A review by bioniclib
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Sōji Shimada

3.0

The first almost 150 pages was just laying out the case and presenting all the clues necessary to solve the case ourselves. A fact that the author interrupted the narrative, twice, to challenge us with. That's the Golden Rule of mystery novels, to give all the info needed to solve it ahead of the protagonist. No hiding info or introducing a pivotal character right before the climax. And to his credit he follows that precious rule. But he throws so much info at us that it's overwhelming and feels like we're reading police notes. And then the explanation of how it was done takes another couple dozen pages at the end, only for our intrepid armature sleuth, to not know exactly how it was done. He just finds out who and is happy with that. So of course it ends with a letter from the murderer with all the gory deets.

I know that review doesn't sound like it's worth even three stars but the mystery was solid and those few chapter where the hunt is on were engaging. Even some of the speculation and letters were good. I love a good mental puzzle and this gave us many pieces, but ultimately, I was unsatisfied.

Spoiler

I liked out the letter was really Tokiko and the errors in the astrology she made because she wasn't an astrologer were clues that it was iffy. Her motivation for killing everyone was solid, she was doing it for her mom. The confusing the cop by pretending she was someone else and therefore skewing the cop's idea of when that someone else was killed was also solid.

Lots of good stuff but I just feel that the author was too arrogant and the narrative to clinical.