Murder at the Black Cat Cafe by Seishi Yokomizo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Murder at the Black Cat Cafe is another mystery from Seishi Yokomizo in his Detective Kosuke Kindaichi series. It actually contains two mystery stories, Murder at the Black Cat Cafe and Why Did the Well Wheel Creak. Both stories are quite good but not as long as the novels in the series.

Murder at the Black Cat Cafe is a “faceless corpse” kind of mystery. The author often creates stories based on classic English mystery story types. I enjoyed this story a lot; it begins with finding a body buried behind the Black Cat Cafe. The body has been buried long enough that it has begun to decompose, so it is not possible to identify the dead woman. And a dead black cat was also found in the grave.

There are a lot of things happening, and for fear of spoilers I really won’t go into any details. But it is an interesting story with a few twists in it. Thankfully Detective Kindaichi arrives to help sort things out.

The second story is a little different. Detective Kindaichi has a much smaller role than he usually does. But it is a story of some complicated family dynamics in a small village. The Honiden family comes out on top and the Ono and Akizuki families become poor and leave the area and move to the city. During the war, they are evacuated and return to their home village. This sets up the conflict that leads to two murders. And that’s about all I will say for fear of spoilers.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. Both of the stories are good and well-written, though perhaps not as exciting as the typical Detective Kindaichi mystery story.