The Casebook of Old Edo’s Sherlock Holmes Reviewed

Tom Baker in the April 21, 2007 edition of The Daily Yomiuri had this to say about Okamoto Kido’s The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi: Detective Stories of Old Edo, recently published by University of Hawai‘i Press:

“An entertaining collection of detective stories. . . . The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi offers a special pleasure for readers familiar with the Tokyo area, where well-known place names appear on every page, but with startling different details.”

A contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author Okamoto Kido examines the seamy underside of life in Edo (Tokyo) through his fictional detective, the street-smart Hanshichi. Modeled after Doyle’s tales about his own Sherlock Holmes, these fourteen stories, translated by Ian MacDonald, offer entertaining insights into the development of the modern Japanese crime novel.

Read the full text of Tom Baker’s review here.