The Inugami Curse (Pushkin Vertigo)

Product Description
A fiendish classic murder mystery, from one of Japan’s greatest crime writers, featuring the country’s best-loved detective

In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami clan dies, and his family eagerly await the reading of the will. But no sooner are its strange details revealed than a series of bizarre, gruesome murders begins. Detective Kindaichi must unravel the clan’s terrible secrets of forbidden liaisons, monstrous cruelty, and hidden identities to find the murderer, and lift the curse wreaking its bloody revenge on the Inugamis.

The Inugami Curse is a fiendish, intricately plotted classic mystery from a giant of Japanese crime writing, starring the legendary detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
Review
“The diabolically twisted plotting is top-notch.” —
The New York Times Book Review

“[A] stellar whodunit. . . Yokomizo creates a palpable sense of menace throughout with grim foreshadowing of the carnage to come. The solution is a perfect match for the baffling puzzle. Fair-play fans will hope for more translations of this master storyteller.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

‘Japan’s Agatha Christie  . . . It’s an absolute pleasure to see his work translated at last in these beautifully produced English editions.’ — 
The Sunday Times

‘This is Golden Age crime at its best, complete with red herrings, blind alleys and twists and turns galore… A testament to the power of the simple murder mystery and its enduring appeal.’
— The Spectator

 ‘One of Yokomizo’s best-loved detective tales — Kindaichi must solve a slowly growing string of gruesome murders all connected to the mighty Inugami Clan, and uncover the deeply hidden secrets of the clan along the way.’
— Metropolis Japan

‘2020 may be the year of Seishi Yokomizo . . . Both [
The Honjin Murders and 
The Inugami Curse are] set in the late 1930s/early 1940s, they promise to be atmospheric, exciting and knotty whodunits. The covers alone are enough to get any fan of the genre salivating.’ 
— Japan Times

‘The master of Japanese crime.’ 
— Tuttolibri
About the Author
Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81) was one of Japan’s most famous and best-loved mystery writers. He was born in Kobe and spent his childhood reading detective stories, before beginning to write stories of his own, the first of which was published in 1921. He went on to become an extremely prolific and popular author, best known for his Kosuke Kindaichi series, which ran to 77 books, many of which were adapted for stage and television in Japan.
The Inugami Curse is one of Kindaichi’s most famous mysteries and has twice been adapted for film in Japan.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Tale Begins
In February 194_, Sahei Inugami—one of the leading businessmen
of the Shinshu region, the founder of the Inugami
Group, and the so-called Silk King of Japan—died at his
lakeside villa in Nasu at the venerable age of eighty-one.
After his death, the rags-to-riches tale of this self-made
man, already related over several decades in various newspaper
and magazine articles, was published by the Inugami
Foundation in its most detailed version to date.
According to this book, The Life of Sahei Inugami, Sahei
was orphaned at a young age and drifted to the Lake Nasu
region when he was seventeen. He had no idea where he
had been born, who his parents were, or even whether his
unusual surname, literally “dog god,” had been inherited
from his ancestors or conferred by someone with a fertile
imagination.
Most men embellish their family trees when they become
rich or famous, but Sahei Inugami made no attempt to do
so. “We’re all born without a stitch on our backs” was his
constant declaration to those around him. “Until I turned
seventeen, I was like a pauper, drifting from place to place,”
he would say without hesitation. “It was only when I found
my way to Nasu, and Mr. Nonomiya took me in, that fortune
finally smiled on