Definitely a very interesting read, and gives you insight into life in Japan immediately after WWII, especially with regards to people’s attitudes and daily life. The attitudes towards women really irked me, but then again this was written in the 1940s which explains a lot of the discourse in terms of gender roles at the time. 

Kenzo really annoyed me sometimes because he was very gullible and rash. The murder mystery in itself was intriguing to follow, even though I guessed as to where it was going. But I think I would still read this again - it’s like time travelling into 1940s Japan.

this had an old classic mystery feel, which i always love & find comforting and in the beginning i was hooked, even though the murder itself was slow to play out. the Japanese setting & traditions mixed in with the story gave it a cool edge too. the only thing that stopped me giving it a higher rating was that i didn't looove how the story ended up playing out - and i wanted to throttle the main characters often. 

Haven’t done a bullet point review in ages so here’s one: 

The Tattoo Murder offers a good mental challenge while reading if you want to try and solve both the locked room mystery and the murder itself. I found the concept of someone murdering in order to steal body art interesting, as well as the detail and explanation that went into both the murder itself and the social views around tattoos at the time period as well. 

While I had zero expectations of being able to solve the locked room mystery, I was quite suprised by how detailed the mystery was and I felt unless you really knew about Japanese house construction, it would have been nearly impossible to solve how the room remained locked. 

This was a good book and an enjoyable read, including the time I spent trying to construct the timeline of the murder! I was able to work out the murderer but only just before the big reveal itself. While this was a good book, now that I know who the murderer is, I would not read it again, hence the three star review.

Also on Snow White Hates Apples.

As someone who has completely fallen in love with 20th-century Japanese mysteries, I was really looking forward to The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi. But, sadly, it didn’t meet my expectations…

While I found the views on traditional Japanese tattoos, the intertwining Japanese folklore and the historical contexts of the setting interesting, they also took over too much of the book. Many times, it felt as though the murder mystery was placed on the back burner just so those views could be further explored. This, in return, made the mystery too drawn out, resulting it in being incredibly underwhelming despite how clever the crime was.

Moreover, Kyosuke Kamizu, the boy wonder mentioned in the summary entered the picture much too late. Instead of being present around the beginning and solving the mystery with us, he comes in only at the final quarter of the book which makes all the revelations too convenient. It felt like he was merely inserted just so a major plot point could be concluded. In fact, the entire crime aspect felt like it was just there as an excuse to talk more about the art of traditional Japanese tattoos.

I think it’s such a shame because the crime itself is clever — a little predictable but still, clever. You have pieces of a gorgeous woman’s corpse found in a locked room. Her torso is missing and it’s the exact location of her equally gorgeous Orochimaru tattoo which she had only just revealed to a crowd of spectators days ago. There are several suspects but instead of a tense race to unveil the truth before the next victim appears, we end up with an incredibly slow and cumbersome investigation. Sure, this may mimic reality where not all cases can be solved and closed quickly but I think in a book, there should be a little leeway for the pace to be sped up so that the story becomes less exhausting and more of a page-turner.

All things considered, The Tattoo Murder reads more like a historical fiction with a side of crime than a thriller mystery set in 1947 Japan. It’d be best to read this with the expectation that it’s more focused on the beauty of traditional Japanese tattoos instead of the murder mystery. 

I thought this book was fantastic! It had a good old fashioned locked-room mystery, gruesome deaths and intrigue with nice backstories and some character development - for the better or for the worse is up to the reader, I suppose haha! 

The only reason it’s not a 5* is that the ending dragged on a little… the final monologue from the genius they involved in the case near the end was very king and at times I struggled to understand and would have to read lines a couple of times over. It explains in great detail who was involved in the murders, why and how they were committed which is fantastic but it’s quite complicated and you need to be really switched on and engaged to be able to follow every part…

Overall a fantastic book with just the right balance of intrigue, suspense, confusion, violence and romance! 

I liked the short and concise chapters. Story has a strong and fast-paced development, and is consistently exciting. Well-written plot with a great conclusion. I enjoyed it!