I've read all but one of this series, all out of order, and in different formats - this time THE LITTLE SPARROW MURDERS was available as an audio book via the local library which worked out brilliantly. The narrator (Akira Matsumoto) was extremely easy to listen to, used a non-grating number of voices for the characters, and gave me a lesson on pronunciation that I really appreciated.
The story here is based around Yokomizo's main character, Kosuke Kindaichi, a private detective frequently referred to as "scruffy" being invited to a remote mountain village to look, with fresh eyes, at a twenty-year-old murder case. As soon as Kindaichi arrives a new series of murders starts up, with bodies discovered in bizarre poses, the method of death matching the lyrics of an old children's song an elderly local woman is able to still sing. Needless to say, the murders have a connection to the tangled history of this small village, with its family rivalries and interwoven connections going back many generations.
Originally written in 1959, this outing has an even older feeling to it, with Kindaichi deep in rural, superstitious and very isolated Japan. The pace of these is slow, the storytelling intricate, with a detecting style straight out of the keep listening and talking to people until everything falls into place category.
Yokomizo's own life's experience has direct resonance in this series (spending time in remote areas recovering from illness as a starting point), as does his interest in traditional "western" detective fiction, hence his creation of PI Kosuke Kindaichi, and the way that he tackles unusual cases - as in this outing where he was initially willing to look into a twenty-year-old cold case. (Apropos of nothing, it's worth mentioning that his The Death's Head Stranger is widely regarded as the first successful adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula).
Reflective, cleverly constructed, and reliant on interaction and observation, THE LITTLE SPARROW MURDERS in audio was an excellent way to learn something sobering, and oddly soothing, about human nature. Seems small villages and family grievances are pretty much the same the world over.
The Little Sparrow Murders
An old friend of Kosuke Kindaichi's invites the scruffy detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe in order to look into a twenty-year-old murder case. But no sooner has Kindaichi arrived than a new series of murders strikes the village - several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that match the lyrics of an old local children's song...
The legendary sleuth investigates, but soon realises must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its rival families, to get to the truth.
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