Death in Paradise

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

Genesis 3:6 (King James Version)

So I got a signed copy of this book, which is cool, though it was a bit disappointing that while I preordered the book to have it signed, it didn't arrive until a few weeks after the book already released, and some bookshops *also* carried copies that were signed.

After his parents passed away, Sakoto Yasuyuki inherited several buildings his parents rented out, and he has continued managed these properties since, meaning frequent visits to his properties to check up on maintenance and if necessary, chat with his tenants. One of the tenants he's got to know fairly well is Mrs Unabara, which is actually quite unusual. While Unabara is known in the block as someone who keeps to herself, she's been quite friendly with Yasuyuki ever since his parents died, checking up with him and occasoinally bringing sweets. Which is why he becomes quite worried when he receives a message on a phone from her saying she's grown tired and that she'll go to another place. After asking around, it turns out Unabara has not been seen by her neighbors for over a week. Because it does sound like Unabara might have ended her own life, Yasuyuki decides to check out Unabara's apartment, where he finds clues that indicate a certain property somewhere in the middle of the Gunma Prefecture mountains that belongs to one of Yasuyuki's parents' friend: because this friend isn't in the country, his parents had been taking care of the property. Curious as to why Unabara would have known about this place, and with have no other clues left, Yasuyuki and his girlfriend Saori decide to combine work with pleasure: they're going on a short road trip, and swing by the property just to see if they can find any trace of Unabara.

Following the crudely-drawn map they found in Unabara's room, they eventually find a hidden dirt path that leads into an enclosed opening in the mountains, where the property stands surrounded by cliffs: the only opening into this 'basin' is guarded by a fence, and beyond it, they spot three small buildings. They park their van and check out one of the buildings, when they are suddenly held captive by a group of people, whom unfortunately, they recognize: each of them is a wanted criminal, some for murder, some for arson and other violent crimes. They soon learn that Mrs Unabara, knowing the property's owner wasn't in the country, had taken the property over, offering it as a safe haven to these criminals on the run. For personal reasons, she had been bringing supplies regularly to these people, who now live a secluded life, confined to this property, but at least in freedom. When the criminals learn that Mrs Unabara has disappeared and might even have committed suicide, they become very distressed: she was the only person capable of bringing them food and other supplies, as they can't risk stepping even a step outside their haven. Yasuyuki suggests he and Saori will from now on bring supplies and keep their secret, in exchange for their freedom, but of course, the criminals won't just believe them on his word. Which leads to a horrible compromise: the criminals agree to let Yasuyuki and Saori free and have them supply them with food, if they kill one of the criminals and record their own crime! This proof will act as an insurance that Yasuyuki and Saori will do as promised and not sell them out to the police, as they will all be murderers anyway. The group give Yasuyuki and Saori relative freedom and promise to not move too much as a group, as to allow Yasuyuki and Saori to pick any target they want. Will Yasuyuki and Saori be willing to take someone's life to escape this criminal's paradise in Yuuki Haruo's 2026 novel Rakuen ("Paradise")?

Rakuen is the long-awaited third entry in Yuuki's series of biblically-titled, closed-circle mysteries, following Hakobune ("The Ark") and Jikkai ("The Ten Commandments"). While the events of the three books are not directly connected and you could read them in any order, the books do form one series, with a subtle thread connecting them. As mysteries, the three novels also follow similar set-ups and themes: the books all revolve around closed-circle situations, where a group of people, who mostly don't know each other that well, end up stuck in an isolated location (an underground shelter in Hakobune, an island in The Ten Commandments and a mountain basin). These people are then tasked with an ethical problem, while dealing with murders: in Hakobune, escape from the slowly flooding shelter is only possible if one person sacrifices themselves to open the door for the rest. In Jikkai, the murderer tasks the rest with ten rules that force them to actively not investigate the murderers happening on the island. And in Rakuen, we follow Yasuyuki and Saori, who are given the task to kill someone if they want their freedom: with the "excuse" being that all the potential victims are in fact wanted criminals who are responsible for at least one death.

Of course, that isn't the whole story, as it wouldn't be much of a mystery novel if the problem was just about Yasuyuki and Saori discussing what they should do. The first third/half of the book is a bit slow, as we first get introduced to this initial conundrum, and then Yasuyuki and Saori are given relative freedom: while the gate to get out of the basin is kept locked, they get their own place in the shed and given some tools and a camcorder, and the rest of the group intentionally spend their days mostly seperated from the rest, all so Yasuyuki and Saori can observe them and then pick one of them as a target. Of course, it is not easy to decide to kill another human being, so the first few days, Yasuyuki and Saori just spend their days observing the others, without real intention of killing any of them. They do start to learn more about the people who are staying in this "paradise", and about the circumstances that led each of them to commit the crimes they commited. Some people might even appear sympathetic, though of course, Yasuyuki and Saori are never sure whether it's not just an act just to make them less inclined to pick them as a victim. However, things change when one of the people is indeed murderered... but Yasuyuki and Saori deny having commited the crime! Which of course means that one of the others committed the murder, though everyone denies having committed the crime. Days pass by, and more murders are commited, which only puzzles Yasuyuki more and more, for  what reason could a murderer have to be committing these murders now, while Yasuyuki and Saori are also tasked to commit a murder?

While a few murders occur during this tale, don't expect too much  surrounding the mystery of how of these deaths: while there are some questions about the individual deaths, like a situation that appears to be a locked room murder, and situations where everyone might have an alibi, what Yuuki does here is adequate, but nothing memorable on their own (i.e. no particularly original locked room or alibi trick being pulled off here). That said, I still immensely enjoyed this book, because the whole book is written around a theme and the conclusion, and here, Yuuki does a great job. As the story unfolds, a nasty thought might slowly start creeping into your mind, and it only grows and grows. By the time you get to the conclusion, you might think you're already mentally braced for what is coming, but then Yuuki far surpasses your expecations/fears, unveiling the horrible truth behind the title of this book and the true meaning of what a safe heaven is for those living there. 

Here is where the book shines, as Yuuki unveils his excellent plotting here, with oh-so-many clues and little giveaways planted throughout the story. Whereas a mystery novel, naturally, often focuses on planting clues to explain each individual murder/mystery, in Rakuen, those are not nearly as memorable as the clues/foreshadowing that are used to build up to the conclusion that deals with the overall theme of the book, rather than the seperate murder elements of the story. A book like Hakobune had more interesting murder situations that I could discuss on their own, which is sadly not really the case here, but Rakuen still has a very strong overall story/thee that is properly build-up as a mystery story. I wonder if this is the last book Yuuki will write in this specific series, as it does work wonderful as an ending to the three books.

In general, I think Rakuen might feel smaller in scale in terms of mystery compared to previous two books, but it is a genuine page-turner, initially focusing more on the internal conflict regarding the task set upon Yasuyuki. However, it becomes a truly memorable mystery novel once we get past the individual, less interesting mysteries and we move towards the climatic conclusion that leads to escaping paradise. Thematically, the book is absolutely great, and the actual structuring of the mystery surrounding the overall theme is done as expertly as we can expect from Yuuki, who has been around as a writer for some time by now. So definitely a recommended read, and a no-brainer for those who have already read the previous two books. It quite easily ranks among my favorite reads of this year! And now we see if this ever sees a follow-up or not!

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央『楽園』 

Endless Night

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering... fearing... doubting...

"The Raven" 

It's been some while since I posted a review of a book so soon after its release.

Shion, a woman from the Asian country of J.N., became immortal at a young age. Nobody knows the exact reasons behind the how and why, but in extreme rare cases, humans suddenly become immortal, freezing those affected in their current physical state, and allowing them to recover completely if any harm is done on their body. At first, the idea of immortality might sound alluring, but as Shion grew up, she realized people didn't treat her as a human anymore, precisely because they all knew she could recover from anything and everything. Now she travels the world to visit places with a connection to immortality, like legends about immortals who lived there, to learn more about herself and how she should live into eternity carrying this burden and blessing. In Yuuki Makoto's Samayoeru Eien ("The Wandering Eternity", 2026), we follow Shion's globe-trotting adventure to learn about immortality.... and the murder cases she gets involved with during her introspective journey.

Of the many, many mystery-focused newcomer awards in Japan (awards that accept manuscript submissions from unpublished writers and which include a publishing contract), it's the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, organized by Tokyo Sogensha that attracts my attention the most each year. Named after the legendary writer and editor, the committee of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award is usually looking for the type of mystery novel I like best, with a focus on strong puzzle plot mysteries and original settings. Some of my all-time favorites, like 2019's winner Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller") and 2017's winner Shijinsou no Satsujin ("Death Among the Undead") are Ayukawa Tetsuya Award winners, so it's exciting to see what the committee will announce each year once summer has ended, especially as the award isn't actually awarded every year: in some years, they'll decide no submissions is worth the award, resulting in no awardee being published. This year however, we have a great winner in Samayoeru Eien, a connected short story collection written by Yuuki Makoto, of whom we know they were born in 1992 in Tokushima Prefecture and that they are currently a company worker.

The book, released last week on 30 October 2026, opens with Ghost Dancing in a Box of Sweets, where our first meeting with Shion is... right after she is killed by two men who accidentally ran over her with their car and decided to dump her body. She's still regenerating from her injuries as the two men try to find a nice spot to leave her remains behind, when they are shocked to find another corpse: a dead body of a young man is lying just next to them. That sight combined with the fact Shion starts talking to them is enough to send them running. When Shion recovers completely, she finds that there's still company around: the ghost of the other corpse is there. The ghost introduces himself as Anders, and as they talk, Anders remembers he was killed just that night. His father is a plumber who often visits Cardinal Hotel, with Anders helping out. Cardinal Hotel lies just beyond a nearby hill. He remembers he was meeting someone, but everything after that is a blur, and he can't remember who killed him. 

Cardinal Hotel happens to be the place Shion was heading for in the first place before her "accident." The new continent features several "ghost spots", where people who die become ghosts, the type that people can see, that can float around and fly through walls. Ghost spots can only hold a limited number of ghosts: if the limit has not been reached yet, any humans who dies within the radius covered by the ghost spot turns into a ghost, but if the limit has been reached, humans just die. The first ghost of a ghost spot, the Cardinal, is granted special powers, with which they can send ghosts "to the world beyond", freeing up ghost spots. Cardinal Hotel is a hotel, where many ghosts live and the workers are... humans. These Servants all hope to become a ghost to gain "eternity": by serving the ghosts well, they might be invited to become the next ghost once a free spot opens.

Shion and the rookie ghost Anders go to Cardinal Hotel to report the murder to his parents and the police, but upon arrival, the duo is held captive by Ezra, one of the senior ghosts who serves the Cardinal Ghost directly. It turns out today was supposed to be a great day at Cardinal Hotel: Harold, a Servant who had faithfully attended to the ghosts for many years was to become a ghost himself as there was finally an opening. Once a position opens, a ceremony is held in which the nominee takes their own life with poison to become a ghost. Tonight, Harold was the star of the ceremony, but after drinking the poison... he remained dead, because Anders died before him and became a ghost instead. Anders is accused of intentionally dying at that moment to become a ghost himself, stealing Harold's position, but fortunately, both Shion and Lady Lily, one of the veteran ghosts at the hotel manage to at least arrange for a proper investigation to be held first. Shion is allowed to stay at the hotel for some time, working as a maid. During the stay however, the ghost Ezra, is killed. How, you may ask, do you kill a ghost? Well, apparently, ghosts can possess humans if the latter allows for it. However, if that person is killed while possessed, the ghost disappears too. Ezra often possessed his most loyal Servant so he could indulge in human vices, but one night, the Servant is found dead in his locked hotel room, with the ghost of Ezra nowhere to be found. This time Shion becomes the suspect, but how could she have committed the murder if the room was locked and the hallway observed? And how are this murder, and Anders' murder connected?

This is a great opening story. Each story explores "eternal life" in a different way, with this story focusing on ghosts: they aren't actually alive, but the ghosts here can still talk and move about freely, and even float and fly through walls. And by possessing Servants, they can even indulge in all the human vices too. The "honor" of becoming a ghost is thus coveted by many, and it contrasts very well with Shion's own "physical" eternal life. As a mystery too, this is an impressive story. While the howdunnit behind the locked room murder may not be very surprising considering the unusual setting of this story (though I like how it's well-clewed), the mystery sets up a memorable motive that fits perfectly with the overall theme of the book, with fleshed out ghosts and people all having their own convincing motivations that interact in such a way that ultimately ends in murder. 

The second story, Skeleton Warriors Laughing in the Desert Land, has Shion visit the desert land of Alancar. Legends has it that a millenium ago, the desert state had been under siege by enemies, and in a desperate attempt to save his land, the king used a secret spell: gone were their enemies, but so were his own people, and left was only his army: his soldiers had been turned into living skeleton warriors. The spell also put their king in a thousand-year sleep.  While the spell preserves the king in his current state (i.e. he doesn't age and can't be injured in any way while asleep), the warriors also make sure the king is safe by keeping him asleep in the king's chamber, a room which can only be accessed by moving heavy stone doors which require the strength of several men to move. The skeleton warriors, who all retain their personalities/memories, remain alive as long as their king is also alive (protected by the spell) and they guard their king until the day he awakens again, which will lift the spell. 

For a long time, the existence of Alancar was thought a legend, but then Alancar was discovered to be a real place, with real skeletal warriors living there. Their discoverer became a liaison with the outside world, and since then, Alancar has become a recognized country in the new continent, though the state limits its interactions with other countries. Shion visits Alancar, and she is welcomed by the skeletal warriors, who are also interested in meeting a different kind of eternal. It turns out the king will soon awaken from his millenial sleep, as the skeletal warriors can all sense a change in the spell that keeps them alive. On the day the king seems to awaken, they move the heavy, stone doors to the king's chamber, where their lord has been sleeping all this time... but they find the king... with a spear stabbed in his back, and obviously only stabbed after he had awakened. With the king dead, the skeletal warriors will fade away in a day or so, but not before Shion figures out how the king was killed and by whom...

What is impressive about this book is that Yuuki manages to explore eternal life in such different ways, because come on, skeleton warriors is hardly an obvious choice for a theme! But this is another solid story. The skeleton warriors are all a fun, lively lot, and it leads to a bitter-sweet moment when they realize that with the king murdered, they only have limited time left on this Earth after guarding the king for so long. The mystery behind the locked-room murder on the king is great: the king could only be killed after his awakening, meaning he wasn't attacked/stabbed before the spell was activated/he retreated inside this chamber a millenium ago, so how did someone infiltrate this chamber, which is sealed by heavy doors which require the strength of many to move? And who would have a motive to kill someone who was a king a millenium ago in the first place? Shion arrives at a great solution that provides a satisfying answer to all these questions, while also giving Shion more food for thought about what it means to live forever.

These experiences bring Shion to the headquarters of the Church of Morpho in the third story, Butterflies Soaring Beyond the Dreams. Prior to her arrival there, Shion meets Nozomi, another woman from her home country J.N., who dreams of becoming immortal too like Shion. Nozomi is heading for the Church of Morpho, a group that worships immortality and whose members hope to obtain eternal life for themselves. After some wandering around, Shion finally visits the Church of Morpho herself, where she is welcomed very warmly and she also finds Nozomi has made the Church her new home. During their stay, Nozomi becomes sick, but Shion immediately recognizes the symptons: the typical stigma that appears on Nozomi's body is the definitive proof that Nozomi is becoming immortal herself. Once she's recovered from her 'common cold'-esque symptons, she'll be immortal, the exact same way Shion became immortal herself. The leader of the church of course is pleased Nozomi is becoming immortal, but that night, Nozomi is found... dead, having fallen to her demise before immortality set in. Who killed Nozomi before she became unkillable and why?

The third story is relatively short and is a more introspective story, where we learn a lot about how Shion ebcame immortal initially and the reactions of her family, friends and the whole town to her transformation. This is juxtaposed with Nozomi's change, who is soon to become immortal herself... only to be killed before the transformation had been perfected. The answer to the how isn't that exciting to be honest, but it is a great whydunnit story, especially as the answer is not a simple one: the build-up to the motive actually takes place across all the stories up to this point, with a very strong connection to the first story in particular: some things that had been bothering Shion about her adventure at Cardinal Hotel are only answered in this story.

In Eternals at the End of the Journey, the final story, Shion arrives at at a place that is exclusively inhabitated by immortals. Going through literature on immortals and immortality, Shion reaches the conclusion that there must be a place in the world, far away from 'normal' human society, where most immortals lived, free from the eyes of other humans and with fellow people who actually understand what a burden immortality is. Shion meets people she only knew from the literature in the town, where everyone is immortal, but not all immortals are equal. Some people have lived for so long their immortality has driven them mad, while others have become apathic. Shion is advised to stay in certain parts of the town, as the deeper she goes, the more dangerous things can get. While "dangerous" might sound like a strange word to immortals, it turns out there's a very dangerous person roaming this town: someone has been kidnapping immortals in this town and torturing them, cutting them up little bits. While their victims, naturally, eventually recover due to their immortality, nobody knows who the deranged torturer is and why they would do such a thing. During Shion's stay in the town however, she realizes she might become the attacker's new victim...

The fundamental mystery of this final story is once again based mostly on the motive/motivations of the characters in relationship to the common theme of immortality, rather than on the mechnical or structural characteristics of the plot. The whodunnit aspect, while clewed properly, doesn't really provide for much surprises due to the limited pool of suspects, but by exploring this bizarre case of kidnapping and torture in a town that consists solely of immortal inhabitants, the story does a great job at providing Shion with a lot of food for thought regarding her immortality, and that in a way that truly builds on her experiences throughout her journey. Again, Yuuki's novel is excellent at exploring the theme of immortality from various angles and using its theme as a catalyst to create alluring mysteries.

The concept of Shion, an immortal character, travelling the world to visit different, immortality-related places with their own background stories/rules, might appeal to readers of series like Frieren or Kino's Journey, which is probably not something most readers will think of as unappealing! There's a very melancholic atmosphere throughout the book, though there are also funny moments, like Shion so often ending up having to clean places up as a way to pay rent.

So yes, Samayoeru Eien is an incredibly solid debut work by Yuuki Makoto, that not only provides a great, original setting for a mystery, but also succeeds as a solid fantasy work that exlores the theme of immortality. The book manages to combine the fantasy theme of immortality with well-plotted mysteries in a surprisingly natural, and competent manner, resulting in a book that will appeal to a very wide audience, because the book's content is very rounded. As much as I like the mystery genre and generally, only look at fiction from a mystery perspective, I think this book offers more than enough to those who don't even like mystery that much. But the core readers of this blog should definitely check out this book, for it's easily one of my favorite releases of this year.

Original Japanese title(s): 悠木允『さまよえる永遠』

The Inside Man

 Come on, let's Twist again like we did last summer

"Let's Twist Again" (Chubby Checker)

It was like only last month or the one before when I mentioned I hadn't been reviewing critical works on this blog for some years, and now I did like three in two months...

A few years ago, I reviewed Iiki Yuusan's Misshitsu Mystery Guide ("The Locked-Room Mystery Guide", 2023), a book in which mystery critic Iiki discussed fifty prominent locked-room mysteries, both Japanese and non-Japanese. What made this book especially interesting was that the book was split in two halves: in the first half, each book would see a brief introduction, an explanation of the locked-room mystery in question and Iiki's analysis on why the locked-room mystery was notable. The reader was also treated to neat diagrams and floor plans that further helped the reader get a good idea of why the locked-room mystery was interesting. In the second half however, Iiki was allowed to actually spoil each title and explain in full detail why the title was worth selecting. Because the whole premise of the book was that it was going to spoil the solution, Iiki was allowed to select the fifty titles based on the solution. This allowed Iiki to make a list of locked-room murder mysteries that included both the usual suspects as well as unexpected picks, which was possible because he was not only selecting locked-rooms based on how original the trick was for example, but he could also select a title because the manner (the logical trail) in which the mystery was solved was memorable or even titles that aren't even locked-room mysteries at first sight but only become one once you enter spoiler-territory: because Iiki was free to write in the second-half, he could always explain his reasons for picking a certain title in full detail, with many of his observations truly adding something if you like locked-room mysteries.

So of course my interests were piqued when I heard he was writing a similar book, though on a different type of mystery. Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide ("The Plot-Twist Mystery Guide") naturally is about mystery stories that have a twist ending, and here we have an interesting theme. Because don't you just hate seeing "best-of lists of mysteries with a twist-ending"?! The knowledge there's a twist ending waiting at the end of the book is of course a spoiler on its own. The reader is always kept on their guard until the very last word, as you always suspect something is coming, while of course, twist-ending mysteries are best experienced without that knowledge, with the reader being suddenly confronted with something that turns all their beliefs until that point around, and of course, the best-written ones will then have the reader slap themselves for not realizing the twist ending was coming, as it had all been foreshadowed and clewed ahead. At the very beginning of Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide, Iiki warns the reader that indeed, the list of chapters alone will be spoilers, as it will inform the reader the work includes a twist ending, but having given the reader that fair warning, it allows Iiki to once again go into great detail for each work, and explain exactly why he selected each work. Like the previous book, Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide is divided in two halves, with the first half dedicated to giving brief introductions to each the work and setting-up the story/situation, and the second half being used to explain what the twist-ending exactly is for each work and why it works exactly.

Obviously, I can't give you a list of titles included in this book, as that would spoil each work. I can only tell you the book includes twenty non-Japanese titles (mostly originally English books) and forty Japanese books, all spanning the complete history of the mystery fiction genre. Many titles will be familiar to seasoned readers of mystery fiction, but there will be a few titles in the list that might raise an eyebrow initially, thought it is likely Iiki's analysis will answer any questions you may have about the reasons why certain titles are included.

Not being able to name any of the titles (novels and short stories) included in this book however does make this a very difficult book to review, as I can't really give clear examples why I find Iiki's analyses so interesting and educational here. But I'll try to explain it without giving too much away: as an Ellery Queen expert, Iiki focuses a lot on the set-up of the plot and naturally, who-knows-what-at-what-time, aspects that are crucial to Queen's mystery plotting. Iiki applies the same technical analysis to a lot of the titles he discusses here, giving the reader a firm idea of how a plot twist is established in a technical manner (what information is being fed to the reader and in what way, and how does that help establish the twist). By analyzing these sixty mysteries with a plot-twist, Iiki basically creates a typology for plot-twists in mysteries, which is actually a brilliant thing! We have mystery stories with Locked-Room Lectures, Alibi Trick Lectures, Mitate Lectures, Dying Message Lectures, Motive Lectures, Nursery Rhyme Lectures, Disappearance Lectures and Decapitation Lectures, but I have not seen one with plot-twists before. Of course, this is not a novel (a fictional work), but in Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide , Iiki provides us with framework with which we can examine mystery stories with a plot twist from a technical POV: what "technique" facilitates the plot twist? A simple example would for example be the the narrative trick: a plot twist that is played on the reader (or an in-universe "reader") because they were led to believe that X to be Y via a narrative/story. A lot of the most famous mystery stories with a plot twist might hinge on such a trick, but Iiki also shows how other mystery stories also manage to set-up plot twists via different techniques, and some of them you might not even realize feature a genuine plot-twist until you read Iiki's analyses and see how the reader's expectations were set-up to anticipate something the wrong way.

Iiki also wrote two very short stories as a practical "plot twist" problem for the reader to solve: they are really, really short, but it does offer a playful twist on the plot-twist mystery.

Anyway, like Misshitsu Mystery Guide, I think Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide is definitely worth reading if you're interested in the technical aspects of how a mystery is plotted and written. While this book due to its set-up can't be recommended to everyone, Iiki offers a great resource work here for those who want to to delve into the hows behind mystery fiction. His analyses of how plot-twists are set-up through certain techniques deepen a reader's understanding of the genre and might help a reader appreciate certain stories even better because it allows them to understand certain plot-related set-ups better, while aspiring and active writers will also manage to learn a lot about how to set-up an effective twist, especially using the typology Iiki offers via this book. So reader be warned, as the book contains a lot of spoilers, but it offers a really rewarding read.

Original Japanese title(s): 飯域勇三『どんでん返しミステリーガイド』

The Vampire Strikes Back

"I want blood."

"Like, you wouldn't like mine. It's yellow."

"The Scooby-Doo Show" 

A few weeks ago, I reviewed another book by Ichikawa (a self-published one) and mood-wise, these two books couldn't be further apart...

Twenty years ago, Derek Reilly made the news as the Vampdog, the serial killer who was behind a series of murders nobody had even suspected to have a connection. Derek had developed a lust for blood when he was a teenager, and by that, I don't mean he wanted to shed people's blood; Derek literally wanted to have a taste of people's blood. The first victim whose blood he drank was his first girlfriend, when he was still a teenager. He used a tool to disfigure the original wound on the victim's throat to hide what he had done, and with that, he managed to fool the police. After he and his family moved away to another town, more people would occasionally be murdered in similar ways, but it wasn't until his adulthood he was finally caught and the police made the connection to the other murders in Derek's past. His lust for blood was also found out, which led to the nickname Vampdog. The man was of course sent to prison, where he his peculiar preference was also treated and analyzed. Twenty years have passed since...

It's early Febrary, 1984, when Theodrick and his old gang of old friends Elmer, Inigo, Susanna, Kim succesfully pull off a money transport robbery in the state of MD. As per Theodrick's plan, they ditch their getaway van in the state of A and then lie low in a house in Phoenix just for a day or two, before fleeing the country with the loot. They have just enough supplies for the short time they intend to stay here, though they don't expect the police to find their trail that fast. Which is exactly why they are so surpised that after their arrival in their hideaway, they notice how there's a lot of police moving about in Phoenix, with the police checking out houses and cars. Maria and Ren, the two star detectives of the Flagstaff Police Station (if Maria actually starts working) are also ordered to report at the Phoenix Police Station, a command they don't understand as surely the Phoenix Police Station has enough staff to do traffic checks to find a gang of robbers? However, it is only upon arrival in Phoenix, where they meet a few familiar faces, they are informed that the Phoenix police is not mainly on the look for the money robbers. It turns out Derek "The Vampdog" Reilly has escaped the facility where he was being held. Because someone was murdered in Phoenix in the exact same manner as the Vampdog committed his murders several decades ago, the police suspect he is hiding here, a suspicion that is also founded on the fact he used to live in this area. The police doesn't want the general public know the legendary Vampdog is on the run, so they are using the search for the robbers as an excuse to conduct a thorough investigation of the city. And if only Theodrick and his friends knew this... for during their stay in their hideway, the friends are being killed one by one, each having their throat sliced upon like the Vampdog did. Did the gang happen to hide in a house where the Vampdog was hiding too, or is something else going on in Ichikawa Yuuto's 2023 novel Vampdog wa Sakebanai, which also carries the English title The Vampdog Never Crys (sic)?

Okay, so there's usually nothing wrong at all with the English titles of the books published by Tokyo Sogensha, so I'm going to assume that The Vampdog Never Crys is spelled like that on purpose...

The Vampdog Never Crys is the fourth novel in Ichikawa Yuuto's Maria & Ren series, which started with his debut novel The Jellyfish Never Freezes, one of the best mysteries I experienced in the year I read it. I've been a fan of the series since, though I have to admit I completetely forgot to write a review of the fourth book in the series; while The Vampdog Never Crys is the fourth novel following The Jellyfish Never Freezes, The Blue Rose Never Sleeps and The Glass Bird Will Never Return, the third novel The Glass Bird Will Never Return was followed by the short story collection The Boneyard Never Speaks, which featured short stories focusing on the main characters' pasts. A few characters and names mentioned in the stories in The Boneyard Never Speaks are also featured in The Vampdog Never Crys, though I wouldn't say you're missing something absolutely essential story-wise if you skipped the short story collection, though it does feature a few cool stories (I should probably do a review anyway, even though it's been nearly two years since I read it).

As the fourth novel in the series, the reader can of course guess the general set-up of the story pretty easily. The story is of course set in the country of U (a thinly veiled United States of America), in the state of A(rizona), where the red-headed and hot-blooded Maria works as a police detective in the Flagstaff Police Station, assisted by her subordinate and handler Ren, a very capable Japanese detective who however misses the brilliant sparks his superior sometimes has. Author Ichikawa's debut novel The Jellyfish Never Freezes was strongly inspired by Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakan no Satsujin/The Decagon House Murders (disclosure: I translated the book!), and follows the same dual-narrative structure, with one narrative being set within a closed-circle situation and the other narrative outside the closed-circle, a plot device Ichikawa has continued to use in this series since. In this book, we also have intermezzos that detail Derek Reilly's descent into madness, starting with his first taste of blood when he was young and the build-up to his girlfriend's murder. 

In The Vampdog Never Crys, this results in one narrative that follows Maria and Ren as they get involved in the investigation into the missing Vampdog and the murders commited by the Vampdog in Phoenix, and another narrative that follows Elmer, one of the money transport robbers, as he details how he and the rest of the gang are staying in their hideout, when they start getting killed one by one: the closed-circle situation in this book is interestingly not a hard closed-circle situation, but a self-imposed one: each of the gang members could opt to leave the house and flee, but they are wanted robbers who killed people during their act of crime, so they choose to stay in the house to evade the police. Many years ago, I wrote a short piece on the closed-circle situation in mystery fiction, and this type of closed circle would fit firmly in the Other category: there is no actual physical reason why the robbers don't leave the house, not some force of nature that is keeping them there nor some bridge that's fallen down the river: it is their own choice to stay low. I do have to say that this closed-circle narrative has not been as captivating as the ones in the previous novels: while there is some suspense going on as the robbers feel how the police are closing on them while they're getting killed one by one, it misses the building suspense of Jellyfish, or the sheer mad mystery presented in The Glass Bird. Here we just have a group of robbers who get offed one by one.

The other narrative follows Maria and Ren, who are asked to investigate a series of murders occuring in the city of Phoenix. The victims all show clear signs of being killed by someone using the exact same MO as the Vampdog: the fact the Vampdog has escaped prison is being kept a secret, meaning it's not likely a copycat killer is active. This narrative has Maria and Ren running late for everything, as the number of Vampdog victims go up really fast and each time they have visited one crime scene, it appears the police discovers a new one. Maria and Ren also learn a lot about Derek via the doctor who examined him during his captivity.

It is when the two narratives collide, the mystery really unfolds. How could the Vampdog have been killing the gang of robbers in the house, while also committing a whole series of murders in Phoenix? What is the reason for all these murders and how did the Vampdog manage to escape his prison in the first place? Due to a very small pool of suspects, a lot of readers will probably find it easy to at least strongly suspect who the true mastermind behind everything is, but on the whole, this is another very competently-constructed mystery by Ichikawa, who manages to connect the two narratives in a way that not only creates a mystery (as mentioned above), but also provides the solution, as the events of the two narratives help solve each other, with hints being hidden in both sides. 

This books in this series  are set in a kind of alternate universe in the late 70s/early 80s, with the "Jellyfish" (a zeppelin-like airship) featured in the first books one of the biggest change in history. All of the other novels also focuses on a different scientific (sci-fi) theme: the vacuum airsac of the Jellyfish was a major theme of the first novel, the second was all about the illusive blue rose and the third novel featured glass panes which can be turned transparent and opaque again in an instant. These examples were kinda sci-fi, the inventions are kept practical and realistic enough to not feel fantastical at all. The Vampdog Never Crys however seems to do the wildest things in this series sci-fi-wise. While the previous books revealed their sci-fi elements relatively early in the story, this time the sci-fi element is kept a secret until relatively late in the book. I can't say too much about it, as it is a fairly spoiler, but while I have to admit it feel a bit more fantastical than the previous books which surprised me a lot, in the end, you can feel Ichikawa tries to keep it all fairly-clewed. While the workings of the sci-fi element in this book is not as intuitive as "a zeppeling-like airship", especially in terms of its rules, in the end, I think the reader is given enough time to process how the sci-fi element works, allowing them to solve the mystery themselves. And I do really like how this sci-fi element is incorporated in the mystery: it creates a great connection between the two narratives and results in a devilishly clever puzzle.

I think that The Vampdog Never Crys is also the most readable of the books until now: it captures the reader right away with a creepy recount of Derek's younger days as he slowly becomes the blood-craving Vampdog, and both the police investigation and the narrative following the robbers basically keep on throwing surprises at you. While this book does becomes slightly more fantasy-esque compared to the previous books, the Maria & Ren series remains a great mystery series for lovers of well-constructed and challenging puzzles with satisfying conclusions when it all comes together. Ichikawa remains working in a very strictly-defined format in this series, and while there are some entries I prefer over others, the overall quality of the series remains really high so I will always look forward to a new entry!

Original Japanese title(s):  市川憂人『ヴァンプドッグは叫ばない』

The Fixer-Upper

"I looked upon the scene before me — upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain — upon the bleak walls — upon the vacant eye-like windows — upon a few rank sedges — and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees — with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium — the bitter lapse into every-day life — the hideous dropping off of the veil. "

"The Fall of the House of Usher" 

I don't read them as often anymore, but there was a time, you'd very regularly see a Kindaichi Kousuke review on my blog ( Note: I wrote this review before I watched the recent Yatsu Haka Mura film...) There are still some novels I haven't read yet, but I have read most of the famous books already, so it's only natural the books started to become less prominently featured here on the blog, but I'll always have a weak spot for Yokomizo Seishi's literary creation, and I am not alone: even though there obviously aren't new Kindaichi books being written anymore (though there are occasional pastiches, like by Ashibe Taku), it's like every few years, you will have a book on Kindaichi Kousuke published. And today's book is one of those.

Kindaichi Kousuke no Madori ("The Floor Plans of Kindaichi Kousuke", 2026), as you can guess based on its title, is a book that is all about the floor plans of buildings featured in the stories with the famous detective. The book is written by Mokugyoan, a Kindaichi Kousuke scholar who has written several books on the literary detective, and features many, many illustrations by Honma Itaru, who is an architect. In fact the book actually collects a series of columns originally published between 2024 and 2025 in the architectural magazine Kenchiku Chishiku ("Architectural Knowledge"), though the text and perhaps also the illustrations have been brushed-up for the book release.

Each chapter is focused on a different book from the long career of Kindaichi Kousuke. The text introduces the building in question, like the Inugami manor of Inugamike no Ichizoku, the Ichiyanagi manor and the annex from Honjin Satsujin Jiken or the Tajimi residence of Yatsu Haka Mura. The book introduces each building in an easy-to-understand manner, using the source text to first give the reader  a basic idea of what kind of building we're talking about, but also using historical and regional context to give the reader more details about how the building should look like. Honma's illustrations do a lot to really bring these observations to life. It's not just one illustration per chapter either; the same house might have several diagrams, from an overhead floor plan to cross-section plans. Certain stories will feature buildings with secret hallways or other objects of interest, which are often also accompanied by detailed illustrations by Honma. The material culture found in Yokomizo's books is thus examined in a very accessible manner. 

The duo also go beyond just floor plans, despite the title of the book. They often firmly place the building in question in its local setting, which for example means that in the Yatsu Haka Mura chapter, we not only get detailed floor plans of the very spacious Tajimi manor, we also get maps for the titular Village of Eight Graves and its surrounding mountains, as well as plans for a certain location that is revealed midway. A novella like Kuronekotei Jiken features plans for the titular Black Cat Cafe and diagrams of rooms, but also plans for the city block the cafe is located in, and analyses on how the town would have developed in that region in that period in history. Writer Mokugyoan does a great job at not only being a Kindaichi Kousuke scholar, using the texts to link the various books (chapters) featured in this volume in terms of where and when the adventures took place, but also in terms of real history/geography, and all of this information is made even more accessible via Honma's great illustrations.

As you can guess though, a lot of the chapters will contain spoilers for the books in question: some might be "fairly" mild, so it might mention that some persons will die at a certain location, some might include more significant spoilers, like showing where a hidden passage is even though it isn't revealed in the book unti late. So it is a read-at-your-own-risk book, though it's not going out of its way to spoil the identity of the murderer each time, so for most of the chapters, I don't think it's really that dangerous to read them before reading the actual book (unless you were like planning of reading the book-in-question like the following day). They might spoil a few plot points, but nothing that would spoil the whole experience, and in fact, the analyses by Mokugyoan add a whole dimension on their own.

Perhaps we need more detective-themed coffee table books. Kindaichi Kousuke no Madori is definitely one; you're not going to read the whole book in one go, but place it somewhere where you can easily grab it, and once in a while, when you have some spare time, you just peruse the book and read another chapter. Each chapter offers some interesting, from the way Mokugyoan analyses the featured book and the historical and architectural context to the captivating illustrations by Honma that bring the Kindaichi books alive. I don't review critical works that often anymore, but this is definitely recommended material for Kindaichi Kousuke fans!

Original Japanese title(s): 木魚庵（文）、本間至（絵）『金田一耕助の間取り』 

The Baited Trap

"That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen!"
"The Secret of Monkey Island"

With many readers nowadays moving to consuming their books in a digital format, we have also seen writers and publishers moving to ideas and formats that make use of the physical format, to provide an experience that is enhanced by the paper format, and that also holds for the mystery genre. There are of course the Escape Room-esque books that include puzzles (some even that require you to fold or cut certain pages), books that make use of the way a physical book can have fixed layouts and fonts (as opposed to e-books that allow you change font and font size) and as a recent minor trend in Japanese publishing, making use of unusual book sizes. In Japan, there are of course the familiar book sizes like tankobon, bunko and shinsho, which are certain standard book sizes that most publishers adhere too. But as of late, we have also seen books that use unusual formats, like Chinen Mikito's Swipe Genkin ("Forbidden to Swipe"), which presents itself as a smartphone (you read through the story via "screenshots" of the home screen, chat, photo and other apps) and the book itself has a size that is very similar to a modern smartphone.

Shirai Tomoyuki's Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken ("The What-Goes-On-In-The-Minds-of-People-Who-Read-Super-Fast Murder Case", 2026) is even smaller though, as the book is a mere A7-size! In fact, Shirai and their editor were present at the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony this year, and they were handing out small pocket tissue packs out as promotional material for this book, as the book is the same size as a small pack of tissues! Anyway, the book is both small and very short, so while it's a standalone release, it's basically the length of a short story, so there's not too much I can write about the story without giving too much away.

The book starts with the murderer announcing their intent on killing someone, after which we jump to the POV of a young boy, who is, surprisingly, recruited by a secret organization to defend Earth by keeping an eye on an alien who is living disguised as a human on Earth. The boy has to keep an eye on Big Burp, who lives and works in an office visible from the boy's room. Big Burp however really just resembles a real human, running a business built on the reputation of Big Burp's uncle, who was world-famous fast reader of books. The boy witnesses Big Burp being killed by a person.... and when the police arrive at the place, it turns out Big Burp was just a human and not an alien in disguise, and that he was really just murdered by someone. But by whom?

As mentioned, this book is basically a short story, so soon after the murder has happened, we are introduced to a very small cast of suspects who could've wanted to murder the victim, as they were all not happy with the way the man was running the family business. Shirai crafts a capable whodunnit mystery, but of course, this is a very short story, so nothing really mind-blowing goes on here... BUT, then we come to the matter of why this book was printed in an A7-format, which is really small, even for Japanese book formats (which are generally smaller than books published in the West).

What Shirai does here, is a fun idea on its own: indeed, the book being the way it is, does function as a clue to solving Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken. What is more interesting is perhaps how it is not a direct clue per se: it is not like examining Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken will provide you with the answer to the mystery of whodunnit, nor is it a "puzzle" to be solved like Real Escape Room-books. No, the book format of Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken is just something that will point you to the correct direction, and it works quite elegantly.

That said, considering this is a short story, and the book is fairly small, I can't help but admit the book is relatively expensive. Of course, printing a non-standard-size book will probably be more difficult than a standard book, but still, it's relatively pricey for something that provides an interesting idea in terms of clewing in a short story, but little beyond that.

Also, perhaps now I should also admit I bought this and read this digitally... Would the physical version have given the clue an extra dimension? Sure. But to be very honest, just knowing what the book looks like in real-life (I've seen it in the store) is technically enough for the clue to work...

SoHon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken is an interesting experiment that uses the physical paper format to faciliate the mystery plotting, but I can't say it's much more than an interesting experiment. It's a fun idea and it's great to see authors play with the book format, but it would have been more interesting if we had seen a longer book (short story collection?) that would've used the smaller book format in different ways in each mystery. As it is now, it's a single idea that kinda works, but is it truly more than just a gimmick? Hard to say.

Original Japanese title(s): 白井智之『本を読むのが超速い人の頭の中ってどうなってんの殺人事件』 

Pawn of Shadows

「祟りじゃ！」

『八つ墓村』

 

 "It's the curse!"

"The Village of the Eight Graves" 

Funny how the Chiikawa film ended up a better mystery film than this one...

Tatsuya, a young man struggling to find work in Tokyo, is informed by the police his mother died in what appears to have been a suicide. Tatsuya had been given up for adoption by his birth mother when he was young, and he never forgave her, but he reluctantly agrees to travel to Okayama Prefecture to identify his mother's remains. On a whim, he decides to travel the village where she died: the Village of Eight Graves. On his way there, he's "found" by private detective Kindachi Kousuke, who was hired to locate Tatsuya by the Tajimi family, the wealthiest family of the small, isolated mountain community. It turns out Tatsuya is the illegitimate son of Tajimi Youzou, the former family head, who disappeared twenty years ago.... after he went on a mad killing spree killing many of the villagers. Tatsuya's half-brother Hisaya is the family head in name, but his deteriorating health suggest he might not even outlive his twin great-grandmothers Kotake and Koume, who want to keep the family fortune within the bloodline: they fear that if Hisaya dies, Hisaya's cousins Shintarou and Noriko of the branch family will take everything. Therefore, they'd prefer Tatsuya, who carries Youzou's blood, to become the new Tajimi heir. Tatsuya stays a few days in the village, where he and Kindaichi witness a local kagura, a Shinto ritual ceremonial dance, about the goddess Amaterasu who feasts with seven animals who die one after another. Tatsuya is seen as an enemy by most of the villagers, as many still carry the trauma of the horrific mass murders Youzou committed and things immediately turn for the worse when one morning, someone is found murdered in front of the Tajimi manor. Villagers start to accuse Tatsuya, the newcomer in the village, and while the police is investigating the case, more people connected to the Tajimi clan are getting murdered. Who is the murderer and what is the mystery behind the name of this odd village? That is the driving question in the 2026 film Yatsu Haka Mura ("The Village of The Eight Graves"), a brand-new film adaptation of the same-titled Yokomizo Seishi novel.

And I have to specify it's a brand-new adaptation, because man, Yatsu Haka Mura has been adapted into a lot of media. A few years ago, I wrote a post on the 1968 manga adaptation of the 1949-1951 book and its relevance to Kindaichi Kousuke popularity in general. The manga was a landmark release: the popularity of this specific adaptation inspired publisher Kadokawa to release mass-market paperbacks of Yokomizo Seishi's novels starring the detective Kindaichi Kousuke in the late 60s-early 70s and to top off the "Yokomizo Boom" (Yokomizo Hype) came the 1976 film Inugamike no Ichizoku (The Inugami Clan), the very first film released by the newly established Kadokawa Studios, which was an adaptation of the same-titled Yokomizo book. Since then, we have seen countless of Kindaichi Kousuke adaptations, and many titles have seen multiple adaptations, but still, Yatsu Haka Mura is the king when it comes to how often it's been brought on screen. If we include the 2026 version (which released last week in theatres) there have been 4 theatrical releases and a whopping 7 different adaptations for television, and then there are the stage plays (yes, multiple), the radio dramas (yes, multiple), the manga adaptations (yes, multiple), the game (just the one...) and there's probably more.

And it is in this context, we should look at the 2026 film version. It is directed by Shimizu Takashi, a filmmaker best known for the Ju-On/The Grudge horror films. In fact, most of the titles on his resume are (occult) horror titles, so that should already give you an idea of the direction the 2026 version of Yatsu Haka Mura goes. For yes, this is not actually a mystery film, it is a horror film.

Of course, the original novel was already quite an anomoly within the series. It is not structured like a conventional mystery novel, as the main narrative mixes horror with adventure, being mainly the tale of Tatsuya as he slowly uncovers a secret that had been kept by his biological family, explores an underground cavern system, goes treasure-hunting and also slowly learns about a curse laid upon the Tajimi family by eight samurai warriors who were betrayed by, among others, his Tajimi ancestor. A lot of adaptations do lean on the scarier sides of this tale. The 1977 version, directed by Nomura Yoshitarou and arguably the best-known version of the tale (a lot of the parodies we see of Yatsu Haka Mura are actually parodies of the 1977 film) takes quite a lot of freedoms with the mystery plot and leans hard on the supernatural horror residing in the plot (especially as the film approaches the climax). So I don't think a horror-inclined Yatsu Haka Mura is bad per se.

The 2026 film is not ashamed to let you know it takes a lot of inspiration from the 1977 version, with some scenes being direct homages, so it is hard not to compare the two and in a direct comparison, I have to say the 1977 film wins easily in my view, and it comes down to a fundamental difference: the 1977, while incorporating occult horror themes, still follows the format and "rules" of a mystery story. The 2026, intentionally, gets rid of basically all of the mystery plot and is basically 95% a horror film, with the remaining 5% just using a mystery aesthetic. The novel uses suggestions of occult and supernatural themes (the curse) to explain the murders, but provides a non-supernatural, coherent answer at the end. The 1977 film provides a non-supernatural, coherent answer to the murders, but also provides a supernatural/occult twist to that answer. The 2026 provides murders, and then provides an answer that only works in a horror context. They do things in differing degrees, and while I think the 1977 manages to strike a very admirable balance with a rudimentary murder mystery that allows for some occult horror going on in a natural manner, the 2026 film simply does not even pretend to be a detective film, exemplified when near the end, Kindaichi basically cries out loud he's not the right detective for this case! 

However, I do like the horror direction of the 1977 edition much better than the 2026 version. Perhaps it's because regulations are different now, but even though the 1977 version is, by design, not trying to be a horror film as aggresively as the 2026 film, I think the overall vibe, and most of the specific scenes of the 1977 edition are a lot creepier than what we see in 2026. So despite 2026 aiming to be more of a horror film than the 1977 edition, I don't think it actually manages to surpass the 1977 edition in that aspect, while the 1977 at the same time still manages to bring a more coherent mystery plot. Director Shimizu has directed three occult horror films set in villages, all following the same title format of "Something Something" Village, and while I have not seen any of them, I have seen many comments on social media that see Yatsu Haka Mura as the fourth entry in that series, rather than a "Kindaichi Kousuke film", so if you go in what those expectations, you'll probably like it better than I do. The depiction of the Tajimi Youzou massacre is as scary as always though, and there is a mirrored scene that is surprisingly bone-chilling. 

The 2026 film greatly simplifies the novel's mystery plot, features a downsized cast of characters (though it does include Shintarou and Noriko, who are often exluded in adaptations!) and cuts down on the murders and focuses more on the mystery of the village curse that haunts the Tajimi family. Despite the plot being simplified, it still manages to introduce a few minor plot holes that occur because the story pretends to be a mystery story at first only to go full in on the occult, leaving quite a few things unaddressed (and if you know the original story, you'll have even more questions because some major reveals in the book just don't happen here...).The kagura dance ritual is an original aspect of this film to the story and on its own, it's actually a pretty cool addition, adding a new angle to Tatsuya and Kindaichi slowly learn about the village history and why it is exactly called the Village of Eight Graves. However, for people who already know the original story, this part might feel like unncessary padding: I personally liked it though, especially as it allows for a completely new role of the villagers in this version of the story, one that hasn't really been explored in other adaptations in this way. The 2026 film being set in the present however does raise some questions: Why would only villagers be aware of the massacre Tajimi Youzou committed just twenty years ago, as you can bet it would be all over the news and in more recent years, explored in social media. And whereas the original novel (and a lot of the original Kindaichi Kousuke novels) manage to present a convincing 'isolated village with local customs/beliefs' setting due to its period setting, it's a harder to believe so many villagers would still follow the old "isolated village mentality" in 2026. On the other hand, updating the "It's the curse!"-shouting nun of the original to a somewhat disturbed woman wearing child-like frilly fashion was brilliant!

One thing I liked a lot about the film though is kabuki actor Onoe Matsuya as Kindaichi. His Kindaichi might be quite different from what you'd usually expect Kindaichi to be, but he works fantastic in the context, in a film that takes a lot of cues from the 1977 edition. For Onoe's Kindaichi feels like an extension of Atsumi Kiyoshi's Kindaichi in the 1977 film. Because the mystery plot of the novel is greatly simplified/changed for this film, Kindaichi doesn't get to do a lot of mystery-solving (he does get to break and enter...) and ultimately, he is in way in over his head because of the nature of the case, but I still like this specific portrayal.

So by this point, it's clear I'm not a huge fan of the 2026 film adaptation of Yatsu Haka Mura. In theory, I don't mind it being deliberatly a horror take on the story: there have been countless of adaptations of the novel by now, we don't need another one that does what most of the others have already done. However, I do feel the strongest points of this film are ultimately better done in the better-known 1977 film version, so it leaves this 2026 in a weird spot, where it tries not to be mystery and is ostensibly pure horror, but it still gets outdone in that respect, in my opinion, by the 1977 version which at least still had a a more coherent mystery plot. If you go the theaters expecting just a 'horror film set in an isolated village' without a greater context, or when seen in the context of Shimizu's other films, then it might be more interesting. This 2026 Yatsu Haka Mura is obviously not the first adaptation of the novel you should see, but I guess if you have already seen a few and want something different, it might be worth a try, especially if you're more into horror than I am.

Original Japanese title(s): 『八つ墓村』