I needed some time to think about this review to make sure I had some distance from the reading experience and now I think settling where I have on this reading experience is what feels right.

The easiest summary I can give is that this is a political historical fiction murder mystery set during the turmoil of the post Shogunate era when Japan had been forced to open its borders to foreign influence and Japanese society as a whole was trying to find its footing and identity in a new era. It's styled around the honkaku subgenre - that being a 'fair play' mystery, and it's told in what feels like interlinked short stories all coming together in the final chapters to give a satisfying 'denouement' but you may come away from this wondering what on earth you just read.

As a fan of the translated works of Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi series I felt comfortable with the style of writing in this work and I am personally interested in Japan, Japanese history and culture so the use of untranslated Japanese words and the heavy historical and political focus didn't overwhelm or intimidate me. However it may not work for other readers especially as you really do need to pay attention to keep track of characters, themes and background information.

Reflecting back on the book I've realised that the clues to solve the mystery are all there but, as above, there are so many characters and names to keep track of that it can be confusing, not helped by a distinct lack of characterisation of most of the characters. 

That said, I appreciated the look at a Japanese society in turmoil, and the struggle to reconcile tradition with modern expectations is universally understandable. I did find the conclusion worked really well and enjoyed the twists and turns as everything was laid out for us but at times it was just a little bit of hard work to get there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for a digital review copy of "The Meiji Guillotine Murders" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.