Kosuke Kindaichi goes to a secluded island called "Gokumon" or "Hell's Gate". Kosuke's visit triggers a series of murders which causes the already suspicious inhabitants of the island to turn on him.

This is so far my favourite Kosuke Kindaichi story, it's very atmospheric since it's set in this remote, creepy location and Kosuke is truly on his own. Every character from the island almost feels off, like the three sisters oddly laughing at their crazy father. And the deaths have a creative imagery in them which is a bit of a spoiler so i'll let you find that out for yourself. The reveal isn't mindblowing or anything but it works as it's impactful and it makes the whole thing feel more ironic and tragic.

The head of the wealthy Inugami clan dies and leaves a will that puts the family in disarray. Kosuke Kindaichi is roped in to the trouble as he received an ominous letter requesting him to investigate the family.

This one is also pretty good. There's just this haunting sense of dread i felt for the family throughout the book since well the trauma and issues within this family is just... alot. They had some dynamic that was interesting to read... though they were all pretty much horrible people. And as always with Yokomizo Seishi, the deaths have an interesting theme which i won't spoil again, the last murder in particular was pretty creative. I think the only flaw for this one was the explanation of the murders. It makes sense and I can see it but it's not quite satisfying for me.

We folow Tatsuya, a man moving to the titular Village of Eight Graves to claim his inheritance. But even before he arrives to the village, a series of poisonings affecting people close to him starts to occur causing the village to suspect him. Thankfully, Kosuke Kindachi is also there to solve the mystery.

We follow Tatsuya's POV for this book which is different from the previous two books I read where there is a narrator outside of the story (though for The Honjin Murders, which is Kindaichi's debut and a book i sadly do not have a physical copy of, there is also a POV character so this isn't necessarily new). It starts of a bit slow, turns into an adventure book halfway through, and Kindaichi barely appears. But nonetheless, I still had fun reading it and it's a decent mystery. Yokomizo Seishi is really good at setting up the history/background for the mystery, just not really much into the whole secret treasure adventure angle the book has.

Kosuke Kindaichi meets a client who suspects her father, Viscount Tsubaki, isn't truly dead and was hiding a dark secret with his cryptic letters to her. She invites him to participate in a divination where her family will attempt to contact her dead father. Things eventually go wrong as a record composed by Tsubaki, creepily titled, "The Devil Comes and Plays His Flute", mysteriously plays, and a murder occurs afterward.

This one has the best and spookiest set-up and background of a mystery so far. The author narrating this book sets this up as Kindaichi's darkest case yet and you can feel that it is at the start with the background of the enigmatic viscount Tsubaki, his bizarre composition, how he was suspected in a surreal crime known as the "Tengindo incident" (which was apparently based on a real incident). There is a genuine intrigue and mystique that hooked me into the book.

Unfortunately, i don't think the latter parts of the book was as good. It feels pretty uneven, maybe it's the flaw of having such a cool mystery, when it starts to unravel it's not as interesting as you thought it would be. It won me back with its melancholic ending though, the small reveal at the end was actually mindblowing and i actually sort of empathize with the culprit due to just how messed up their circumstances were.

Reading...

To read...