First winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award (1948), this novel is a classic locked-room mystery and the first case of young detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
To me, this book is by far the weakest of the series and I felt much disappointed when reading it. I still like the series overall and recommend to try the first novel!
This book contains two of the most famous novels by Edogawa Rampo: the Black Lizard and the Boy Detectives Club. I enjoyed both, but I found the Boy Detectives Club to be more engrossing and exciting, even though it is written for children.
This is the third book of the Ikagawa series, and it’s very good if you like mystery novels with a lighter tone and a lot of humour that still delivers an engrossing detective case .