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Reviews (8)
31 Jul, 2016
historical armchair detective's historical conspiracy theories
First warning; this is a collection of essays, and "who was the iron mask?" was but one short article among many. Second, don't be fooled by the writer's erudite and elegant style. Some of them are absurd conspiracy theories. You should know this by the midway through when you realise just how many times he uses the terms "Protestant propaganda" "Protestant plot" etc. You read the blurb again and it says the late author was "Catholic priest, previously an Anglican clergy", Ah ha.. With the enthusiasm of a recent convert, every odd incident in the Tudor and Stuart times becomes a wicked Protestant scheme against innocent Catholics; e.g. Guy Faulks incident was a Protestant plot to frame Catholics; they are the good guys, you know. Behind which was Cecil, because he was an Anglican and "the kind of man who would have plotted such things". (Had something unpleasant happened before the author left the church?) The mysterious letter that leaked the plot was said to have had a spidery handwriting. Cecil was known to have written in such a way. It could have been anyone. "Spidery"...well, it could have been Prince Charles. At the end of the book, you also realise that there is no bibliography, primary or secondary. No footnotes either. What sort of "investigation" (his favourite phrase) has he done? In the last essay, he goes to the Public Record Office and find out that information on the divorce case of George IV had been removed. He smells a rat. The establishment were trying to hide something. THIS is his "investigation." Done. Back to the armchair and more peculations. They revolve around, in the time honoured "who dunnit" manner, "who benefitted most from the murder?" line. Evidence? What evidence? He is a historical armchair detective. If you are reading my humble review because you want to know who the man in the iron mask was and thinking of buying this book, well, (alert) his view is one that's been around: that the man was Louis XIV's biological father. This explains why the prisoner was not executed and kept alive. And the mask? His facial resemblance to the king was something that must be hidden from the public view, says the writer as if he was working in Versaille at the time and in the know. (But what were they afraid of? Prisons were not like zoos where fee-paying public walk in, look around and spot a man who looks like their king and start a rumour). Yea, if the man was Louis' father, it does explain why he was kept alive, but where is the evidence? None. and why an IRON mask? No answer. It makes the best sense among many theories put forward, says the author. Yes but that is as long as you have decided to sit down in your armchair and start mulling over "what if..?" "How about you think this way..." over a glass of sherry in a London flat. If you go through real historical records and documents in France, you would have different ideas. There are such books on this topic written by real journalists, not a hack like this. Another annoying traits of his is his inexplicable concealment of his source; "I have from reliable source heard this and am convinced this is so..." just like a reporter for a tabloid paper covering a gangland war; "The local man who wants to remain anonymous says that he knows who is behind the shooting, but ..." and here we are talking about 400 years old murder cases. Still, some episodes are well written and reasonable and it is a great read if you don't believe everything that's written.
16 Aug, 2018
Gift to the civilisation
THE first completely fictional literature by human kind. Amazingly complicated and full of symbolism. You would not believe this was written in the tenth century.
08 Jul, 2016
good but could be so much better
1 of 1 found this helpful Written competently by an experienced journalist who is a Tokyo resident thus ideally placed to do extensive interviews and research, but ruined by his desire to squeeze just about EVEYTHING he knows about contemporary Japanese culture into it; this could have been half its size. If you are the kind of true crime aficionado who wants to know who did what and how, and the author get to the point, then you will be disappointed. This is not that kind of non-fiction, for better or worse; but a "new" non-fiction which is annoying if you expect the non-fiction crime writer to spell out when where who and how. He is way too distracted by the wealth of material he had on his plate; non-fiction equivalent of Roy Hodgson who was over-whelmed by the collection of talented footballers at his command but didn't know what is his best team and unable to gel it to a coherent team. In parts, they are compelling read but uneven and contradictory. There are unnecessarily long chapters on the victim's childhood and upbringing in Sevenoakes. What the long pages dedicated for the history of Korean ethnic minority in Japan for? Probably he is right in thinking the fact that this serial rapist was ethnic Korean was important, but it's too much, so are lectures on the Japanese legal system. True, it accepts circumstantial evidences more readily than British criminal courts do. He criticises it for that, and then ridicules it when it acquitted the man at first for the murder charge for lack of direct evidence. When the victim is English and not a local, circumstantial evidence ought to have been enough, apparently. Lastly, it's an awful title; Clumsy, sensationalist and confusing: who are "people" here? It could be read that Japanese people in general are the one who "eat darkness". But that's not what the writer means. Cover is equally loud, exotic and crass. Did the author succumbed to the publisher's idea? Apparently the writer wanted the book to sell but still thinks it is beneath him to write a crime non-fiction per se. He wants to describe Japanese society, not the crime, but how comprehensive could it be if you only focus on sexual crimes. Are Japanese men so sexually oppressed that crime such as this is the best window? He himself denies it when he admirably asserts that to say Asian men are obsessed with western women are simple "racist stereotyping", that you would notice western men chasing local women unashamedly in the streets of Tokyo. There are over-sexed men anywhere in the world. Japan is no exception simple as that. This book is simply over-stretching itself in more sense than one. If you are interested in crimes AND the Japanse culture, read it. If you like straightforward crime non-fiction in general, then probably a pass.