Ah, The Inugami Curse. We watched the film adaptation years ago but fortunately forgot the ending, so we were able to enjoy the pleasant surprise of the revelation at the novel's conclusion. Like the last Seishi Yokomizo-authored mystery featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, this one takes place in the aftermath of World War II and involves the inheritance to a fabulously wealthy estate. Unfortunately, everyone in the family hates each other and when grandsons of the deceased start dying, Kosuke Kindaichi must solve the case. The novel's sordid and "deviant" twists and turns and the ultimate revelations about the origin of the Inugami are sure to shock, and seem to point to possible social anxieties about the state of the family and gender roles. Of course, we don't want to read too much into it, but featuring such a dysfunctional family whose murderous relations became the subject of national newspapers in a time after World War II seems to symbolically represent the broken nation that was defeated in World War II?
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