
The Honjin Murders: The classic locked room mystery
About
In the winter of 1937, a bride and groom are found murdered on their wedding night in a locked room of the Ichiyanagi family estate. Outside in the snow, a koto plays by itself, and a single set of footprints leads nowhere. Detective Kosuke Kindaichi — unkempt, brilliant, and perpetually underestimated — arrives to untangle the impossible. Japan's most celebrated locked-room mystery and the debut of its most beloved fictional detective, The Honjin Murders set the template for an entire genre. Yokomizo's solution is ingenious, his atmosphere is impeccable, and the fair-play clues reward readers who pay close attention to the architecture. The mystery that launched a thousand locked rooms — and the detective who proved that looking like a mess doesn't mean thinking like one.




