Seishi Yokomizo - The Little Sparrow Murders

In Japan a Temari Song is sung by children as they bounce balls and play together. The titular Little Sparrows Temari song tells the story of three young women, from different backgrounds, who are all "sent away". In other words they are murdered. In the song the women are from different families, whose surname, "locksmith" for instance, tells the listener who they are and what their family does. Such names are common in small rural towns, but this is post-War Japan and a society is going through rapid changes. The song is a link to the past, but it has a shocking echo during the period of the novel as three young women are, indeed, murdered.

The novel is set in Onikobe where the "famous" private detective Kosuke Kindaichi has travelled on holiday. Two decades previously it had been the scene of an intriguing and unsolved murder. But Kindaichi is not drawn there to solve a crime, but to find rest and recuperation. Nonetheless there are connections to the past and early into his holiday the village Chief disappears, leaving traces of blood and poison. An intriguing letter shows that an old lover from the past has reappeared. Has the chieftain been killed for something that happened twenty years before?

As Kindaichi's stay unfolds murder follows murder. The reader will be distracted however by the descriptions of rural Japan, and the fascinating characters. The arrival of a famous singer and actor who grew up in the village further complicates matters, as does the discovery that one of the villagers was an esteemed "silent film narrator" (a role that was peculiar to Japan and makes for a fascinating diversion). The murders are horrific and seem to follow the Temari Song. But I was a little overwhelmed by the number of characters and the convoluted plot. As such I tended to read it more for the atmosphere and aesthetic. Nonetheless I did draw some comparisons with other media - the two rival village families offered some similarities with the setting of the classic Kurosawa film Yojimbo, though perhaps its fairer to say that the context is that of many rural times with families growing rich, or loosing their once esteemed position. In fact there are some intriguing class contexts here but they aren't really fleshed out.

The Little Sparrow Murders was not my favourite Kosuke Kindaichi mystery, but it does have its merits. Readers should start with the earlier books.

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Yokomizo - The Inugami Curse
Yokomizo - The Honjin Murders