The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Village of Eight Graves is another mystery by Seishi Yokomizo featuring his private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi. The village takes it’s name from a 16th century incident in which the villagers killed eight samurai who were living in the village. Since this massacre, it seems that a curse has hung over the village. As the action begins, there are two families that dominate life in the village – the Tajima family and the Nomura family.

We start with Tatsuya who lives in Kobe. He receives a message from a lawyer who wants to talk with him. It seems that Tatsuya is related to the Tajima family and there is the possibility of an inheritance. He travels to the village, and this is the beginning of the adventure. There is not much more that I can say for fear of spoilers, but there are murders in the village, and some of the villagers hold Tatsuya responsible as he is the outsider.

The story has a lot of twists and turns, and every time I though that I had it figured out, I was wrong. It’s a very good story and I really enjoyed reading it. If you like mysteries, I highly recommend this book.