The opening is a good one: a young woman was on the run with a man whom she referred to as a 'bad person' and they were looking for a mysterious hidden document, with both police and gangsters hot on their heels, why and how did things come down to this?
Overall it could be an enjoyable mystery and adventure novel, it is rare for Yokomizo to use a female character as the narrator but.................you just can't expect too much from this. Plus I do like the setting of four groups of women (and their wicked suitors) fighting over the right to inherit a huge family fortune in a deadly game of wits. The ending and the revealing of the murderer's identity is a bit weak but I can live with it nonetheless.
However! Let's address the elephant in the room! ! I understand it's a story written in the post-war era but I am still so fucking disappointed!
The plot seemed like The Inugami Curse where an heiress had to marry a specific man in order to receive whatever money and heritage they would be given later.
If you are looking for a story with a messed up family tree, this book is for you. However, the story is easy to read. Although the story was developed in to a serial kill, the trick of murders were not properly explained and satisfied me enough as to be called a detective story. Therefore, we barely see Detective Kindaichi Kosuke in this book. *please give him more role*
However, most important reason why I did not even rate this book 4-stars is because it tried to “romanticize raping” and called it fate. As a citizen of 21st century, I felt utterly uncomfortable during reading about it.