Hoedown Showdown

"And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"The Merchant of Venice" 

I'll be seeing the new Detective Conan film of course, but I guess I also have to see that sheep detective film too in the spring...

The year: 1810. Location: The entertainment district Kobikicho (current-day Ginza) in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo (Tokyo). Behold, the Morita-za,  a popular kabuki theater that on one cold winter night, is holding its last performance of a popular play. As the audience slowly leave the theater, their eyes fall on the infamous Sakubei, a ruffian who has become somewhat of a known face in the district due to his frequent appearances in the gamble houses. He seems interested in a beautiful women dressed in a gorgeous red kimono, and follows her to the empty lot next to the theater... but then the figure turns around, revealing himself to be a young handsome man: he loudly announces himself as Inou Kikunosuke, son of Inou Seizaemon, retainer of the Tooyama Clan in the Land of Minou. He declares he's here to take revenge for his father, who was slain by his own servant samurai Sakubei, who then fled to Edo. The audience coming out of the kabuki theater next door are getting a new bloody show for free, with hundreds of onlookers. The duel becomes the stuff of legends: while Kikunosuke's skills with the sword are splendid for his age and he quickly manages to wound Sakubei several times, Sakubei possesses monstrous strength, allowing him to overcome such injuries and pushing straight through Kikunosuke's attacks, resulting in a surprisingly even match. Eventually, the two duelists stumble into an empty shed, with the duel continuing outside the view of the audience. A horrible cry follows and out of the shed comes... Kikunosuke, his garments bathed in red and in his hand, he holds... the cut-off head of Sakubei. He announces he has avenged his father's murder and continues to report this warranted act of avenge, approved by the warrior code, to the local magistrate's office and to the representatives of the Land of Minou in Edo. Having fulfilled his mission, he returns to his home.

One year later, the ronin (masterless samurai) Kase Souichirou arrives at the Morita-za theater. He was once a top-ranking samurai serving under Inou Seizaemon, and his sister is to marry Kikunosuke. Kase has travelled to Edo, for while he knows the legendary story of how Kikunosuke slayed Sakubei and avenged his master, he... just can't believe it all happened like that. He learns Kikunosuke actually lived and worked at the Morita-za theater for six months while he was staying in Edo: Kikunosuke had followed Sakubei's trail to Edo, and because the head writer of the Morita-za theater knew his mother, he was allowed to stay and work at the theater while he continued his hunt for Sakubei in the great city of Edo. Kase starts interviewing people who knew Kikunosuke during his time at the theater and who witnessed the fight. They all confirm the stories that go around about the fight, but Kase still can't shake away questions, like how Kikunosuke, the young gentle man he knew so well, could ever commit such a cold-blooded act as actually killing and decapitating Sakubei, a man who may have killed his father, but who was also a person he had known since he was a child. Kase also wonders why Kikunosuke dressed up as an onna-gata (a male actor playing a woman in kabuki) before his duel to the death with Sakubei, and why Kikunosuke, after his return to his home domain, refuses to tell more about his fight with Sakubei. The more Kase starts digging into the legendary fight one year ago however, he starts to see how things don't quite add up in the 2026 film Kobiki-chou no Adauchi ("Vengeance in Kobiki-Chou"), of which the official English title appears to be Samurai Vengeance. 

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is a film released in February 2026, based on the 2023 book with the same title by Nagai Sayako. The book, originally serialized between 2019-2021 won two prestigious literary awards, the Naoki Prize and the Yamamoto Shuugorou Prize, but was also well received also among mystery/suspense/crime readers, as the book secured top ten positions in the Bunshun Mystery Best 10, Kono Mystery ga Sugoi and Mystery ga Yomitai rankings. The book hadn't really been on my radar to be honest, but the trailer of the film looked really cool: I first thought it was just a historical action film, as it showed the duel between Kikunosuke and Sakubei, but then we learn it's actually about an investigation into the duel, and I was actually imagining it'd be something like Rashomon, with all the accounts of the various witnesses not quite adding up or something like that. It wasn't like that by the way, and that's of course not the fault of the film itself, but yeah, don't go in expecting Rashomon.

What you can expect is a rather amusing film, both in the sense of comedy and simply being captivating. Kase is a seemingly simple warrior without master from the countryside, who is travelling to learn more about his future-brother-in-law and the legendary duel he had in the great city of Edo. But as he listens to the stories of each witness, he shows himself to be a lot cleverer than he appears, asking sharp questions that slowly undermine the legend. The people he interviews, all of them connected to the kabuki theater as they lived with Kikunosuke for half a year, are very colorful and provide quite some comedy as they interact with Kase, from a talkative and friendly barker who was great friends with Kikunosuke during his time at the theater to an aged onnagata who still seems mesmerized by how gracefully Kikunosuke looked as he entered the fight to avenge his father. These witnesses all focus on different aspects of the fight and their own interactions with Kikunosuke, giving a lot of depth to both their characters and that of Kikunosuke, who we never see "in real time" after the fight, only in flashbacks as everyone reflects on what happened that night and the events that led up to it. There is for example the swordmaster who teaches the actors how to handle weapons during a play who turns out to have actual military experience, so he taught Kikunosuke, aware of his mission to avenge his father, and we get an idea of how driven Kikunosuke was through his eyes. 

While the book did manage to rank into several mystery rankings when it released, and the film itself is also touted as a mix of the historical, human drama and mystery genres however, I would say they did downplay the mystery aspect of the story a bit, or at least, perhaps it was like this in the original novel too, but it focuses a bit more on the historical and human drama aspects, giving us an idea of life in the entertainment district in 1800 Edo. Which is alright on its own, but man, this story could have been presented as a much more solid mystery film with very few changes. It just decided to put the accent on different aspects of the (still interesting) story, making it easier for both Kase and the viewer to digest and make the connections. With just a bit more tweaks like requiring Kase to figure out more small contradictions or incongruities in each witness account, the film would have been definitely a more solid mystery film. A more Rashomon-esque approach could also have been cool, though a bit more difficult to pull with this story perhaps. Because the film puts its weight more on the human drama aspect, the moment when Kase realizes the real truth that was hidden behind Kikunosuke's duel comes surprisingly soon in the film, with the remainder more focused on seeing that truth's effect on those involved. It's not a long film though and I do think the payoff is good, but this is definitely a film I could imagine as a much tighter mystery story very easily and personally, I would have probably like that better, but I'd say the film as it is now will appeal to a much wider audience, and I still did enjoy the film.

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is basically a borderline case of what I usually discuss here on this blog: it can definitely be seen as a mystery story, but tbe way the film was shot and written, I wouldn't describe it firstly asa a mystery story. It does have enough elements of the mystery genre to at least understand why it'd rank into several mystery-related rankings in Japan when the book was first released, and the film is definitely entertaining enough overall, so in this case, I can accept the mystery atmosphere being downplayed a bit to allow for a film that appeals to a wider audience. I had a fun time with the film despite being somewhat disappointed it wasn't presented as a pure mystery story, which means it did pretty well, if you think about it: being good enough to help compensate for my initial disappointment!

Original Japanese title(s): 永井紗耶子（原）『木挽町のあだ討ち』  

Trapped At Sea

Under the sea

Darling, it's better

Down where it's wetter 

Take it from me

"Under the Sea" (Samuel E. Wright) 

Hmm, I only reviewed two mystery games last year! I definitely hope to do better this year... 

When the game Paranormasight File 23: Honjou Nanafushigi (Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo) was first announced in 2023, I knew I had to play it: not only was it a horror-mystery adventure game based on existing folklore/horror stories, the game was also written by Ishiyama Takanari, who was also responsible for the quirky series Kibukawa Ryousuke, which was one of, if not the longest running original mystery adventure game series released on feature phones in Japan. As far as I knew at least, Ishiyama had not really been involved with (major) game productions in a long time, so it was surprising to see Ishiyama heading a game released by Square-Enix. The result was absolutely fabulous by the way. I never got around to reviewing it properly here, but the game was excellent, presenting a dark tale of several persons getting their hold of Curse Echoes, which allow the user to cast a curse on a person when certain conditions are fulfilled, with each curse based on an existing legend connected to the location Honjo in Tokyo. The story follows all these characters as they move about one certain night, each having their own goals and agendas. This allowed for some interesting mystery storytelling, as the player had to make story-changing choices along the way in order to bring everyone to the best conclusions of all these intertwining storylines, while figuring out what everyone was trying to do exactly and trying to solve the mystery of why these curses were being "handed" out in the first place. The game also featured a cast of rather memorable, quirky characters, rather reminiscent of the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series (and yes, lots of Paranormasight characters also have rather unusual names, like in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series).

So fast-forward to 2026, when a second Paranormasight was finally announced for Switch, Steam, iOS and Android. Paranormasight File 38: Ise Ningyo Monogatari, localized as Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse was released in February, 2026 and once again tells a story of mystery and imagination, revolving around centuries-old curses, local legends and history. This time, the story is set in 1980s Ise-Shima Peninsula, with the fictional island Kameshima (based on the factual Kamishima) as its main location. Yuuza is a teenager hailing from Kameshima. 5 years ago, he lost his parents in a great storm that took the lives of many that were out on sea: Yuuza was the miraculous sole survivor. While he moved away from Kameshima for a while, he's returned to take care of his grandmother, who got injured recently. Yuuza has trained to become an ama (a free diver), just like his mother and grandmother, but the local ama seem not eager to let him do his work, for many people think he might be cursed. His mother was an island outsider, and never really managed to become one of the community, and there are many, especially the older generation, who think it was Yuuza's mother who caused the unusually heavy storm five years ago. Therefore, they also don't want her son Yuuza to be anywhere near the sea. Yuuza however is desperate to search the sea, as he has a strange memory of the time when he survived the storm: he thinks he was saved by a... mermaid. Mermaids are a part of Ise-Shima folklore, as it is said they live near the portal to the Other World, which is located in Ise. In Japan, it is also said that eating the flesh of mermaids provides one with eternal youth. He and his best friend Azami start diving around the sea around Kameshima in search of the mermaid. Meanwhile, other parties also converge to Kameshima.

The story follows three other characters besides Yuuza: Sato, a girl who suffers from memory loss after being washed up on the Kameshima shore three months ago and who has become good friends with Yuuza, Azami and Tsukasa; Shiki, a completely ordinary housewife who investigates paranormal cases for the police, and Arnav, a writer of fantasy romance novels who is investigating the mermaid legends of Ise. While these storylines all intertwine deeply, with the protagonists of each storyline occasionally working together, occassionally working against each other, the storylines do all focus on different aspects of the Paranormasight narrative, with for example Arnav's storyline focusing more on Japanese mermaid legends and the legends of immortal people (like the myth of Yaobikuni, the 800-year-old nun), while Shiki's storyline feels more like a police investigation, and Yuuza's story focusing more on the local Kameshima traditions and beliefs (which are mostly fictional, though loosely founded on actual history) As they all conduct their own investigations however, an ancient curse becomes active on the island, threatening to take the lives of many. It's up to the user to prevent this tragedy from happening and figure out who or what is the origin of this curse.

Note that while this is technically a sequel to the first Paranormasight, set about a year after the first game, you can play these games independently of each other. This second game drops the names of a few characters of the first game a few times, and makes vague references to the events that occured in the first game ("People were using curses in Honjo"), but that's about it, so you could easily start with this one and then go back to play the first one.

In essence, Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very similar to the first Paranormasight, once again featuring great atmospheric art design and immersive music. The player follows the stories of multiple characters that play out around roughly the same time (or in some instances, at exactly the same time), with each story scene being divided in distinct scenes. In each scene, you visit locations, which you can usually explore lightly via a panoramic view, and talk to people to move the story forward, though some scenes also allow for more interactivity, for example by offering story-changing choices, or adding small mini-games. Sometimes, a story-changing choice will lead you to a game over screen, though usually these bad endings do provide you with data that give you clues/more insight into the mystery, so it's never "a punishment" to see a bad ending. New to The Mermaid's Curse is the fact that scenes aren't necessarily shown in chronological order: sometimes you'll "reminisce" about earlier events. These scenes are added to the timeline and often offer more or even completely recontextualize the scenes that occur later and that you have already played through. 

Because of this, the actual mystery of Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very much aimed at the player: while the characters have a good idea of what they are doing and why, the player is more-or-less given control of them in media res, without much knowledge about what everyone is doing for what reasons. It's by proceeding in the game and unlocking new and older scenes one by one that you realize how everything is connected. The story it tells in this manner is definitely compelling, and it keeps teasing you to play on more, but I can't deny a lot of the mystery exists solely because the story is not told in chronological manner.

The Paranormasight games are explicitly supernatural mysteries, with actual curses that can magically people, though Ishiyama does a good job at incorporating these curses with an actual fair-play mystery set-up, like adding conditions for a curse to work and asking the player to deduce what that condition might actually be. The first Paranormasight was also most definitely a horror mystery and even contained a few jump scares, as well as being a more lethal story in general. Writer Ishiyama intentionally made its sequel less scary, because they wanted to appeal to a wider audience. This change in focus is definitely noticable, so if you thought the first game looked a bit too scary, you might find it easier to get into The Mermaid's Curse. Ishiyama therefore introduced more puzzles in the game: the game checks more often whether you have erally been paying attention, giving you question prompts which you have to answer manually. Often, "simply" paying attention isn't enough, as a lot of information is hidden in the very extensive database that gets updated each time you meet new people/visit new places/learn about new topics. While some entries are related to game-specific lore, a good chunk of the database entries are actually applicable to our real world, with entries on many cities on the Ise-Shima peninsula, entries on mermaid legends, entries on historical wars, and also many entries on the occult. A lot of the mystery-solving is actually done outside the game, as the game fully expects the reader to actually read the database entries and make connections on their own in order to solve The Mermaid's Curse's mysteries. While this isn't Flower, Sun and Rain or Project: Hacker, it's definitely fun being required to actually read the database to fully understand what's going on. And while The Seven Mysteries of Honjo also contained some meta-puzzling, The Mermaid's Curse goes beyond that, with Ishiyama really making clever (and sometimes devious) use of the game format to throw some screwball puzzles at you. The way he links these meta puzzles with the actual mystery narrative is clever though and it adds a deep, extra layer to the already fun mystery of The Mermaid's Curse.

By the way, while I do keep saying this is horror-based, the Paranormasight games are really full of comedy. Similar to the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke games, a lot of the Paranormasight characters are really quirky, with a strange sense of humor (the strange nicknames Yuuza and Sato constantly use!) or overall exaggarated expressions (Arnav!). Because the story being divided in distinct scenes does help hide the fact some of these very comedic characters end up in very dark and scary moments, it does sometimes feel weird realizing these characters are caught up in a story full of deadly curses and centuries-long grudges.  

Because The Mermaid's Curse, more than its predecessor, focuses on the motivations of each character, I think the characters are fleshed-out better here han in The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, even if I do like the overall cast of that game better than that of The Mermaid's Curse. This game tells a much personal story, with especially Yuuza and Sato getting more attention and depth than any character in the first Paranormasight got. The way this story wraps up therefore also feels much more rewarding than that of the first game, with the many threads of the plot being tied up more neatly. Because of that, perhaps, I did find it easier to guess which direction the stories was going, exactly because I could see how the whole storyline was written more tighter than the first game. Not that I minded that really, as the story is presented in a way that keeps the player entertained throughout, and the game isn't that long anyway.

So in short, I enjoyed Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse a lot, just like I did the first game. I have to admit I like the subject matter of the first game better, as well as its darker atmosphere and the overall cast, but I think as a game, The Mermaid's Curse shows a lot of improvement, with a more tightly-written story and more interesting puzzles that are also well connected to the story. I can definitely recommend this game to any one interested in mystery adventure games, especially if you're also interested in Japanese folklore/myths. I don't think I will be doing a late review of the first game now, especially as ona technical and mechanical front, these two games are quite alike. I am reading the spin-off manga though, and depending on how that storyline unfolds mystery-wise, I might discuss it here on the blog too (though that will take some while, as the second volume won't release until this autumn and I'm not even sure whether that's the last volume).

Original Japanese title(s): 『パラノルマサイト File38 伊勢人魚物語』 

The Mystery of the Pyramid

Mon ami, Bouc! Why would you fly a kite on the pyramids?"

"Death on the Nile" (2022 film adaptation) 

We should have more murder mysteries set in pyramids... 

Kyuujou City is a small rural town, which is effectively run by the Ooki family. The wealthy family owns several enterprises located in the city, thus providing work for a large share of the population, but they are best known for the Ooki General Hospital, a large medical complex specializing in psychiatry. Its symbol is the Pyramid, a eight-storey high building that functions as the main hospital building, housing the psychiatric ward. The building consists of seven floors that form a stepped pyramid, with an open ceiling section at the center of the building. On top of the seventh floor stands a steel pyramid construction, from a smaller pyramid is suspended above the open ceiling of the floors below: this "eighth" floor is the private residence of Ooki Kimihiro, doctor at the hospital and the only son of Ooki Youta, the current director of the hospital, and his wife Ooki Nagi, who researches anti-aging technology at the hospital. This eighth floor is not built directly on top of the floor below, but being suspended as an anti-earthquake measure and was designed by Kimihiro's mother Nagi, who also has a degree in architecture and it was she who created the base design of the pyramid. The ground floor of the Pyramid has a two-meter high Pyramid model in a glass case, right at the center of the Pyramid: Ooki Youta believes in so-called Pyramid Power and once in a while, he prays to the model to enhance himself with Pyramid Power. Regardless of whether the pyramid truly provides him with power or not,  the pyramid has managed to stand in Kyuujou City for nearly four decades, a sign of the Ooki's hold on the city.

While the Pyramid still stands strong, some of the other buildings on the complex are growing too old, so they will be demolished and replaced. Ooki Nagi has made designs for the new building, but she needs more dedicated architects to fill in the details and overlook the construction, and through a mutual acquaintance, Kumode and Miyamura of the Kumode & Miyamura Architecture and Detective Bureau end up with this assignment. They work together with Tobuta Constructions, the construction company that has built all of the Ooki-related buildings. There is a joint meeting between the hospital people, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions and Kumoda and Miyamura at the Pyramid to discuss the upcoming plans. Kumoda sends a drone out to scope the land, and can't help but take a look at the top-floor of the Pyramid, where he sees Ooki Kimihiro having a row with his mother Nagi, after which he retreats to his private quarters (the suspended pyramid above the main pyramid), locking the door behind him. Some time later, Kumode and Miyamura are ready to get started on their work while the others too prepare to leave the pyramid, when suddenly... the suspended pyramid comes falling down the open ceiling, landing with a crash on the pyramid model on the ground floor. The private quarters of Kimihiro are completely destroyed and among the rubble, Kumode discovers Kimihiro, who is not only heavily injured from the fall down and being crushed by the building... he's also been stabbed with a knife! A sickly slender elderly man is also found among the rubble, who appears to be the man who stabbed Kimihiro, but how did he get in Kimihiro's (locked) room to stab him, and why did the pyramid room come falling down? That is only one of the many riddles Kumode faces in Monzen Noriyuki's latest novel Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid ("The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe", 2025).

Monzen's latest book opens with crazy diagrams for the Pyramid, a building which in a way symbolizes this story perfectly. On one hand, in real-life, nobody is going to build a gigantic stepped pyramid as the main building of a hospital, nor is anyone going to design that building so the top floor/pyramid is suspended from a metal construction above the rest of the pyramid. It's fantastical and only created like that to act as the setting for a mystery story, and that's great! But not realistic at all of course. But Monzen studied architecture, and realism in that regards is an important aspect of this books, so we have this unrealistic, fanciful, over-the-top building, which at the same time is designed realistically, with Monzen giving exact dimensions and the reader being given explanations of how the weight-baring is done and other things that need to be considered like patient safety, window regulations and how for example what the measures are to prevent rain/other downfall from entering the hospital via the open ceiling. The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe is honkaku mystery featuring a strange building at its most bizarre, but also its most realistic.

The book opens with the top pyramid come crashing down and the discovery of the stabbed Kimihiro and the unknown elderly man among the rubble, which Kumode soon declares a locked room mystery, because he saw Kimihiro enter and lock his private quarters via his drone, and the elderly man was definitely not inside those quarters at that moment. The book then jumps a few days back in time, where we follow Hotta, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions, as he meets a homeless elderly man living on grounds owned by the hospital. Hotta needs the man to move as they will be using this part as a supply road, but as the two men talk, Hotta becomes interested in this man he calls Mori. Mori turns out to have lived for thirty years at the Ooki General Hospital. He had been held as a mental patient, but Mori swears there was nothing wrong with him: he was just kept captured in the hospital, with his brother (who needed him out of the way) only paying the hospital to keep him there. After twenty years, Mori was 'basically' released, but as he had no money, skills or connections, all he could do was remain at the hospital doing odd jobs. Eventually though, he was completely released, leaving him no choice but to live as a homeless near the hospital. Mori reveals more of the dark history of the Ooki General Hospital to Hotta, how they often put patients in "isolation chambers" in one of the old buildings that is slated to be demolished now. Patients were tied down to concrete slabs and had to go without food for a whole day to "calm them strangle yourself/hang yourself, but the room itself was of course also locked from the outside. Hotta himself also knows of another incident that occured at the hospital that happened prior to this locked room mystery, when someone broke the glass case of the pyramid model: nurses came checking out what had happened as soon as they heard the glass break, but they found the pyramid model gone. But how could someone steal a two-meter high pyramid in mere seconds and leave without leaving a trace? The front door was found open, but the only footprints found outside in the snow belonged to a cat, and it surely wasn't a cat who did it, right?

While Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid thus starts right off with presenting the main mystery, the flashback to the days before the crash introduce more mysteries that occured several decades ago at the hospital: a locked room murder of a patient in an isolation chamber, and the incredible theft of the pyramid model. There are more mysteries beyond these, like Kumode being intrigued by the strange family sigils found on Nagi's clothes, the mystery of Mori's true identity and whether he's telling Hotta the truth or not, letters supposedly from patients who are being kept in the hospital against their will and more of that. Again, we have here parts that feel part fantasy, and part very realistic. The parts about people being held in the psychiatric ward for decades and eventually losing any reason for wanting to leave (because there's no way to survive on their own after being isolated from the outside world for so long) are creepily realistic, while at the same time, we get an ending where Kumode suggests some of the stories we were told might have been fictional creations by people who are indeed suffering from a mental disease. Because a lot of the mysteries in this story took place several decades ago, Kumode admits it's impossible to find evidence for some of the theories he proposes, but those theories are incredibly weird at times and in a way, honkaku mystery at their best and worst (fantastical solution that is in no way feasible or remotely realistic), so there's always this clash between the fantastical and the realistic throughout the book. This is the most apparent in the mystery of the locked room murder in the isolation chamber about three decades ago: the description of the isolation chamber is horrific and also eerily real, with people being basically tortured there to lose all hope and to basically force them into becoming mentally unstable, while the solution suggested by Kumode is just crazy in terms of how unrealistic it would be. And at the same time, it has some brilliant moments, for example as to how the murder weapon would be disposed of. Kumode later on suggests a different solution that might be as viable as his 'main' one, which is more realistic perhaps, but also just less fun. 

 

The mystery of the stolen model of the pyramid is also a good example of the realism clashing with the fanciful: the idea of how and why the model was stolen is good and just what you want to see in a mystery novel, but Monzen presents its very realistically, showing calculation of certain objects to show how it could actually work, when in most mystery novels you'd just get an explanation and you'd nod, instead of going through all the numbers to make sure it actually works. The way how one hint connects to the isolation chamber murder later on is great though.

And then we come to the main mystery, of Kimihiro being found dead and stabbed in the remnants of the suspended pyramid after it came crashing down seven floors. The locked room aspect of this mystery is surprisingly simple and to be honest, not very impressive: it's basically a variant on one of the oldest tricks, only with a 'grand' presentation due to the pyramid setting. The how behind the crashing pyramid and especially the why though, are fantastic. The whole motive behind the murder is absolutely stunning and genuinely insane. I think the motive could've been worked out better by doing a more robust set-up for the reveal, but the idea itself is one of those motives you'll keep in mind for a loooong time after reading the book. The way it ties back to the fantastical setting of the Pyramid hospital building is impressive too, and on the whole, you do feel this is something perhaps only Monzen could pull off due to his focus on actual buildings. This is definitely the part that makes the book worth reading.

I do think the book could've been longer to flesh out some of the better aspects of the book.As it is now, I feel some important moments just lack the proper build-up and at times, the book borders on the unfair when it comes to it being a mystery novel: more pages would have definitely helped making feel the overall picture more consistent and connected. As it is now, some of the important elements feel like they just suddenly appear to take the main spotlight and it makes the book feel uneven. The book features a recommendation by Nikaidou Reito, and it almost makes me wonder how this story would've been if the two authors had worked together, as a lot of elements in Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid I can also see working in Nikaidou's style for the earlier Ranko novels. The story is wrapped in a way I have also seen in Nikaidou novels, with a hint of fantasy, which at one hand feels like it should clash with Monzen's style, but I guess having a setting like a mental hospital helps out a bit. 

 Overall though, I think Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid was a worthwile read, even if there are definitely elements I feel are underdeveloped or not connected well enough to the main narrative yet. At the same time, I enjoy the core mystery plot and the ideas shown there, and the main motive that drives this mystery is just amazing and probably one that I will remember for a long time.

Original Japanese title(s): 門前典之『ネズミとキリンの金字塔（ピラミッド）』

While the Clock Ticked

 Are you death or paradise?

 Now you'll never see me cry

There's just no time to die

"No Time to Die" (Billie Eilish) 

Disclosure: I translated Ayatsuji Yukito's The Decagon House Murders, The Mill House Murders, The Labyrinth House Murders and of course, The Clock House Murders.

In 2024, Hulu released a wonderfully produced live-action adaptation of The Decagon House Murders. It just so happened I actually was going to meet author Ayatsuji Yukito the day after it was released, so I binged the series the night before, so I could actually talk about it to him. Like many others, I too was curious how they were going to actually film the book, as it is a very difficult work to adapt for certain media, but the result was honestly really, really good. So when I learnt last year they were going to do an adaptation of The Clock House Murders in 2026, I was thrilled: given how good The Decagon House Murders was, I have only high expectations for this new release, which was released this very week. Obviously, The Clock House Murders is a book dear to me: not only because it's easily one of my favorite books in the series, I also did the English translation of the novel, so I spent a lot of time on, and with the book. 

The live-action series releases today (Friday 27th), so I haven't seen the series yet at the time of writing this post. While they released the complete The Decagon House Murders series on the release day two years ago, this time they are splitting the release across two batches, with the first six episodes presenting the main problem released this week, and the last two episodes, with the solution, releasing next month. So I might binge everything next month in one go. 

To celebrate the release of this adaptation, the literary magazine Shousetsu Gendai (published by Kodansha, the Japanese publisher behind Ayatsuji's House books) featured a The Clock House Murders special in its March 2026 issue, with not only interviews with Ayatsuji, Arisugawa Alice and one of the main actors of the series, the magazine also featured no less than five (!) original "House"-inspired mystery short stories, written by as many authors. 

The first story featured is Aosaki Yuugo's Kubisogiyama no Kaiten Yashiki ("The Revolving Manor on Mt. Kubisogi"). The titular Revolving Manor is one of the six manors built by the legendary architect Kurotsubo Shinku. This particular building stands on Mt Kubisogi in the Hyogo Prefecture, and is best imagined as one of those revolving restaurants that offer a 360-degree panoramic view. The "entrance" of the house is actually just an elevator shaft: the elevator that leads up to the circular house built on top of that shaft tower. The house consist of three "rings". The fixed outer ring is the outer wall of the building, and is made of acrylic: the whole outer wall functions as a window, offering a panoramic view. The middle ring is built right against this outer window/window and holds most of the rooms, liking a sitting room, study and bedroom. This ring slowly revolves clock-wise, meaning each room not only has an amazing view, this view actually changes depending on the time! The inner "ring" is the static center of the house around which the second ring revolves, holding the elevator entrance, bathroom and kitchen.

The house is currently owned by Nishikubo Hiroyuki, who runs a make-up company. He and his wife are visited by a crew from a magazine on architecture for an article on the house. The crew are to stay for the night at this unique creation by the enigmatic architect Kurotsubo. The members all stay in a different room. The following morning however, a gigantic hole is found to have been carved out of the acrylic window. It's clear it wasn't just broken by accident, but someone actually bothered to open a hole in the outer wall. Down on the ground, at the base of the elevator shaft, they find one of the crew members lying dead, seemingly having fallen through the hole down the tower. Everyone is perplexed by the situation: did someone kill him and then cut a hole in the window to dump the body downstairs? But what purpose could that have?

This story is actually a sequel to an earlier Aosaki story, which features another house (The Glass Manor) by the architect Kurotsubo. I have the book, but I haven't read it yet. But it's no problem if you start here. The house in this story is actually pretty "normal" all things considered: I can easily imagine someone wanting a revolving house in the mountains with the complete outer wall acting as a window so you can always enjoy the view! It's not a particularly long story, which is why I was surprised Aosaki manages to pack quite a lot into the story, from a secondary storyline involving the narrator to a few (very short) wrong theories and then we have the actual explanation of what happened and it's... pretty hilarious if you visualize what happened and how the victim found their death. It's not mind-blowing good, but I do like the story for its subdued silliness and I'd love to see a live-action adaptation of this! I think Aosaki could even have gotten away with just that one main idea, so I do appreciate it how he decided to still add some more story details that weren't that necessary.

Ibuki Amon's Tsubaki Fujin no Subarashii Yakata ("Madam Tsubaki's Wonderful Home") is a historical mystery, as we may expect from Ibuki. Set in Manchukuo, we follow private detective Tsukisamu Sanshirou (also appearing in this collection), who is hired to find the brother of a young woman. When their father died, the whole family fortune was stolen by their uncle. The young woman and her mother managed to find some work to earn a humble living, but her brother ran away. He became a robber and eventually made it to the position of captain within his gang of robbers: his robbers already took revenge on their uncle. His sister had not seen her brother in a decade, but recently got a letter saying he had been wounded and was now recovering in a strict medical institution run by a Mrs. Tsubaki: patients aren't allowed to write or receive any letters, but he managed to get one of the suppliers to deliver a letter to his sister for him. He would write again later on, but she never got more news from him and when she asked the deliveryman to go ask at the institution, he was found out by guards and beaten to death. Tsukisamu happens to know Mrs Tsubaki from his time working for the railway ministry. He decides to pay the institution a visit, and is shown a truly wonderful place where wounded Manchurians, from criminals, to simple women and children, are slowly nursed back to health with all the love and care they need... but Tsukisamu knows there's something wrong about the house and the intentions of Mrs. Tsubaki.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit disappointed when I realized the "house" in this story was not as important as in the other stories in this feature: the focus of the mystery lies more on the intentions of Mrs. Tsubaki and why she is running this hospital. As one can expect from Ibuki, it's a great historical mystery though, set very firmly in the time period and setting of the story, which is of course also fairly original as you don't have many present-day mystery writers anymore who use Manchukuo as a setting. The motive for Mrs. Tsubaki's actions is set-up wonderfully and eventually, Tsukisamu arrives at a heinous plot hiding within Tsubaki's seemingly wonderful hospital. Less of a "add-clue 1-and-clue 2-to-arrive-at-answer 3" mystery, more of a "given-these-remarks, can-you-imagine-why-someone-would-do-this?" type of mystery, but still well-done.

Kesshoukan no Satsujin ("The Crystal House Murders") by Ooyama Seiichirou is set in November of 1990 and first introduces the reader to a group of friends, consisting of Ryouta, Kouji, Shuuichi, Rikka, Maki and Satomi. They are staying at the Crystal House, a small hexagon-shaped hotel in Hokkaido. They have been friends since primary school, and still meet once in a while even now they're all adults. The Crystal House is owned by Ryouta and not in business just yet, but he's giving his friends a sneak peek at his new business adventure. The friends have a pleasant night in the Crystal House, surrounded by nothing but nature and snow, but the following morning, Rikka is found murdered in her room: her head's been bashed in and for some reason, her left hand has been cut off. Rikka has always been the mysterious one of the group, with strange powers of clairvoyance, but is that why she got killed? When they try to call the police, they find the line's dead. Is the murderer someone from outside, or is it one of the friends, and why was the victim's hand cut off? 

This is probably my favorite story in the feature, partially because the story feels the most like a story inspired directly by Ayatsuji's House series, with a few cool nods like the cut-off hand, as well as a great set-up of the narrative: the tale actually starts with a news report detailing how the Crystal House went up in flames and how everyone but one person staying at the hotel had died: one person made it out alive and was saved by the emergency services, but is seemingly suffering from amnesia, with no recollection of the events that led to the deaths of all the people in the hotel. This "book-ending" mystery of who the survivor actually is, and what their role was in the deadly events that occured inside the Crystal House starting with Rikka's death, add a great extra layer to the mystery. The mystery of the cut-off hand, as said, invokes a few moments from Ayatsuji's house series, but the way Ooyama develops this clue feels much more Queenian than Ayatsuji would generally do. So even though the "prop" is the same, Ooyama definitely makes best use of his own expertise, using the cut-off hand for a proper physical-clue-based chain of deduction. I really like what he does with the Crystal House here as a setting too, giving it a unique vibe, and the whole tale feels really complete.

Shasendou Yuuki's Goumonkan no Satsujin ("The Torture House Murders") has the WeTuber Kugi Hikage and her assistant visiting the Torture House, as Kugi is best known for visiting houses with a nasty background stories. Twenty years ago, Horikoshi Toutarou, the original owner of the house kidnapped a few people to torture them to death in his basement with his collection of torture device. One victim managed to escape eventually and notified the police, leading to Horikoshi's arrest. The house, now known as the Torture House, was later bought by Nukube Ikurou and he had an exact copy of the Torture House built next to the original. He has preserved the original Torture House and has a caretaker there keep an eye on things, while he lives in the copy. As this copy houses his collection of antique wares, he has dubbed it the Nostalgia House. He has invited a few people interested in the Torture House and the torture devices kept in the basement to view them, with Kugi as one of his guests. The tour is to be held the next day, but when Nukube doesn't appear in front of the Nostalgia House the next morning as agreed upon, the group crosses a snow-covered field to head for the Torture House themselves. The caretaker there states he did see his master come to the Torture House yesterday. He had assumed Nukube had returned to the Nostalgia House for the night, but the complete absence of footprints in the snow suggest Nukube never left the Torture House. When the group enter the dark basement, they find a dead Nukube, who has been clearly tortured to death, with his joints and bones broken. Unfortunately for the caretaker, it seems that he's the main suspect as he was the only other person in the Torture House last night.

Setting-wise, I really love this story, as the backstory of the Torture House is really cool, as well as the idea of a Nostalgia House full of weird, antique curiosities. It's why I am a bit disappointed that due to the way this story was structured, one person stands out a bit too much as the only viable suspect, which immediately limits the ways the murder could've been committed. The story does make cool use of the torture theme though. I also like the idea of how Kugi manages to trap the murderer in principle, but the way it is written now, the clue depends very much on trivia, while I think it could probably have been written in a way to be a bit fairer towards the reader, if they happen to not have certain knowledge.

The last story, Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken ("The Black Arrow Mansion Murder Case") by Takemoto Kenji, is one I'm not going to discuss in detail. The story is about the detective Norimuzu Rintarou who's asked to look into the disappearance of the owner of the Black Arrow Mansion in Saga Prefecture. Some readers will probably already have realized it by now, but this is a full-on parody of Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken, one of the most notorious anti-mystery novels from Japan. Takemoto goes full throttle here, doing not only direct mirrors to scenes from that book, but the story is also absolutely brimming with countless of literary references that may or may not be real and characters who don't speak like humans but like... well, I guess, like AI that tries to sound smart and well-read. The story is basically only fun if you know the original Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken and recognize what this story is mirroring exactly. For Takemoto does that really good, it feels as frustrating to read as the original! (Considering the author's intent, this is praise).

Overall, I think this The Clock House Murders feature in Shousetsu Gendai was pretty fun though, and it's great seeing all these authors doing a take on a house-based mystery. I'm looking forward to watching the live-action adaptation too. If you haven't already though, please consider reading the English translation of The Clock House Murders too, as it's really a great mystery novel!

Original Japanese title(s): 青崎有吾『馘殺山の回転屋敷』/伊吹亜門『椿夫人のすばらしい家』 / 大山誠一郎『結晶館の殺人』/ 斜線堂有紀『拷問館の殺人』 / 竹本健治『黒矢館殺人事件』

Requiem for a Falling Star

What if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
"Wind's Nocturne" (Lunar: Silver Story)

The more I think about it, the more I think this series would be great for an anime adaptation...

It was only a few decades ago when everybody in Japan knew the name Yashiki Keijirou, the great detective. It were his real-life exploits, where he outsmarted the police and solved numerous locked room murders, serial killings and other mysterious incidents, that sparked an interest in all things detective-related. His own memoirs, The Proof of the Detective, where he chronicled his own rise as a detective, not only writing about his accomplishments, but also the hardships and his failures on the way, was a huge bestselling book and was also the instigator of the shin honkaku movement in Japan, leading to a return of the puzzle plot-focused detective novel. But that is all of the past now. While people initially praised Yashiki, slowly on people started to blame him for the uprise in curious killings: weren't murders resorting to fantastical murders like locked room murders exactly because of Yashiki, as a way to challenge him? Wasn't he the trigger for the more insane murderers to act on their urges? After Yashiki narrowingly escaped an attempt on his life, he decided to not take any jobs anymore, as he not only started to fear for his family's safety, he also started to become afraid he was both physically, but also mentally, not capable anymore of being the great detective. While technically his agency was still open, he declined all requests and with time, he was forgotten.

Many years later, and Yashiki is still having the exact same daily routine of showing his face at the office, only to go napping, and occasionally he's visited by Taketomi Tatsuhito: Taketomi was Yashiki's partner and assistant as the "inside man" in the police force and while he has retired, he still hopes Yashiki will return as the great detective he once was. One day, the two catch a television program featuring Mikan Hanako, an idol artist who is also a great detective: ever since she was young, she has solved many cases and nowadays, she still solves cases between her idol gigs in. Mikan is a huge presence on social media with over a million followers, and it's she people think of whenever the word "detective" is mentioned nowadays. Seeing such a young detective working hard, jogs something in Yashiki, and he finally decides to try the detective profession one last time: if he can successfully solve a case, he'll fully reopen his agency again, and otherwise, he'll properly close it. Tatsuhito happens to know nobody who is in need of the help of the great Yashiki Keijirou... and Mikan Hanako: the wealthy couple Masukura Toshio and Chika have received a threatening letter, which orders them to summon Mikan to their second home on the twenty-ninth of December, or else something bad will happen. The Masukuras own a small villa in the middle of nowhere, which is only accessible via a bridge (the house basically stands on an island with cliffs around it). The Masukuras of course do as told, but they also want Yashiki at the scene, as they are of the generation that know Yashiki best. Their son Souta, and his girlfriend (whom he met via a Mikan fansite) are also present. Tatsuhito is clearly antagonistic against Mikan, eyeing her as a rival to Yashiki, but Yashiki soon realizes Mikan is truly a capable detective and sees in her a comrade. The two scope out the land and set security cameras around the bridge, but when they return, they hear people banging on the door of Souta's bedroom: for some reason he won't answer at all and the door is locked. They break the door open, only to find Souta stabbed in his neck, dead. The knife is also stabbed through a note that laughs at Mikan, challenging her to solve this locked room. But Mikan and Yashiki soon learn nobody left the "island" via the bridge, so that means the murderer has to be one of them. But who, and how? Can Yashiki get his groove back in Ichikawa Tetsuya's debut novel Meitantei no Shoumei ("Proof of the Great Detective", 2013)?

The inner work also features an alternate English title, which is just The Detective, which seems like not a very... tactical title to give to a detective novel, as nobody's going to be able to find that via a search engine...

Ichikawa Tetsuya made his debut by winning the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award with this novel (which nets you a publishing contract). And in case you wondered: that is his real name, not a pen name he based on Ayukawa Tetsuya. A few years ago, I already read the second novel in the Proof of the Great Detective/Mikan Hanako series, which was an interesting locked room + closed circle mystery that at the same time, very much explored the theme of the detective, with Mikan being seen as "the origin of evil" by the narrator, claiming crazy murderers were only enabled by "great detectives" like Mikan making a name for themselves. I found having the narrator constantly complain about Mikan all the time a bit tiring though, and at the time, I wondered whether she'd be more of a focal character in the other novels, so I was a bit surprised to learn that in the first novel, she too wasn't really the main detective. This novel is narrated by Yashiki himself, a detective who has seen much better days, but now seems to have found that spark again after seeing Mikan in action.

I do have to say that I think this novel is best read exactly for that reason: Ichikawa does a great job at exploring the fictional device of the Great Detective and the implications of their existence. Yes, Ichikawa basically works with Late Queen Problems (i.e. the effect the Great Detective has on the actions of the people around him in a mystery story), but he presents it in a very accessible and understandable manner, yet really manages to address the friction that can arise due a Great Detective. We see Yashiki have doubts about his work, because he knows people have called him out in the past about how him gloriously playing the great detective in the media has only enabled murderers to commit showy murders too, craving the same attention and in a way, Yashiki knows that this "Batman creates his villains"-effect is true up to some degree too. But he also knows he has done a lot of good, and him watching Mikan, who is in a way very similar to him, but in a completely different stage in her career, alllows for some interesting and poignant musings about what it means to be a detective. Mikan, while being more decisivive than Yashiki, is shown to have very realistic doubts about her work too, and I think that Ichikawa does a good job at exploring these themes.

On the other hand, the specific mysteries Yashiki has to solve in this book aren't really that impressive, and you really wonder whether you really needed the two best detectives Japan has ever known working on this. The locked room murder mystery with Souta is incredibly simple, even if it contains a minor false solution. There is a more interesting set-up later in the novel, when Yashiki enters an elevator with someone else, and a stalker wielding a bat suddenly forces his way in, smashing the lights and stopping the elevator. However, after some crying, the stalker is found dead on the floor, his throat being slit, and both Yashiki and the stalker victim swear they didn't do it. While I like the set-up a lot, this solution is also very simple and that kinda undermines the way the book tries to paint Yashiki and Mikan. The second novel, while still not being super technical when it comes to the mysteries, was definitely more interesting mystery-wise, so I was really surprised how simpler the mysteries were in this book. I do very much like the motive for the first murder though; it ties perfectly with the theme and the set-up for the reveal is great and is really a motive you could only pull off by having a character like Yashiki. It's kinda a shame Ichikawa started with this, just imagine he really did first write a long series of books building Yashiki up as this legendary detective, all just to set-up the motive found in this book!

So on the whole, I am a bit torn on the book. Meitantei no Shoumei is thematically quite memorable, and addresses post-modernist themes regarding The Great Detective in a very accessible manner, tying it perfectly with the motive. On the other hand, the actual mysteries encountered in this novel are fairly simple, and that does clash a bit with the image we are supposed to have of both Yashiki and Mikan, who are the country's best detective... and yet are working on crimes of this... level. I did like the second novel better. The third novel is the last, so it is likely I will read that too in time.

Original Japanese title(s): 市川哲也『名探偵の証明』

The Maddest of All

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by— 

From the thunder, and the storm— 

And the cloud that took the form  

"Alone" 

Looking up the etymology of words sometimes points out such obvious connections you never had even considered. After writing the main body of this post, I decided to look up the etymology behind the Dutch word for "lightning", and yes, of course, it does make sense the German "blitzen" is related to the word!

Mephisto is a magazine providing entertainment fiction, with a focus on mystery, but not exclusively so, as it also features stories encompassing sci-fi and other genres. It has gone through a few formats since its inauguration in 1994, and since 2021, it has become one of the perks for subscribers of the Mephisto Readers Club, being published four times a year as its club magazine, featuring serializations of for example the newest House novel by Ayatsuji Yukito, but also original stories written for the magazine. When the contents of Volume 18, 2026 Winter were first announced, my attention was immediately drawn to a new short story by Maya Yutaka: Raimei to Inazuma ("Thunder and Lightning", 2026) is a short story that will be part of an upcoming collection featuring Maya's series detective Mercator Ayu, the brilliant, but self-centred great detective who's always dressed in a neat suit and a top hat and often used as a device by Maya to address meta questions about the literary detective genre. The collection, tentatively titled Mercator Ayu no Gyakushuu ("The Insurrection of Mercator Ayu"), has no scheduled release window yet nor has it been revealed yet what and how many stories there'll be, meaning it might still be years until we see the actual book on the shelves, which is why I decided to discuss this one story early, as I really liked it.

Mercator and his Watson Minagi are staying at the Canaria Lodge, a cosy hotel near a mountain road in Okayama, three hours away from Osaka. Mercator is looking to buy some property, and preferably, haunted or otherwise stigmatized property because that's of course a lot more interesting than a normal home. His search for such a property has brought him near Tsuyama, which is why he and Minagi are taking a rest at the Canaria Lodge, which is run by Ogakie Hajime. Circumstances have left him short-handed, so he has enlisted the help of a handful of members who belong to the same club he used to be in while in university, who just have to help clean a bit, while being offered a free stay at the hotel. Mercator's quest for 'tainted property' leads to Ogakie telling about the legend of a cursed headless Jizo-statue nearby, and how he himself once saw a giant eyeball monster standing at a ridge overlooking the hotel. Mercator of course is interested in the stories, so during the day, he and Minagi go visit these sites. In the evening, they all have dinner at the Canaria Lodge, but rain and lightning cancels any plans for evening strolls. Later that evening, a decorative vase on the ground floor topples over and breaks into pieces. It's clear someone had deliberately push the vase around for it to topple over, but Mercator happened to be nearby as it happened and he didn't see the "culprit" come his way: other people in other places of the ground floor also deny having seen anyone flee the scene towards their location. They then try to ask the people upstairs, until they find one of the students is lying dead in his room, his head bashed in. Who is the killer?

Raimei to Inazuma is a pure puzzle whodunnit by Maya, who is really good constructing these puzzles, but he's also really good at playing with the format by for example taking the format tropes to ridiculous extremes, like the insanely constructed time table puzzle in Mokusei no Ouji, the brilliant set-up of having the reader guess who the victim is before they can proceed with the question of who the killer is and other such playful twists on the Queenian puzzle. Raimei to Inazuma is another fun example of Maya playing around with the format, and while some might be frustrated by the way Maya kinda ridicules the idea of a fair-play whodunnit, it works really well in this story.

In essence, the game presented here is very familiar: we know a crime has been committed, we have a rough idea of when it must have happened, so we need to identify the killer based on the actions we deduce the murderer have taken, and compare that information with the available suspects. Some of these "murderer conditions" are pretty classic ones you'll likely have encountered before in other similar pure guess-the-culprit scenarios, others are quite original: I especially like one major line of deduction of Mercator's solution, which is incredibly cleverly imbedded in the narrative of the story and basically only works because this is a Mercator story, for it would just be too outrageous for any other series detective, but in a Mercator Ayu story? Yeah, that concept goes, and it goes hard! It had me laughing out loud as I finished the story and I definitely think this was one of the best Mercator Ayu stories I've read. I have no idea how the whole collection will look like, but I already want to claim it'll be worth reading for this story alone!

Ultimately, it's just a short story though, so there's not much I can discuss about it here without spoiling anything. I don't really do posts on a single short story often, but I guess I should do them more often. Anyway, Raimei to Inazuma is definitely worth reading for the Maya Yutaka fans, or for those who want to see a mystery author play with the tropes of the genre, exploring the genre to see how ridiculous things can get if one sticks strictly to the conventions. 

Original Japanese stories: 麻耶雄嵩『雷鳴と稲妻』 

The Stolen Show

「へええええ」

『トリビアの泉』

 

 "Wo-----w"

"The Fountain of Trivia" 

I do love quiz programs on Japan, though I am not really a fan of the QuizKnock-type of quizzes often seen on television now... Trivia buzzer quizzes are the way to go! 

Sora and Nanairo are classmates who were both in their school's Quiz Club, but their dreams were shattered last year when they lost in the primaries of the National Quiz Competition, because Sora messed up a simple Alice in Wonderland-related question. It has become a kind of trauma for Sora, which is why she immediately jumped on the news the legendary idol producer Kujirai Keiji had returned from an early retirement and was going to produce a new idol group named Queen & Alice, with quizzes as its theme. With some effort, Sora manages to convince the reluctant Nanairo to send in an application together, so they can continue doing quizzes together. Surprisingly, both are selected for the shortlist of candidate idols. Eight finalists are to gather on Kujirai's private island Hat Island, where the final selection round will be held and filmed for online streaming. Due to the size of the heart-shaped Heart House (Kujirai's home), there will only be a bare-bones team present besides the contestants: a show director and his assistant, vocal, dance and quiz trainers and a cameraman. The contestants all have different backgrounds: some have been auditioning for years to become an idol and see this as a final opportunity, while others come from a music band background as opposed to the quiz background of Sora and Nanairo. The final round will span a few days during which the candidates will compete with each other on dance, singing and quiz segments, with one candidate being sent home each night until the final group has been decided. Things go as scheduled the first day, with one girl being sent home in the evening (a boat has been chartered to come to the island each evening at 20:00 to pick up the loser). The following morning, the remaining girls all gather to take on a new day, but one girl won't get up. When they go check up on her in her room, they find her dead, with the mark of a spade (of a playing card deck) drawn on her sheets and her teddy bear stained in red paint. Did one of the other candidates go so far as to literally eliminate the opposition, or is something else going on? The director wants to phone the police, but he is stopped by Kujirai, who comes up with a crazy idea: he sees this murder as the ultimate quiz, so he announces he will make the candidate who solves this murder an idol. Who will become a member of Queen & Alice in Kaneko Reisuke's Queen to Satsujin to Alice ("Queen, Murder and Alice" 2025)?

Kaneko Reisuke made his debut as a writer in 2024, by winning the Mephisto Prize with his book Shinda Yamada-kun to Kyoushitsu ("Dead Yamada and his Classroom"). He has been quite prolific since, with three book releases in 2024 alone, and another in 2025. Kaneko had been sending in manuscripts for literary prizes for some time while working as an accountant, but it appears his switch to focus more on entertainment-focused awards was the best choice, as winning the Mephisto Prize has allowed him to really let go with his writing output. While he won the Mephisto Prize in 2023 with Shinda Yamada-kun to Kyoushitsu, that wasn't his first attempt at winning the award. In 2022, Queen to Satsujin to Alice had already made it far into the selection process of the award. While it didn't win at the time, they decided to revisit this story in 2025: Queen to Satsujin to Alice was serialized in Mephisto across three installments and saw a standalone book release in November 2025.

I haven't read Shinda Yamada-kun to Kyoushitsu yet, but I believe it's not a pure mystery story: Queen to Satsujin to Alice most definitely is, as the premise should suggest. We have the tried-and-true premise of a murder occuring during a kind of competition, with the contestants having an obvious motive for eliminating one of their rivals, an odd crime scene and of course, this all takes place in a closed circle, on a private island in a weird heart-shaped house. It would be weirder if this wasn't a conventional mystery story! The story is told from two perspectives: Sora, and the contestant Mahiru, who is the oldest contestant at age 24 and knows this is her last chance at ever becoming an idol, even if she knows she's not the best at quizzes, dancing or singing. This creates some welcome variety in narration, with Mahiru definitely feeling much more desperate to succeed, while being evenly envious of her younger rivals, while Sora is still young and much more worry-free. In a way, it feels a bit like those idol audition shows, where you may feel like you want to root for one candidate or another, as they all have very different personalities. The Sora parts are definitely funnier to read for example, as opposed to the more serious and desperate Mahiru parts.

While this is a mystery story, the story is a bit slow to get to the bloody parts, and the first half feels more like a regular idol audition show, with the girls being given various assignments and we see them compete against each other. Because the theme of the new group Queen & Alice (Q&A!) is quizzes, we are given quite a few of them in this first half: some of them ridddles than can be solved fairly by the reader themselves too, though there is also a long segment with a buzzer quiz, where a question is read out loud and the first to hit the buzzer is given the opportunity to answer. Because you can hit the buzzer before the full question has been read, the trick is to anticipate what the full question will be and give the right answer. It's a popular type of quiz in Japan (often seen on television) and it has some parallels with the competitive karuta, but it is a bit hard to make this part truly interesting to read: the questions themselves are mostly about trivia, and while there are valid strategies for these quizzes (listening to the intonation of the reader to guess it's a question that consists of two clauses, or gambling on what the answer could be if you know it has to be one out of two possible answers), a lot of that doesn't work very well on paper. So it feels a bit like you're just reading trivia being read out loud. While these trivia questions do become relevant for the mystery later, it still feels like the least engaging part of the story, even though it should be the "big moment" for the would-be members of the quiz-based Queen & Alice.

After the murder is discovered, Kujirai forces everyone to go along with his reinvented final round of "find the killer": the legendary producer holds so much power he could easily kill the career of everyone both in front and behind the camera with just one word, so nobody dares to go against him. It is at this point the story moves more swiftly (also because the remaining number of pages is rather limited at this point). The mystery of the murder is not very complicated, as it mostly revolves around the question of why the crime scene was made such a mess, with a not very surprising, but still well thought-out answer lying at the end of the thinking process. Interestingly, the solving of this mystery is two-fold, as a completely different line of thought can bring the reader to the motive behind the murder. This part is more substantial in fact, and is thematically better founded in the theme of quizzes of this book, but at the same time, it only points in the direction of a motive, and doesn't show who did it, while the whodunnit part of the solving process point very definitely at one person, so by that time it's not like a motive is really needed (at least, not in Ellery Queen-style mysteries). So it's a bit of a shame the two "routes" to the solution aren't really equal in terms of "worth". I did like a certain later reveal: I had completely overlooked that point and I think the clewing here was really shrewdly hidden!

Not surprisingly, Queen to Satsujin to Alice does look at Japanese idol culture, in this case, at the production side of idols. While I don't think Queen to Satsujin to Alice does anything surprising or radical when it addresses the darker side of idols in its tale (the points it made... are the points you'd expect the book to make when you talk about the darker side of the industry), it is competently woven into the mystery plot, so that at least makes the book feel coherent in its themes.

 Queen to Satsujin to Alice thus takes a few some popular themes from Japanese television (idols, quizzes) and mixes them to create a fairly light and simple, but competently written mystery. I will admit I would have loved to have seen a beefier core mystery plot, but the book was fun to read, so nothing to really complain about. I am interested to see if Kaneko's doing "hard mystery" too though, so I might try out other works by him in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 金子玲介『クイーンと殺人とアリス』