Published serially in 1946, The Honjin Murders is an influential and cunningly crafted mystery classic. With this novel, Yokomizo introduces his most famous creation, amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi (who would appear in over seventy of his novels), and codifies his unique fusion of western mystery trappings and Japanese literary aesthetics. In The Honjin Murders, Yokomizo wastes no time in constructing an elaborate world populated with unique characters and abundant clues, devising a locked-room mystery with a truly ingenious solution. This is a lean novel with no ink wasted, but it retains a powerful atmosphere thanks to Yokomizo’s visual imagination and rich eye for detail.