I know this is an advance copy but I was really surprised by the amount of typos. There were parts where I had to stop and try and figure out what the word was supposed to be.

Now for the overall story it’s your typical Japanese murder mystery. I did enjoy the storyline.

I was so happy that another Seishi Yokomizo book has been translated.
in this case its actually two novellas/long stories that are together in one book.
I really enjoyed this because it shows Yokomizo's versitility as an author, the second tale why the well wheel sqeaks, was in episolary form(letters/diary entries) and i loved that.
they are though very traditionally Japanese they repeat information multiple times and have many characters but that has never bothered me.
i would actually say that both stories are 3.5s but i rounded up.
for lovers of classic crime and translated fiction.
while i love the cover i do think that people might think this book contains stories that are more cutesy than they actually are.
do not read if you dont like a little bit of body horror.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay, wow. Seishi Yokomizo never misses. Every time I think I’ve cracked the case early, he throws in a twist that knocks me right off my reader high horse — and Murder at the Black Cat Café was no exception.

Set in post-war Tokyo, this standalone mystery gripped me from the very first line. A woman’s body and a black cat are found buried in a garden — only the actual café cat is alive and well. So… who’s the woman? Whose cat died? And why does this quaint little café feel so off?

Kosuke Kindaichi, the scruffy, brilliant detective I’ve grown to love, is back and in his element. He’s awkward, unpolished, but somehow sees everything. The characters — especially Oshima, the mysterious café madam — were fascinating. Everyone had something to hide, and the atmosphere was tense in the best possible way.

Yokomizo’s writing always feels so cinematic. The vibes? Immaculate. A touch eerie, a bit melancholy, and loaded with red herrings. I also loved the bonus short story, The Well Wheel Creaks — creepy, clever, and so well paced.

If you're into classic whodunits with emotional undercurrents, morally grey suspects, and a masterclass in plotting, this is for you. Japanese crime fiction truly hits different.

Didn’t realise this was part of a series, I read quite a bit into it though before realising. It was interesting and definitely a good thriller. But I think I should read the rest before finishing this one.

Roughly 15% of the titular story is a long-winded preamble about mystery tropes that's completely unnecessary. There's an awkward set-up where the narrator was an author whose only connection to the world is being told the story by a detective. Wouldn't it be easier to just tell the story rather than have this author shoehorned into it? There's such limited time to grab a reader's attention and this excruciating preamble just... didn't.

The actual story is really telling-heavy and linear. The writing was stilted with little to choose between any of the characters. There's a lot of repetition and meandering. Because the heavy-handed prologue gives the tropes away, there was very little mystery to the events of the story because they'd already told us what was going to happen! The police work was unconvincing (relying almost entirely on hearsay) and the resolution was just ridiculous. As was the rationale for killing the black cat. The author was trying to pull a 'gotcha' and it felt so forced, like a really clunky magic show finale. Then, we have to sit through the whole thing again as a character tells the entire story from beginning to end!

How can a story that's 135 pages be so overwritten and stuffed with so much padding? I get this is likely a product of its time (1947) but I'm not sure this mystery does what it sets out to do in 2025... not without much more stringent editing.

There's a second story that makes up about 40% of the page count that follows the same format: a long and obvious road to an underwhelming end.

I was wanting a fun mystery or thriller book when this one caught my eye. I LOVE little mysteries and spooky things that happen at cafes! I had to get this one.

I unfortunately could not get into this one. I'm curious to see the other works this author has written because this book is very cool, I just personally didn't love the reading experience with this particular book.

The cover is quite cool though!

I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily. I received an eARC.

Besides The Little Sparrow Murders, I have read every Detective Kosuke Kindaichi Series book that was translated. I think out of all of them this was the least I liked.

The book title makes it feel like there is only one story while there are actually two. The first story itself was underwhelming but it was not very bad. There was not much of a plot twist as the previous books so it was easy to figure out. The maps were not translated within the images as the previous books but it might be because this is an early copy. However, there were translations of the words before the maps that could be used to refer to. I don't know if its my copy or not but I actually could not tell when the second story started as there wasn't a big title indication from what I saw. There was an epilogue of the first story, a slight title for the first part of the second story and a style change but as I was still waiting for a twist for the first story, I thought maybe it was just a follow up writing. The second story, which is written as correspondences, was even more boring. However, it was a different experience than the previous stories so that made it a bit interesting. Also there are many typos in the story such as around loc1563 and following paragraph that bothered me the most.

Overall, I would not say I regret reading this book at all but it definitely does not live up to the other translated works of the series.

I think the translator Bryan Karetnyk did a good job. The first story was a bit confusing to follow at times but I do not think its because of the translator but because of the book itself.

The cat illustration at the beginning of the chapters was very sweet but I have to say that I kind of miss the cover style of the other books in this series. However, because the book does not follow the same style as the previous books, I guess it works. Moreover, it would definitely catch your attention at a store.

I am still looking forward to the translation of the other books in this series. While I did not enjoy this book much, it did not make me lose interest in the series. I will still buy it when it comes out as I want to collect this series.

A bit of a spoiler, as it may be important for some people, there are some sad moments about a cat.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Steerforth Press for this copy. I truly enjoy reading Pushkin Vertigo books and I am looking forward to other books in this series.

i love the Kosuke Kindaichi series and this was one of my most anticipated books of the year so i had high hopes but sadly, it didn’t live up to my expectations! 🙃

this short book has two stories and i’ve nothing much to say! good for one time read!
the first one — The Murder At The Black Cat Café — was a twisted version of “the faceless corpse” and the second one — Why Did The Well Wheel Creak? — was atmospheric and tragic!