Seishi Yokomizo (横溝 正史) was a novelist in Shōwa period Japan. Yokomizo was born in the city of Kobe, Hyōgo (兵庫県 神戸市). He read detective stories as a boy and in 1921, while employed by the Daiichi Bank, published his first story in the popular magazine "Shin Seinen" (新青年[New Youth]). He graduated from Osaka Pharmaceutical College (currently part of Osaka University) with a degree in pharmacy, and initially intended to take over his family's drug store even though sceptical of the contemporary ahistorical attitude towards drugs. However, drawn by his interest in literature, and the encouragement of Edogawa Rampo (江戸川 乱歩), he went to Tokyo instead, where he was hired by the Hakubunkan publishing company in 1926. After serving as editor in chief of several magazines, he resigned in 1932 to devote himself full-time to writing. Yokomizo was attracted to the literary genre of historical fiction, especially that of the historical detective novel. In July 1934, while resting in the mountains of Nagano to recuperate from tuberculosis, he completed his first novel "Onibi" (『鬼火』), which was published in 1935, although parts were immediately censored by the authorities. Undeterred, Yokomizo followed on his early success with a second novel Ningyo Sashichi torimonocho (1938–1939). However, during World War II, he faced difficulties in getting his works published due to the wartime conditions, and was in severe economic difficulties. The lack of Streptomycin and other antibiotics also meant that his tuberculosis could not be properly treated, and he joked with friends that it was a race to see whether he would die of disease or of starvation. However, soon after the end of World War II, his works received wide recognition and he developed an enormous fan following. He published many works via Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in serialized form, concentrating only on popular mystery novels, based on the orthodox western detective story format, starting with "Honjin Satsujin Jiken" (『本陣殺人事件』) and "Chōchō Satsujin Jinken" (『蝶々殺人事件』) (both in 1946). His works became the model for postwar Japanese mystery writing. He was also often called the "Japanese John Dickson Carr" after the writer whom he admired. Yokomizo is most well known for creating the private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi (金田一 耕助). Many of his works have been made into movies. Yokomizo died of colon cancer in 1981. His grave is at the Seishun-en cemetery in Kawasaki, Kanagawa (神奈川県 川崎市).
old review: Really impressive murder mystery, I couldn't see the ending coming at all when I first read this splendid crime novel (by Seishi Yokomizo) years ago.
Updated@15/12/2021:
A new book cover for this Yokomizo's classic! How can I resist...
New review starts here:
Night Walk is one of the finely crafted classic Detective Kindaichi mystery novels.
This time the story is narrated by a third-ranked detective novelist, he was invited to the remote family manor of his well-to-do friend. In the manor, the novelist met his friend's eerie family members, one of them being a beautiful but wanton young woman, and she had an unusual suitor: a humpbacked painter.
The men within the family seemed to all harbor complicated/incestuous feelings toward this young woman, plus when cursed bloodline, family's secrets, madness, lust and greed came into play, murder and beheading ensured.
Beheading! All the beheading in the story is really...interesting to say the least. Plus it's also worth noticing that the story takes place in a time period when DNA testing hadn't ever existed, that enables the murderer to do what they did.
Overall, the story is on the melodrama side but for a whole novel I'm fully entertained, the plot twists are neat and the murder mysteries really can keep you guessing, although Kindaichi only shows up at around the late 2/3 part of the story, still the story carries itself nicely, from start to end.
There is one thing, since it's a novel penned decades ago, so it's hard to overlook all the discrimination against disable people in the text, the characters in the book always talk like humpbacked people are mentally unbalanced and abnormal because they are handicapped! At the back of the book, I found the Taiwanese publisher noted that they are aware of the outdated discriminations in the story so they had already adjusted the wording and the tone in this reprint! If what I'd read is already the 'adjusted' version then the original text has to be really offensive. *sighs* I'm not holding it against Mr. Yokomizo, but still.
PS: here is one small detail, the murderer in the end confessed that they were 'used to beheading people during the war', *sighs* now I remember I read from another book that the Imperial Japan Army tended to kill their war prisoners by beheading them because they claimed they 'didn't have enough resource to keep war prisoners alive', that really sucks.
My Top Ten Yokomizo's Detective Kosuke Kindaichi Mysteries novels
After a strong start and solid middle, the ending was a letdown for me. It felt overly simplistic and the last 25 pages were almost a chore to read. I considered between giving 3 or 4 stars - it's really just the last 20-30 pages out of over 300 that disappointed me, but the impact was still enough to make me lean towards 3.
The setting and set up, as I've come to expect from Yokomizo, were superb. (In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that I have high expectations for his novels, I might have given 4 stars.) I'd still recommend this book to someone who liked his other works, but it doesn't come close to i.e. 獄門島.
Mind blowing. The forth victim’s death was unnecessary but the rest were well written. Wildness and cruelty were well organized and made the story very interesting.