It was not really my taste surprisingly and sadly enough. It was not because it wasn’t well written, but I just couldn’t seem to become very interested in the plot or characters. It read a lot like an article or a report of events, if that makes sense?
But, regardless of all that, I still give it three stars since it was not poorly written, just not really my style when it comes to books.

Ultimately, both stories aren't really that special. You can tell that they were originally published as additions to the Honjin Murders book in Japan, as there really isn't enough plot to carry them individually. The solutions are both fine, though not something that I was particularly wowed by them anyways. Almost certainly my least favourite of the Kindaichi books in English so far.

*2.5 stars rounded down to 2 on here*

This is my first time reading anything by this author although I have often looked at Thier books when out book browsing. After reading this I'm unsure if their style is for me.

Both the stories felt very dry and often read like you were reading newspaper articles rather than a fictional story so at times I did find myself feeling a tad bored.

They were both short yet due to the language used still felt plodding and felt twice as long as they actually were.

Of the two stories I much preferred the first as the premise was much more interfering. The second was quicker to read due to it's style of being set up as letters but the plot lacked any umph for me.

Overall this wasn't really for me but I can see how it would appeal to other readers who enjoy cosy/traditional styles of mystery telling .

(thank you pushkin press and netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review)

❝I cannot help recalling that fusty old saying: that truth is stranger than fiction.❞

‘Murder at the Black Cat Café’ is the seventh title in the Detective Kosuke Kindaichi series in order of translation. It is a collection of two stories that both had me point to my screen, grinning like a banshee while resentfully muttering, “You tricked me!”

In the first story, the titular ‘Murder at the Black Cat Café’, behind the Black Cat Café, a police officer on patrol discovers someone digging up the soil, only to find the decomposing body of a woman and a dead black cat by her side. Her identity cannot be confirmed but once the former owners (who suddenly sold their café) are investigated, the police start untangling a messy story of love, jealousy and betrayal.

The second story, ‘ Why Did The Well Wheel Creak?’, is a murder case told in the form of newspaper articles and letters between the main characters, the Honiden family.

I thoroughly enjoyed these two stories, the first especially. (Mainly because our beloved Kosuke is present) I especially love how they made a fool out of me. My update at the 30% was: ❝This must have been mind-blowing in 1947 but I've read way too many mysteries to not have already figured this out😅❞ only for my expectations to be completely shattered at the 50% mark: ❝I would like to apologise to Seishi Yokomizo. Turns out, I did not guess that correctly💀❞ Oh the hubris I displayed.

I can’t wait for the next one!

I’m a sucker for any Japanese translation that has a cat on the cover or in the title. I also love a good mystery so was interested in reading this. The overall story was interesting but like in some translated mysteries, it was a bit flat. It was just the facts laid out without the emotion behind it. I didn’t feel the connection to the characters, however with that said, I did like Kosuke himself. I know this book is part of a series but this could also just be a good standalone. Even if you haven't read the previous books, you aren't missing information that you need for this story.
It was slow to start and at times because it lacked the emotional side, was tougher to read.This is a good read for someone who wants a classic old school Japanese murder mystery

★★☆☆☆ — Not really for me, but I can see the appeal for people who enjoy classic mysteries

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Vertigo for the ARC of Murder at the Black Cat Café.

I’ve been trying to read more mysteries and crime fiction, and I’d heard a lot about Seishi Yokomizo, so I was excited to give this one a try. Unfortunately, this just didn’t quite work for me personally. The story itself was interesting enough, especially the setting of post-war Tokyo and the café, but I found it difficult to connect with the characters, and I prefer more emotionally grounded, character-driven stories.

The writing style felt quite dry and distant, and the structure (especially in the first story) made it hard for me to engage. I understand that it’s a product of its time, and I imagine fans of classic detective fiction will find more to love here.

The bonus story at the end was a bit more engaging for me, and I appreciated the change in format. The translation was clear and easy to follow throughout, and the atmosphere was one of the book’s strong suits.

While this wasn’t a hit for me, I’d still be curious to check out The Honjin Murders or other entries in the Kosuke Kindaichi series to see if they're more my tastes.

This was an interesting read - it was much dryer than I anticipated. It reads more like a newspaper article than a work of creative writing. Kindaichi is endearing, a sort of Japanese Hercules Poirot, but no one character was developed enough for me to care very much.

I'm not sure what passed for thriller in 1947, but I'm surprised by how... normal the first crime was? I know True Crime wasn't really a genre, but given the proximity to WWII, its hard to believe that there wasn't more creativity when it came to imagining crime scenarios.

That being said, I didn't expect the twist. it was enjoyable as a short story but I feel like I will forget it shortly.

The second story was much more interesting to me, but there was a shock factor involved that made it memorable. The letter format was more enjoyable.

Either way, this book suffers from telling us, not showing us, the details of the story.

As far as the translation goes, it was perfectly understandable to me and a job well done.

Murder at the Black Cat Cafe is a 1940s Japanese detective story, newly translated and published with a frankly beautiful cover. When the body of an unidentifiable woman is found in the back yard of the recently vacated Black Cat Cafe, Detective Kosuke Kindaichi finds himself with a “faceless corpse” mystery. He’s genre savvy, and knows how these things usually go - usually the identity of the deceased and the supposed murderer are discovered to be the opposite. But is there more at play here in the Black Cat than Kindaichi’s experiences have led him to expect?

I’m a big fan of meeting books where they are, so I’m rating this against other classic detective stories, other Japanese mysteries, and other translated novels. In that setting it gets a 3.75 or a 4 star! It’s a quick read, the translation is smooth, and the mystery is one that you *could* figure out on alongside the detectives in the story if you were dedicated to putting clues to paper and puzzling through them on your own. Despite it taking place in the 1940s, there’s no real time-period esoterica going on that prevents you from figuring out the solution yourself (thinking here about how often Agatha Christie’s older mysteries involve some piece of extremely obsolete tech that I didn’t even know existed). The book has charming little black cat chapter illustrations that I love, and comes with a second short story following the same detective, which is a neat little bonus. Would recommend to anyone trying to enjoy their Sunday coffee over a short mystery novel, as I so often am!

I just finished this book in one sitting lol and while it wasn’t one of the best books I’ve read, I still really enjoyed it, I liked the Honjin Murders more I guess. The setting is post-war Tokyo and the mysterious little café was probably my favorite part. It had a great atmosphere: eerie but grounded, and the mystery kept me curious the whole time.

Kosuke Kindaichi is an interesting detective though, kind of scruffy and unpolished, but smart. I liked the way the story slowly revealed secrets, even if some parts felt a little slow or distant. It wasn’t super emotional or character-driven, which maybe made it harder to fully connect with, but the mystery itself was solid.

If you like classic-style murder mysteries with a bit of a twist and don’t mind a slower pace, this one’s worth checking out. I also liked the bonus story at the end–it was a nice extra.

Glad I read it, even if it didn’t totally blow me away.
3.5 💓

The mystery itself is fascinating and plays on the “faceless corpse” trope within mysteries and mystery novels. There were a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming because the author explains what a faceless corpse mystery is leading you to believe that this mystery fits perfectly within that trope to lead the reader into believing a simple explanation for the murder. While the plot twist and short nature of the story was enjoyable how the story itself was set up was a little odd in my opinion. The entire mystery is being told to you rather than you experiencing the investigation through the eyes of a specific character, so it felt a little bland.

I read this as an ARC from Netgalley.

This book has an atmospheric setting and an accessible writing style. Perfect for anyone in the mood for a mystery. This is not my usual fare, but I will be recommending it to others that are mystery readers!

2.75 stars

Overall, I thought this book was okay. The mystery itself is engaging, and the final payoff was satisfying enough to keep me reading to the end.

However, despite the novel's relatively short length, it felt slow to get going. The opening chapters in particular dragged, and I often found myself wishing the prose and dialogue were more concise. At times, long conversations and detailed descriptions caused me to lose track of the story's momentum.

Additionally, the large number of characters was difficult to keep straight, and I occasionally found myself flipping back to remember who was who. This sometimes lessened the impact of the twists, as I was just slightly confused.

Still, Murder at the Black Cat Cafe is a worthwhile read for fans of classic mysteries, especially those interested in metafictional storytelling and post-war Japanese crime fiction. It’s a clever concept with an intriguing resolution, even if it requires a bit of patience along the way.

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!