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Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #3
She Walks at Night
The luxurious Furugami family estate is beset by madness, murder and a terrifying curse. Within, a drunken sword-wielding old man struggles to keep control of his family. Meanwhile Yachiyo seems unable to prevent her dark past coming to light. Captivating, unstable and determined to fulfil a terrible prophecy, she is plagued by sleepwalking episodes by night, and cryptic letters during the day.
When a mutilated, headless body is discovered on the estate, all the evidence points to Yachiyo. Enter famed detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who is called on to pick apart the threads of the family's carefully-woven story. But can he find the killer before the family is destroyed by its own secrets?
When a mutilated, headless body is discovered on the estate, all the evidence points to Yachiyo. Enter famed detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who is called on to pick apart the threads of the family's carefully-woven story. But can he find the killer before the family is destroyed by its own secrets?
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 1973
About the author
Seishi Yokomizo
240 books913 followersSeishi Yokomizo (横溝 正史) was a novelist in Shōwa period Japan.
Yokomizo was born in the city of Kobe, Hyōgo (兵庫県 神戸市). He read detective stories as a boy and in 1921, while employed by the Daiichi Bank, published his first story in the popular magazine "Shin Seinen" (新青年[New Youth]). He graduated from Osaka Pharmaceutical College (currently part of Osaka University) with a degree in pharmacy, and initially intended to take over his family's drug store even though sceptical of the contemporary ahistorical attitude towards drugs. However, drawn by his interest in literature, and the encouragement of Edogawa Rampo (江戸川 乱歩), he went to Tokyo instead, where he was hired by the Hakubunkan publishing company in 1926. After serving as editor in chief of several magazines, he resigned in 1932 to devote himself full-time to writing.
Yokomizo was attracted to the literary genre of historical fiction, especially that of the historical detective novel. In July 1934, while resting in the mountains of Nagano to recuperate from tuberculosis, he completed his first novel "Onibi" (『鬼火』), which was published in 1935, although parts were immediately censored by the authorities. Undeterred, Yokomizo followed on his early success with a second novel Ningyo Sashichi torimonocho (1938–1939). However, during World War II, he faced difficulties in getting his works published due to the wartime conditions, and was in severe economic difficulties. The lack of Streptomycin and other antibiotics also meant that his tuberculosis could not be properly treated, and he joked with friends that it was a race to see whether he would die of disease or of starvation.
However, soon after the end of World War II, his works received wide recognition and he developed an enormous fan following. He published many works via Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in serialized form, concentrating only on popular mystery novels, based on the orthodox western detective story format, starting with "Honjin Satsujin Jiken" (『本陣殺人事件』) and "Chōchō Satsujin Jinken" (『蝶々殺人事件』) (both in 1946). His works became the model for postwar Japanese mystery writing. He was also often called the "Japanese John Dickson Carr" after the writer whom he admired.
Yokomizo is most well known for creating the private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi (金田一 耕助). Many of his works have been made into movies.
Yokomizo died of colon cancer in 1981. His grave is at the Seishun-en cemetery in Kawasaki, Kanagawa (神奈川県 川崎市).
Yokomizo was born in the city of Kobe, Hyōgo (兵庫県 神戸市). He read detective stories as a boy and in 1921, while employed by the Daiichi Bank, published his first story in the popular magazine "Shin Seinen" (新青年[New Youth]). He graduated from Osaka Pharmaceutical College (currently part of Osaka University) with a degree in pharmacy, and initially intended to take over his family's drug store even though sceptical of the contemporary ahistorical attitude towards drugs. However, drawn by his interest in literature, and the encouragement of Edogawa Rampo (江戸川 乱歩), he went to Tokyo instead, where he was hired by the Hakubunkan publishing company in 1926. After serving as editor in chief of several magazines, he resigned in 1932 to devote himself full-time to writing.
Yokomizo was attracted to the literary genre of historical fiction, especially that of the historical detective novel. In July 1934, while resting in the mountains of Nagano to recuperate from tuberculosis, he completed his first novel "Onibi" (『鬼火』), which was published in 1935, although parts were immediately censored by the authorities. Undeterred, Yokomizo followed on his early success with a second novel Ningyo Sashichi torimonocho (1938–1939). However, during World War II, he faced difficulties in getting his works published due to the wartime conditions, and was in severe economic difficulties. The lack of Streptomycin and other antibiotics also meant that his tuberculosis could not be properly treated, and he joked with friends that it was a race to see whether he would die of disease or of starvation.
However, soon after the end of World War II, his works received wide recognition and he developed an enormous fan following. He published many works via Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in serialized form, concentrating only on popular mystery novels, based on the orthodox western detective story format, starting with "Honjin Satsujin Jiken" (『本陣殺人事件』) and "Chōchō Satsujin Jinken" (『蝶々殺人事件』) (both in 1946). His works became the model for postwar Japanese mystery writing. He was also often called the "Japanese John Dickson Carr" after the writer whom he admired.
Yokomizo is most well known for creating the private detective character Kosuke Kindaichi (金田一 耕助). Many of his works have been made into movies.
Yokomizo died of colon cancer in 1981. His grave is at the Seishun-en cemetery in Kawasaki, Kanagawa (神奈川県 川崎市).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 182 reviews
July 8, 2026
old review:
Really impressive murder mystery, I couldn't see the ending coming at all when I first read this splendid crime novel (by Seishi Yokomizo) years ago.
Updated@15/12/2021:
A new book cover for this Yokomizo's classic! How can I resist...
New review starts here:
Night Walk is one of the finely crafted classic Detective Kindaichi mystery novels.
This time the story is narrated by a third-ranked detective novelist, he was invited to the remote family manor of his well-to-do friend. In the manor, the novelist met his friend's eerie family members, one of them being a beautiful but wanton young woman, and she had an unusual suitor: a humpbacked painter.
The men within the family seemed to all harbor complicated/incestuous feelings toward this young woman, plus when cursed bloodline, family's secrets, madness, lust and greed came into play, murder and beheading ensured.
Beheading! All the beheading in the story is really...interesting to say the least. Plus it's also worth noticing that the story takes place in a time period when DNA testing hadn't ever existed, that enables the murderer to do what they did.
Overall, the story is on the melodrama side but for a whole novel I'm fully entertained, the plot twists are neat and the murder mysteries really can keep you guessing, although Kindaichi only shows up at around the late 2/3 part of the story, still the story carries itself nicely, from start to end.
There is one thing, since it's a novel penned decades ago, so it's hard to overlook all the discrimination against disable people in the text, the characters in the book always talk like humpbacked people are mentally unbalanced and abnormal because they are handicapped! At the back of the book, I found the Taiwanese publisher noted that they are aware of the outdated discriminations in the story so they had already adjusted the wording and the tone in this reprint! If what I'd read is already the 'adjusted' version then the original text has to be really offensive. *sighs* I'm not holding it against Mr. Yokomizo, but still.
PS: here is one small detail, the murderer in the end confessed that they were 'used to beheading people during the war', *sighs* now I remember I read from another book that the Imperial Japan Army tended to kill their war prisoners by beheading them because they claimed they 'didn't have enough resource to keep war prisoners alive', that really sucks.
My Top Ten Yokomizo's Detective Kosuke Kindaichi Mysteries novels
1.惡魔的手毬歌 / A Devilish Temari Song (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
2.本陣殺人事件 / The Honjin Murders (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
3.犬神家一族 / The Inugami Clan (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
4.獄門島 / Gokumon Island (my review for Gokumonto: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
5.夜行 / Night Walk (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
6.惡魔吹著笛子來 / The Devil Comes and Plays His Flute (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
7.惡靈島 / Demon Island (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
8. 醫院坡上吊之家 / The House of Hanging on Hospital Slope Book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., Book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
9. 女王蜂 / Queen Bee (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
10. 八墓村 / The Village of Eight Graves (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
Really impressive murder mystery, I couldn't see the ending coming at all when I first read this splendid crime novel (by Seishi Yokomizo) years ago.
Updated@15/12/2021:
A new book cover for this Yokomizo's classic! How can I resist...
New review starts here:
Night Walk is one of the finely crafted classic Detective Kindaichi mystery novels.
This time the story is narrated by a third-ranked detective novelist, he was invited to the remote family manor of his well-to-do friend. In the manor, the novelist met his friend's eerie family members, one of them being a beautiful but wanton young woman, and she had an unusual suitor: a humpbacked painter.
The men within the family seemed to all harbor complicated/incestuous feelings toward this young woman, plus when cursed bloodline, family's secrets, madness, lust and greed came into play, murder and beheading ensured.
Beheading! All the beheading in the story is really...interesting to say the least. Plus it's also worth noticing that the story takes place in a time period when DNA testing hadn't ever existed, that enables the murderer to do what they did.
Overall, the story is on the melodrama side but for a whole novel I'm fully entertained, the plot twists are neat and the murder mysteries really can keep you guessing, although Kindaichi only shows up at around the late 2/3 part of the story, still the story carries itself nicely, from start to end.
There is one thing, since it's a novel penned decades ago, so it's hard to overlook all the discrimination against disable people in the text, the characters in the book always talk like humpbacked people are mentally unbalanced and abnormal because they are handicapped! At the back of the book, I found the Taiwanese publisher noted that they are aware of the outdated discriminations in the story so they had already adjusted the wording and the tone in this reprint! If what I'd read is already the 'adjusted' version then the original text has to be really offensive. *sighs* I'm not holding it against Mr. Yokomizo, but still.
PS: here is one small detail, the murderer in the end confessed that they were 'used to beheading people during the war', *sighs* now I remember I read from another book that the Imperial Japan Army tended to kill their war prisoners by beheading them because they claimed they 'didn't have enough resource to keep war prisoners alive', that really sucks.
My Top Ten Yokomizo's Detective Kosuke Kindaichi Mysteries novels
1.惡魔的手毬歌 / A Devilish Temari Song (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
2.本陣殺人事件 / The Honjin Murders (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
3.犬神家一族 / The Inugami Clan (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
4.獄門島 / Gokumon Island (my review for Gokumonto: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
5.夜行 / Night Walk (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
6.惡魔吹著笛子來 / The Devil Comes and Plays His Flute (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
7.惡靈島 / Demon Island (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
8. 醫院坡上吊之家 / The House of Hanging on Hospital Slope Book 1: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., Book 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
9. 女王蜂 / Queen Bee (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
10. 八墓村 / The Village of Eight Graves (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Este libro fue una grata sorpresa para mí.
Estaba navegando por NetGalley y, al ver las categorías y la portada de este libro, me intrigó, así que fui a leer la sinopsis y no tuve más remedio que solicitarlo. Ya solo con eso me tenía totalmente cautivada. No me importó ni siquiera que solo tuviera dos días para leerlo antes de que se archivara; al contrario, eso me motivó a terminarlo más rápido.
Les cuento muy por encima la sinopsis para que me entiendan: Imagínense una mansión gigante en el campo, una familia de la alta sociedad donde todos se odian y tienen secretos turbios, y de la nada aparece un cuerpo decapitado y mutilado.
El detective Kosuke Kindaichi (nada que ver, pero me recordó a Hércules Poirot) tiene que meterse en este círculo lleno de locura, alcoholismo, secretos y hasta una supuesta maldición familiar (y una espada) para descubrir al asesino antes de que sea demasiado tarde.
Esto es una locura brutal. Nunca había leído nada de este estilo y con lo único que puedo compararlo es con un misterio de Agatha Christie, pero en versión siniestra. Claramente seguiré leyendo al autor; esta fue la mejor carta de presentación que pude tener de él.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Estaba navegando por NetGalley y, al ver las categorías y la portada de este libro, me intrigó, así que fui a leer la sinopsis y no tuve más remedio que solicitarlo. Ya solo con eso me tenía totalmente cautivada. No me importó ni siquiera que solo tuviera dos días para leerlo antes de que se archivara; al contrario, eso me motivó a terminarlo más rápido.
Les cuento muy por encima la sinopsis para que me entiendan: Imagínense una mansión gigante en el campo, una familia de la alta sociedad donde todos se odian y tienen secretos turbios, y de la nada aparece un cuerpo decapitado y mutilado.
El detective Kosuke Kindaichi (nada que ver, pero me recordó a Hércules Poirot) tiene que meterse en este círculo lleno de locura, alcoholismo, secretos y hasta una supuesta maldición familiar (y una espada) para descubrir al asesino antes de que sea demasiado tarde.
Esto es una locura brutal. Nunca había leído nada de este estilo y con lo único que puedo compararlo es con un misterio de Agatha Christie, pero en versión siniestra. Claramente seguiré leyendo al autor; esta fue la mejor carta de presentación que pude tener de él.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
June 13, 2026
My least favourite of the Kosuke Kindaichi novels so far.
This one comes in a totally different format to the previous novels, being told by an unsuccessful detective novelist who finds himself unwillingly dragged into a series of very confusing murders beginning with the death of a hunchback, possibly at the hands of another hunchback who are fighting over the affections of a woman related to the novelist's friend.
After this the family involved decamp to their country retreat but further deaths occur and it isnt until Kosuke Kindaichi appears to solve the mystery.
This novel just didn't quite gel for me. Kindaichi arrives on the scene very late in the day and up to that point it felt quite farce-like. Certainly not the carefully plotted mysteries I have previously read by Seishi Yokomizo. Still, they cannot all be winners.
I would recommend this to any die-hard fans and it is still worth a read if you are unfamiliar with Yokomizo's usual calibre. The characters are interesting and, even though I guessed it, there was a good twist at the end.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Pushkin Vertigo for the digital review copy.
This one comes in a totally different format to the previous novels, being told by an unsuccessful detective novelist who finds himself unwillingly dragged into a series of very confusing murders beginning with the death of a hunchback, possibly at the hands of another hunchback who are fighting over the affections of a woman related to the novelist's friend.
After this the family involved decamp to their country retreat but further deaths occur and it isnt until Kosuke Kindaichi appears to solve the mystery.
This novel just didn't quite gel for me. Kindaichi arrives on the scene very late in the day and up to that point it felt quite farce-like. Certainly not the carefully plotted mysteries I have previously read by Seishi Yokomizo. Still, they cannot all be winners.
I would recommend this to any die-hard fans and it is still worth a read if you are unfamiliar with Yokomizo's usual calibre. The characters are interesting and, even though I guessed it, there was a good twist at the end.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Pushkin Vertigo for the digital review copy.
May 17, 2026
She Walks At Night is a classic mystery whodunit. The story is told from the perspective of a self described "third-rate mystery novelist" who is pulled into a murderous family drama by his university friend Yashiro.
This excellently written and translated novel takes the reader on a journey involving sleepwalking, cursed swords, mistaken identities, old resentments and many enjoyable twists and turns.
I recommend picking up this book to see if you can solve the mystery before Detective Kosuke Kindaichi reveals the hidden motives and actions of the sinister killer preying on the Furugami Family.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance reading copy in return for an honest review.
This excellently written and translated novel takes the reader on a journey involving sleepwalking, cursed swords, mistaken identities, old resentments and many enjoyable twists and turns.
I recommend picking up this book to see if you can solve the mystery before Detective Kosuke Kindaichi reveals the hidden motives and actions of the sinister killer preying on the Furugami Family.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance reading copy in return for an honest review.
January 11, 2026
we’re so back
April 10, 2025
ให้คะแนนเพราะตอนเฉลยความจริงล้วนๆ นี่สินะความรู้สึกของคนที่โดนหลอก 55555555555
April 8, 2019
เป็นคินดะอิจิตอนยาวตอนแรกที่ได้อ่านในรอบ 4 ปี
ซึ่งถือว่าไม่ทำให้ผิดหวังเลย
ท้าวความก่อนว่า เมื่อประมาณปี 2014 -2015 ตอนนั้นก็เริ่มอ่านคินดอิจิมาเรื่อยๆ จนถึงเล่มที่ 5
แต่ด้วยเหตุผลอะไรก็ไม่รู้ ตอนนี้เราก็จำไม่ได้ เลยทำให้หยุดอ่านไปพักนึง หลังจากนั้นพอจะกลับไปตามซื้อตามเก็บ ตามอ่าน
มันกลับไม่มีความ "อยาก" ที่จะทำ เหมือนหมดความสนใจไปเลย
จนกระทั่งปีที่แล้ว เริ่มกลับมาสนใจตามเก็บนิยายอีกรอบ ซึ่งก็ตามเก็บเรื่องที่อยากได้จนครบ จนมันไม่เหลืออะไรให้เก็บ
เลยหันกลับมามองเรื่องที่เราได้หันหลังให้กับมัน นั่นก็คือคินดะอิจินี่แหละ
จากนั้นก็หาข้อมูล หาหนังสือเพื่อทบทวนความทรงจำ จนได้ทราบว่า คินดะอิจิฉบับแปลบ้านเรานั้น เค้าไม่ได้แปลแบบเรียงตอน
แต่เป็นการแปลแบบตามใจฉัน ไอเราก็เลยเกิดคตวามสงสัยว่า แล้วถ้ามีการเรียงลำกับตามไทม์ไลน์ มันจะเป็นยังไง
ก็เลยลองไปหาข้อมูลในเว็บของญี่ปุ่นและแปลออกมาคราวๆ จนได้รายชื่อตอนคินดะอิจิแบบที่เรียงตามช่วงเวลาที่เกิดขึ้นในเนื้อเรื่อง
จากนั้นเราก็ตามเก็บหนังสือ และเริ่มอ่านเรียงตามไทม์ไลน์มาเรื่อยๆ
ตามนี้
Showa 12 (1937)
On November 27 - 29
01. ในห้องที่ปิดตาย (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
Showa 21 (1946)
Early September
02. บ่อพยาบาท (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
03. ใต้ต้นยี่เข่ง (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
Late September - early October
04. คดีฆาตกรรมบนเกาะโกะกุมน (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 5)
Mid November
05. เจ้าหญิงชุดดำ (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
06. นายค้างคาวกับคุณนายทาก (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 16)
Showa 22 (1947)
March 26, 28 - 30
07. แมวในความมืด (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 15)
08. คดีร้านแมวดำ (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
Mid April - 26th
09. ปีศาจฆาตกร (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
September 28 - October 11
10. บทเพลงปีศาจ (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 3)
Showa era 23 (1948)
May 5th - 9th
11. อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 8)
Mid May - early September
ซึ่งเล่ม 5 และเล่ม 3 เราเคยอ่านแล้วเมื่อ 4-5 ปีที่แล้ว ก็เลยข้ามไป ส่วนตอนที่เหลือจะเป็นตอนคดีสั้นๆ จนมาถึงคดีลำดับที่ 11
นั่นก็คือตอน อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน เลยเป็นที่มาที่ว่า นี่เป็นตอนขนาดยาวตอนแรกในรอบ 4 ปี
ทุกๆอย่างในเล่มนี้เราชอบหมดเลย และจุดพลิกของเรื่องก็ทำได้น่าประทับใจ ซึ่งบอกตามตรงว่าเดาไปถึงจุดนั้นไม่ได้เลย
ตอนนี้ก็เข้าใจแล้วว่าทำไมคนอ่านถึงชอบตอนที่เป็นเรื่องยาวมากกว่าเรื่องสั้น เพรามันมีพื้้นที่ให้เล่น และ หลอกคนอ่านนั่นเอง
พวกตอนสั้นๆก่อนหน้านี้ ก็ต้องบอกเลยว่าอ่านจบแล้วก็จบเลย ไม่ได้มีอะไรให้จดจำ
แต่จุดที่ใครหลายๆคนติในเรื่องนี้ก็คือ ความบังเอิญหลายๆอย่างๆ แต่สำหรับตัวเรากลับมองว่ามันคือความตั้งใจของคนเขียน
ที่ต้องการให้มันดูไม่เป็นธรรมชาติ แสดงถึงความบิดเบี้ยว และความเหนือจริง
คือมันไม่ปกติตั้งแต่ที่มีตัวละครหลังค่อม 2 คนทีหน้ารุปร่างหน้าตาคล้ายกัน หรือมีตัวลครที่เป็นโรคนอนละเมอ เดินไปเดินมาตอนกลางคืน คือมันมีหลายๆสิ่งที่ไม่น่าจะมารวมกันได้ขนาดนี้ แต่มันก็มาอยู่ในเรื่องนี้เรื่องเดียว คิดว่าคนอ่านควรจะเอะใจตั้งแต่ได้อ่านแล้ว
ส่วนที่ชอบอีกหนึ่งอย่างคือ
บทก่อนที่จะถึงบทสรุป ในหน้าสุดท้ายของบทนั้นที่ตัวละครตัวนั้นกำลังไตร่ตรองและบอกเราว่าเค้ารู้ตัวคนร้ายแล้วว่าเป็นใคร
ซึ่งในหน้านี้ก็ทำเอาเราอึ้งแล้ว แต่บทถัดไป มันกลับพลิกไปอีกแบบนึง ทำเอาเราต้องอุทานคำหยาบถึง 2 ครั้งเลย555
ถือว่าคนเขียนฉลาดมาก
ยกให้เป็นอีก 1 ตอนที่เราชอบมากๆ
ซึ่งถือว่าไม่ทำให้ผิดหวังเลย
ท้าวความก่อนว่า เมื่อประมาณปี 2014 -2015 ตอนนั้นก็เริ่มอ่านคินดอิจิมาเรื่อยๆ จนถึงเล่มที่ 5
แต่ด้วยเหตุผลอะไรก็ไม่รู้ ตอนนี้เราก็จำไม่ได้ เลยทำให้หยุดอ่านไปพักนึง หลังจากนั้นพอจะกลับไปตามซื้อตามเก็บ ตามอ่าน
มันกลับไม่มีความ "อยาก" ที่จะทำ เหมือนหมดความสนใจไปเลย
จนกระทั่งปีที่แล้ว เริ่มกลับมาสนใจตามเก็บนิยายอีกรอบ ซึ่งก็ตามเก็บเรื่องที่อยากได้จนครบ จนมันไม่เหลืออะไรให้เก็บ
เลยหันกลับมามองเรื่องที่เราได้หันหลังให้กับมัน นั่นก็คือคินดะอิจินี่แหละ
จากนั้นก็หาข้อมูล หาหนังสือเพื่อทบทวนความทรงจำ จนได้ทราบว่า คินดะอิจิฉบับแปลบ้านเรานั้น เค้าไม่ได้แปลแบบเรียงตอน
แต่เป็นการแปลแบบตามใจฉัน ไอเราก็เลยเกิดคตวามสงสัยว่า แล้วถ้ามีการเรียงลำกับตามไทม์ไลน์ มันจะเป็นยังไง
ก็เลยลองไปหาข้อมูลในเว็บของญี่ปุ่นและแปลออกมาคราวๆ จนได้รายชื่อตอนคินดะอิจิแบบที่เรียงตามช่วงเวลาที่เกิดขึ้นในเนื้อเรื่อง
จากนั้นเราก็ตามเก็บหนังสือ และเริ่มอ่านเรียงตามไทม์ไลน์มาเรื่อยๆ
ตามนี้
Showa 12 (1937)
On November 27 - 29
01. ในห้องที่ปิดตาย (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
Showa 21 (1946)
Early September
02. บ่อพยาบาท (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
03. ใต้ต้นยี่เข่ง (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
Late September - early October
04. คดีฆาตกรรมบนเกาะโกะกุมน (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 5)
Mid November
05. เจ้าหญิงชุดดำ (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
06. นายค้างคาวกับคุณนายทาก (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 16)
Showa 22 (1947)
March 26, 28 - 30
07. แมวในความมืด (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 15)
08. คดีร้านแมวดำ (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 9)
Mid April - 26th
09. ปีศาจฆาตกร (Talent 1 คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 31)
September 28 - October 11
10. บทเพลงปีศาจ (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 3)
Showa era 23 (1948)
May 5th - 9th
11. อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน (Bliss คินดะอิจิยอดนักสืบ เล่มที่ 8)
Mid May - early September
ซึ่งเล่ม 5 และเล่ม 3 เราเคยอ่านแล้วเมื่อ 4-5 ปีที่แล้ว ก็เลยข้ามไป ส่วนตอนที่เหลือจะเป็นตอนคดีสั้นๆ จนมาถึงคดีลำดับที่ 11
นั่นก็คือตอน อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน เลยเป็นที่มาที่ว่า นี่เป็นตอนขนาดยาวตอนแรกในรอบ 4 ปี
ทุกๆอย่างในเล่มนี้เราชอบหมดเลย และจุดพลิกของเรื่องก็ทำได้น่าประทับใจ ซึ่งบอกตามตรงว่าเดาไปถึงจุดนั้นไม่ได้เลย
ตอนนี้ก็เข้าใจแล้วว่าทำไมคนอ่านถึงชอบตอนที่เป็นเรื่องยาวมากกว่าเรื่องสั้น เพรามันมีพื้้นที่ให้เล่น และ หลอกคนอ่านนั่นเอง
พวกตอนสั้นๆก่อนหน้านี้ ก็ต้องบอกเลยว่าอ่านจบแล้วก็จบเลย ไม่ได้มีอะไรให้จดจำ
แต่จุดที่ใครหลายๆคนติในเรื่องนี้ก็คือ ความบังเอิญหลายๆอย่างๆ แต่สำหรับตัวเรากลับมองว่ามันคือความตั้งใจของคนเขียน
ที่ต้องการให้มันดูไม่เป็นธรรมชาติ แสดงถึงความบิดเบี้ยว และความเหนือจริง
คือมันไม่ปกติตั้งแต่ที่มีตัวละครหลังค่อม 2 คนทีหน้ารุปร่างหน้าตาคล้ายกัน หรือมีตัวลครที่เป็นโรคนอนละเมอ เดินไปเดินมาตอนกลางคืน คือมันมีหลายๆสิ่งที่ไม่น่าจะมารวมกันได้ขนาดนี้ แต่มันก็มาอยู่ในเรื่องนี้เรื่องเดียว คิดว่าคนอ่านควรจะเอะใจตั้งแต่ได้อ่านแล้ว
ส่วนที่ชอบอีกหนึ่งอย่างคือ
บทก่อนที่จะถึงบทสรุป ในหน้าสุดท้ายของบทนั้นที่ตัวละครตัวนั้นกำลังไตร่ตรองและบอกเราว่าเค้ารู้ตัวคนร้ายแล้วว่าเป็นใคร
ซึ่งในหน้านี้ก็ทำเอาเราอึ้งแล้ว แต่บทถัดไป มันกลับพลิกไปอีกแบบนึง ทำเอาเราต้องอุทานคำหยาบถึง 2 ครั้งเลย555
ถือว่าคนเขียนฉลาดมาก
ยกให้เป็นอีก 1 ตอนที่เราชอบมากๆ
March 26, 2026
What a great read! Yokomizo is a master of the classics, and this is no exception. None are to be trusted, and even those closest to our narrator could be hiding secrets.
As an outsider, Yashiro gives his impressions of the Furugami house cast freely. At the side of his long time friend, Naoki, he’s drawn in immediately to the overbearing and overwhelming energy of the Furugami estate. His telling of the events is tense and fast paced as murder after murder plague the group, even as Kosuke Kindaichi appears. This may be the only down side of the book, as Kindaichi adds so much fun to some of the more tragic stories, and he was only mildly in this one. Overall, it felt like I knew where this was going, bounced around a few “it has to be them” and even skimmed across the truth at times, but ultimately found this inclusion into the series to be a thrill!
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
As an outsider, Yashiro gives his impressions of the Furugami house cast freely. At the side of his long time friend, Naoki, he’s drawn in immediately to the overbearing and overwhelming energy of the Furugami estate. His telling of the events is tense and fast paced as murder after murder plague the group, even as Kosuke Kindaichi appears. This may be the only down side of the book, as Kindaichi adds so much fun to some of the more tragic stories, and he was only mildly in this one. Overall, it felt like I knew where this was going, bounced around a few “it has to be them” and even skimmed across the truth at times, but ultimately found this inclusion into the series to be a thrill!
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
June 19, 2026
Wasn't the best book by the author but it's far from bad. I had fun reading the book and guessing who the true culprit was.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange of honest review!
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange of honest review!
June 26, 2026
Scruffy sleuth Kosuke Kindaichi returns to solve another puzzle Seishi Yokomizo’s “She Walks at Night”, the seventh book to be translated in this outstanding series, originally published as a serial in 1948.
We are in post-war Japan, still trying to recover from defeat and struggling with the changing culture of great families no longer having their exalted positions in society. Naoki Sengoku gets in touch with an old friend of his from university, Torata Yashiro, who narrates this story. Torata is a detective fiction mystery writer, although not very successful, and Naoki asks him to help solve a mystery involving Yachiyo Furugami, a beautiful girl who Naoki grew up with. Yachiyo has been receiving threatening letters from a mysterious hunchback who is threatening to claim her, and Naoki thinks that Torata can help solve the mystery. To make matters even more difficult, Yachiyo shot an artistic hunchback named Koichi Hachiya, a man who she had never met. Was this the letter writer?
And so we travel to the estate and meet the Furugami family, an odd set of characters in typical Seishi Yokomizo fashion. There’s Tetsunoshin, Naoki’s father, perpetually drunk and threatening people with a sword. He is basically the kept man of Lady Oryu Furugami, the wealthy widow and mother of Yachiyo, and possibly the actual father of Yachiyo. There’s also Morie, the shy hunchback brother of Yachiyo who has his own designs on his sister. And, just to get even more confusing, the hunchback Hachiya is also present, engaged to Yachiyo and living on the estate.
Almost immediately after they arrive they witness Yachiyo having a sleepwalking episode, and they discover a headless corpse the very next day. Although it’s a hunchback, the head is missing, and so are both Morie and Hachiya. Since the police are puzzled, Kosuke Kindaichi is called in, but before he can get grounded another murder throws everything into disarray. Can Kindaichi figure out not only the killer but also the victims before more lives are lost?
Sleepwalking, vengeful servants, bloody swords, incestual relationships – just another day in the office for Kindaichi. As I’ve stated above, this is my seventh mystery in this series and all of them have been superb, a throwback to the British golden age mysteries with a very definite Japanese twist.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Steerforth & Pushkin, Pushkin Vertigo via NetGalley. Thank you!
We are in post-war Japan, still trying to recover from defeat and struggling with the changing culture of great families no longer having their exalted positions in society. Naoki Sengoku gets in touch with an old friend of his from university, Torata Yashiro, who narrates this story. Torata is a detective fiction mystery writer, although not very successful, and Naoki asks him to help solve a mystery involving Yachiyo Furugami, a beautiful girl who Naoki grew up with. Yachiyo has been receiving threatening letters from a mysterious hunchback who is threatening to claim her, and Naoki thinks that Torata can help solve the mystery. To make matters even more difficult, Yachiyo shot an artistic hunchback named Koichi Hachiya, a man who she had never met. Was this the letter writer?
And so we travel to the estate and meet the Furugami family, an odd set of characters in typical Seishi Yokomizo fashion. There’s Tetsunoshin, Naoki’s father, perpetually drunk and threatening people with a sword. He is basically the kept man of Lady Oryu Furugami, the wealthy widow and mother of Yachiyo, and possibly the actual father of Yachiyo. There’s also Morie, the shy hunchback brother of Yachiyo who has his own designs on his sister. And, just to get even more confusing, the hunchback Hachiya is also present, engaged to Yachiyo and living on the estate.
Almost immediately after they arrive they witness Yachiyo having a sleepwalking episode, and they discover a headless corpse the very next day. Although it’s a hunchback, the head is missing, and so are both Morie and Hachiya. Since the police are puzzled, Kosuke Kindaichi is called in, but before he can get grounded another murder throws everything into disarray. Can Kindaichi figure out not only the killer but also the victims before more lives are lost?
Sleepwalking, vengeful servants, bloody swords, incestual relationships – just another day in the office for Kindaichi. As I’ve stated above, this is my seventh mystery in this series and all of them have been superb, a throwback to the British golden age mysteries with a very definite Japanese twist.
I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Steerforth & Pushkin, Pushkin Vertigo via NetGalley. Thank you!
June 29, 2026
She Walks at Night is one of the finest murder mysteries I have read in recent times and another reminder of why Seishi Yokomizo remains my favorite mystery author.
The premise is intriguing from the very beginning. A wealthy family with secrets, grudges, and morally grey members is thrown into chaos when an outsider enters their lives. Then comes a murder with an unusual twist: no one is even sure who the victim is. From there, the mystery only grows more complex as the question becomes whether the detective can stop the next murder before it happens.
What Yokomizo does better than almost anyone else is atmosphere.
Long before the first murder takes place, there is an overwhelming sense of unease. The family dynamics, the mansion, and the relationships between the characters all create an oppressive feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Even without blood being spilled in the opening chapters, I found myself anxious about what awaited the characters. That slow burn is precisely what makes Yokomizo's novels so distinctive.
The cast is another major strength.
Every member of the family has their own motives, secrets, and personal agenda. Combined with the eerie setting, the novel constantly keeps you questioning everyone's intentions. Once the murders begin, the pacing becomes relentless. The story keeps moving while carefully revealing enough information for you to understand what is happening, but never enough to fully explain how it is happening.
That balance is what kept me turning pages.
Every time I thought I had a grasp on the mystery, Yokomizo introduced another revelation that forced me to rethink everything. The final twist was particularly brilliant and completely caught me off guard.
If I had one criticism, it would be that the novel asks for a little patience at the beginning. There are many characters and relationships to absorb, and understanding the family's dynamics is essential for appreciating the mystery. Readers looking for an immediate murder on the opening pages may find the initial setup slow.
For me, though, that deliberate buildup is exactly what makes the payoff so satisfying.
Overall, She Walks at Night is an atmospheric, meticulously constructed mystery that rewards patience with one of the most satisfying detective stories I have read.
If you enjoy classic murder mysteries filled with dread, intricate family secrets, and clever twists, this is an easy recommendation.
The premise is intriguing from the very beginning. A wealthy family with secrets, grudges, and morally grey members is thrown into chaos when an outsider enters their lives. Then comes a murder with an unusual twist: no one is even sure who the victim is. From there, the mystery only grows more complex as the question becomes whether the detective can stop the next murder before it happens.
What Yokomizo does better than almost anyone else is atmosphere.
Long before the first murder takes place, there is an overwhelming sense of unease. The family dynamics, the mansion, and the relationships between the characters all create an oppressive feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Even without blood being spilled in the opening chapters, I found myself anxious about what awaited the characters. That slow burn is precisely what makes Yokomizo's novels so distinctive.
The cast is another major strength.
Every member of the family has their own motives, secrets, and personal agenda. Combined with the eerie setting, the novel constantly keeps you questioning everyone's intentions. Once the murders begin, the pacing becomes relentless. The story keeps moving while carefully revealing enough information for you to understand what is happening, but never enough to fully explain how it is happening.
That balance is what kept me turning pages.
Every time I thought I had a grasp on the mystery, Yokomizo introduced another revelation that forced me to rethink everything. The final twist was particularly brilliant and completely caught me off guard.
If I had one criticism, it would be that the novel asks for a little patience at the beginning. There are many characters and relationships to absorb, and understanding the family's dynamics is essential for appreciating the mystery. Readers looking for an immediate murder on the opening pages may find the initial setup slow.
For me, though, that deliberate buildup is exactly what makes the payoff so satisfying.
Overall, She Walks at Night is an atmospheric, meticulously constructed mystery that rewards patience with one of the most satisfying detective stories I have read.
If you enjoy classic murder mysteries filled with dread, intricate family secrets, and clever twists, this is an easy recommendation.
April 3, 2026
This was such a great reading experience for me!
I have read very few Japanese works and I'm always doubtful whether the translation will be good. But after reading this story, I can't help but say the translation was so good that I didn't even feel like I was reading a story set in a different language and culture!
The story's mystery element worked really well. For one thing, the setting with few mysterious characters brought in a suspenseful setting. Along with that, the narration of Torata, who was as much an outsider, as a reader was capable of showing the characters and the events in an objective manner.
What was so striking of this story was that I couldn't even guess who the killer was nor find the clue. Everything was carefully concealed from the readers, giving the story and its ending a memorable experience.
One thing I expected was for Kindaichi to appear from the beginning itself. But his appearance came only by the end and that too was a passive person. Even then, the work of the detective was supplemented by Torata who did the narration and found clues in the first half of the story.
Overall, it was a great book. I'm happy to have found a great author whose books have a touch of mystery and classic. And now, my goal is to read more of Seishi Yokomizo's works!
I have read very few Japanese works and I'm always doubtful whether the translation will be good. But after reading this story, I can't help but say the translation was so good that I didn't even feel like I was reading a story set in a different language and culture!
The story's mystery element worked really well. For one thing, the setting with few mysterious characters brought in a suspenseful setting. Along with that, the narration of Torata, who was as much an outsider, as a reader was capable of showing the characters and the events in an objective manner.
What was so striking of this story was that I couldn't even guess who the killer was nor find the clue. Everything was carefully concealed from the readers, giving the story and its ending a memorable experience.
One thing I expected was for Kindaichi to appear from the beginning itself. But his appearance came only by the end and that too was a passive person. Even then, the work of the detective was supplemented by Torata who did the narration and found clues in the first half of the story.
Overall, it was a great book. I'm happy to have found a great author whose books have a touch of mystery and classic. And now, my goal is to read more of Seishi Yokomizo's works!
November 9, 2025
สนุกดี รู้สึกเล่มนี้มีความเป็นละครน้อยกว่าเล่มอื่นๆ ทำให้ถูกใจผมมากกว่า มีการใส่อารมณ์ในแง่ลบไปกับตัวละครค่อนข้างเยอะ(แต่ก็ไม่ได้แปลกใจอะไร) ชอบวิธีการเขียนให้ตัวละครในเรื่องดูประหลาด ดูน่าสงสัยไปหมด รู้สึกไว้ใจใครไม่ได้ทั้งเรื่อง
เล่มเล็กอ่านง่ายดี ไม่มีช่วงเบื่อเลย เพราะถูกหนังสือชวนให้สงสัย ให้คิด หรือไม่ก็มีอารมณ์ร่วมกับตัวละครตลอด
ไม่ได้รู้สึกดีกับตอนจบ แต่ยอมรับว่าหักมุมแบบเกินคาดเลย ไม่คิดว่าจะเล่นมุกนี้
เล่มเล็กอ่านง่ายดี ไม่มีช่วงเบื่อเลย เพราะถูกหนังสือชวนให้สงสัย ให้คิด หรือไม่ก็มีอารมณ์ร่วมกับตัวละครตลอด
ไม่ได้รู้สึกดีกับตอนจบ แต่ยอมรับว่าหักมุมแบบเกินคาดเลย ไม่คิดว่าจะเล่นมุกนี้
June 24, 2026
I love Seishi Yokomizo’s Kosuke Kindaichi mystery series and have read all the books currently available in English from Pushkin Press, of which this is the eighth. Originally published in 1948, She Walks at Night has a slightly different feel from most of the others in the series and it’s one of my favourites so far.
The novel is narrated by Torata Yashiro, a struggling mystery writer, who is approached by a friend, Naoki Sengoku, to ask for his opinion on a series of strange incidents involving members of Naoki’s family. Like many people, Naoki thinks that because Torata writes mysteries he must also know how to solve them – but of course that’s not necessarily the case, and when Torata hears the story he’s just as confused as his friend.
It seems that Naoki’s father, once a servant of the wealthy Furugami family, has grown close to the widowed Lady Oryu since her husband’s death. In fact, Naoki believes that the relationship started earlier than that and Lady Oryu’s daughter, Yachiyo, is actually his father’s child and therefore his own half-sister. A family prophecy has stated that Yachiyo will marry a hunchback – and, surprisingly, there are two of these in the Furugami household. One is Morie, another half-brother of Yachiyo’s who developed rickets as a child; the other is Koichi Hachiya, an artist who has just become engaged to Yachiyo.
The reason for Naoki’s concern is that Yachiyo shot Hachiya in the leg at a nightclub the previous year and hasn’t given a satisfactory explanation for what she did. She has also been receiving anonymous letters warning her not to ‘walk at night’ – a reference to her habit of sleepwalking. Torata agrees to accompany Naoki to his family home to meet Yachiyo and see if he can provide any answers, but almost as soon as he arrives the mystery deepens when a dead body is found with the head removed. How can they track down the murderer when they can’t even be sure who the victim is?
You may be wondering where Kosuke Kindaichi comes into all of this. In some of the books, he’s there from the beginning, but in others we don’t see him until later on – this is one of the latter and our dishevelled, stammering private detective makes his appearance almost exactly halfway through the book. People often underestimate Kindaichi, as Torata and Naoki initially do here, but his talents are hidden beneath his unimpressive exterior and as soon as he begins to investigate, the mystery starts to unravel. However, I felt that things unfold too quickly and easily once Kindaichi arrives on the scene and with the whole story told from Torata’s perspective, we don’t really get to see how the detective reaches any of his conclusions. The final solution, when it’s revealed, is clever and surprising, though, and I certainly hadn’t guessed it (it had crossed my mind once or twice, but I’d quickly dismissed it).
Japanese crime novels tend to focus more on the plot than on the characters, but I’m finding that Yokomizo’s books have a better balance and there are several interesting characters here, as well as Kindaichi himself, including Naoki’s father, the drunken, sword-wielding Tetsunoshin, and the bitter, vengeful old family nurse, Okita. This book overall has many of the same elements as a typical country house mystery by authors like Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr, with some Gothic touches such as sleepwalking, family curses and the murders being carried out with a legendary Muramasa sword.
Jesse Kirkwood is the latest of several translators who have worked on this series and although I’ve been happy with all of the translations, this one feels particularly smooth and easy to read. The use of a first person narrator also gives it a more intimate, personal feel than some of the other books (I think The Village of Eight Graves and The Honjin Murders are the only other ones written in the first person). If you’re new to the series, this could be a good place to start, but as they’re all separate mysteries you could really start anywhere. I’m already looking forward to the next one to be translated, The Queen Bee Mystery, coming next year!
The novel is narrated by Torata Yashiro, a struggling mystery writer, who is approached by a friend, Naoki Sengoku, to ask for his opinion on a series of strange incidents involving members of Naoki’s family. Like many people, Naoki thinks that because Torata writes mysteries he must also know how to solve them – but of course that’s not necessarily the case, and when Torata hears the story he’s just as confused as his friend.
It seems that Naoki’s father, once a servant of the wealthy Furugami family, has grown close to the widowed Lady Oryu since her husband’s death. In fact, Naoki believes that the relationship started earlier than that and Lady Oryu’s daughter, Yachiyo, is actually his father’s child and therefore his own half-sister. A family prophecy has stated that Yachiyo will marry a hunchback – and, surprisingly, there are two of these in the Furugami household. One is Morie, another half-brother of Yachiyo’s who developed rickets as a child; the other is Koichi Hachiya, an artist who has just become engaged to Yachiyo.
The reason for Naoki’s concern is that Yachiyo shot Hachiya in the leg at a nightclub the previous year and hasn’t given a satisfactory explanation for what she did. She has also been receiving anonymous letters warning her not to ‘walk at night’ – a reference to her habit of sleepwalking. Torata agrees to accompany Naoki to his family home to meet Yachiyo and see if he can provide any answers, but almost as soon as he arrives the mystery deepens when a dead body is found with the head removed. How can they track down the murderer when they can’t even be sure who the victim is?
You may be wondering where Kosuke Kindaichi comes into all of this. In some of the books, he’s there from the beginning, but in others we don’t see him until later on – this is one of the latter and our dishevelled, stammering private detective makes his appearance almost exactly halfway through the book. People often underestimate Kindaichi, as Torata and Naoki initially do here, but his talents are hidden beneath his unimpressive exterior and as soon as he begins to investigate, the mystery starts to unravel. However, I felt that things unfold too quickly and easily once Kindaichi arrives on the scene and with the whole story told from Torata’s perspective, we don’t really get to see how the detective reaches any of his conclusions. The final solution, when it’s revealed, is clever and surprising, though, and I certainly hadn’t guessed it (it had crossed my mind once or twice, but I’d quickly dismissed it).
Japanese crime novels tend to focus more on the plot than on the characters, but I’m finding that Yokomizo’s books have a better balance and there are several interesting characters here, as well as Kindaichi himself, including Naoki’s father, the drunken, sword-wielding Tetsunoshin, and the bitter, vengeful old family nurse, Okita. This book overall has many of the same elements as a typical country house mystery by authors like Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr, with some Gothic touches such as sleepwalking, family curses and the murders being carried out with a legendary Muramasa sword.
Jesse Kirkwood is the latest of several translators who have worked on this series and although I’ve been happy with all of the translations, this one feels particularly smooth and easy to read. The use of a first person narrator also gives it a more intimate, personal feel than some of the other books (I think The Village of Eight Graves and The Honjin Murders are the only other ones written in the first person). If you’re new to the series, this could be a good place to start, but as they’re all separate mysteries you could really start anywhere. I’m already looking forward to the next one to be translated, The Queen Bee Mystery, coming next year!
June 5, 2026
absolutely everything about this book had me gasping for air. i’ve now read all the kōsuke kindaichi books available in english, and honestly, this one has secured a spot in my top two. as someone who reads a lot of translated japanese murder mysteries, i can confidently say that seishi yokomizo remains unmatched.
she walks at night follows torata, a third-rate detective novelist, who accompanies his wealthy friend naoki to the furugami estate in the countryside. the furugamis are infamous for their eccentricity, their ominous family history, and the strange physical traits that seem to haunt every generation. naturally, once the visitors arrive, a string of gruesome deaths begins to unfold.
since she walks at night primarily follows the detective novelist torata as the narrator, we're seeing events through torata's eyes, and kindaichi doesn't appear until much later in the story.
jesse kirkwood’s translation is brilliant as always, preserving both the atmosphere and the mounting dread that make yokomizo’s mysteries so addictive. i also have to admit that this one completely fooled me. i didn't figure out the murderer at all, and the final reveal caught me entirely off guard.
that said, it is important to situate the novel within its historical and cultural context. written in post-war japan, the text reflects a number of social attitudes and views on women that were prevalent at the time of its publication. certain remarks and perceptions surrounding women are bound to be uncomfortable or dated to modern readers. so, please keep that in mind :)
she walks at night follows torata, a third-rate detective novelist, who accompanies his wealthy friend naoki to the furugami estate in the countryside. the furugamis are infamous for their eccentricity, their ominous family history, and the strange physical traits that seem to haunt every generation. naturally, once the visitors arrive, a string of gruesome deaths begins to unfold.
since she walks at night primarily follows the detective novelist torata as the narrator, we're seeing events through torata's eyes, and kindaichi doesn't appear until much later in the story.
jesse kirkwood’s translation is brilliant as always, preserving both the atmosphere and the mounting dread that make yokomizo’s mysteries so addictive. i also have to admit that this one completely fooled me. i didn't figure out the murderer at all, and the final reveal caught me entirely off guard.
that said, it is important to situate the novel within its historical and cultural context. written in post-war japan, the text reflects a number of social attitudes and views on women that were prevalent at the time of its publication. certain remarks and perceptions surrounding women are bound to be uncomfortable or dated to modern readers. so, please keep that in mind :)
July 1, 2026
My first Yokomizo read and honestly this book got me so, so hooked. A brilliant mystery reading experience. He is definitely a classic for a reason. Where have I been!!!
The narrator template brings me back to Strange series by Uketsu, which I really enjoy, so it didn’t take me long before I was completely absorbed in this book. I must say it was quite scary in a very realistic way, where I became conscious of my surroundings while reading it because it was just so…eerie. Which I love!
I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters from this book. So flawed. Mysterious. And I was very much impressed by the ending. I wouldn’t say it was a complete surprise, but it was a really good twist! So wicked, and somehow satisfying. I was like: OOOOYEAH.
I already have Yokomizo’s other books waiting in line. I don’t usually fancy postwar mystery, but I am definitely a new fan.
The narrator template brings me back to Strange series by Uketsu, which I really enjoy, so it didn’t take me long before I was completely absorbed in this book. I must say it was quite scary in a very realistic way, where I became conscious of my surroundings while reading it because it was just so…eerie. Which I love!
I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters from this book. So flawed. Mysterious. And I was very much impressed by the ending. I wouldn’t say it was a complete surprise, but it was a really good twist! So wicked, and somehow satisfying. I was like: OOOOYEAH.
I already have Yokomizo’s other books waiting in line. I don’t usually fancy postwar mystery, but I am definitely a new fan.
June 14, 2026
Very good! Excellent finale!
June 1, 2026
I usually prefer murder mysteries that you are given all the pieces foe throughout. I thought I had it but the twist at the end was enjoyable enough. Maybe it’s because I’m reading this on my honeymoon and another day I could have rolled my eyes at it. I can see why some may find it an unsatisfying twist or end.
That said, I had fun with it!
That said, I had fun with it!
September 21, 2018
ดีมาก หักมุมสุดๆๆ
June 8, 2026
I feel like with every Seishi Yokomizo book I read, and now in the process of re-reading, I see it is my favorite, and now I'm going to say it with this one. Yokomizo is truly one of my favorite authors of all time and my favorite mystery writer. Yokomizo balances the dark aspects of a murder mystery with the narrator's personality, who constantly addresses the reader, and leads detective Kosuki Kindaichi to create a dynamic narrative that keeps you on your toes.
Kosuke Kindaichi is one of my favorite characters; he is witty and charming, and he comes to life off the page. The way he interacts with others leads to many situations that are funnier than serious. Torata Yashiro, who serves as our narrator and is a self-proclaimed "third-rate mystery novelist," not only brings the story to life but also often breaks the fourth wall to keep the reader engaged, directly addressing readers, which I love, and one of the reasons I keep coming back to Yokomizo's books.
The book is haunting and violent as the murders are gruesome and the tension constantly rises, and as we learn more about each character, Yashiro and Kindaici find more ways each person around them could be the culprit, which makes the novel feel suffocating in a good way and constantly guessing until the tension reaches it's highest point and we get the answers we need as readers, bring the whole story full cylce.
It is, like many books, a reflection of its time, and it is hard to overlook how people with disabilities are described; I cannot review the book without mentioning that. However, I think the translator, Jesse Kirkwood, did a good job of trying to be as respectful as the original text would allow and brought to life other aspects of the characters' lives and personalities that helped them become well-rounded characters despite the narrator constantly labeling them by their disability.
Kosuke Kindaichi is one of my favorite characters; he is witty and charming, and he comes to life off the page. The way he interacts with others leads to many situations that are funnier than serious. Torata Yashiro, who serves as our narrator and is a self-proclaimed "third-rate mystery novelist," not only brings the story to life but also often breaks the fourth wall to keep the reader engaged, directly addressing readers, which I love, and one of the reasons I keep coming back to Yokomizo's books.
The book is haunting and violent as the murders are gruesome and the tension constantly rises, and as we learn more about each character, Yashiro and Kindaici find more ways each person around them could be the culprit, which makes the novel feel suffocating in a good way and constantly guessing until the tension reaches it's highest point and we get the answers we need as readers, bring the whole story full cylce.
It is, like many books, a reflection of its time, and it is hard to overlook how people with disabilities are described; I cannot review the book without mentioning that. However, I think the translator, Jesse Kirkwood, did a good job of trying to be as respectful as the original text would allow and brought to life other aspects of the characters' lives and personalities that helped them become well-rounded characters despite the narrator constantly labeling them by their disability.
December 1, 2025
เล่าเรื่องดี บรรยายเก่ง มีความซับซ้อน ปมเยอะแต่เอาอยู่
เรื่องย่อ: 'ข้ามาถึงโตเกียวแล้ว อีกไม่นานจะไปพบเจ้า ...เจ้าจงอย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน' จดหมายประหลาดถูกส่งมาถึงยาชิโยะ ลูกสาวคนเดียวแห่งตระกูลฟุรุงามิผู้มั่งคั่ง พร้อมกับรูปถ่ายไร้หัวของชายลึกลับ หญิงสาวหวาดผวากับจดหมายพิศดาร หวั่นใจว่าชายใดรอบกายเธอจะเป็นคนผู้นั้น แต่ระหว่างนั้นเองฆาตกรรมแสนสยดสยองได้เปิดฉากขึ้น ฆาตกรหั่นคอศพ...ศพแล้วศพเล่า...
คินดะอิจิ โคสุเกะ เป็นชื่อซีรี่ย์ที่ได้เห็นผ่านตาค่อนข้างบ่อย คนที่ชอบ mystery & thriller ฝั่งญี่ปุ่นมักแนะนำอยู่เสมอ ซึ่งเราเลือก 'อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน' เป็นเรื่องแรกในการประเดิมให้ได้รู้จักกับฝีไม้ลายมือของ โยโคมิโซะ เซชิ
ตามปกติไม่ค่อยชอบแนวบรรยายอะไรเยอะ เพราะส่วนใหญ่ที่เจอมักเอาไม่อยู่ กว่าจะวกกลับมาประเด็นหลักได้ใช้เวลานานทีเดียว แต่เรื่องนี้ทำได้ดี ทั้งการวางความสัมพันธ์ของแต่ละคน บรรยายสิ่งต่างๆจนเห็นภาพ มีความซับซ้อนในโครงเรื่องแต่เขียนออกมาให้เข้าใจ สื่อสารออกมาได้ดี ไม่ทำให้ซับซ้อนหรือยุ่งเหยิงเข้าไปอีก มีคำตอบให้กับทุกคำถามที่สงสัย ไม่มีรอยรั่วให้ขัดใจ โดยรวมเป็นสองร้อยหน้าที่รู้สึกว่ากำลังดี
สำบัดสำนวนมีความสมัยก่อน ก็อย่างว่าตีพิมพ์ตั้งแต่ 1973 ถึงอย่างนั้นก็มีบางประโยคที่เรียบง่ายแต่ทำให้ฉุกคิดอะไรบางอย่าง เช่น
• "ยิ่งอ่อนแอยิ่งต้องมีภาพลักษณ์น่าเกรงขาม"
• "ความขัดแย้งกันในตัวเองบางครั้งก็เป็นความน่าหลงใหล"
• "คนรุ่นราวคราวเดียวกับเราล้วนถูกทอดเขี้ยวเล็บด้วยสิ่งที่เรียกว่า วัฒนธรรม"
ทุกคนในเรื่องไว้ใจไม่ได้ มีแรงจูงใจพร้อมกับพฤติกรรมแปลกๆกันทุกคน แต่ก็ไม่สามารถเดาได้ว่าใครคือคนร้ายที่แท้จริง ช่วงหลังโดน plot แนวนี้หลอกติดต่อกันมา 2 เล่ม ทั้ง คดีฆาตกรรมปริศนากับนกฟลามิงโก และ รูมเมต เหมือนไม่ยอมเข็ดซักที ขนาดคิดกลับไปกลับมา ไม่เชื่อใจใครสักคน พอใกล้จุดเฉลยก็เคาะคำตอบในหัวแล้ว สรุปโดนพลิกอีกรอบตามเคย
เป็นการประเดิมเรื่องแรกที่ดี เพราะทำให้อยากติดตามผลงานเรื่องอื่นๆ ต่อไป
เรื่องย่อ: 'ข้ามาถึงโตเกียวแล้ว อีกไม่นานจะไปพบเจ้า ...เจ้าจงอย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน' จดหมายประหลาดถูกส่งมาถึงยาชิโยะ ลูกสาวคนเดียวแห่งตระกูลฟุรุงามิผู้มั่งคั่ง พร้อมกับรูปถ่ายไร้หัวของชายลึกลับ หญิงสาวหวาดผวากับจดหมายพิศดาร หวั่นใจว่าชายใดรอบกายเธอจะเป็นคนผู้นั้น แต่ระหว่างนั้นเองฆาตกรรมแสนสยดสยองได้เปิดฉากขึ้น ฆาตกรหั่นคอศพ...ศพแล้วศพเล่า...
คินดะอิจิ โคสุเกะ เป็นชื่อซีรี่ย์ที่ได้เห็นผ่านตาค่อนข้างบ่อย คนที่ชอบ mystery & thriller ฝั่งญี่ปุ่นมักแนะนำอยู่เสมอ ซึ่งเราเลือก 'อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน' เป็นเรื่องแรกในการประเดิมให้ได้รู้จักกับฝีไม้ลายมือของ โยโคมิโซะ เซชิ
ตามปกติไม่ค่อยชอบแนวบรรยายอะไรเยอะ เพราะส่วนใหญ่ที่เจอมักเอาไม่อยู่ กว่าจะวกกลับมาประเด็นหลักได้ใช้เวลานานทีเดียว แต่เรื่องนี้ทำได้ดี ทั้งการวางความสัมพันธ์ของแต่ละคน บรรยายสิ่งต่างๆจนเห็นภาพ มีความซับซ้อนในโครงเรื่องแต่เขียนออกมาให้เข้าใจ สื่อสารออกมาได้ดี ไม่ทำให้ซับซ้อนหรือยุ่งเหยิงเข้าไปอีก มีคำตอบให้กับทุกคำถามที่สงสัย ไม่มีรอยรั่วให้ขัดใจ โดยรวมเป็นสองร้อยหน้าที่รู้สึกว่ากำลังดี
สำบัดสำนวนมีความสมัยก่อน ก็อย่างว่าตีพิมพ์ตั้งแต่ 1973 ถึงอย่างนั้นก็มีบางประโยคที่เรียบง่ายแต่ทำให้ฉุกคิดอะไรบางอย่าง เช่น
• "ยิ่งอ่อนแอยิ่งต้องมีภาพลักษณ์น่าเกรงขาม"
• "ความขัดแย้งกันในตัวเองบางครั้งก็เป็นความน่าหลงใหล"
• "คนรุ่นราวคราวเดียวกับเราล้วนถูกทอดเขี้ยวเล็บด้วยสิ่งที่เรียกว่า วัฒนธรรม"
ทุกคนในเรื่องไว้ใจไม่ได้ มีแรงจูงใจพร้อมกับพฤติกรรมแปลกๆกันทุกคน แต่ก็ไม่สามารถเดาได้ว่าใครคือคนร้ายที่แท้จริง ช่วงหลังโดน plot แนวนี้หลอกติดต่อกันมา 2 เล่ม ทั้ง คดีฆาตกรรมปริศนากับนกฟลามิงโก และ รูมเมต เหมือนไม่ยอมเข็ดซักที ขนาดคิดกลับไปกลับมา ไม่เชื่อใจใครสักคน พอใกล้จุดเฉลยก็เคาะคำตอบในหัวแล้ว สรุปโดนพลิกอีกรอบตามเคย
เป็นการประเดิมเรื่องแรกที่ดี เพราะทำให้อยากติดตามผลงานเรื่องอื่นๆ ต่อไป
June 23, 2026
Ôi trời ơi, quyển này chính là quyển mình yêu thích nhất của Yokomizo đây, đọc mê quá mê !!
“Yachiyo Furugami, người mắc chứng mộng du, liên tục nhận được những bức thư bí ẩn, kết thúc bằng lời cảnh báo: “Đừng đi lại vào ban đêm.” Không lâu sau, một thi thể bị chặt đầu bằng thanh kiếm samurai cổ được phát hiện trong khuôn viên gia tộc Furugami. Khi cảnh sát rơi vào bế tắc, thám tử Kosuke Kindaichi được mời điều tra, nhưng hung thủ đã kịp gây ra thêm một vụ án mạng nữa.”
Cuốn này là tập hợp tất cả những điểm mạnh của cụ Yokomizo: Án mạng rùng rợn, không khí u uất, điều tra hồi hộp, twist cực hay. Đọc tầm 30% là mình chắc chắn là cuốn mình thích nhất ở thời điểm này rồi, dẫn truyện quá mượt. Giữa những đoạn căng thẳng thì lại cho mấy tình huống đọc buồn cười dã mann :)))
Chỉ có một điểm mình không thích là phần twist cuối tác giả hơi tham, thêm vào vài động cơ hơi khiên cưỡng, và cũng giấu khá nhiều thứ nên cảm giác không fair, nhưng cái twist ở giữa truyện phải gọi là ĐỈNH ĐỈNH ĐỈNH 🥹🥹
Mình chấm 8.5/10, tưởng đã rành cụ quá rồi nhưng mà khônggg, nể quá đi 🙏
“Yachiyo Furugami, người mắc chứng mộng du, liên tục nhận được những bức thư bí ẩn, kết thúc bằng lời cảnh báo: “Đừng đi lại vào ban đêm.” Không lâu sau, một thi thể bị chặt đầu bằng thanh kiếm samurai cổ được phát hiện trong khuôn viên gia tộc Furugami. Khi cảnh sát rơi vào bế tắc, thám tử Kosuke Kindaichi được mời điều tra, nhưng hung thủ đã kịp gây ra thêm một vụ án mạng nữa.”
Cuốn này là tập hợp tất cả những điểm mạnh của cụ Yokomizo: Án mạng rùng rợn, không khí u uất, điều tra hồi hộp, twist cực hay. Đọc tầm 30% là mình chắc chắn là cuốn mình thích nhất ở thời điểm này rồi, dẫn truyện quá mượt. Giữa những đoạn căng thẳng thì lại cho mấy tình huống đọc buồn cười dã mann :)))
Chỉ có một điểm mình không thích là phần twist cuối tác giả hơi tham, thêm vào vài động cơ hơi khiên cưỡng, và cũng giấu khá nhiều thứ nên cảm giác không fair, nhưng cái twist ở giữa truyện phải gọi là ĐỈNH ĐỈNH ĐỈNH 🥹🥹
Mình chấm 8.5/10, tưởng đã rành cụ quá rồi nhưng mà khônggg, nể quá đi 🙏
June 6, 2026
I find the Kosuke Kindaichi series really interesting as I always either love the book or feel really disappointed.
Unfortunately this book was the latter. I really enjoyed the last 3 chapters they were incredible but I found overall the book to be kind of boring. We don't meet our detective until just over halfway through. Narrative wise I understand why we prioritised the narrator but I find Kosuke Kindaichi to really be the glue that holds the books together and without him I don't really care about the story.
I also felt a lack of our main detective means that he solves the mystery with so much ease and it feels way too easy. Honestly this whole book would have been better served as a standalone novel than a series as Kosuke Kindaichi legit did nothing in this book. I would have felt a lot more compelled by a standalone rather than waiting for a detective to show up and barely do anything.
Unfortunately this book was the latter. I really enjoyed the last 3 chapters they were incredible but I found overall the book to be kind of boring. We don't meet our detective until just over halfway through. Narrative wise I understand why we prioritised the narrator but I find Kosuke Kindaichi to really be the glue that holds the books together and without him I don't really care about the story.
I also felt a lack of our main detective means that he solves the mystery with so much ease and it feels way too easy. Honestly this whole book would have been better served as a standalone novel than a series as Kosuke Kindaichi legit did nothing in this book. I would have felt a lot more compelled by a standalone rather than waiting for a detective to show up and barely do anything.
April 14, 2026
ARC Review
This is a new genre for me, and there is some cultural references that I did not understand and probably would have helped me to understand more about the families presented in this story.
It took me about 100 pages to become invested in the intensity of the suspense and murder mystery. There is a LOT of back stories of the two families, so much so I got overwhelmed. But once we started on the path of sleepwalking and beheading I was all in!
The author gives us a slow burn, explaining the landscape with eerie shadows, much like if you were there and could feel someone’s eyes on you.
Again, there were many references I missed, but the translation is eloquent and language almost poetic, with great care to grow the story at a pace I found maddening until then suddenly we were running at full speed.
A great whodunnit with a Japanese backdrop, with swords and beheadings and detective work
This is a new genre for me, and there is some cultural references that I did not understand and probably would have helped me to understand more about the families presented in this story.
It took me about 100 pages to become invested in the intensity of the suspense and murder mystery. There is a LOT of back stories of the two families, so much so I got overwhelmed. But once we started on the path of sleepwalking and beheading I was all in!
The author gives us a slow burn, explaining the landscape with eerie shadows, much like if you were there and could feel someone’s eyes on you.
Again, there were many references I missed, but the translation is eloquent and language almost poetic, with great care to grow the story at a pace I found maddening until then suddenly we were running at full speed.
A great whodunnit with a Japanese backdrop, with swords and beheadings and detective work
June 10, 2026
Oh you played me like a damned fiddle Yokomizo you Christie-reading son-of-a-bitch.
See you next year for the next translation.
See you next year for the next translation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2026
it’s unfortunate, but i figured out who the murderer was close to the start! still, the menagerie of a cast and sinister atmosphere make this book worth reading. i didn’t love it as much as i’ve loved some of yokomizo’s previous mysteries, though, and i think the changing settings made it less easy to fall into the mystery (i’ve gotten too used to the one singular manor housing all the murders ig).
June 28, 2026
We're back with another Kosuke Kindaichi mysteryyy! One downside of jumping on each new translation is that I'm constantly waiting for the next one, but at least She Walks at Night gave me plenty to think about, from mysterious identities to family dramas and figuring out a killer. Thanks to Steerforth & Pushkin, Pushkin Vertigo, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi series are only being translated into English now and I have been having a great time reading them. Yokomizo was excellent at proper locked-room mysteries, at enormous and bloody family drama, and at writing an actually nice detective figure, in Kosuke Kindaichi himself. As an European reader, I've found these books really interesting, both for the mystery of them but also for the insight they give into Japanese society and culture post-WWII. Of course no one book can reflect everything, but Yokomizo subtly addresses how Japanese society was shaken-up, how the class system became fragile, the poverty and destruction that existed, and more. But, since the books were written in the 1970s, they do also contain things we might not find quite as palatable or normal as we did almost sixty years ago. In She Walks at Night, for exmaple, a major plot point revolves around two characters who have Kyphosis, i.e., who have a curved or hunched spine. These characters are consistently referred to as "hunchbacks" in the book and their medical condition is also taken as an indicator for their personalities, which is consistently treated as a negative. This will strike most modern readers, European or otherwise, as wrong or offensive. While there is indeed a discomfort there, She Walks at Night, more than any Yokomizo book I have read so far, is about who gets to tell a story and what their story says about them. That is worth bearing in mind, as you dive into the book.
She Walks at Night begins in media res, with a conversation between Torata Yashiro and Naoki Sengoku. Torata is a writer of bad crime and thriller novels and Naoki is his somewhat-benefactor, except that he doesn't really seem to respect Torata at all. But Naoki is in a pickle, due to his family's complicated relationship with the Furugami family. He unloads the entire drama onto Torata and then demands that he accompanies him to the family estate where, naturally, they are just in time to be present for a murder. What is going on between these two families? What secrets mut be uncovered fort he truth to be found? And will Kosuke Kindaichi arrive on-scene in time to prevent further deaths? I'm keeping the plot as vague as possible, in part because even the set-up would take quite some time to explain but also because discovering the details for yourself is always part of the fun with Seishi Yokomizo's books. She Walks at Night felt a little different than the other Kindaichi books I have read so far. So far, if I recall correctly, these books have started off with a set-up of the family and then about halfway through Kosuke gets involved and we begin to follow him around a bit more. In She Walks at Night, Kosuke is of course present, but he is almost like a background figure while we remain with our protagonist and narrator, Torata. He is really our focus and because he is a writer himself, he knows how to write a story. It makes for a different kind of reading experience, however, so those who really love Kosuke will maybe be a little disappointed.
I had a good time with She Walks at Night, although the issue discussed above did sometimes throw me off a little. As a mystery, it has everything from entangled families, illicit lust, incestual longing, cursed swords, wealth, confused identities, and more. It also has a writer as a protagonist, which means that there are meta aspects to this novel, which is something I always enjoy. While many Japanese thrillers I have read so far have a very present narrator, who uses 'I' pronouns and interjects into the story (The Labyrinth Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is a great example!), this is heightened a little bit in She Walks at Night. Saying anything more would threaten to spoil the novel and I will say that for this one, the twist is where much of the payoff lies. Because of that, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as other installments in the series, like for example The Honjin Murders. As the reader, in part because of Kosuke Kindaichi's absence, you're not quite as involved in putting together the clues and are much more reliant on the protagonist's own insights. This is fun, but it removes some of the puzzling that gives so much of the joy in the other books. Because of this, some of the other issues with the series, largely due to the time period from which it comes, like the portrayal of women, comes to grate a little more. However, Jesse Kirkwood does an excellent job as a translator and She Walks at Night feels coherent with the other novels, translated by others like Louise Heal Kawai or Bryan Karetnyk. I remain really happy that Pushkin Vertigo is translating these novels because Kosuke Kindaichi remains my favourite detective and the stories and mysteries are really inventive and challenging.
While not my favourite Kosuke Kindaichi book so far, I did have a fun time with She Walks at Night! I gasped at the last few chapters and it really comes across how much Seishi Yokomizo knew about the mystery/detective/thriller genre and how much fun he had writing in it.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi series are only being translated into English now and I have been having a great time reading them. Yokomizo was excellent at proper locked-room mysteries, at enormous and bloody family drama, and at writing an actually nice detective figure, in Kosuke Kindaichi himself. As an European reader, I've found these books really interesting, both for the mystery of them but also for the insight they give into Japanese society and culture post-WWII. Of course no one book can reflect everything, but Yokomizo subtly addresses how Japanese society was shaken-up, how the class system became fragile, the poverty and destruction that existed, and more. But, since the books were written in the 1970s, they do also contain things we might not find quite as palatable or normal as we did almost sixty years ago. In She Walks at Night, for exmaple, a major plot point revolves around two characters who have Kyphosis, i.e., who have a curved or hunched spine. These characters are consistently referred to as "hunchbacks" in the book and their medical condition is also taken as an indicator for their personalities, which is consistently treated as a negative. This will strike most modern readers, European or otherwise, as wrong or offensive. While there is indeed a discomfort there, She Walks at Night, more than any Yokomizo book I have read so far, is about who gets to tell a story and what their story says about them. That is worth bearing in mind, as you dive into the book.
She Walks at Night begins in media res, with a conversation between Torata Yashiro and Naoki Sengoku. Torata is a writer of bad crime and thriller novels and Naoki is his somewhat-benefactor, except that he doesn't really seem to respect Torata at all. But Naoki is in a pickle, due to his family's complicated relationship with the Furugami family. He unloads the entire drama onto Torata and then demands that he accompanies him to the family estate where, naturally, they are just in time to be present for a murder. What is going on between these two families? What secrets mut be uncovered fort he truth to be found? And will Kosuke Kindaichi arrive on-scene in time to prevent further deaths? I'm keeping the plot as vague as possible, in part because even the set-up would take quite some time to explain but also because discovering the details for yourself is always part of the fun with Seishi Yokomizo's books. She Walks at Night felt a little different than the other Kindaichi books I have read so far. So far, if I recall correctly, these books have started off with a set-up of the family and then about halfway through Kosuke gets involved and we begin to follow him around a bit more. In She Walks at Night, Kosuke is of course present, but he is almost like a background figure while we remain with our protagonist and narrator, Torata. He is really our focus and because he is a writer himself, he knows how to write a story. It makes for a different kind of reading experience, however, so those who really love Kosuke will maybe be a little disappointed.
I had a good time with She Walks at Night, although the issue discussed above did sometimes throw me off a little. As a mystery, it has everything from entangled families, illicit lust, incestual longing, cursed swords, wealth, confused identities, and more. It also has a writer as a protagonist, which means that there are meta aspects to this novel, which is something I always enjoy. While many Japanese thrillers I have read so far have a very present narrator, who uses 'I' pronouns and interjects into the story (The Labyrinth Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is a great example!), this is heightened a little bit in She Walks at Night. Saying anything more would threaten to spoil the novel and I will say that for this one, the twist is where much of the payoff lies. Because of that, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as other installments in the series, like for example The Honjin Murders. As the reader, in part because of Kosuke Kindaichi's absence, you're not quite as involved in putting together the clues and are much more reliant on the protagonist's own insights. This is fun, but it removes some of the puzzling that gives so much of the joy in the other books. Because of this, some of the other issues with the series, largely due to the time period from which it comes, like the portrayal of women, comes to grate a little more. However, Jesse Kirkwood does an excellent job as a translator and She Walks at Night feels coherent with the other novels, translated by others like Louise Heal Kawai or Bryan Karetnyk. I remain really happy that Pushkin Vertigo is translating these novels because Kosuke Kindaichi remains my favourite detective and the stories and mysteries are really inventive and challenging.
While not my favourite Kosuke Kindaichi book so far, I did have a fun time with She Walks at Night! I gasped at the last few chapters and it really comes across how much Seishi Yokomizo knew about the mystery/detective/thriller genre and how much fun he had writing in it.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
December 16, 2022
เล่มนี้หักมุมมาก พีคมาก เหมือนกำลังโดนหนังสือในเล่มหลอก อารม์ประมาณว่า อย่าออกมาเดินตอนกลางคืน ก็หมายถึง ฉันเตือนคุณแล้วนะเลยอ่ะครับ 55555
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Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I have marked this as a spoiler heavy review not because there are really any, however, I feel if you have read the Kindaichi novels to this point what little information I have given here will clue any reader familiar with Yokomizo's work to the identity of the culprit almost immediately. With this one I truly believe that the best part was how absolutely confusing the story was in terms of knowing who the killer was and yet not being able to prove it. I have used they/them when referring to the actual killer in order to hopefully maintain that confusion.
One afternoon Yashiro Totara's "friend" Naoki comes to him with a strange story regarding the woman he's in love with. A few months ago, a man by the name of Hachiya, who has the distinct feature of being a hunchback, was shot in the thigh at a cabaret club in Tokyo by a woman that not even the victim recognized. Naoki, however, immediately suspects Yachiyo, his crush, of the shooting due to a series of letters she received from a hunchback man stating in a menacing way that he would be coming to claim her. Not only that when Naoki finally confront Hachiya, she admits to this shooting but oddly enough she is now engaged to be married to the very man she shot and he is staying with her at his family's estate. To complicate matters even further her very own brother, Morie, who also happens to be a hunchback is there too and seems to have incestuous designs on his sister! Naoki is terrified that something awful will happen and so he enlists Totara to stay with him at the estate and hopefully unravel the tangled web Yachiyo seems to have weaved.
This was absolutely brilliantly done and while it does take the same theme of obscuring a victim's identity as we saw in the Black Cat Cafe, it takes it to an extreme. Like many of Yokomizo books it isn't so much that you don't know who the murderer is it's that it makes no logical sense that the murderer is who you think it is. There is simply no way for them to pull off the murder, in this book especially. Your suspicions make absolutely zero sense, so you just toss them out the window and hope that Kindaichi arrives on the scene to reveal the killer before someone else dies.
What I really loved about this one is that the messed-up family is actually not at the center of this story. Oh, they are profoundly messed up, you have a retainer family, that of Naoki and his father who have basically taken over the main family, that of Yachiyo and Morie to the point that no one really knows how anyone is related. There is distinct possibility that Naoki's dad is actually the father to Naoki, Yachiyo, and Morie so literally this Hayachi character is the only one who isn't crushing on his half-sister. Here's the thing though Morie I could definitely see trying to consummate this, Naoki not so much and I think he'd actually interfere if Morie tried to simply because hey sleeping with your sister is freaking wrong. So while this is definitely one Yokomizo's trademark dysfunctional families, it never feels like that has anything to do with it. Oh sure they all dislike each other greatly but it just feels like if they were going to have started killing each other off they would have done it a long time ago. It's the only thing that makes any sense though! And it is it truly, truly is kind of. Because per usual there are some clues that don't give us the answer you need to correctly identify the killer but do give you enough information to say "Hey, yeah there's something else going on here." Which I really, really loved.
Now, because of all of the above, everything that happens that looks like a twist or a turn or some huge revelation in the case is actually not at all and omigoodness that was absolutely genius. Every time no evidence came, or some new character arrived on the scene I was like "Okay now we are getting somewhere!" but literally none of it mattered. To be able to do that and make it completely believable until the very end is an absolute work of genius.
I also will say one thing about the actual killer; they were probably always going to do something like this. When they are giving their evil villain/ness monologue (which is like two chapters long which trust me is fine because Kindaichi calls them on their bs as I am right now) it doesn't feel right. It's quite frankly not selfish enough and by this point we know they lied to us at least once so it's hard to buy their "it was for me, but it was really for this other person" monologue. It's when they go into their second monologue in the last chapter that we get the idea that there was probably always just something wrong with this person and the war didn't help. Like when they are talking about their relationships with all of the characters it was like they weren't even trying very hard to convince anyone that they truly had a passionate hatred towards them. It just feels impossible for them to actually have any sort of large emotions like that, plus by this point we've had three chapters where they have admitted to lying so it's pretty difficult to believe anything they had to say. I think Kindaichi felt the same way too.
Of course, I recommend this book! I recommend all of Kindaichi's books, but this one was special, I think. As I mentioned earlier Yokomizo really expands on this idea of obscuring a victim's identity that he explored in the Black Cat Cafe on a scope that feels way too large for it to actually work but work it does. He also uses his trademark dysfunctional family plot against the reader which is absolutely brilliant. I don't think I have come across many writers who would choose to use a hallmark of their writing as a way to mislead their readers and for that alone I would recommend this!
One afternoon Yashiro Totara's "friend" Naoki comes to him with a strange story regarding the woman he's in love with. A few months ago, a man by the name of Hachiya, who has the distinct feature of being a hunchback, was shot in the thigh at a cabaret club in Tokyo by a woman that not even the victim recognized. Naoki, however, immediately suspects Yachiyo, his crush, of the shooting due to a series of letters she received from a hunchback man stating in a menacing way that he would be coming to claim her. Not only that when Naoki finally confront Hachiya, she admits to this shooting but oddly enough she is now engaged to be married to the very man she shot and he is staying with her at his family's estate. To complicate matters even further her very own brother, Morie, who also happens to be a hunchback is there too and seems to have incestuous designs on his sister! Naoki is terrified that something awful will happen and so he enlists Totara to stay with him at the estate and hopefully unravel the tangled web Yachiyo seems to have weaved.
This was absolutely brilliantly done and while it does take the same theme of obscuring a victim's identity as we saw in the Black Cat Cafe, it takes it to an extreme. Like many of Yokomizo books it isn't so much that you don't know who the murderer is it's that it makes no logical sense that the murderer is who you think it is. There is simply no way for them to pull off the murder, in this book especially. Your suspicions make absolutely zero sense, so you just toss them out the window and hope that Kindaichi arrives on the scene to reveal the killer before someone else dies.
What I really loved about this one is that the messed-up family is actually not at the center of this story. Oh, they are profoundly messed up, you have a retainer family, that of Naoki and his father who have basically taken over the main family, that of Yachiyo and Morie to the point that no one really knows how anyone is related. There is distinct possibility that Naoki's dad is actually the father to Naoki, Yachiyo, and Morie so literally this Hayachi character is the only one who isn't crushing on his half-sister. Here's the thing though Morie I could definitely see trying to consummate this, Naoki not so much and I think he'd actually interfere if Morie tried to simply because hey sleeping with your sister is freaking wrong. So while this is definitely one Yokomizo's trademark dysfunctional families, it never feels like that has anything to do with it. Oh sure they all dislike each other greatly but it just feels like if they were going to have started killing each other off they would have done it a long time ago. It's the only thing that makes any sense though! And it is it truly, truly is kind of. Because per usual there are some clues that don't give us the answer you need to correctly identify the killer but do give you enough information to say "Hey, yeah there's something else going on here." Which I really, really loved.
Now, because of all of the above, everything that happens that looks like a twist or a turn or some huge revelation in the case is actually not at all and omigoodness that was absolutely genius. Every time no evidence came, or some new character arrived on the scene I was like "Okay now we are getting somewhere!" but literally none of it mattered. To be able to do that and make it completely believable until the very end is an absolute work of genius.
I also will say one thing about the actual killer; they were probably always going to do something like this. When they are giving their evil villain/ness monologue (which is like two chapters long which trust me is fine because Kindaichi calls them on their bs as I am right now) it doesn't feel right. It's quite frankly not selfish enough and by this point we know they lied to us at least once so it's hard to buy their "it was for me, but it was really for this other person" monologue. It's when they go into their second monologue in the last chapter that we get the idea that there was probably always just something wrong with this person and the war didn't help. Like when they are talking about their relationships with all of the characters it was like they weren't even trying very hard to convince anyone that they truly had a passionate hatred towards them. It just feels impossible for them to actually have any sort of large emotions like that, plus by this point we've had three chapters where they have admitted to lying so it's pretty difficult to believe anything they had to say. I think Kindaichi felt the same way too.
Of course, I recommend this book! I recommend all of Kindaichi's books, but this one was special, I think. As I mentioned earlier Yokomizo really expands on this idea of obscuring a victim's identity that he explored in the Black Cat Cafe on a scope that feels way too large for it to actually work but work it does. He also uses his trademark dysfunctional family plot against the reader which is absolutely brilliant. I don't think I have come across many writers who would choose to use a hallmark of their writing as a way to mislead their readers and for that alone I would recommend this!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
3.5 stars for me.
I read this book from NetGalley as an advanced review copy. This review is based on my reading this book and is my honest feedback about it.
There is something deeply comforting about entering a classic Japanese mystery knowing full well that everyone is suspicious, every family has enough secrets to destabilise entire nations and somewhere in the middle of all that glorious dysfunction, a murder is waiting to happen.
As someone who has an undeniable weakness for locked room mysteries, impossible crimes, atmospheric manor houses and detectives who look entirely incapable of solving anything until they quietly dismantle everyone’s assumptions, She Walks at Night should have been a guaranteed five star read for me.
And for a while, I genuinely thought it might be.
Seishi Yokomizo does atmosphere so ridiculously well. The Furugami estate is not merely a setting. It is a mood, a warning and quite possibly an accomplice. There is an immediate sense of unease woven through the narrative, the kind that makes even ordinary conversations feel vaguely threatening. Add in sleepwalking, old family resentments, emotional instability, inherited bitterness and a murder involving a samurai sword and honestly, how was I not going to be entertained?
Kosuke Kindaichi remains one of my favourite kinds of detectives because he never arrives with theatrical brilliance or polished grandeur. He appears almost deceptively unremarkable, slightly chaotic even and then proceeds to notice everything. I adore detectives like that.
What worked beautifully for me was the gothic atmosphere. Seishi captures that delicious old school mystery energy where the house feels heavy with memory, where family members seem permanently on the verge of confession or collapse and where everyone appears to be hiding something equally dramatic. This is very much my kind of literary chaos.
But even with that, this was not quite the knockout I had hoped for.
The opening absolutely hooks you. The premise is deliciously strange and promises the kind of intricately layered mystery I love. But somewhere in the middle, the story loses some of its sharpness. There is a lot happening emotionally, a lot of family melodrama, shifting tensions, revelations and interpersonal turbulence, but not all of it serves the mystery with equal effectiveness.
I enjoy drama in detective fiction. In fact, I actively welcome it.
But here, it occasionally tipped from compelling gothic tension into prolonged emotional excess that slowed the investigative momentum. I found myself wanting the puzzle to tighten just a little more. And while this absolutely contains mystery elements I enjoy, it is less of a pure locked room or impossible crime puzzle than I had instinctively hoped for. Readers looking for a meticulous fair play brain teaser may find this leans much more heavily into family secrets and gothic intrigue.
The final reveal is satisfying, certainly. Clever enough to appreciate, dramatic enough to suit the story but it did not quite deliver enough for me. Still, even a slightly uneven Seishi remains immensely readable and looms heads over heels in this style of books.
If you love classic Japanese mysteries, gloriously dysfunctional families, sinister estates, gothic unease and detectives who quietly untangle emotional and criminal chaos with understated brilliance, this is absolutely worth picking up.
This may not be my most favourite book in this style of mystery but undeniably atmospheric, wonderfully strange and consistently entertaining.
I read this book from NetGalley as an advanced review copy. This review is based on my reading this book and is my honest feedback about it.
There is something deeply comforting about entering a classic Japanese mystery knowing full well that everyone is suspicious, every family has enough secrets to destabilise entire nations and somewhere in the middle of all that glorious dysfunction, a murder is waiting to happen.
As someone who has an undeniable weakness for locked room mysteries, impossible crimes, atmospheric manor houses and detectives who look entirely incapable of solving anything until they quietly dismantle everyone’s assumptions, She Walks at Night should have been a guaranteed five star read for me.
And for a while, I genuinely thought it might be.
Seishi Yokomizo does atmosphere so ridiculously well. The Furugami estate is not merely a setting. It is a mood, a warning and quite possibly an accomplice. There is an immediate sense of unease woven through the narrative, the kind that makes even ordinary conversations feel vaguely threatening. Add in sleepwalking, old family resentments, emotional instability, inherited bitterness and a murder involving a samurai sword and honestly, how was I not going to be entertained?
Kosuke Kindaichi remains one of my favourite kinds of detectives because he never arrives with theatrical brilliance or polished grandeur. He appears almost deceptively unremarkable, slightly chaotic even and then proceeds to notice everything. I adore detectives like that.
What worked beautifully for me was the gothic atmosphere. Seishi captures that delicious old school mystery energy where the house feels heavy with memory, where family members seem permanently on the verge of confession or collapse and where everyone appears to be hiding something equally dramatic. This is very much my kind of literary chaos.
But even with that, this was not quite the knockout I had hoped for.
The opening absolutely hooks you. The premise is deliciously strange and promises the kind of intricately layered mystery I love. But somewhere in the middle, the story loses some of its sharpness. There is a lot happening emotionally, a lot of family melodrama, shifting tensions, revelations and interpersonal turbulence, but not all of it serves the mystery with equal effectiveness.
I enjoy drama in detective fiction. In fact, I actively welcome it.
But here, it occasionally tipped from compelling gothic tension into prolonged emotional excess that slowed the investigative momentum. I found myself wanting the puzzle to tighten just a little more. And while this absolutely contains mystery elements I enjoy, it is less of a pure locked room or impossible crime puzzle than I had instinctively hoped for. Readers looking for a meticulous fair play brain teaser may find this leans much more heavily into family secrets and gothic intrigue.
The final reveal is satisfying, certainly. Clever enough to appreciate, dramatic enough to suit the story but it did not quite deliver enough for me. Still, even a slightly uneven Seishi remains immensely readable and looms heads over heels in this style of books.
If you love classic Japanese mysteries, gloriously dysfunctional families, sinister estates, gothic unease and detectives who quietly untangle emotional and criminal chaos with understated brilliance, this is absolutely worth picking up.
This may not be my most favourite book in this style of mystery but undeniably atmospheric, wonderfully strange and consistently entertaining.
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