trigger warning (view spoiler)[ ableism, misogyny, mention of suicide, trauma, mental illness, alcoholism, joking about tape and sexual assault, xenophtrigger warning (view spoiler)[ ableism, misogyny, mention of suicide, trauma, mental illness, alcoholism, joking about tape and sexual assault, xenophobia (hide spoiler)]
World War II has ended and the soldies are slowly trickling back home. Kosuke Kindaichi is asked by a friend to deliver the message of his death and also to prevent his cousins from getting murdered - but said friend dies before he can share who he thinks will the culprit be.
We have this tiny island where everybody knows each other and people are mistrusting of foreigners. Matters are done as they have always been done - well, nearly. There is a ruling family, and now, with every able-bodied young man having been conscripted, it is unsure who'll run things in the future. It all depends on who is able to come back, and this is where things get tricky.
Now, I enjoy japanese crime fiction in general but this aged too badly. The man who would in theory be patriarch is mentally ill and literally kept in a cage. It's a nice cage, roomy and with furniture, but a cage nonetheless. Women are vilified or treated as fragile. Yesterday, when I picked the book up again, I happened on a scene where men are drinking and saying that the "height of pleasure" is sleeping with a woman who doesn't want to sleep with you.
I was too far in at that point to just chuck it, but the solution of the crime novel felt iffy, too. (view spoiler)[ They find a paper maché bell that has been submerged in water for hours but apparently still holds form. What did they put in there that the paper doesn't dissolve? (hide spoiler)]
Big fat nope from me on all accounts. The arc was provided by the publisher....more
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