I am a huge fan of NetGalley. Annoyingly, over the last six months or so, I have become a little behind with my reviews, however, I am making a concerted effort to sort myself out and get back to it! I am one of those readers who has multiple books going all at once - one on kindle, a hardcopy and an audiobook. While I may be consuming many books I need to get back to my ever expanding NetGalley selection and focus on reviewing all the wonderful titles I am given. This month I have requested and been gifted so many incredible books that it was a bit tricky to work out where to start.
This month I am taking part in a couple of readathons: Asian Readathon (#asianreadathon) to celebrate Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month organised by Cindy @readwithcindy, and the Month of Historical Fiction Readathon (#monthofhistoricalfiction) with the lovely @Otterly_Bookish over on Instagram.
With the above readathons in mind I requested a Japanese crime classic, which I have never heard of before. The cover art is striking and the blurb holds a great deal of promise. Only after I started reading did I realise that this is book two of over seventy books in the series...even more than Ed McBain! I didn't let me put that off and I started it last night. I guess it would be helpful at this point to give you the title!
The novel is The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo. I am only about 13% in but I am really enjoying it so far and as far as I can tell I'm not missing anything by reading book two. Set in 1940's Japan this is the story of what happens to one wealthy man's family after his death: why is there a delay in the reading of the will? Why do mysterious 'accidents' keep happening? Why did a private investigator wind up dead after smoking a poisoned cigarette? Like I said, I'm only 13% in but I want to know the answers to all these questions. I love shady characters and possible fake red herrings, probably because I can never work it out so I let the caper wash over me. While this is said to be 'a classic Japanese murder mystery' the translation by Yumiko Yamakazi is fresh and contemporary and the story does not feel dated at all. As this is a kindle read I won't get back to it until insomnia kicks in tonight but I am looking forward to discovering what on earth is going between the members of this odd little family unit. Also, will I find out what is behind this intriguing cover art?! What is going on there?
Format: eBook
Published: Pushkin Press
Publishing Date: 25th August, 2020
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