Kindaichi has been looking forward to his father getting paid his bonus, because Kindaichi has been promised a motorbike. But when his mother tells him his father isn't getting a bonus because of problems with the company, he's sad.
He only gets more upset when she tells him they might have to sell their house and move into an apartment. But the sight of a treasure-hunting expedition notice in the newspaper gives him confidence and he and his friend Miyuki go to take the test to possibly be admitted to the island where the treasure is hidden.
Miyuki gets turned down, but Kindaichi, of course, passes the test with flying colors and gets added to the competition. Whoever finds the treasure gets 10% of the proceeds, and it is valued at 200 million yen! Miyuki persuades Kindaichi to let her pose as his sister and tag along. Kindaichi reluctantly agrees and finds himself partnered with not only Miyuki, but Chris Einstein, a genius from America who has his sights set on Miyuki and getting rid of Kindaichi. Also on board are three older treasure hunters, all male, who are more interested in the treasure than anything else, and a strange woman who carries a box like its a baby.
Along with all of them are the daughter of the owner of the house, Midori Mimasaka, and her servant and butler, Kisaku Iwata. Midori and Iwata are working for Midori's father, the man who owns the island and set up the contest. But when they arrive at the island and the boat has left, they discover that Midori's father is dead, and his remains have been chopped into pieces and been stuffed into the grandfather clock. With no way to call back the boat until it returns in a week, Kindaichi, Miyuki and the others are trapped on the island with a murderer!
But the murderer seems not to be content with just the murder of Mister Mimisawa, and begins slowly killing off the other members of the expedition. Every time someone is sure that they have solved the mystery and found the treasure, they are killed, and chopped into pieces. With one of the guests being a physician and former coroner, he can verify the times of death and hopefully knock out the alibi of the real killer. But every time he tells the others what time of death is, it seems that everyone has an airtight alibi!
As Kindaichi tries to find the murderer and solve the mystery of who is killing everyone else, it seems that Chris Einstein is also trying to take out Kindaichi in the process! But is Chris the murderer, or is it someone else on the island, and have the murdered men been to the island before? Or could one of the victims have faked his or her death? Or is the murderer, the half-man, half-monkey creature from the island's mythology?
This is a great mystery that keeps up the suspense to the very end. While the others are afraid that the murderer is with them on the island, Kindaichi doesn't get as caught up in the hysteria, making note of things that will later stand him in good stead when the time comes to solve the mystery and find the killer. This isn't to say he's fearless- he can get just as frightened as the others himself sometimes, but those moments don't last very long. And even when he's frightened or embarassed, his mind is still noting the inconsistencies and filing them away for later.
Kindaichi's mysteries usually involve a good deal of misdirection, with plenty of red herrings thrown in the way of the reader to throw you off track. Sometimes, the mysteries allow you to test your wits against Kindaichi. Other times, the manga keeps information from you that would allow you to figure it out at the same time as him, or even before him, if you're lucky.
Still, reading this manga is like reading a really good mystery, and it's so good that you get hooked in a very, very short period of time. Better yet, just like a wholly print mystery, each book is a complete case on its own (with the exception of the "Kindaichi the Killer" mystery), so you don't need to end up waiting for the end in another volume. If you like mysteries with lots of strangeness and a likeable hero, try this manga. It just might change your mind about manga, if you haven't read it before.
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