The Village of Eight Graves

This was my first Det. Kindaichi novel where I was pretty sure I knew who the murderer was right off that bat. I'm not even mad about it though because the whole thing was so twisted I was genuinely surprised that I was right in the end! Tatsuya always knew the man that raised him wasn't his real father, what he didn't know was that his real father was a mad man who had murdered thirty-two people and then vanished when Tatsuya was just a baby. At the age of twenty-eight, he discovers all of this when his remaining biological family hunts him down to take over has the Head of the family and heir. Tatsuya has barely agreed to this proposal when his mother's father is murdered right in front of him mere minutes after meeting him. With justifiable trepidation he heads to The Village of Eight Graves with the beautiful Miyako Nomura to meet his father's family. Little does he know that his grandfather's murder is only the first in a series of baffling murders that all point to Tatsuya being the killer. This had so many twists and turns and like I said I was almost 100% sure I knew who the killer was right away but then immediately started doubting. I even thought that maybe Tatsuya really was the killer and he was writing his tale from prison someplace. I think I suspected everyone at some point but as is pointed out in the book because there really seemed to be absolutely no motive except for anyone but Tatsuya and Shintaro it always just circled back to them, allowing you to completely disregard the most obvious suspect. And this one actually had a happy ending! That was really surprising the endings of the first two books leave the families involved just kind of devastated but not this time! The only thing I'm sad about is that Kindaichi isn't featured much in this one at all. The story is told completely from Tatsuya's perspective which makes sense given the circumstances but since Kindaichi isn't around much we don't get to see a lot of the actual criminal investigation. Other than that this is another solid Det. Kindaichi mystery and I cannot wait to read the next one!