some red herrings. It is nice to get more information about the characters involved in the murders, but it was also plainly obvious that it did amount to nothing. Which made it a bit frustrating to read.

All in all, it liked what Shimada put together. I’m also wondering how someone can come up with such weird and convoluted murders.