The Devil's Flute Murders works well in terms of fulfilling the basic expectations of a suspenseful mystery. Our hero, the scruffy Kosuke Kindaichi, remains his weird and unkempt self. We were hanging on the edge of our seat trying to make sense of the locked room murder and the ultimate connection between the two cases in the novel. However, this engaging mystery somewhat falls apart near the end, during the revelation by Kindaichi of the killer. We are not sure exactly why Seishi Yokomizo decided to unveil the killer in an unusual manner. Instead of having Kindaichi reveal the killer in the most suspenseful and exciting way, to a room full of members of the household and the police, the narrator instead shifts the reader's expectations by having the killer "reveal" the why of their crimes in a lengthy confession that cuts off Kindaichi's "big reveal" in a subsequent chapter. It certainly subverts the reader's expectation, but I think it made the resolution of the novel feel disjointed or fragmented by decentering Kindaichi's explanation of the case. Indeed, it deprived us one of the most satisfying and dramatic moments of resolution. The novel also makes the identification of the killer a bit too obvious with one late revelation late in the novel, so that undermined the resolution of the case, too. Nonetheless, we were emotionally invested in the case and found it to be yet another tale reflecting social anxieties and the decline of the aristocracy in post-WWII Japan, best symbolized by the sordid truth behind the murders. We hope to read more translated novels featuring Kindaichi.
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