In the last blog, we discussed the golden age of detective fiction and how it ended up producing some of the most beloved mystery sub-genres and tropes such as locked room mysteries, whodunnits, central detective characters.
In the western side of literature, the legacy of the golden age is carried on by a select few authors only. The new age detective fiction such as good girl's guide to murder or one of us is lying ends up looking at mysteries through the lens of the gen Z or the modern teenager. Whenever you write anything catered to Gen Z (which I'm arguably part of), it ends up completely ruining everything. At least for me.
I mean, think about it. Even in the poshest American school, not everyone is banging everybody else, not everyone is throwing all these grand parties, not every 16 YEAR OLD HAS A MOTIVE TO KILL SOMEONE ELSE!!
Please stop writing such murder mysteries. Please. If you want to write about murders among a group of students, refer to Agatha's Hickory, Dickory, Dock or Hallowe'en Party.
In summary, modern English detective fiction lowkey sucks. But the Japanese have arrived to save the day. The legacy of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction lives on with a new life as 'Honkaku'; a Japanese term that literally translates to 'Orthodox'.
That's right, sometimes we need that pretentious orthodox stuff. Especially when faced with the modern alternative.
A Japanese author by the name of Haruta Yoshitame defines it as "a detective story that values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning."
Honkaku strictly follows the code of rules that mystery authors have laid out for Detective Fiction. Refer to 'The Oath' by the detection club in the previous blog.
Honkaku was led to the forefront of literature in Japan by figures like Edogawa Ranpo, Seishi Yokomizo, etc. Interestingly, there is a Honkaku Writers Club, which was established in 2000 by Yukito Ayatsuji. It boasts of having nearly 170 members now.
Here is recommendation list of the books that you can read from this genre :
I. The Devotion Of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
II. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada
III. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
IV. The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
I'll drop in a few more recommendations as I read more from this genre. Honkaku also thrives in the form of Animes and Mangas. Anime lovers might recognize a few of the titles such as Detective Conan (the most complicated Animes of all times), QED, Kindaichi and more.
I personally love QED and I highly recommend reading that for people who like WhoDunIts with a healthy dose of knowledge and use of science in mysteries. QED will remain one of my comfort reads.
That's really all for this blog, folks. This one is on the shorter side but hopefully you guys still got something out of it. Thank you for reading <3
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De TodoRambling about & recommending books on and off wattpad / book recs + commentary on book culture.
