In 1937, the Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo published the serial novel “Detective Boys” in a youth magazine. In this story, his already established private detective Akechi Kogoro is teaming up with a gang of curious boys to first solve the mystery of a black demon before going against a phantom thief.
Author: 江戸川乱歩（えどがわらんぽ）
Length: ca. 100.000 characters
Link: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001779/files/56669_58756.html
少年探偵団 is actually the second part of the series. However, as is common practice with children’s detective stories, everything that happens beforehand is explained and I was able to follow along without any problems. The charm of the story for me was particularly in reading a book, which was such a defining feature of the children’s detective genre and especially the “detective vs. phantom thief” trope on the Japanese side.
On the one hand, the language is aimed at children, which is why I would have liked to see more kanji at times (e.g. when I encountered 大じょうぶ…). On the other hand, the age of the text also has some pitfalls in grammar and vocabulary. It was the first time for me to encounter the grammar point V+たまえ in a text for example. And I noticed that the boys usually say あすこ instead of あそこ, which seems to be a regional variant.
The book version I was reading (kindly lent to me by a friend at work) was published in the early 2000s by the children’s book publisher POPLAR. From what I could tell it’s the original text from 1937 but they have added some furigana here and there and some annotations on words that are not that common anymore. I also appreciated the added illustrations!
If you are interested in this very version, you can get it through Amazon Japan (affiliate link).
dokushoclub.com 
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