Inhae's blog

This book belongs to the series of horse race mysteries written by Futari Okajima, and I heartily recommend it if you are looking for a good murder mystery. Even though I love all three of them 焦茶色のパステル (won the Edogawa Rampo prize), あした天気にしておくれ and 七年目の脅迫状, this last one might be my favourite by a small margin. They are all very similar, all taking place in the context of horse racing and featuring an engrossing crime mystery.

The main topics are insurance and disease, but there is nothing difficult to understand, even if you are not familiar with racehorses. I personally enjoyed the setting very much, I also found that the pace of the novel was perfect, the cast of characters was great and the way the plot unfolds makes this book a real page-turner. I particularly enjoyed the classic scene at the end, where one character explains everything, it was really exciting to read!

Another thing that I really appreciate in this novel (though this is true for the three novels about horse racing), is that the protagonists never make bad decisions just to allow the plot to go on. I have read some books lately that rely on missed opportunities and bad decisions to make a weak mystery remain intact until the end, so I really appreciate to see a real, hard to crack case that involves different types of crime and gets so complex that only the dedication of our protagonist can break it.

I discovered Futari Okajima through the Mystery Writers of Japan Award (they won it in 1986 with チョコレートゲーム), but the horse racing mysteries are even better than チョコレートゲーム in my opinion. Exploring the catalogue of the authors who won the prize was definitely a good idea!

Other books by this author: