The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Summary:
An amateur detective investigates a string of gruesome unsolved murders in this classic Japanese locked room mystery
Astrologer, fortuneteller, and self-styled detective Kiyoshi Mitarai must solve a macabre murder mystery that has baffled Japan for 40 years—in just one week. With the help of his freelance illustrator friend, Kiyoshi sets out to answer the questions that have haunted the country ever since: Who murdered the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then chopped up the bodies of six others to create Azoth, ‘the perfect woman’?[summary from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/250981/the-tokyo-zodiac-murders-by-soji-shimada/]
Group Comments:
Liked the author’s challenge to the reader to solve the case.
Really liked it. Yes, it was hard to get through–so many facts, ideas, red herrings, but the end is SO GREAT!
This is the weirdest book I’ve ever read.
I really liked reading about the Japanese culture.
It was too scary and gruesome. Too much gore.
The beginning was horrible. What a slog. But the solution was clever. All the red herrings were fascinating.
So complex. Really burdensome to read through, so I skipped to the ending!
The parts about astrology and all the metals was really interesting.
Ending was disappointing.
I couldn’t finish it.
Horribly misogynistic. Gruesome AND dull. Only part I enjoyed was the descriptions of the local coffee shops, paths, parks, restaurants, etc. As someone who never can figure out anything in mystery fiction, I knew immediately what one of the twists was going to be. Disappointing.
Low on plausibility. Bizarre beginning. Motive didn’t show up until the end, so it was impossible to solve.
The first 1/3-1/2 took a lot of energy to get through. No real action, just descriptions. But the ending was clever.
I really enjoyed the book. Beginning was very dark. I really liked that it was looking back at what had happened. It gave me a creeped out feeling! I really enjoyed the red herrings, and the ending was interesting.
I enjoyed it. But the first 2/3 of the book took SO MUCH energy.
The ending –who the killer was–it was a really big stretch.
It took a while to get through the first chapters. Seeing the family tree helped. It was implausible that the killer was able to do what was done. The ending was unexpected and creative.
A slog. Creepy. Very tedious in parts but I liked the ingenious puzzle and the locked room part. Easier to read further on in the book.
Liked it after the first 125 pages. I liked reading about Japanese culture.
Couldn’t finish it. But I liked the chemistry between the astrologer and narrator.
