The Kamogawa Food Detectives
Ratings59
Average rating3.5
3.5⭐
A comfortable and cozy read, with very light mystery elements to it. The Kamogawa Detective Agency specializes in finding and re-creating a customized dish people have had once in their lives, drawing out all the nostalgic memories linked to the food. Each chapter features a different customer and their requested dish, with plenty of focus on not just the food but also the Japanese tableware they're served on. The overall pace is rather relaxed and formulaic, with each chapter following the exact same progression pattern.
The most glaring issue with this book is that it offers little to no description of the food served. It just throws a lot of names of regional ingredients and cooking styles, and then never explain any of those so you have to look them up yourself if you don't know. It also casually drops location names in Kyoto all the time and not describe what the place is like, so if you've never been to Kyoto and tasted the food there, good luck trying to picture these things in your mind. Might be more enjoyable to read this while Googling the images though, for better visualization. If you are knowledgeable in this topic, however, the dishes served in this book really do whet the appetite.
All in all, this has the exact same problem as Before the Coffee Gets Cold for me. The chapters are too short for me to care about any of the characters aside from Nagare and Koishi, who we don't really learn much about since the chapters are mostly about the customers. It can be quite emotional though, just a little bit lacking for me personally.
An easy, breezy read, this is a book in which a detective-turned-chef helps people discover the foods of their pasts with the help of his adult daughter. It's pretty light on basically everything but the descriptions of food, but despite that, so much comes through about the people that drift through the little restaurant. I think it could have used more narration to go with the dialogue, but that's my only real knock on it. I loved it and am excited to read the sequel, and looking forward to the third book later this year.
For such a short book this took a very long time to get through. While the food descriptions were great, the book itself was hard for me to get into. This was a very interesting idea for a cozy mystery series, but I felt having the same scenario, just with different people, thrown into one book made it hard to enjoy.
I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.
Such a cozy comfort read. The descriptors in this book are wonderful and really brought me to the setting. I enjoyed the ease at which each chapter/story began and ended. A wonderful quick read that gives all the feels.
Easy read, very cute (or should I say kawaii?), and a touching ending. All I wish for from a book.
Book Review: The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
I heard about the second book in this series but decided to start with the first one, with no special expectations beyond knowing that Japanese authors often bring unique storytelling to obscure topics. As an otaku, I've had my fair share of such experiences.
Overall, this is a very simple book—perhaps too simple. While the premise is somewhat unique, if you're familiar with a lot of Japanese content and literature (like manga or anime), it may not seem all that unique. Each chapter stands alone, and there isn't much continuity, although I found the last two chapters to be more engaging.
It took me awhile to get through this short book because I wasn't in the mood for the slow pace, but it was really good. I do wish you got to find out what happened to the customers afterwards, but I did love all the stories. It also made me really hungry!
Was cute, loved the idea of solving the mysteries of recreating beloved dishes. Felt a little repetitive at times