Seven Dead

"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled."

"Eleonora" 

Eight locked room murders in the last review of the eighth month of the year!

It was Mitsumura Shitsuri who was the defendant in the trial in Japan that created the Golden Age of Locked Room Murders in Japan: she was accused of committing a murder, but the police were not able to figure out how the murderer could've committed and then left the crime scene, as it was found locked from the inside. Shitsuri was succesfully defended with the argument that an unsolved locked room mystery was as strong as any alibi: the prosecution being incapable of proving how anyone could've committed the murder and escape a locked room in essence meant every single person on the planet had an alibi. If it was impossible for anyone, why would it be possible for specifically the defendant? This created a rage among would-be murderers to commit their crimes in locked rooms, for that seemed like a perfect defense. This was the perfect breeding ground for locked room murder specialists, both within the police and among private detectives, but also among criminals, where locked room murder consultants became a lucrative business.

Shitsuri's classmate Kasumi this finds himself dragged to the mountains by his childhood friend Yuzuki, as she's looking for New Nessie in the Tama River. the two end up lost in the mountains a little time before dusk, but are fortunately found by Monokaki Camembert ("his mother was a foreigner"), who lives in the nearby Village of Eight Boxes. Because there is no other place nearby where the two can stay, Camembert suggests they come with him to the village and stay in the inn there. To the great surprise of both Kasumi and Yuzuki, they vind the Village of Eight Boxes is actually located inside a gigantic cave, that can only be accessed via a long tunnel, which is guarded during the day and of which the gate is closed during the night. The villages is called like this, because the houses in this village are built like smooth lacquer boxes (you don't need pointy roofs with a drainage system inside a cave where it never rains!). It takes some time for Kasumi to realize Monokaki Camembert is in fact one of the members of the Monokaki Clan: a family of locked room murder mystery authors, Father Fuichirou was the foremost writer of locked room mysteries in Japan, but he recently passed away, leaving a huge fortune to his nine children, who have followed in their father's footsteps, or are trying to. Each of his children specialize in a different kind of locked room mystery novel, like medical locked room mysteries, historical ones, or even hardboiled ones. The family all live here in the village, though their manor is physically seperated from the rest of the village via a chasm in the cave. Kasumi also learns a local festival is going to start that very evening, and it last for about a week, and during that time, it is not allowed for anyone to leave the village, or else an evil spirit will kill them.

When the festival starts however, one of the Monokaki daughters is seen to be killed by a masked figure, but they quickly disappear with the corpse. However, after Camembert and Kasumi have gone to the Monokaki manor to inform the rest of the family about the murder, the bridge that crosses the chasm in the village is blown up, leaving the people in the manor trapped on their side of the cave. Meanwhile, the other villagers decide it might be better to call the police, but they find the lines have been cut, and when one brave villager, despite the local belief telling him not to, tries to venture beyond the tunnel in order to fetch the police, a gate suddenly closes off the tunnel, and the villager suddenly bursts out in flames, even though nobody was near him. Yuzuki, who is still in the village, discovers the body of the disappearing Monokaki daughter in one of the houses, but to the surprise of both her and the local constable, the house is locked from the inside. And as they scramble about, they stumble upon more dead bodies of members of the Monokaki family inside locked rooms. Fortunately, Yuzuki runs into two women in the village who can solve these crimes: not only is the author Oujou Teika, Japan's young queen of the locked room mystery, staying at the same inn as Yuzuki, it turns out Shitsuri too is working here as a part-time help. Can they solve the many locked room murders occuring the Village of Eight Boxes both on this side of the cave, as well as inside the Monokaki Manor in Kamosaki Danro's Misshitsu Henai Jidaino Satsujin - Tozasareta Mura to Yattsu no Trick (2024), which also bears the English title The Murder in the Fetishistic Age of Locked Rooms: The Closed Village and the Eight Tricks.

This is the third book in Kamosaki's series on the Golden Age of Locked Rooms and The Age of Frenzy of Locked Rooms and by now, the titles have become more and more ridiculous, but I guess that is also the point, which is also exemplified by the fact we are now in the fetishistic age of locked rooms, where the locked room mystery almost takes on a perverted form. For in a way, that is exactly what this book does. The first book featured six main locked room murder mysteries (or otherwise impossible situations), the second had seven of them, and now this third entry has no less than eight of them! And while this was already a problem with the second book, the fact Kamosaki wants to cover so many locked room murder situations in a limited amount of pages, means that on the whole, these books are more about quantitty than quality. That is not to say the ideas behind the locked rooms are bad on their own per se, but there is basically not set-up each time: they stumble upon a murder scene, Kamosaki has just enough space to actually describe how the scene looks like, and perhaps one character might suggest a wrong solution, but then we have Shitsuri who has one look at the crime scene and she can suddenly solve the whole thing, even if the trick is insanely complex and involving multiple steps. There is no real feeling of catharsis when she solves the mysteries, because not enough time is used to actually make it feel like a proper mystery, nor do you feel satisfied by the "logical pay-off" of the solution, because the solution is suddenly sprung upon the reader. So while sometimes the idea behind the locked room mystery can be cool and memorable on its own, it's the execution that lacks, because every murder feels like a descrete point with next to no connection to the other murders.

To be honest, it started out really promising, as the first two murders are the ones that are actually thematically connected, with an interesting conundrum arising when the solutions to these rooms are first suggested. The problem that comes up because of how they are solved is interesting and creates a very fun logical brainteaser. The false solutions proposed here are also far more interesting than the ones we see later, if we see them at all, and it feels like Kamosaki focused a lot of attention to these murders. I think these were among my favorites too in the book, as the synergy shown during this part of the book is what really shows what I think this series should do: have it be meaningful there are so many locked room murders in a closed circle situation, instead of just throwing a bunch of them on a pile. Two others I also liked a lot: one involving the victim having been hanged in a building, but the security system shows nobody entered the building the last 24 hours, neither the victim nor any murderer! The trick might become a bit obvious if I explain a specific point regarding how they found the victim, but the trick itself is original. Another one is one of the most horrifying locked room murder tricks I've ever come across in mystery fiction, and involves the victim having been decapitated in a room while their body had been tied to a table in the room: the mechanics behind how the murderer pulled this trick off are just too terrible to even to think about, and devilishl clever.

The others vary a lot in quality. The combustion murder of the villager for example involves the most crudest of clues, and the "okay, this is silly, but not the good kind of silly" trick has your eyes rolling. There are more murder situations later in the book that are also incredbily silly in concept, but at least those are so silly they become good, even if the execution can be faulted. Others feel more like showpieces of random scientific trivia, while one also feels like a Professor Layton puzzle more than anything. The last 'big' mystery that is solved involves some Queenian logic, which I can always appreciate and something I also noticed in the second volume, but on the whole, Kamosaki is definitely someone who ultimately just wants to show off a lot of locked room murders, that are created via mechanical tricks. He however often does the bare minimum of actually making them relevant to the story or each other. Characters may or may not have a single line of dialogue before they are killed, there's no build in tension because every event feels so seperate from each other and once you're done with the book, you'll have forgotten half of the locked rooms already, because they were handled in such a brief and uninvolved manner.

But again, that is what makes this books a little bit fetishistic, as the title itself also says: the book only exists to flaunder with all the locked room murder situations Kamosaki could come up with, and some of them are really creative on a basic, fundamental level. As you can guess, this also comes back to the motive behind the murders on all these locked room murder mystery authors, and that part I really liked, Interestingly, it reminded me of a certain novel by Kitayama Takekuni, who is also an author who specializes in mechanically constructed locked room murder mysteries, so it's funny how Kamosaki also arrives at a similar "conclusion" regarding locked room murder fiction.

Misshitsu Henai Jidaino Satsujin - Tozasareta Mura to Yattsu no Trick is, unsurprisingly, more of the same after the previous two books. More locked room murders, but beyond that, it's not really that different from them, and while I can recommend this book too to lovers of locked room mysteries, because some of the murders here are really worth reading (no matter how silly they can be at times), but like with the previous books, you do have to admit Kamosaki is mainly about showcasing all these ideas, and they do feel lacking in the way they form a cohesive narrative, and how they are actually presented as "mystery" fiction with clues and a process of logic leading to the solution.

Original Japanese title(s): 鴨崎暖炉『密室偏愛時代の殺人 閉ざされた村と八つのトリック』

Battle of the Humungonauts

"Way I see it, the beast can only be a completely-new and as-yet-undiscovered monster, and as the beast discoverer, I have decided to call it a "humungonaut" from the Latin term for "big and hairy space traveller."

"Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated"

Yep, this cover rocks!

The first kaiju attacked Japan in the fifties, and since then, the world has been regularly been under siege by a variety of these gigantic monstrous beasts. Nobody knows where they come from, but they can appear very suddenly from the sky, ground or the sea and attack people and the cities they live in indiscriminately. As it's been many decades since First Impact, humans however have adapted to this new reality. Japan, being the first country to have to deal with kaiju, has been a forerunner when it comes to developing defence systems against kaiju, and most countries have now adopted their three-tier defense system: the first line of defense are the Active Detection Units, which are actively searching for indications a kaiju may appear, wherever it may come from. They for example monitor movements out in the ocean, but also investigate local rumors about strange happenings, for that too may be an omen a kaiju will soon appear. Once the appearance of a kaiju has been confirmed, responsibility is passed over to the Planning Units: they identify a kaiju, and if applicable, pull up all the data from past encounters to determine their weak points and the best way to fight them, and they calculate the route and when they will arrive on Japanese soil. Once a kaiju hits land, control is passed over to the Eradication Units, who by then should be standing by at the estimated landing point with the necessary artillery to fend off the kaiju attack. It's this system that has allowed Japan to fight off kaiju succesfully, and by now, people have actually become accustomed to kaiju attacks, and the government is even aiming for a 0 deaths by kaiju quotum.

Iwato Satomi is a Chief Planner: whereas there are Planning Units all across Japan, ready to react to a kaiju appearing nearby, Chief Planners are not tied to any specific unit, and are flown all across Japan to take charge of such units when necessary, assisted by local planners who have more knowledge about the specific region and politics. While it may seem a gigantic monster attacking a city might make any other issue trivial, it turns out people will remain people, and even when a kaiju is approaching, people will still commit murder. During one operation, in which a whole evacuated city was demolished by a kaiju, the corpse of a man is found. However, it turns out the man was killed by a human, not a kaiju. Iwato is visited by Inspector Funamura Shuuji of the Special Investigation Unit, who deals with these kaiju-related crimes, and the two work together to figure out who committed a murder during a kaiju attack in Ookura Takahiro's short story collection Kaijuu Satsujin Sousa: Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku ("The Kaiju Murder Investigations: Silence in the Special Eradication Zone", 2023).

Ookura Takahiro is an author of mainly mystery, both on paper as well as for the small and silver screen: he for example often writes screenplays for the Detective Conan anime. He however also has an interest in tokusatsu and kaiju productions: he has written novelizations of Godzilla productions, as well as screenplays for Ultraman Max, and one of his best-known Detective Conan anime original stories indeed involved a kaiju. So it was only a matter of time before he would write a detective story featuring kaiju, right?

And you can definitely feel his love for the genre right from the start, for I'd argue it's the world building in the four stories collected in this collection that is the most memorable aspect: Ookura has built a very believable world where people have gotten used to dealing with kaiju. The defense organization comes across as very realistic as Ookura has thought out a lot of the details of how each units works, their responsibilities and even the political tensions between them, and we see glimpses of how national politics and other industries have changed, or are at least influenced by kaiju. You could easily imagine these scenes in full-on kaiju media, and it's here where the book really shines best.

The notion of having mystery stories set in a world where kaiju exist and regularly attack the country is of course really exciting, and really entices the imagination: imagine someone using a kaiju as a murder weapon! A kaiju used for a locked room murder trick! As a motive! It is why I do have to say that overall, I was a bit disappointed to learn Ookura mostly uses the kaiju, and the kaiju attacks as a backdrop for the murders. Take for example the title story Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku: Iwato is dealing with a kaiju with acute hearing which reacts to unnatural noises, so the Planning Unit orders a silent eradication zone: they try to lure the kaiju to a place where the Eradication Unit can deal with it with an aircraft, while everything else in the area is "shut down". However, on its way to the slaughterhouse, the kaiju seems to react to a noise: it turns out a pistol had been shot, and eventually, they find a man who was shot in the vicinity of the kaiju. And yeah, it's interesting it was the kaiju which brought them on the trail of the victim, and ultimately, we do learn the victim was here for a reason tied to the kaiju, but the kaiju itself isn't really connected to the murder beyond this. The mystery itself revolves around the victim and his reasons for being where he was, making the kaiju feel like just a plot device to introduce the victim and who is then pushed to the background. Even though you'd want the kaiju to be the main dish!

The opening story, Fuusha wa Tomaranakatta ("The Wind Turbines Didn't Stop"), was more interesting in that regard: Iwato is dealing with a kaiju that had appeared in the past, and based on its behavior then, surmises it reacts to the sounds of wind mills. The kaiju is heading for a spot where the Eradication Unit can easily deal with it, but nearby is a city with wind turbines, so Iwato uses her connections to order the city council to have all wind turbines stopped. To her great surprise, one section doesn't stop its turbines, and as they fear, the kaiju heads for that spot and destroys it. While the Eradication Unit manages to defeat the beast, one victim is found among the debris. However, it turns out he was murdered by a human, and not simply crushed by the kaiju. Here we have a much more interesting investigation, as the victim turns out to be Tozuka, who was an important man in an electric company which was pretty aggressive in buying out land from the local populace, and he's been personally sued for that. But why was he still in the city even though an evacuation order had been issued and why didn't the wind turbines stop? Here we have a much more intricately designed mystery, and while a lot of the story does revolve around shady politics and a 'bigger-than-life conspiracy', the core whodunnit part of the mystery is properly clued, and at least the kaiju is more integrated into the mystery.

The third story, Koujinko Satsujin Jiken ("The Lake Koujin Murders"), on the other hand is basically nearly pulp. Iwato is sent to investigate the disappearence of several persons around Lake Koujin: this is usually the sign of a land-based kaiju eating people, and a Chief of an Active Detection unit had actually gone there to check up on these signs, but he too disappeared. The frustrating aspect however is that land-based kaiju are believed to not exist in Japan anymore, making it political unwise for the higher-ups to send a whole unit to investigate it. So now Iwato is "privately" visiting Lake Koujin, where she's staying at a small inn where a few other visitors are staying, but one of them was actually a contact for the disappearing Active Detection unit chief, so Iwato tries to learn more about his disappearance from him. But that night, a loud noise wakes up everyone... except for her contact, and when they check up on him in his room, he's found murdered. But which of the other guests killed him? This story I didn't like that much, as here the kaiju is only made relevant very late in the story. The murder itself has an interesting clue: on its own it's a bit obvious, but the deduction leading up to the realization that was a clue made it mentally more challenging. 

You may have noticed I haven't written much about Inspector Funamura by the way: he appears and disappears throughout the story, and is presented as a rather mysterious police detective who often already knows that is going on and is very practical in his dealings with crime, but also needs Iwato's expertise at times, so while he seldom gives away all his cards, he does help Iwato figure out things for herself. He's also the man of action in this series, which again make these stories feel more grounded in tokusatsu tradition than the mystery genre.

The bunko/pocket version of this book includes a prequel short story, Kaiju Chaser, which depicts a younger Iwato as she tries to identify a certain kaiju, but this is more an action story than a mystery one and it's really short too.

So I'm a bit torn on Kaijuu Satsujin Sousa: Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku. It's clearly written by someone who loves the kaiju and tokusatsu genres, and it can be immensely amusing when read as such a book, and the mystery plots are also decent enough most of the time, but I still can't help but think Ookura could have incorporated the kaiju more closely to the mystery plots, using them more as active tools rather than as backdrops around which these murders take place. A second volume has been released too, so I hope the kaiju are more involved with the murders there.

Original Japanese title(s): 大倉崇裕『怪獣殺人捜査 殲滅特区の静寂』:「風車は止まらなかった」/「殲滅特区の静寂」/「工神湖殺人事件」/「怪獣チェーサー」

Panic on Gull Island

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;

    Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

    But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—

            Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
"The Raven"

Suddenly craving fried chicken...

Iwaido Yasumi is a student at Teiou University who hopes to impress his lecturer Uehara Kanon, a beautiful, cool-headed woman who teaches his cultural anthropology class. He ends up writing a paper that is actually quite impressive, so much so she summons him to her office. Not because she's become romantically interested in him, but to make sure he didn't plagiarize his essay. While Yasumi tries more than once to woe Kanon, she brushes his advances and informs him that Professor Kirimura Satoru, the most influential professor at their faculty, has also read his thesis and has ordered Yasumi to be added to an upcoming fieldwork trip. Kirimura will lead a team, including Kanon and Yasumi, to Torikui Island, a solitary island that is technically part of Japan, but which has been deemed "off-limits" for decades. Centuries ago, it was used as an island to send sentenced criminals to, even though there were indigenous inhabitants too, and with time, a unique culture developed, seperating the island in two distinct clans, one of the indigenous people and one of the descendents of the sentenced criminals. The main staple food on the island is surprisingly not fish, but birds of prey, and the two clans are named after their preferred food: the Eagle clan and the Raven clan. Because sentenced criminals were usually branded by having a part of their body mutilated, the people on the island also developed a unique sense of "beauty": when an islander becomes an adult, a part of their body is amputated to mark them as as a full adult person: the Eagle clan people mutilate their face (eyes or ears removed), while the Raven have limbs removed. Long ago, a person rumored to be related to a very important and esteemed bloodline was banished to the island and this Man in the Iron Mask-esque figure became feared and respected as a living god on the island named the Bird Demon. Because of their bloodline, the Japanese authorities also occasionally sent supplies to the island to ensure the people there could live, despite it being completely cut off from the rest of Japan and it was forbidden for people from the mainland to go to Torikui Island, or vice-versa. Some decades ago, Takaoka Jinichi, professor at Teiou University, stayed for months at the island to do research on the local culture, and it is the only source of information on the island.

Kirimura Satoru, who studied under Takaoka, also visited the island in the past, but now returns for a new research trip, because recently, Inou Nao, the young daughter of the island's only doctor, escaped the island in search for help. Inou Kaoruko hails from the mainland, but was stationed at the island to serve as the only medical expert. Nao was raised on the island, but has now violated the island rules to look for help: she claims that the last few years, the peace on the island has been visibly crumbling apart: there are only about thirty people left on the island, with few children, and both the Eagle and Raven clans are on the way to extinction. This has caused a very strong rift between the two clans, and it could go wrong anytime. While usually, the Japanese authorities does not allow for visits to Torikui Island, Kanon reveals to Yasumi there's a hidden agenda to their research: the government wants to use Torikui Island as an experiment to see how people will act in a declining society that is on the verge of falling apart. 

To Yasumi's big disappointment, he learns on the day they are travelling to the island that Kanon isn't allowed to go, because Kirimura Satoru deems her an academic rival and doesn't want her around. Other people in the team however include Kirimura's half-sister (an academic too), a researcher attached to the university and two government "observers". Nao is also brought along, though in disguise, because she violated the local rules. When they arrive at the island by yacht, they are "welcomed" by the Eagle clan, though some of them seem to blame Kirimura for the fall of the island, as everything started to slowly crumble after his visit many years ago. They learn the Bird Demon has disappeared from the island, and because this figure of authority is gone, the rivalry between the Eagle and Raven clans has only worsened. In fact, the two clans are so against each other the houses on the island are in fact built to alternate between a house of the Eagle and Raven clan, so they can all keep an eye on each other like a panopticon. The fieldwork team settles for the night, but Kirimura goes out for a stroll, while Yasumi calls Kanon to report on the on-goings on the island. When Yasumi remembers he left his phone charger in the boat, he returns to the beach to the yacht, but he finds Nao stabbed to dead on the beach. But for some reason, only Nao's own footprints are found in the sand, and there are no signs of footprints left by her killer. At that same moment, he receives a message from Kirimura Misaki, who summons the rest of the team to her, because she found her own brother murdered. These two deaths however are just the starting sign for a full breakdown of Torikui Island in Mori Akimaro's Setsudantou no Satsuriku Riron (2024), or as the cover also says: The Genocide Theories in the Mutilation Island.

This was definitely a book I picked because of the crazy premise and alluring title: an island where people willing mutilate themselves because they think it's beautiful? A closed circle mystery set inn isolated and small society doomed to fail and end in genocide? I had never read anything by Mori Akimaro before, but this description really sounded alluring to me, especially with its focus on anthropology.

Once I got started reading however, it did take me a lot of time to get used to the protagonist, and even at the end, I never learned to like him. He's constantly trying to be witty and hitting on Kanon, his lecturer, and after a while it really got old. There's some mystery revolving around how he wrote his essay even though he himself even admits he doesn't quite understand how he could've written such an impressive work, but that is hardly fairly clewed: while it has huge implications for him, it's not really that well integrated with the main mystery of the murders that occur on the island, and it felt like two completely different ideas that don't work together. But add to that the fact he's really obnoxious every time he talks to Kanon (he's constantly keeping her up-to-date on what has happened on the island), and it's really a shame he's the character we're constantly following in this narrative...

Once we arrive on the island however, we do get the highlight of the book: Torikui Island, its inhabitants and the unique culture they have. Mori does a great job at setting the scene and explaining how the people on the island developed their own cultures, based on their food culture (eating predatory birds, as you obviously can't have cattle on a small island like that) and the fact most of them are descended in some way from mutilated criminals, giving them a warped sense of beauty: all the adults miss a body part, and the children aren't seen as full humans because they still have all their body parts. The rivalry between the clans creates the unique situation where the houses are laid out like a panopticon around the main square, and so you instantly get a kind of impossible crime set-up, because everyone is watching each other. That is how the book also initially sets things up, as while Kirimura Satoru and Nao end up dead, the islanders are quite sure none of them are the murderer, and are more suspicious of the fieldwork team members. We also have the wildcard Kaoruko, the mother of Nao, who does live on the island, but has never been fully accepted by either clan. While we initially are 'treated' to the double murder of Kirimura and Nao, we soon see the native inhabitants be killed too in all kinds of manners: while these situations are seldom 'impossible' or pure mysteries on their own (i.e. killed in a way anyone could've done it), that doesn't make their deaths less interesting: the slow downfall of the island society is truly a sight to behold, and at the same time, Mori manages to use the very unique island culture to create a few very ingenous and crafty situations that could only occur here. The use of anthropology to create tricks in mystery is something I very much like (see for example the use of religious concepts to create mysteries in the Toujou Genya series), and The Genocide Theories in the Mutilation Island very much succeeds in that aspect: a lot happens in this book, and surprisingly enough, those happenings could really only happen here, because this is such a weird place, and some of the mysteries the reader will be treated to, are extremely memorable cause of that. And when Yasumi isn't trying to interrupt the discussions by hitting on Kanon, there are actually quite interesting musings on anthropological topics that pertain to this novel, from the consumption of birds to views on beauty etc.

But there is a caveat. A pretty big one too. Don't be reading this for the impossible crimes. There are a few impossible situations, from the no-footprints-in-the-sand situation at the beginning, to Kirimura also being killed in a place that was basically observed, but the solution to these mysteries is really outrageous. I guess you could say it was hinted at, but not in a sane manner, and nothing about the story leading up to the reveal seemed to even suggest this would be such an insane mystery novel, so to me, it really felt like it came out of nowhere. I loved the way Torikui Island was developed as a very strange, yet weirdly convincing place, but Mori certainly didn't manage to pull the same thing off in regards to his impossible crimes in this novel. In a way, this could be seen as a 'so-silly-it's-brilliant' type of explanation, but I find the juxtaposition with the more serious depiction of the island's culture from an anthropological POV not smooth, though your mileage may vary there.

So in the end, I do think Setsudantou no Satsuriku Riron is a really cool mystery novel, with an absolutely banger of a setting which is used in clever ways for some of the mysteries, but I wouldn't be reading this solely for the impossible crimes, and you do need to be aware it's a bit weird when it comes to the solution, despite the rather heavy themes of the events on the island. Still, a very memorable novel which I am likely not going to forget soon.

Original Japanese title(s):  森晶麿『切断島の殺戮理論』

Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Oh, it all started with the silly phrase 'No smoke without fire.' People have been saying that ad nauseam.

"The Moving Finger"

As a non-smoker, I had not even ever heard of cigarillos before...

Mori Asako works as a freelance tourist guide in the ancient capital of Kyoto and the last two days, she's been the exclusive guide to J.P Bernas, a wealthy Filipino who runs a cigarillo farm. Bernas came to Japan to talk business, as he hopes to extend the export of cigarillos from the Philippines to Japan, though that is difficult due to import quota on tobacco products, and the fact most of that quota is used for American tobacco. But as a lover of Japan, the trip isn't all business, so he has privately hired Asako so he can get a good look around Kyoto. After visiting Kiyomizu-dera Temple, he asks Asako he forgot to buy an English pamphlet as a souvenir, so he asks whether she could return and buy it for him. Aasako leaves her client for a minute, but when she returns, she finds the street is brimming with people, and an ambulance and the police: Bernas lies dead on the street, having been stabbed in the back with a knife! Asako is of course taken in for questioning, though she can't tell Inspector Kariya much about Bernas' businesses. However, Kariya does reveal to Asako that Bernas was holding tight to a 10 yen coin when he was found dead, and he wonders whether that has any significance, though Asako assures Kariya Bernas knew the worth of a 10 yen coin (not much), so it's not likely he was being robbed and he refused to give up that coin. When Asako returns home and discusses the murder her husband Ichirou, who is an investigative reporter, they really that Asako had visited Byoudou-in Temple with Bernas the day before, and that temple is featured on the 10 yen coin. Asako recalls Bernas had been acting a bit weird at the temple, after seeing something, or someone. Meanwhile, Inspector Kariya dives into Bernas' business partners at Tainan Bussan Ltd., where he learns that Bernas' son died last year in an accident with a Cessna: the son had been travelling with the Manilla manager of Tainan Bussan Ltd. to have a look at the tobacco fields of Bernas, when the plane crashed. Kariya suspects Bernas' death might have to do with his son's death, and perhaps some internal political struggle regarding wanting to import more cigarillos, but he can't seem to connect the dots together. Ichirou and Asako also start their own investigation, with Ichirou hoping to get a scoop, but the Moris soon learn there's a larger conspiracy hiding behind everything, and they are starting to attract attention to themselves in Yamamura Misa's Cigarillo no Wana ("The Cigarillo Trap", 1977).

It's not like I read Yamamura Misa's work often, but I have to say I was a bit confused when I started this book and learned the protagonist was called Asako, because that was also the name of the protagonist of the Yamamura novel I read last time, last year... Ichirou is also a name you see often in her works I think.

Yamamura Misa is a name you'll hear about sooner or later once you start reading up on Japanese mystery fiction, because she was extremely prolific and at a time, very often featured on television and video games due to various adaptations of her work, or new stories based on her work. Her main themes were women protagonists and the ancient capital Kyoto (and Japanese culture), which of course provided an entertaining for adaptations on television, and it made her name synonymous for the two-hour suspense drama television special set in Kyoto or perhaps some other touristic destination featuring a dramatic finale with the detective confronting the murderer at a cliffside looking down at the sea. I very occasoinally try out her work, but in general, the mystery plots are very light, though some books like Hana no Hitsugi, were more like the reasonably solid puzzle-focused books I generally read. 

My attention was drawn to this particular book, Cigarillo no Wana, because I saw it mentioned in a list with taped locked room murders: locked room situations where all the exits/entrances have been sealed with tape from the inside. Note that it didn't say whether it was good or bad or original or anything, just that it featured one, but that was enough to make me interested in the book, as taped locked room mysteries are not that common. I didn't read this particular version of the book by the way, but I like this cover better...

Cigarillo no Wana is certainly a typical Yamamura Misa work, with the focus on Asako, a fairly strong female protagonist who is actually married to a horrible husband who barely cares about her and is only thinking about his scoop, and then there's of course Kyoto as the setting, with various famous touristic destinations in the ancient capital playing an important role in the story. If you want to escape into fantasy and become a tourist in the pages of a book, Yamamura basically always has you covered when it comes to Kyoto. Inspector Kariya was originally a secondary character in Yamamura's work, but he kept on making appearances in several of her series (with women protagonists), and eventually became a leading protagonist himself too (even has his own live-action drama series!), and you could argue he shares the spotlight with Asako here.

The first few murders (yes, there are multiple murders) in the book are fairly simple in terms of practicality, with people just stabbed to death and things like that. The first half of the mystery is split in two interconnecting narratives, with Asako and her husband trying to investigate the case from their side (in order to get Ichirou his scoop), and Inspector Kariya (a recurring character in Yamamura's work) doing an official investigation. Because both sides have access to different information and means, they tackle the case from different angles, but slowly do come closer. Because Kariya suspects strongly Asako and her husband are intentionally not telling him the whole story, he starts to suspect them too, and that creates a rather fun read, with the two sides in reality working on the same case, but for different purposes which frames them as rivals. On both sides a lot of guesswork is done, but it results in both sides uncovering there's a rather big, political plot lurking behind Bernas' death, and it reaches surprisingly high in society. I remember that was also the case in Egypt Joou no Hitsugi ("The Tomb of the Egyptian Queen"), the Yamamura I read last year, and it reminds me of Matsumoto Seichou's work, who very much championed the mystery story about political intriges leading to murder among the common man. There's a distinct social school vibe going on her, though Yamamura does lean a bit more on the "classic" mystery tropes than Matsumoto would.

So a lot of the mystery revolves around figuring out why Bernas was killed, and that gets revealed bit by bit as the two sides start digging. It's a complex web of political intrigue, which I found entertaining enough, but it's not really the type of mystery I usually read or enjoy, so I do find it hard to describe this as a book I'd recommend. Nearer to the end, we have the taped locked room murder that first led me to reading this book: a man is found dead in his car parked near a cliff (it's always a dramatic cliff in these stories!), with the exhaust hooked up back inside the car with a hose, making it appear like a carbon monoxide suicide. The doors and windows have been taped tight from the inside and there's of course only the victim inside the car, meaning he must have done this himself, right? Of course not, because it was murder (it's always murder), but I have to say the trick was rather disappointing, as it's the same as the trick of a famous instance of the taped locked room murder: as I mentioned before, there aren't that many of them, so it stands out even more when you utilize the same trick. I do like what Yamamura did to ensure the trick would work within this specific story in terms of practicality, as in, I can imagine it working here, with the way she placed her props and set the scene. But still, I wouldn't be recommending this book per se if you're specifically looking for taped locked rooms, because you're likely already familiar with the better known instance.

Cigarillo no Wana isn't in any way much worse, or much better than the other Yamamura Misa works I have read until now. It's exactly the type of story you'd expect to be written for a two hour television mystery special you'd come across while zapping: nice shots of Kyoto, an inoffensive tale that is relatively easy to follow with a few twists and turns and by the time the special has ended, you'll already have forgotten most of the story. Not the Yamamura I'd recommend, but also not one I'd tell to stay away from.

Original Japanese title(s): 山村美紗『葉煙草（シガリロ）の罠』

The Legend of the Murder Hotel

Nancy and Helen mounted the wide steps and entered the center hall. Its paneled walls, old staircase, and beautiful cut-glass chandelier made them feel as though they had stepped back into an earlier century.”

"The Mystery of Lilac Inn" 

As announced last week, here's the review of Houjou Kie's latest work... I'm doing a relatively good job at reviewing these books soon after their release, right?

The Amulet Hotel is a completely regular hotel with normal guests... at least, when we're talking about the main building. The annex is a completely different story. The annex of the Amulet Hotel tailors to a very specific clientele: criminals. All those in the industry who need to know, know the annex of the Amulet Hotel is a safe haven for criminals. The hotel is members-only, and guests who stay at the hotel, know they can sleep safely without the hotel calling the police. In fact, the hotel can provide services normal hotels won't, as long as you pay the fee: room service can bring you pistols, disguises or even get rid of dead body for you. The hotel serves as neutral grounds for all criminals and therefore, there re two iron rules that are enforced very strictly: 1) one is not allowed to cause damage or harm the hotel and 2) One is not allowed to harm or murder someone on the hotel grounds. These rules ensure that even the biggest of rivals stay safely here in the hotel together without having to worry about being ambushed. However, like with normal hotels, some guests think they can violate the rules anyway. However, the Amulet Hotel has the means to deal with such guests. The night manager Kiryuu also acts as the hotel detective and has full authority to investigate any incidents that violate the hotel house rules. Incidents are not only covered up, but the people who violated the rules are also dealt with by Kiryuu, who in a previous life, was a feared assassin who's used to cleaning up loose ends. The reader returns to the Amulet Hotel in Houjou Kie's 2025 short story collection Amulet Wonderland.

The original Amulet Hotel was one of my favorite reads of 2023, with Houjou using the immensely fun setting of the 'hotel for criminals' to come up with original mystery stort stories, that relied on the fact basically all the characters were criminals themselves. The hotel basically acts as a great closed circle, due to the heavy security measures, and because Kiryuu is instructed to work in the interest of the hotel (i.e. protect its reputation as a safe place for criminals), stories often have rather dark conclusions as the best way to ensure 'wrap up a murder case' is to cover everything up and make sure the culprit doesn't get away alive, to make sure all future guests also understand they shouldn't try to violate the rules. Houjou is pretty open about John Wick being a huge inspiration for the series, so that should give you an idea of what kind of setting she's using for these stories. I had been looking forward to this second volume, which collects four stories originally published in the magazine Giallo between 2024-2025. 

Our return to the hotel starts with Do Not Disturb, where, in a very rare situation, Kiryuu is summoned by  Hattori, the assistant manager, to solve a jewel theft that occured in the restaurant of the main, normal (non-criminal) building. The restaurant has been reserved for a piano recital party in honor of the world-famous actress Strangelove. A couple of jewels, property of a jeweler who is trying to become the exclusive supplier to Strangelove, have been stolen during the party, and Hattori wants the whole deal hushed up before the party ends. It turns out that she has video evidence of the actual theft: a thief nicknamed the Wombat who has wormed himself into the party disguised as a food critic is actually caught on camera, but Hattori can't find the actual jewels that prove he did it. Wombat also happens to be such a low-level criminal he doesn't actually know the Amulet Hotel is the legendary hotel for criminals, which explains why he dared to pull off such a stunt, even if it's in the main building. Kiryuu and Hattori very quickly discover where the jewels are and the two are headed for the annex to report the incident to the owner, when Kiryuu is called on to solve a murder that occured in the hotel. A criminal influencer, Kiku, had been live-streaming himself on SinTube (a video sharing site for criminals) from room 813 of the annex, which is said to be cursed (people who stay there... get arrested). During the stream, Kiku was attacked by a figure. The owner of Amulet Hotel happened to be watching too, so he hurried to the room with back-up and when they entered, they found Kuki stabbed to death. They also learn Kuki's twin brother Yarai was staying at the hotel. The two brothers had been partners in crime until very recently, but after Yarai messed up a job, the two got in a huge fight and they seperated. Yarai however has an alibi for the murder, as he had been in the bar during the live-stream. So who killed Kuki and why?

This story does feel like the 'first story of a second season', as the story slowly reintroduces the setting of the Amulet Hotel, slowly explaining the special rules of the hotel via the relatively minor jewel theft part of the story. This mystery is solved pretty quickly, and seen in a vacuum, not particularly exciting considering the heights this series has reached in the past. The second part, following the live-stream murder on Kuki in room 813, is of course more interesting. Houjou fleshes out a lot of the criminal world of the Amulet Hotel series here by introducing us to a lot of warring crime factions, veteran thiefs and concepts like SinTube, a members-only criminal take on YouTube with special rules like not being able to hide your own identity (so no VTubers on SinTube). While the Amulet Hotel annex, due to privacy reasons, doesn't have that many security cameras hanging in the communal areas like the hallways, witnesses do make it clear basically nobody could've killed Kiku in room 813 and gotten away without any of the witnesses catching sight of them, and with a twin brother hanging around, suspicion soon falls on him, but how did he do it? The main trick is perhaps not super surprising, but I do very much like the mystery-embedded clue pointing to the twist. I do think the story requires a bit of suspension of disbelief in regards to character motivations (was that plan really the only way to get out of that?). The ghost story of room 813 is integrated in an interesting way with the murder by the way and I loved how the story fleshed out more of the staff members of the hotel (which is a running theme of the collection in fact).

The second story, Otoshimono Gassen ("Battle for the Lost Item"), for example revolves mainly around the recently hired Yazaki and veteran Izumi, who work in the bar lounge Black Kaiser of the annex. Black Kaiser also functions as the Lost & Found counter. Because all the guests are criminals (many of them thiefs), it is likely multiple people will try to claim a lost item as their own. This always leads to multiple people trying to argue with the staff, so they moved the Lost & Found counter from reception to the bar in the back of the ground floor. They also have a strict rule: anyone claiming a lost item must describe it in detail and you only get one single chance. A bag is delivered to the bar: Nomura, one of the guests, happened to spot the bag inside the grand piano of the lounge. Yazaki and Izumi examine the bag to find a doll of a platypus inside a sock and an expensive necklace with embedded jewels. Because the bag was found inside the piano, they deduce the bag was meant to be found by Otomaru, the piano player who will come in later in the day. They suspect it might be meant as a kind of veiled threat. Because Nomura has now delivered the bag to Lost & Found before Otomaru found it, it is likely the threatener will now reclaim the bag. However, to Yazaki and Izumi's surprise, no less than three people come to claim the bag, though only the last person manages to make a perfect description of the contents of the bag, with the previous two each mistaken certain points. Kiryuu happens to swing by the bar and upon hearing about the lost item, deduces there's something much grander going on in the hotel, which will require immediate action of the hotel detective.

This is a story that really shows off why the Amulet Hotel setting works so well. A mystery story revolving around multiple people claiming a lost item is pretty alluring on its own, but of course, when everyone is a criminal used to deceiving others, things become more interesting, and the absolute rule of allowing everyone only one single chance to claim an item of course only goes in the Amulet Hotel. While something criminal is definitely going on in this story, this story comes very close to a everyday-life-mystery in this setting. I think part of the mystery doesn't work as well, as it relies on the knowledge of the existence of something: I happened to know about it, but I don't think it's very common knowledge, and especially of a writer like Houjou, I do expect really meticulously clewed stories, so having part of the mystery revolve around a 'fact' that isn't really telegraphed well, feels a bit disappointing. That said, the rest of the story builds pretty well, with the mystery of the bag and its many claimers slowly being developed into something bigger and Kiryuu appearing to make sense of all of it.

Youkoso Koroshiya Compe ("Welcome to the Asasssin Competition") brings us closer to a John Wick world with perhaps the best story in the collection. Morooka, owner of the Amulet Hotel, has summoned his right-hand Mizuta, Kiryuu as well as security heads Suzuki and Tanaka to the Room of the Titans (see final story of first volume( for an emergency meeting. Morooka has learned Sofia, head of the Italian mafia organization Jupiter, has started an assassin contract competition to be held in the Amulet Hotel annex. Jupiter is trying to get a foothold in Japan and is now looking for a suitable assassin for some jobs, but in order to decide on their assassin of choice, they have invited a number of assassins and given them an assignment: the one to perform this assignment will win the contract. Morooka suspects the invited assassins will be trying to kill his right-hand Mizuta: Mizuta and his sister were once members of Jupiter, with Morooka being their ace "chaser" (tracks targets), but when the siblings left the organization, his sister was killed by an assassin sent by Jupiter. Mizuta took revenge by killing Jupiter's boss, but now his daughter runs the organization. Morooka guesses Sofia is hoping to bring down two birds with one stone: she'll have the assassins target Mizuta, and the winner takes the contract. Morooka isn't going to have his dear assistant killed and he has a fair amount of confidence in the security of his hotel, which doesn't allow for outside weapons to be brought in, but there are some pistols and other weapons kept in the hotel, like in the Room of the Titans, which they have to secure before the assassins get to them. They get amushed in the Room of Titans however, but manage to chase the assassin away for a moment. Kiryuu deduces where the assasssin is heading for... only for them to find that assassin killed by... another assassin. Thus starts a long quest for Kiryuu to deduce who all the hired assassins staying at the hotel are, and figure out which of them have actually already committed a murder, meaning they violated the hotel rules, because no matter what happens, they must pay with their lives.

A very action-packed mystery story that feels a bit like Houjou's novel released last year, which had a lot of smaller mysteries happening in a sequence, as opposed to the more "grand scale mysteries with a start, middle and ending" of her Ryuuzen Clan series. Here we have Kiryuu constantly confronted with new mysteries, which are solved and then lead the group to a new mystery. For example, Kiryu notices very quickly they're being ambushed, which turns out to have been foreshadowed by various clues. They follow the assassin, because Kiryuu deduces that based on the assassin's actions taken during the ambush. When they find the first assassin killed and have a short fight with the second assassin (who is masked), they gather enough clues to identify them from a list of suspected assassins currently staying at the hotel, which leads them to their hotel room, which again leads to a new mystery etc etc. While I do have to say I generally like Houjou's "grand" stories better, this story is really fun to read, as it constantly keeps you on your toes, with new mysteries being flung at you all the time, but they follow each other in a logical manner. There's actually quite some scenes with old-fashioned deduction chains based on physical evidence too, though not as long as we've come to expect from the Ryuuzen Clan series. Ultimately, I think the main large twist won't be too surprising once you see a certain pattern emerging, but I very much like how Houjou then uses it to add some more mysteries that ultimately build to a fantastic conclusion. 

Bomber no Satsujin ("The Bomber Murder") is told from the perspectives of both Morooka and Kiryuu this time. Morooka is attending a wedding reception that is held under his personal auspices: the "Romeo and Juliet" of the criminal world consisted of the son of the (Japanese) Swindler King, and the daugher of one of the high-ranking members of the Italian mafia group Jupiter, which has been trying to get a foothold in Japan. Their relationship was of course strictly forbidden by both families, leading to an elopment, and eventually Morooka and some other big names in the industry with a heart started mediating, resulting in a wedding reception held at the Amulet Hotel, with both sides playing nice at least for now. Morooka is of course attending the reception, while Kiryuu is acting as the night manager and making sure the whole hotel is safe for the criminals, when Morooka is suddenly served an anonymous call by someone (with a scrambled voice) who demands Morooka to sign over the whole of the Amulet Hotel over to them. 

To show he's serious, the caller ignites first a small bomb, and explains he has fifty bigger bombs hidden in the wedding reception hall: if they all go off, over a hundred people are likely to get killed, and all big names in the criminal industry. It would kill the reputation of the Amulet Hotel. The bomber has also enlisted the help of Aramaki Norika, the daughter of Morooka's ex-wife and also an Underworld Arbitrator: these arbitrators act as neutral judges among the criminals in a world where thieves have no honor, and ensure that deals between criminals are upheld, or else you call upon the wrath of the Court of Arbitration and the rest of the criminal world. Norika has a contract to sign everything over to her anonymous client, just waiting to be signed by Morooka. Once Morooka has signed the papers, the caller will tell Morooka the ten-digit code needed to disarm the bomb, to be typed into the control panel connected to one of the the bombs. Morooka has one hour to decide what to do, before the bombs go off. Meanwhile, the caller has also sabotaged all the lifts, meaning Kiryuu can't reach the reception floor and there's more trouble: a murder has been committed on Norika's father (a personal friend of Morooka) on the sixth floor and it's likely connected to the bomb threat. Can Kiryuu solve this murder and find the killer, and can Morooka find and disarm the bombs?

Again a story that is very dynamic, with both Morooka and Kiryuu being forced to deal with multiple smaller mysteries in a sequence. Morooka needs to locate the bombs and find the one with the control panel in a limited time, figure out the disarm code, without the guests noticing what is going on (because it'll only lead to a panic, as the lifts don't work). Meanwhile, Kiryuu has to solve the murder on Morooka's friend, who was found in an unused hotel room, lying near the door with his throat slit and for some reason, with mahjong tiles in his mouth. The story alternates between the investigations of both Morooka and Kiryuu, allowing for some tense build-up and a nice rhythm of one side investigating something, another side solving an aspect of the mystery and then the other way around. The Kiryuu part is the most 'classical mystery', with a crime scene investigation and deductions regarding the actions of both the victim and the murderer, based on the physical clues left by them. This eventually allows Kiryuu to deduce who the killer is, which turns out to be one of three suspects who all have a beef with Amulet Hotel. I think as a mystery story, I liked the third one better, but this works great as a finale to the second season.

This second volume is very much about extending the world of Amulet Hotel: we see more recurring staff members of the hotel and learn more about their background and it really helps sell this world. While Kiryuu wasn't the only recurring character in the first volume, it's clear Houjou is expanding the cast while also painting in more details in her image of Amulet Hotel, with the reader learning more about all the restaurants in the hotel, but also things like how lost items are handled in a hotel with mostly liars as guests. It certainly makes the prospects of a third volume even more promising, with this become more an 'ensemble cast' type of series, with Kiryuu acting as the main detective, but other characters also being allowed to carry some of the weight of protecting Amulet Hotel.

Anyway, I enjoyed Amulet Wonderland a lot, as expected. As a pure mystery story, I do think the first book is better overall and you should certainly start from there, but you can easily see Houjou's having a blast playing around in the hotel and slowly introducing new ideas and characters in the setting, and while I think she intentionally made a move to make the stories closer to "entertainment" on a Mystery vs Entertainment spectrum compared to the original stories, she's still a master at her craft and there's still a lot of great mystery moments to be found in this wonderland.

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵『アミュレット・ワンダーランド』:「ドゥ・ノット・ディスターブ」/「落とし物合戦」/「ようこそ殺し屋コンペへ」/「ボマーの殺人」 

Death on the Way

"I suggest you murdered your father for his seat reservation."

 - "I may have had the motive, inspector, but I could not have done it, for I have only just arrived from Gillingham on the 8:13 and here's my restaurant car ticket to prove it."

"Monty Python's Flying Circus"

Never been on a night train before, so I'd like to try it one day... night...

Former prosecutor-turned-private-detective Namba Kiichirou is requested by the lawyer Sakurai to re-investigate the mysterious double murder on the Funatomi couple, as his client, Takizawa, is the main suspect and will be tried soon. The wealthy Funatomi Ryuutarou and his wife Yumiko had been staying in The White Waves Inn in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, but one morning, Yumiko was found horribly murdered in their room, while Ryuutarou's body was completely missing, though enough blood was left in the room to suggest he wasn't among the living anymore. Suspicion soon fell on Takizawa, a young man who had until recently been the fiancee of Ryuutarou and Yumiko's daughter Yukiko, but recently, the parents saw more in Susa Hideharu, who was a close friend of Takizawa, but the latter probably changed his mind after introducing Susa to Yukiko and his own engagement to her was cancelled. The police soon set their eyes on Takizawa, because it was more than clear he had made his way to Shirahama that night: he left his work in Osaka early, claiming Ryuutarou had called him to discuss his engagement with Yukiko again and he was seen by taxi drivers going to the train station, and also arriving at Shirahama. Apparently, Takizawa had then met Ryuutarou, but the latter claimed he never called Takizawa, and he was extremely irritated by Takizawa's appearance, which in turn angered Takizawa, who felt embarrassed and insulted, and he stormed off into the arms of Bacchus. So when Takizawa was arrested, he claimed he had been so drunk he had no memory of the previous night, but that wasn't going to satsify the police of course, and now his trial is imminent. 

Namba agrees to look into the case one final time, and the lawyer Sakurai recommends Susa as Namba's assistant, though the former isn't too keen on having a related party helping him, so he only occasionally uses Susa as a soundboard while investigating the possibility someone might have manipulated Takizawa's movements that evening for some reason. But each time Namba thinks he has an idea who the murderer might be, a new death occurs, changing his views on the case, and as things develop more, Funatomike no Sangeki ("The Tragedy of the Funatomis", 1936) seems to head straight towards an unsolvable state, until the international detective Akagaki Takio appears in front of him...

Funatomike no Sangeki ("The Tragedy of the Funatomis") is one of the most important mystery novels in Japanese mystery history, as it is commonly seen as the very first Japanese mystery novel involving a railway schedule-based alibi trick. The author is Fujita Yuuzou (1909-1975), though he used the pen name Aoi Yuu, and it should be noted some sources say his given pen name was read Takeshi, so you'll see both Aoi Yuu and Aoi Takeshi when they bother to write out his name in hiranaga or romaji. Aoi was an engineer for a power company by profession, but was also a big fan of mystery fiction, and debuted in 1934 with a short story published in the magazine Profile. The following year, he decided to write his first full-length novel to compete in a competition for unpublished novel manuscripts. It was Edogawa Rampo who was a huge fan of the story which was originally titled Satsujinma ("The Murderer"), but retitled as Funatomike no Sangeki when it was published in 1936. And as I mentioned earlier, it is commonly seen as the first Japanese novel that involved an alibi trick based on railway tables in the spirit of Freeman Wills Crofts. Post-war authors like Matsumoto Seichou and of course Ayukawa Tetsuya were greatly inspired by Aoi's work.

As a first novel, and one in the context of 1930s Japanese mystery fiction, I'd this book is insanely ambitious, and while I don't think Aoi manages to pull off everything perfectly, it's genuinely impressive how Aoi does a lot of things authors like Ayukawa and Matsumoto would also do, only two, three decades earlier. The one thing I have to say first, is that Funatomike no Sangeki is packed. A lot happens, and Aoi really does his best to keep the reader entertained by having many story developments and twists and turns, and also revealing parts of the mystery little by little. Unlike Rampo's 1930s output, Aoi is obviously going for Croftian realism, and he meticulously explains how Namba is conducting his investigation, but a great advantage of that style is that you are constantly making progess in terms of unrafeling the mystery: like the Croftian police procedural, Namba keeps making small steps, solving parts of the mystery that allow him to move forward to find new clues that again allow him to make other discoveries. The scale of the story is huge, as we move from the western part of the main island of Japan to the central parts and visit many cities and towns, as take as many train lines on our way there. Namba is actively trying to locate the 'invisible' murderer is and it often feels like he's close on their trail, so there's always a feeling of tension, as for all we know Namba could only be a few steps behind the murderer.

At the same time... Aoi writes in a rather dry and slow manner, and I have to admit, while I think the overall plot was interesting, his writing did tire me a lot, and I felt the book could have been told in a much more entertaining manner (oh, how I wish Rampo wrote this based on Aoi's plot). Of course, I understand he was going for the Crofts style, but you do really need to be in the right mindset to be reading this, because while it's perfectly readable, sometimes you do wonder why the story is told in such a dry, and yet at times roundabout manner...

Aoi's talents as a mystery writer are clearly visible in this work though. While a lot of the ideas showcases in this book will feel outdated and too tropey for the modern reader, some ideas I genuinely find surprising to find in a 1935 Japanese mystery novel. And then there's of course the railway schedule-based alibi trick, apparently the first original Japanese one and one which would thus influence writers like Matsumoto Seichou, Ayukawa Tetsuya and Nishimura Kyoutarou. It's a bit sad how nowadays we can just use map and navigation maps to find all kinds of combinations of public transport modes to find the fastest way to get from A to B, because it takes a lot away from the surprise in these kinds of books. Here too some of the "the killer used this other route that was actually also available!" surprises feel a bit underwhelming partially because you can't shake the feeling it's a bit weird nobody thought of that earlier, but also because of Aoi's writing style,where he throws these reveals at you without much build-up ("Namba looked at the map and suddenly realized there was another route"), so you don't get the sensation of satisfaction when the solution is revealed. Still, Aoi uses the alibi tricks in a clever manner/for a clever purpose, so on the whole, I think the book works.

Though I don't really get Aoi undermining Namba right from the beginning, because we have Namba in the list of characters, but then at the end we see the name of another detective in the list, and he's introduced as an internationally renowned master detective... The cast of characters is also rather limited despite the book's length, so it might be a bit easy to guess who the murderer is because not many people on the list are still alive at the end of the story... The book also makes reference to a certain 1922 mystery novel that is utilized in an interesting way in this story, though it's a bit of a borderline case whether mentioning the title out loud will spoil part of Funatomike no Sangeki's mystery, so I'll refrain from doing so now...

So while I do think some of Funatomike no Sangeki might feel a bit outdated now, both in writing and the mystery tropes it uses, it is a surprisingly ambitious first novel by Aoi Yuu and as it is commonly recognized as the first in a looooooong tradition of Japanese railway-based alibi-deconstruction mystery stories, I'd say it's worth reading it if you happen to come across it.

Original Japanese title(s): 蒼井雄『船富家の惨劇』

The Shadow of the Goat

"Cry havoc and let slip the goats of war."

"Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse" 

Houjou Kie has been a personal favorite of mine ever since she made her debut. While she initially focused on novel-length stories, she has lately also been releasing short stories serialized in magazines, which are then later collected in one volume. Next week will see the release of the sequel to the amazing Amulet Hotel, but today, I want to take a brief look at two new series by Houjou. At least, one of them is confirmed as a series, the other might be developed into a new series!

Maison Initier no Kai ("The Mystery of Maison Initier") is a 2025 short story published in All Yomimono and starts with a freelance writer on the occult going inside an apartment building in Hachiouji as he films himself. There are rumors that the elevator in this building connects to different worlds. While there are many of such rumors, with elevators often going down to the underworld, this rumor is connected to a more specific story: twelve years ago, a murder was committed in the hallway of the top, seventh floor. Rumor has it that if you push in a certain combination in the elevator, you'll be brought to that scene fifteen years ago. Our writer pushes the buttons accordingly and when he arrives at the seventh floor... he finds a dead body lying in the hallway, killed in the exact same way as the victim fifteen years ago, stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Superintendent Hachijou Miku is the crime scene investigator in charge of the case, though she immediately regrets this when she learns who discovered the body: for Ikoma Soramichi is only a freelance writer on the occult in his spare time, as he is a real police superintendent himself too. Only with a love for the occult. However, even he realizes he didn't go back in time, and that the body he found is in fact "fresh". The parallels to the murder 15 years ago however are clear: 15 years ago, the owner of the building had been stabbed with a kitchen knife on the seventh floor, and a priceless jewel was stolen. The new victim however has a note planted on his body, saying "Pay for your sins with your life", once again suggesting a strong connection between the two cases. While Miku is investigating the case however, Ikoma is intent on finding proof the occult is involved one way or another...

Whereas Houjou specializes in writing mystery stories with special settings (time travel, vr-worlds, a hotel for criminals, ghosts), she this time opted for a realistic setting: while Ikoma hopes there are ghosts and other occult occurences, as if this first story we don't really have any reason to believe they exist. In fact, Houjou mentions having to rely on her editor for knowledge on real police investigations/organization structure, as they usually don't really play a significant role in her other stories. The story is fairly simple in design, with the mystery revolving around why the two murders resemble each other. I don't think the story showcases Houjou's strenghts (densily plotted mysteries) very good, as the story is relatively short and the riddle of the two murders, and the clues leading to the revelation, feel not as meticulously plotted as her other stories. That said, the story is highly readable, and I think this story is probably more appealing to "non-hardcore" mystery fans than some of her other stories.The banter between "science is everything" Miku and "I wish there were ghosts" Ikoma is fun... because it's actually Ikoma who solves the case! In stories with these "science vs occult" setups, it's usually the science person who prevails, but this time we find it's Ikoma, in his quest to find real supernatural phenomena, who quickly sees through the human deception. I think the actual truth behind the case is pretty interesting though, and I'm curious to see how this series will develop further.

Houjou also recently wrote a piece of mystery flash fiction for the anthology GOAT, which has a very cute goat on the cover (even though the title actually refers to the acronym "greatest of all time"). She wrote this for a special on travel, and she was offered a stay at the Book Hotel Kyoto Kujo for inspiration, so unsurprisingly, her Rakugaki ("Scribbles" 2025) is actually set in that hotel.  The story is about five pages long, so I can't really write too much about it: a woman staying at the hotel finds someone has scribbled on her book while she was gone for a moment, and a... book sprite? helps her figure out who did it. Very short, kinda cute... and apparently, Houjou's editor liked it so much they are now developing it into a full series, with this story either being the proper "first entry" of the series, or it'll just be the prototype and be developed into a new story. I'm always into bibliophilic mysteries, so I'm looking forward to whatever may come!

This were pretty brief write-ups on these stories, so perhaps they feel a bit lacking in information on the stories, but... consider them more like previews, as we'll likely see more of these two series in the future. Next week is Amulet Wonderland, which I'm really looking forward to, so I'll try to read that and start on my review as soon as possible!

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵「メゾン・イニシェの怪」/「落書き」