The Samurai Detectives: Volume 2 explores money and kinship in the Edo underworld

At high noon on a scorching summer day, retired samurai Kohei finds the fearsome Kumagoro writhing around a field in agony. The stricken man’s name translates as “demon bear”, and he’s the proprietor of a bar of the same name. Kohei finds him next to a temple famous for a tragic legend of familial loss and despair.

This setting frames the second instalment of The Samurai Detectives, written by Shōtarō Ikenami between 1972 and 1989 and newly translated by Yui Kajita. The novel is steeped in mystery...