The Little Sparrow Murders (Detective Kindaichi Mysteries)

"With a pinch of John Dickson Carr and a dash of Agatha Christie, solver of impossible crimes" Kosuke Kindaichi returns for another murder mystery (The New York Times)

As several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses echoing the lyrics of a children's song, the quirky, endearing detective must string together the clues to solve this fiendish puzzle

It was late July, in 1955, when Kosuke Kindaichi, accompanied by a letter of introduction from Inspector Isokawa, took a rickshaw over the Sennin Pass--astonishingly, this mode of transport was still in use in those parts--and set foot for the very first time in the village of Onikobe. Of course, never in his wildest dreams would he have known about the temari song.

The scruffy detective Kosuke Kindaichi returns to solve another fiendish murder mystery.

An old friend of Kindaichi's invites the detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe, the site of a twenty-year-old unsolved murder case. But no sooner has Kindaichi in the village than a new series of murders strikes  - several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that eerily echo the lyrics of an old local children's song...

As the legendary sleuth investigates, he soon realises that he must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its feuding families, to get to the truth.

The Little Sparrow Murders is the sixth classic Detective Kindaichi mystery to be published by Pushkin Vertigo. Kosuke Kindaichi is Japan's best-loved and most famous fictional sleuth, and Seishi Yokomizo one of the country's greatest crime writers. His whodunnits have sold an astonishing 55 million copies in his home country.