I have read a couple of Seishi Yokomizo’s books and am a fan of the investigator Kosuke Kindaichi. As such I was excited to read Murder at the Black Cat Café.

The book is actually made up of two short stories Murder at the Black Cat Café and also The Well Wheel Creaks.

I found Murder at the Black Cat Café an interesting read as it’s set immediately after the end of World War II and Japanese soldiers are demobbed and are returning back to Japan, as are Japanese nationals returning from China. A woman’s body is found in a shallow grave next to a dead cat in the grounds of a bar in a Tokyo suburb. It’s impossible to identify the woman and the detectives assume it must be one of the owners of the bar. The story is a “faceless corpse” murder mystery. There are some twists and turns and I did guess what really happened before I finished reading.

The second story, The Wheel That Creaks, follows a two families in a small town before and after World War II. I found the family drama a really engaging read and the tension built steadily. I wasn’t sure where the story was going, but the tension and suspense felt like it was leading to murder. I didn’t see the twists and turns and I really believed one character would be murdered, when in fact they were not.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Pushkin Press, for making this e-ARC available to me to read in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm a fan of the 'Kosuke Kindaichi' novels by Japanese classic crime writer Seishi Yokomizo, but this one was a bit of a disappointment. The crime concerns an unidentifiable female body found buried in the garden of disreputable cafe/brothel. The former owner and his wife have sold up and disappeared, with their maid and the hostesses reporting strange behaviour in the weeks leading up to their departure. The local police are baffled (or at least, for quite a while they're confident they've solved it, and then are baffled when they realise they have not). Then along comes Kindaichi to explain the whodunnit, howdunnit, whydunnit, and who-it-was-done-to.

It sounds like it should be as good as any of Yokomizo's books, but what isn't apparent from the packaging of this book is that it is much shorter than the usual Kindaichi novel - in fact it's novella length. The 'black cat' murder story is over before we're 60% into the page count, and then we move to another even shorter novella. I was so thrown by this - not helped by the second story not being clearly marked (maybe an issue with the advance proof copy I read) - that I didn't even realise it was a new story unrelated to the one I'd just finished until I was a nearly a chapter in.

The result is two stories that are too short to be satisfying. There isn't enough page time to properly create a twisty, immersive mystery, so it all feels rather perfunctory. I didn't get to know the characters (particularly in the first story - the epistolary nature of the second story helped me feel closer to the characters), so I didn't care too much who had committed the crime or why. Also when large numbers of characters with unfamiliar and similar sounding names are introduced at once, and the story is over quickly, it's hard to keep track of who is who.

The second story, 'The Well Wheel Creaks', is the stronger of the two, and makes a decent longish short story. But the title story just isn't very strong and it's a shame when I know how good a mystery Yokomizo can write. If I had expected a novella and a short story, I might not have reacted so badly as being wrongfooted by one story ending unexpectedly soon and another unrelated one beginning definitely spoiled my reading experience. But if you are new to Yokomizo, don't take this as typical - any of his other novels published in English so far is better.

This is the fifth book in the Kindaichi Kosuki series I have read. For the most part I have enjoyed them, and this was no exception. What I hadn't realised is that this one is actually two novellas. The first story is the Black cat cafe story. Kindaichi Kosuki related a case he investigated that would fit with the 'faceless field's trope that we come across in golden age detective novels, though naturally there is a bit of a twist in this one.

The second story is a complicated family drama involving half brothers and mixed up identities. It for a little confusing as to who was who, but I managed to straighten it all out in the end. Mogadishu doesn't make much of an appearance in this one, but does pop in towards the end. I find I am warming to him as a detective.

*Many thanks to Netgally and the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

I wasn’t sure for a while if this was a 3 stars read for me or 4 stars but considering how fast I finished the first part of the book, I decided it deserves the 4 stars.

This is a historical Japanese mystery book, I’d say and it follows the Kosuke Kindaichi mysteries. It was also reminded me of these cozy crime types of TV series where there is a murder and the big detective then gathers everyone and tells the story behind the murder and why, what, and when everything happened. It sure feels more of a telling than showing kind of book. But I didn’t mind.

The first and longer story is about the Black Cat Cafe, where the body of a woman is found in its garden, her face decomposed, and close to her corpse was found the body of a black cat. Everyone wonders what has happened since it everything seemed fine until then. The cafe has recently changed ownership too.

The second shorter one is about a double murder that has happened in a family. There is a lot of family drama too and it’s told through letters, which was pretty interesting to read about.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC! I appreciate it!

This one, unfortunately, didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Part of the Kosuke Kindaichi series, the book features two novellas.

The first one is the titular black cat cafe murder mystery, where a faceless corpse is found at the black cat cafe and the mystery revolves around uncovering both the identity of the victim and the killer.

The second novella is centered around three feuding families and the murder of two individuals from one of them. The narrative unfolds through a series of letters exchanged between two family members, gradually revealing what truly happened.

Both stories were fairly straightforward with little twists at the end of the stories. The pacing lagged at times, and I found myself losing interest midway through each.

Overall, average reads for me.

3 🌟

This was quite an average read for me. The book consists of two long stories, or perhaps novellas, which are both quite ordinary. There isn't much detective work in either, but more of conversations and long-long unravelling and explanations of the crime which can sometimes feel boring.

DNF. This fell really flat for me. I wasn't engaged and felt bored.

To clarify this is a me issue, just this genre of book is just not for me. I gave it a go :(

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!

thanks to the publisher and the netgalley for the copy!

There are two short stories in this book.

The first one is Murder at the Black Café. It tells the story of a faceless corpse discovered at an inn, where the identity of the murderer remains unclear until the private detective reveals the mystery in the final pages. I really enjoyed the pacing of this story and was hooked from start to finish!

The second story is Why Did the Well Wheel Creek? It centers on the Honiden family, who grew rich through moneylending. Daizaburo has two sons—Daisuke, his official heir, and Goichi, born out of wedlock. They look almost identical but lead very different lives. Goichi has a half-sister, O’Rin, while Daisuke has a younger brother, Shinchi, and sister, Tsuriyo, who narrates part of the story through letters to Shinchi at a sanatorium. When the war starts, both Daisuke and Goichi go off to fight, but things get complicated when Daisuke returns injured. Old tensions resurface, and trouble brews in the village and at home—leading to a death. Detective Kindaichi solves the case, but the truth is already beginning to come to light. This story had a slower pace, and it took me more time to get into it.

Overall, I enjoyed the first story more, but they were both enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review!