Having read The Honjin Murders, I was delighted to get the opportunity to read The Village of Eight Graves a second case for Kosuke Kindaichi a renowned private detective.
Indeed I have also bought The Inugami Clan as I love a crime series and I have taken to author, Seishi Yokomizo’s gently paced writing and tense mysteries.

We all need to be grateful for the efforts and commitment of Pushkin Vertigo of revising old classics and often discarded authors, by bringing their work into an English translation. I have discovered Stefan Zweig’s writing in this way and these Japanese crime novels are another case in point. These gems, uncovered and sparkling in all their glory, enable others to share the beauty of forgotten mysteries. Check out Pushkin Press on line.

Set in a time of uncertainty, after the defeat in World War II, this novel is an insight into rural communities, local gossip, customs and superstitions. The author takes his time explaining both the geography and idiosyncrasies of village life. Almost unchanged over time, isolated and insular, The Village of Eight Graves is quite a threatening place for an outsider.
The story is told through Tatsuya who narrates his own journey to the village of his family. He has been called back from his city life to take charge of his ancestral home as the potential heir of the family estate. For various reasons many do not want him around; he has few friends outside his immediate household and his late father was a notorious man who went on a killing spree soon after Tatsuya was born. Indeed his presence seems to be a curse, the Spirit’s demand of retribution for historical events.
A series of killings start upon his return and suspicion quickly turns on him. His only hope seems to be a famous detective visiting these parts but strange happenings seem to compound local fears. In a sense he doesn’t know who to trust and as the murders continue without clear motive he is left more isolated and wishing he never left his city life.

A wonderful multilayered story that remains full of mystery and suspense. A true ‘who done it’ unlike anything you may have read before.
I loved the sense of place and time. There is tension and danger with each recounted incident. You feel the young man’s fear and his need to risk all for the sake of those he cares about. It appears there are clues aplenty, multiple suspects but little police action to apprehend the killer.
You even wonder if the narrator is being truly honest and it is no surprise when he feels the villagers’ hostility running into a lynch mob, seeing him as culpable for the mayhem that has overtaken the community.

But the book draws you in. You want to make sense of it all and so need to read on, almost hoping for the best.

Quite ingenious. Like a full deck of cards, each is turned over but only when all are face up do you begin to see the labyrinth of language, the cardsharp’s dodgy dealing and realise the dots were all there in plain sight. Joining them all up in the detective’s denouncement the author shows his skill and why he is viewed as a great mystery writer.

Yes. As usual, the author never dissapoint me! A murder mystery with a setting of whodunit. I think for the first 100 pages, the story is quite slow but a page turner at the same time. I don't know how to describe. You just cannot stop reading because you want to know what's the progress. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for providing me an ARC of this book. Looking forward to read more books from this publisher!

My rating for this book is 3.5 stars.
I loved the old world charm and the cosy vibes that this book provided. It reminded me of the golden era mysteries written in England in its tone and setting.

The story is the first person account of Tatsuya, who suddenly finds himself at the centre of a deadly past incident in the village of eight graves. Unfortunately for him, the bloody past has cast shadows that loom over his present and thurst him into the middle of a bloodbath and a mystery. It is only through the intelligence of the eccentric detective Kindachi that he is able to come out alive of the sinister plot around him.

While the mystery is decent, what did not work for me was the fact that we follow Tatsuya's pov throughout and Kindachi only appears sporadically in the book. And then, suddenly, at the end he explains the mystery and saves the day. While it was interesting to see the action unfold from the pov of the innocent Tatsuya, i felt it took away a lot from the pleasure of reading the book.

I absolutely loved this! What a fantastic plot, beautifully written, intertwining the relationships between the characters in such an ingenious and realistic way.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoy a good whodunnit and this has been a gripping one!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

The synopsis describes this as Japan's most popular murder mystery series, and I can see why, Following Japanese tradition, the author gives readers all the clues, even if it’s not so easy to see whodunit until after it has been explained by Inspector Kindaichi. This volume also features secret underground caves and a hidden treasure, so it’s also partly an adventure novel besides a mystery. Tatsuya arrives to the titular Village of Eight Graves only to see a series of murders point directly at him. These kind of novels usually feature distinctive detectives, so I was surprised that Kindaichi is enough in the background that I didn’t really get a great idea of him. I was also frequently confused by the characters’ names - which is all my fault of course, since I don’t speak Japanese. Despite this, I was engrossed enough to go with the flow, and I particularly enjoyed the creepy ghost stories and the chases in the dark cavern. I also found the ending very satisfying and was surprised by the resolution of the mysteries.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/#Pushkin Vertigo!

If you'd told me thirty percent through this book that I would be rating it so highly, I might not have believed you. <i>The Village of Eight Graves</i> is one of those mysteries that takes its time to build to the point where you desperately want to know what's going on, and this feels very deliberate in hindsight. Yokomizo has taken a Christie-like turn in that his detective actually barely features in the novel; like several late Poirot books, Kindaichi only really shows up when it's time to actively solve the crime. Prior to that, the story is narrated by the young man who finds himself the focus of the murders in the aptly named Village of Eight Graves because of his assumed heritage. As a perfectly average fellow, he's decidedly out of his element, and this doubtless contributes to the somewhat plodding start - and the fact that pretty much everybody seems like they might not be trustworthy.

When the detective does pop up, things do improve remarkably; that the treasure hunting subplot and subterranean labyrinth also rear their heads at this point also helps. Interestingly enough, Kindaichi's entry on the scene also prompts us to start weeding through the myriad suspects, and while I did figure out who the killer was pretty early on, I think that's more a testament to how much mystery I read, although looking back afterward this is a fair play novel and I may not be giving Yokomizu enough credit for well-seeded subtlety.

<i>The Village of Eight Graves</i> is considered one of the greats of Japanese mystery fiction for a reason. It's deliberate, intelligent, and deceptive, and if the start feels slow (and yes, misogynist; those were the times), it more than makes up for it in the end game. It's a good mystery and an even better reminder that, as the saying goes, the devil really did make the small towns.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC of The Village of Eight Graves.
I chose to read this book as some of the reviews said it had touches of Agatha Christie and I do adore her writing and her mysteries.
I had a hard time getting into the book as the narrator seemed an overwrought man who couldn't find enough superlatives to describe the horror and terror of his experience. I think Drama Queen would be an apt word!
But I kept at it and I must admit, I really enjoyed it. It had enough good red herrings and I suspected everyone except the real culprit. That was a pleasure as I often know the villain long before the end of a story.

The Introduction to the book says the author, Seishi Yokomizo, is a very popular Japanese author. This is the first of his detective books to be translated into English If the detective who appears (but not very often) in this book is the same as in all his detective novels, it will be interesting to read more.

One very Agatha Christie, Poirot, similarity: the detective gathers everyone left alive at the end and walks them through what happened, how he knew who the murderer was, and how he had to prove it. There was certainly a Ten Little Indians aspect to the book. Not many left standing!!!

But still enjoyable. I recommend this book, especially if you enjoy getting to know good mystery writers from other countries.

Seishi Yokomizo was a famous Japanese novelist known for creating the character of crime-solver Kosuke Kindaichi, who was featured in 77 mystery novels. So far only a few of these novels have been translated into English. The Village of Eight Graves is the third (following The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse), although I'm optimistic that we'll be seeing more in the years to come since Pushkin Vertigo has been working on publishing translated version, and there's currently a fourth, Gokumon Island, slated for publication in 2022.

The Village of Eight Graves is a more complex mystery than the two previous Yokomizo novels I've read in English. It begins with a prologue that gives us the history of how the Village of Eight Graves got its name sets the stage for the murder mystery at the heart of the story. Many years prior to the beginning of the main story, a group of samurai traveled to the village, where they hoped to hide out and perhaps start new lives. But they were rumored to have had a vast treasure of gold coins with them, and eventually the villagers' greed gets the better of them and they murder the eight samurai. However, the gold was never found. When eight villagers die soon after, the legend of a samurai curse begins to take root. Several years later another massacre occurs, this time taking the lives of 32 villagers.

The story begins when the novel's narrator, a young man named Tatsuya raised by his mother with no knowledge of his birth or family history, is contacted by a lawyer who reveals to him his connection to a wealthy family from the Village of Eight Graves regarding matters of inheritance. Tatsuya then travels to the village to meet the family he never knew he had, unaware of the dark history that surrounds them. What follows is a labyrinthine tale with a colorful cast of characters and many more murders.

Kosuke Kindaichi doesn't appear much in this story, which is told only from Tatsuya's perspective. This story felt like a departure from both The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse, both of which featured a seemingly locked room murder committed under seemingly impossible conditions. Instead, here we see the deaths as they happen, and there are plenty of suspects at hand. In many respects, it's more a thriller than a traditional mystery novel. What I enjoyed most about this story is its masterful way of building tension and its brilliant use of atmosphere. There are many strong Gothic overtones with secret passages and underground caves, people hiding dark secrets, and a tinge of the supernatural.

Really nice and weird atmospheric Japanese's thriller. Japanese's books, authors and writing are something else. of course being translated we never know the real first feeling of the original language, but they are always very interesting and this one in particular is one of the good one I have read in the last couple of years!

This book is the 3rd book by Seishi Yokomizo that I've read and I read all of them in October. I really really love The Inugami Curse and so far there are no works of him that can be better than it. The Honjin Murder is the worst one...it's good but the other 2 (including this book) are better than it. So when I heard that Pushkin Press is going to release a new translation book of one of Seishi Yokomizo's works, I was beyond ecstatic and I can't help but wonder what the book is about. Then, when I checked my Netgalley ACC, I see this book, the book that will be released by Pushkin Press soon, the third book of Seishi Yokomizo that was translated. I requested it and got it. So here I am to rant about every single thing.

It's so so interesting and even more interesting when you read the prologue of this book. In the prologue, you'll get every single piece of information about the background story of this village's history. I'm very very interested from the beginning. As per usual, the characters within the story are a lot. You have to remember them or at least you'll get used to the name of the characters once you read this book. There are some characters and names of places (not that many) that used only one alphabet as their name. I think it might be Seishi's writing style. It's not that bad like in The Honjin Murder.

It's pretty different with The Inugami Curse where the story was told from Kindaichi's POV and The Honjin Murder who's POV I still confused af. This book was told from the POV of our main character, Tatsuya. He's a pretty complex character, I can't blame him tho. Shits that happened in this book are ugly. As a reader and also a new fan of Seishi Yokomizo, I thought that the book was very very very interesting and charming. The legend and the myth that was mentioned in this book as the background story are so good and brilliant but somehow...the whole story doesn't do a great job.

For the ARC itself, there are a lot of missing words. I was baffled at first but I'm getting used to it. Anyway, it's nice to get this ARC. Thanks a lot Netgalley and Pushkin Press for this copy!