Reviews

The Ginza Ghost by Keikichi Ōsaka

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8797999's review

4.0

I read this book on a whim as part of Kindle Unlimited and what a fantastic collection of mystery stories. I went into it blind and thoroughly enjoyed each story. What often appears supernatural has a very human and basic solution.

Some of the stories I concluded the truth before all was revealed but still very enjoyable and opens up a new world of mystery fiction for me. Looking forward to reading more of the same in the future.

scarletrain's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.25

noodle2221's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

jeansnow's review

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4.0

I quite enjoyed this, and felt like it was especially a success since it's a collection of short stories, and so you often tend to have a mix of good and less good, but I was very satisfied with all of them. I think this is also the first time I read murder mysteries in the form of short stories, and I was impressed that the author managed to created this very intriguing whodunnits in just a few pages. The mysteries themselves are bit more conventional than all of the other Japanese honkaku murder mysteries I've been reading of late, but I still felt satisfied.

tombomp's review against another edition

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3.0

This is my first read of any honkaku stories and my first impression was just how much more ludicrous most of the solutions here are compared to English ones. Which I mean as a compliment - the characters are non existent and the writing in general is absolutely paper thin, so the only interest is the puzzle. And it's fun coming to the end and realising like, yes, this is technically, possibly, feasible, and yes, you did in fact have the clues to come up with this solution before the end. But it's still hard to imagine reading these stories and trying to guess the answer because they are very out of left field. So broadly you'll only enjoy this if that appeals to you.

There's one exception which I think is just a really solid mystery story and doesn't need any special pleading - The Demon in the Mine. There's a lot of clever misdirection with a clever motive that appears inexplicable at first. I really liked it.