If you love Agatha Christie and have ever wondered what a Japanese version of her might look like, let me introduce you to Seishi Yokomizo, and his most beloved creation: Detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
This review may contain spoilers, read at your own risk.
The Inugami Curse is set in 1940s Japan, where the wealthy patriarch of the powerful Inugami clan has just died, leaving behind an unusual will. His family, a tangle of illegitimate daughters, scheming sons-in-law, and feuding grandchildren, have been waiting eagerly for their inheritance. But no sooner are the strange details of the will revealed than the murders begin. Grotesque, elaborate, and deeply unsettling murders. Enter Kindaichi, Japan’s most famous fictional detective, to make sense of it all.
Christie in Japan, but Darker
The first thing that struck me about this novel is how familiar the setting feels, and yet how different the atmosphere is. A semi-closed setting, a wealthy family with secrets, multiple suspects, and a detective piecing clues together from the outside. If that sounds like classic Agatha Christie territory, it is. Yokomizo was working in the same tradition.
But where Christie’s murder tend to be relatively clean and civilised, Yokomizo goes somewhere far more unsettling. The murders in The Inugami Curse are horrifying and blood-curdling. And all the more intriguing for it. This is not a cosy mystery. The drama within the Inugami family makes the stakes feel genuinely high, and the creepiness lingers. There are images in this book of a character wearing an eerily lifelike rubber mask to conceal a battle scar, or how a decapitated head on top of a life size doll – that I will not forget in a hurry.
One of the most interesting aspects of The Inugami Curse is how Yokomizo handles chance. Several of the murders hinge on circumstances that could easily have gone differently: small coincidences or moments of luck. At first this felt like a weakness, but the more I read, the more I realised Yokomizo was doing this deliberately. He’s making a point: that some crimes are harder to solve precisely because chance played a role. It felt surprisingly realistic for a novel this theatrical in murders.
Detective Kindaichi
Now, about our detective. Kindaichi is endearing, and he clearly gets results. But he is not the composed, elegant sleuth of Golden Age tradition. He stutters. He scratches his head excitedly. He is, frankly, a little scruffy around the edges. For readers used to the cool precision of Hercule Poirot, this takes some adjustments.
I warmed to his kooky side eventually, but I’ll admit it initially made him difficult to take seriously as a detective. It’s a deliberate character choice by Yokomizo, Kindaichi’s dishevelled exterior is meant to contrast with his sharp mind.
My other gripe is the narrator. There’s an unseen narrative voice that occasionally steps in to wrap up chapters, and it has an unfortunate habit of nudging readers in directions that slightly spoil what’s coming. I found myself wishing Yokomizo had trusted his readers more. The mystery is strong enough to stand without the hints.
Should you read it?
What really makes The Inugami Curse work is the family itself. The Inugami clan is a wonderfully messy web of ambition, resentment, forbidden secrets, and buried history. And Yokomizo peels it back layer by layer. By the time the full picture emerges, you realise how carefully everything was constructed from the very beginning. The drama is over the top in the best possible way.
It is also worth knowing that this novel has been adapted into a film twice in Japan, which tells you everything about how beloved this story is in its home country.
If you enjoy Golden Age mysteries and want to explore beyond the British canon, The Inugami Curse is a wonderful place to start with Japanese crime fiction. It shares the DNA of Christie and Carr while bringing something distinctly its own: a darker atmosphere and a more melodramatic family saga.
It certainly won’t be my last Kindaichi novel.
Rating: 4 Muse Points. Grotesque murders, dramatic family, and a detective unlike any other.
About the Author
Seishi Yokomizo (1902 – 1981) was one of Japan’s most famous and beloved mystery writers, often called “Japan’s Agatha Christie.” He is best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 novels, many of which were adapted for stage, film, and television. The Inugami Curse was first published in Japanese in 1951 and translated into English in 2020.
