Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram) Click here for audio version
This is my first time reading a novel by Japanese author Seishi Yokomizo, but halfway through ‘The Village of Eight Graves‘, I was already recommending it to my mother, grandfather, basically anyone who loves a good murder mystery! I think I’ve found my next guilty pleasure author. Bye bye, Agatha Christie, the few of your books I haven’t read yet will have to wait while I devour more of Mr. Yokomizo’s work.
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk, Seishi Yokomizo’s novel is set in a mystifying rural village brimming with historical lore, tragedy, hidden treasures, multiple murders, superstitions, poisonings, and fear-mongering. Amid all of it, a newcomer to ‘The Village of Eight Graves’ becomes the unsuspecting ‘person of interest’ when an unknown serial killer goes on a murdering spree.
The village gets its name from a legend about eight samurai who, after being betrayed and murdered by the locals for their hidden treasure, cursed the land. Ever since, the remote mountain hamlet has seen periodic bloodbaths, believed to be part of the curse’s legacy. The story follows Tatsuya, a young city man who learns he’s the heir to the powerful Taijimi family, the wealthiest in the village of Eight Graves. But his return is shadowed by a string of murders, and suspicion quickly turns toward him, especially since his father was a killer too. The co-incidental visit of brilliant detective Kosuke Kindaichi helps Tatsuya solve the tragic murders before he becomes a victim of violence too.
The atmospheric world-building by Seishi Yokomizo in ‘The Village of Eight Graves’ is excellent, you’re transported to another era, a far-off land where the rural working class, solitary monks, mad murderers, and petty rumor-mongers co-exist awkwardly. The characters Tatsuya meets through his newfound identity as the Tajimi heir are all curiously interesting, starting with Miyako Mori, a beautiful and helpful young woman, and the first resident he becomes acquainted with.
His great-aunts, identical twins Koume and Kotake, eerie old women in charge of the family’s affairs and wealth, are total “weirdos,” whom Tatsuya describes as “monkeys,” though he clarifies they aren’t ugly, just small and shifty. Then there are Tatsuya’s two half-siblings, Hisaya and Haruko, both considered physically too frail to carry on the family name. He also has two first cousins, Noriko and Shuntaro, the children of his father’s brother, but the twins aren’t fond of them, choosing instead to favor the illegitimate Tatsuya. So if there’s somebody trying to frame the new man in town for murders, all those cut out from their inheritance serve as suspects in ‘The Village of Eight Graves’, well, at least those who don’t die.
Seishi Yokomizo, of course, also introduces some village politics and rivalries to add a few more suspects to the serial murders in the region, keeping readers guessing until the end. The novel is so engagingly written that halfway through the book, I was almost certain the ending wouldn’t disappoint, and well, it didn’t. Interestingly, the detective Kosuke Kindaichi doesn’t take too much space through the chapters, and some of the women characters are a lot more memorable. And that’s not a complaint at all.
Time slipped away as I read “The Village of Eight Graves”, and before I knew it, the clock struck 5:10 a.m. I finished the final page just as birds began chirping and a faint stream of sunlight filtered through my heavy curtains. Any book that keeps you up through the night and into dawn deserves a perfect score.
Rating: 5 stars on 5.
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