The Curse of the Golden Cross

Wake Up! The Hero

燃え上れ！

「仮面ライダーBlack RX」(宮内タカユキ) 

 

Wake Up! The Hero

Turn into a blaze!

"Kamen Rider Black RX" (Miyauchi Takayuki) 

As I usually have quite a lot posts written and waiting to be published, I generally just add a review to the queue if it's not a particularly timely post, while I do usually push posts on recent releases forward. I didn't watch today's topic immediately upon release like most people did, but still rather soon after it started streaming... and then forgot about actually writing the post. All well, it's still kinda timely, I guess...

After a troublesome career in boxing followed by a period of penitence and search for salvation, young Jud Duplenticy has become a Catholic priest, who is sent to become an assistant pastor in a church in a small New York town. Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is a small church led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks. Jefferson Wicks is charismatic in his ways, but his flammatory preaching style have basically driven everyone away but a handful of the most loyal and miserable of his parishioners, effectively resulting in a cult revolving around the vengeful Monsignor Wicks. The moment Jud arrives Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, he feels he is not welcome as an outsider, and while he recognizes how Monsignor Wicks is in fact doing not the work of God, he is not able to convince the believers of Wicks that they are all walking down the wrong path. When Wicks finds out about Jud's attempts in undermining his authority, he soon turns his believers against Jud. Despite the trial, Jud remains in the parish.

Wicks holds another fiery service on Good Friday for his cult, and then moves into a closet off the side of the chancel for a short break, while Jud takes over. When an audible thud is heard coming from the closet, Jud approaches the alcove, followed by the other people in the church and to their great surprise, they find Monsignor Wicks collapsed on the floor. A quick examination shows the man is in fact dead, and very likely because there's a knife sticking in his back. His clashings with Monsignor Wicks give Jud a motive, but everyone in the church had his eyes on him between the time Wicks entered the closet alive and the victim collapsing on the floor, making it impossible for him to have committed the murder: likewise, Jud too knows none of the church-goers approached the closet on his side during his part of the service, and everyone is such a big believer of Wicks, so would any of them even have a motive for killing him...? The police struggles with pinning the crime on any specific person with actual proof, and thus enter Benoit Blanc, private investigator who may not strongly believe in the Church, but he does seem to strongly believe Jud is in fact not the murderer in the 2025 film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

I liked the first Knives Out film (2019), but for some reason I just never got started on Glass Onion, the second film and the first after Knives Out moved on to Netflix. Hype from the mystery community on Wake Up Dead Man seemed much bigger though, which may also be because of the overt John Dickson Carr-inspired plot, with not only a locked room mystery (well, technically the closet is not locked, but the entrance is being observed) and a seemingly supernatural event in the second half of the story, Carr's masterpiece The Hollow Man/The Third Coffin is directly referenced in the film, as a "guidebook" on solving locked room mysteries (though to be honest, the film only goes through the most basic forms from the famous Locked-Room Lecture, and the sequence is not even nearly as impressive as how they presented the Locked-Room Lecture in Detective Chinatown 3). So when I learnt I could safely skip Glass Onion for now, I did so, and I have no regrets!

For Wake Up Dead Man is indeed a fun classically-styled locked room murder mystery film. It brings the tropes and set dressing we know from a Golden Age novel and move it... well, to the modern world, to a degree, as the church-setting itself feels like it would've been the same whether it had been used in a 2025 film or one from 1930. Which is a good thing I guess for those looking for something that obviously tries to go for that vibe. Whereas the first Knives Out film gave us the oh-so-familiar set-up of a murder on a wealthy family patriarch and his whole family as the suspects, this one focuses on the churchgoers as the main suspect (if we believe Jud to be innocent), resulting in a slightly more disjointed cast (as you get a group of random cult members), though most do fall in familiar mystery "suspect" roles (a doctor, a loyal help, etc.). Jud as a leading man is a joy to follow though, a man who went through a dark place in his life, found a new path in life only to be thrust into a basically hopeless situation by becoming the assistant-pastor in the most impossible parish ever. He forms a nice contrast with the far more cynical Benoit, especially when Jud is confronted with situations that could practically mean choosing between either his own beliefs, or his own freedom. Thematically, Wake Up Dead Man is far stronger than the first Knives Out film I think, and the highlight of the film as a mystery, as the themes of religion and personal beliefs pervades throughout the plot and motivate the actors to play their role in this mystery. The cinematography in general is pretty strong, especially in the scenes set within the church, and it really helps strengthen the religious themes, literally constantly casting new light on the setting.

The main locked room murder mystery itself is not very surprising on a technical level though. If you have come across a few of them in your life, it's very likely you will have seen some variation of the basic fundamentals already, so, in that sense, I was a bit disappointed in what was supposed to the main attraction. Fortunately, the second half of the story adds a few more developments that also intertwine with the locked room murder, and that adds some well-needed complexity to the mystery. I also like there's some synergy between all these elements, i.e. elements of the main locked room mystery are intertwined with the why or how events of the second half, and they're not just distinct, seperate events that happened to occur one after another. The film plays the game fair and does some of the crucial clues are shown on screen with some audicity, though very briefly. It kinda reminded me of some of the sneakier moments in Anraku Isu Tantei (a show written by Ayatsuji and Arisugawa where viewers could win money if they guessed the culprit), where the clues were like on the screen in a small corner for a brief moment, but Wake Up Dead Man is fortunately never as vexingly mean as Anraku Isu Tantei (like having to see how shadows in the backgrounddiffered slightly depending on the scene... in a show that was shot in standard definition and broadcast in a time when lots of people still probably had a CTR at home). There is also a secondary plotline revolving the hidden legacy of Reverend Prentice Wicks, grandfather of Jefferson, which could be a motive for the murder. This plotline also ties neatly into the whole mystery as well as the underlying theme of the film, making one nice neat package.

I do have to say I think Wake Up Dead Man was rather long and I certainly wouldn't have minded a shorter experience, but still, Wake Up Dead Man is an entertaining and highly competently-created mystery film. Its themes are its strongest points, as they tie in meaningfully with not only the characters and the overall story, they also interact on a crucial level with the main mysteries plot-wise, offering strong synergy overall. It definitely elevates the technical aspects of the mystery, which may come across as a bit too familiar to some viewers. Between Wake Up Dead Man and the original Knives Out, I think Wake Up Dead Man is the stronger story and cinematic experience, though as a viewer, I do have to admit the slightly shorter runtime and the more overt story dynamics of "detective vs a criminal trying to hide her crimes" of the original Knives Out offered me a much more easier film to just watch and enjoy.

As for Glass Onion. Errr, perhaps in the future? Should I? 

The Fake Heir

"By the power of Grayskull!"

"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" 

Now I think about it, this is probably the first time I ever read (listened to) anything by P. D. James. 

Cordelia Gray returns to the UK after the death of her father, with whom she had been roaming Europe. She becomes the secretary of Bernie G. Pryde, a private detective and as she shows potential, Bernie eventually makes her his partner. After being diagnosed with cancer however, Bernie takes the easy way out, and he leaves the detective agency to Cordelia. While initially overwhelmed by the death of her business partner and the realization she's made the chief of an agency even though she barely has any experience as a private detective, she decided to keep the agency open with the help of the old secretary Mrs. Maudley. On the day of Bernie's funeral, Cordelia is visited by Mrs. Leaming, assistant to the famous scientist Sir Ronald Callender. She originally had an appointment to see Bernie, but considering what's happened, she has no choice but to bring Cordelia to her boss. Sir Ronald decides to hire Cordelia anyway for the job he had intended to hire Bernie for: his son Mark recently hanged himself, and he wants to know why Mark committed suicide. Mark had been studying at Cambridge, but recently left the university and started working as a gardener, even though his grades were good and was going to inherit a considerable amount of money via his maternal grandfather. Mark had been living in a run-down cottage on the estate he had been gardening for, and Cordelia decides to stay there too, to get a glimpse in Mark's life. But as she meets with Mark's friends and acquaintances and goes through his belongings in the cottage, Cordelia slowly starts to suspect Mark's death was not suicide at all. Can the young detective find out the truth in her first real investigation on P. D. James' An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972)?

I first heard of the character of Cordelia Gray via Detective Conan, where the character Haibara is named after Cordelia ("Hai" being gray), so that would have been about two decades ago, but for some reason I never got around to reading the books with Cordelia Gray, even though there are only two of them. I'd occasionally come across other references to the books (like Houjou Kie's 2024 novel Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai ("An Unsuitable Perfect Crime for a Girl")), but somehow I just never actively went looking for them. But a few weeks ago, I came across a reference to The Skull Beneath the Skin, and it was at that point I learned that was actually the title of the second Cordelia Gray book. I figured I might as well get started on them now... but then I also learned there were actually two radio adaptations of the books by the BBC, so I decided to listen to them, instead of reading the books. I can't say how faithful they are to the book, but comparing the audio adaptation of An Unsuitable Job for a Woman to the lengthy summary on Wikipedia makes me think they're pretty faithful to the source material.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman was written in 1972, so it should not surprise the reader Cordelia is not presented as the great detective who solves everything with brilliant chains of deductions during the denouement with everyone present in the drawing room. Cordelia is portrayed indeed as a private detective in a realistic world, far removed from both the great detectives of yore as well as the hardboiled tradition. Cordelia knows she's been trained well as a private detective, but is also aware she lacks experience, so her investigations are careful, slow and methodical, with an emphasis on her humanity. Her investigation for example consists of living in Mark's cottage to get an idea of his life after he left university and interviewing his friends to see if there's a clue to why he would have hanged himself. While there's a segment with a kind of code-cracking, the emphasis lies on Cordelia sifting through the stories of everyone involved and just following each thread to their conclusion to see if they lead anywhere. The result is a detective novel that is admittedly not exactly of the type I like: it's a very mundane investigation without really surprising twists, reveals or deductions. I do have to say I was surprised I didn't mind following Cordelia in her slow investigations though. As a character, she's interesting to follow, exactly because she's new at this and everyone's saying how she might be unsuitable of the job, and Cordelia falls right in the category of both being more capable than most people assume she is, but she's still not a Great Detective, so she fits well in this realistic world P.D. James depicts, being not a flawed person, but simply a struggling young detective, who also happens to be a woman.

The story does feel a bit dated though, or least, some characters do. When Cordelia for exampls asks Sir Ronald about Mark's romantic relationships, he says he doesn't know about them, but he assures her that if he had them, they would certainly be of the heterosexual kind. Err, okay, I guess. Similar elements are connected to the mystery of Mark's death and while not exactly jarring, it does make you think, oh yeah, this was written a while ago, with the idea of portraying a realistic world.

The mystery of Mark's death ultimately isn't super exciting, with 'twists' that feel a bit forced at times (attempts are made to scare Cordelia away, or even kill her even though she has no real conclusive clue or evidence yet) and again, an investigation that develops mostly just because Cordelia bothers to ask people a few questions (a lot of the characters she meets along the way are not really helpful or even fun people to talk with). I do like the way the story begins: with the end of Cordelia's investigation and then retelling all the events that led to that ending: the in-media-res opening starts rather abrupt, but is properly recontextualized through the reader learning the events leading up to that opening, and that is perhaps the most interesting of this book in terms of a mystery story.

Cordelia Gray returns in The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), where Cordelia is asked to keep an eye on the actress Clarissa Lisle, wife of Sir George Ralston. Clarissa is going to star in a performance The Duchesss of Malfi set to be held on Courcy Castle, located on the private island of Courcy, which is owned by Ambrose Gorringe, a succesful author, who had the castle, and its theater, restored. Clarissa has been receiving letters with quotations from plays she's starred in, all being threats of death, accompanied by a drawing of a skull. Clarissa is really nervous with the play approaching, so Cordelia is to intercept new letters so Clarissa can focus on the play. At the castle, Clarissa meets with the people in Clarissa's circle, ranging from her stepson of a previous marriage, her not-so-wealthy cousin and a theater critic. It doesn't take long for Cordelia to learn there are quite a lot of people close to Clarissa who don't really like her, and she soon finds out the writer of the letters is probably one of the people currently on the island. On the evening of the performance, Clarissa want to be alone in her dressing room to clear her mind so she can focus on the play, and she sends everyone, including Cordelia away. When Cordelia later returns to wake Clarissa for dinner, she finds Clarissa dead, her face battered. 

This second Cordelia Gray story has a far more interesting setting than the first one: a closed circle murder mystery set on a creepy castle with a collection of macabre memorabilia, secret passageways and a cryp, located on a private island. We have an Obvious Victim-To-Be, anonymous threatening letters and a theatrical backdrop. Perhaps it's just me, having listened a lot to the Agatha Christie radio adaptations by the BBC, but the plot with the threatening letters, actresses making comebacks and hidden pasts and all of that reminded me a lot of Christie's work, like Lord Edgware Dies, The Moving Finger and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, so it felt a lot like classic mystery to me than An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, with a setting that is more exciting, moving away from the realism of the first novel and moving towards the more bombastic of the Golden Age. At the same time, it's also a much slower story. The BBC radio adaptation itself is nearly a hour longer than the one of An Unsuitable Job for..., which is quite a lot for an audio adaptation. The story-telling isn't that much different from how it felt in the first story, with Cordelia just poking around, and people very gladly telling their life stories and revealing how they all had a reason for wanting Clarissa dead. Which still takes a while for it to happen.

So then we get to the mystery, which is, at least to me, unfortunately still closer to An Unsuitable Job for... than to actual Golden Age mystery fiction. The reveal of the murderer is done very dryly, with a motive that probably should've been explored more given the weight of the matter, but it is just... dropped on the reader like that. It has some parallels with the first novel in terms of themes, so reading them back-to-back does add something extra. A different element of the mystery (not the identity of the killer, but the exact reason for the threatening letters) is probably going to be remembered by more readers given the way the presentation of the solution is framed, and I do think this part is a bit more interesting mystery-wise, but not really enough to build a complete novel around. The ending is a bit a-typical perhaps, but it fits well with the way the first novel also ended, and also with the character of Cordelia, who at this point is a capable detective, but not experienced enough to be a Great Detective.

Both An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and The Skull Beneath the Skin are not the kind of mystery novels I usually read, and while both books do have elements I do find interesting, on the whole, they're not stories I'd recommend if you're looking for puzzle plot mysteries, not even The Skull Beneath the Skin, despite its setting being more like a Golden Age puzzle plot mystery. Cordelia as a PI character is probably the more interesting part of these stories. I'm glad I finally got around to consuming these books though, as now I won't be wondering anymore whenever I come across the occasional reference to these books.

Double Jeopardy

"Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions."

"And Then There Were None" 

The first time I saw the cover of this book, it was a small thumbnail and I could barely make out the garbage truck on the cover, so I thought it'd be like some weird Drifting Classroom-esque Umezu Kazuo story. Things don't get that crazy. 

Hitou travels with six friends to a small private island off the coast in Kumamoto Prefecture. The island used to be inhabitated by a few people, but has now become the private property of the aunt of Urai, one of Hitou's friends. Urai's aunt had cottages built on the island so it can be opened as a resort island. There's no established means of transportation yet though, so the group is brought over to the island by a chartered fisherman's boat and the fisherman is to pick them up in about a week, while the caretaker hired by Urai's aunt also there to entertain the group during their stay. However, Hitou has other plans. He's planning to kill all other six people on the trip. For Hitou was never really their friend. Several years ago, while the six targets were still in high school, they tried out drugs and while under the influence, were about to start a fire. A boy from another school spotted them, but he was caught by them and assaulted, with the victim biting off the tip of his own tongue during an attempt to escape. One of the friends took all the blame. Hitou was a friend of the victim and he swore revenge: after graduating high school, he intentionally picked a university where the six were living and found a part-time job where one of them was working. He became friends with him and was thus slowly introduced in their circle. And now they were going on a trip together: the perfect chance to just kill all of them. Hitou's plan is simple and self-destructive: he's going to poison all of them and then commit suicide, because he realizes this would be a severe crime. He even has a full confession that will be posted online automatically in a few days, where he explains why he decided to kill these people. After they arrive on the island, where they also find the caretaker waiting for them, Hitou makes sure to sabotage the one public pay-phone on the island: the only way to communicate with the mainland.

And thus, imagine the surprise when late on the first evening, one of the friends won't respond to any calls at his cottage. They break the door down and inside find... no living friend, but a corpse,  whose face has been bashed in horribly and with the tip of his tongue cut off. Hitou however did not commit this murder. Realizing there's a murderer on the island and that they can't call for help, the would-be murderer acknowledges it'd be too dangerous to continue his plans and even tries to swim back to cancel his scheduled online confession, but the sea has become too wild for him, and he is barely saved from the raging water. The next morning, they find another corpse: this was the friend who first discovered the previous body and he too has the tip of his tongue removed. And the following day, the same thing happens again... While Hitou was planning to kill them anyway it's not like he's really sad they're gone, he knows he isn't committing all these murders, so he needs to find out who the real murderer is in order to escape the carnage.

Three years later, a young woman working at a garbage disposal facility in Osaka is out on her rounds collecting garbage, when she finds the body of an old lady among the garbage. She reports it to the police, but she is immediately put in their custody: there is a serial killer on the loose in Osaka, who each time, has been killing the person who discovered the previous body. The victims are connected by the fact they all have part of their tongues removed. This immediately reminds everyone of the horrible series of murders that occured three years ago on an island in Kumamoto, where a Hitou Kiyotsugu had killed everyone on the island and made a full confession online....

Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi ("Broken Chains and a Sliver of Light", 2023) is Araki Akane's second novel after making her debut the previous year by winning the Edogawa Rampo Award. The book's main feature is probably the fact it is divided in two distinct parts, the first half set in 2020 on an island, while the second half is set in 2023 and starts off in the bustling city of Osaka. The two narratives are also clearly inspired by two Agatha Christie novels, a thing that is made very apparent when the characters themselves make references to Christie in the second half.  

The first half is of course inspired by And Then There Were None, as we have a closed circle situation set on an island, where everybody is being killed one by one. In this book however, we have the added tension of knowing Hitou was planning to kill everyone himself too, only someone else managed to get to them first. But who? The murders are also all connected through two mysterious facts: the murderer cuts off the tip of the tongues of all his victims, and for some reason, the next victim is always the person who discovered the previous body. Even though this is only "half" of the book, Araki somehow manages to really pack it full to the brim. There's the locked room situation of the first body for example, but there are more mysteries like one victim having been cut, even though they threw away all the knives and other potentially dangerous objects in the sea after the first murders. Araki manages to craft a great mystery in this book: the many props allow the characters to come up with various theories, and the grand denouement scene in particular has some great Queenian theories being posed based on the evidence we've all seen and been exposed to, which are then debunked as easily again with other evidence we also saw, but simply overlooked. 

The second part is set three years later and we learn about a serial killer in Osaka who for some reason has been committing murders similar to what by now has become known as the Hitou murders: when the police arrived on the island, they found that everybody on the island was dead and Hitou missing, but he had conveniently posted a full confession online. Maria, the young woman who found the most recent victim, is put under police custody and she soon becomes friends with one of her guardians. Maria also happens to be living with a young man (not her boyfriend), who happens to have bitten off the tip of his tongue some years ago... This part of the book is more inspired by The ABC Murders, as the one of the characters comments, as they are not sure why the serial killer is linking these murders in this way, and of course, the whole connection to the Hitou murders is enigmatic. As you can guess, these events are very strongly connected to the first part of the book, and they work very well as a "continuation" of the first half, while also going in a completely different way. This is not just 'part 2 by doing the same things again", this is a "part 2 that tries different things, but by building on part 1". And it's all in one book!

While I will be the first to admit I don't care about characterization that much in my mystery novels, even I have to make a special note about how strong the characterizations are in this novel. Hitou is a great protagonist and anti-hero, who is so full of hatred towards his "friends" for what they did in the past, but at the same time, you see glimpses of him struggling with the aftermath of each murder because... perhaps he did really become friends with them while he had infiltrated their circle. Maria too has a chip on her shoulder and has finally been getting her life on rails and is enjoying her work as a garbagewoman, when the whole serial killer thing confuses things once more. The strong-minded Maria is very fun to follow, as she does struggle in life, but still tries to make the best out of everything and she isn't kind to people who look down on her for doing so (cue: the veteran policeman who will regret looking down on her just because she's a woman collecting garbage).

The strong characterization does elevate Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi a lot, as some of the actions taken by the characters in this book do demand for those characters to have a lot of motivation/determination to do so, so Araki's strong character writing is in fact an essential part of the mystery, much more than I had ever expected.

I had read two short stories by Araki before (here and here), but this is the first time I read a full novel by her and Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi. It's quite long and ambitious, providing two fully worked out narratives inspired by Christie's work all in one book, but Araki pulls it off, and does that with both competence in the mystery writing as well as characterization. Recommended material!

Original Japanese title(s):  荒木あかね『ちぎれた鎖と光の切れ端』

The Problem of the Ghost Woman

It is indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow,plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke　from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense　chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming,　boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream　onward over its jagged lip.

"The Final Problem" 

Now I think about it, having a waterfall right behind your school is probably not that safe. Sure, high school students aren't stupid, but still, something is bound to happen sooner or later...

Shiotani Ken's Meitantei Futabi (2025) also has the English title The Return of The Great Detective (well, technically it's The Return of Great Detective) and indeed, the book is about the legend of a great detective is given new life again. The Raihen Academy for Girls offers free schooling and accomodations for the family members of those who have contributed to the school's long history, and nobody has contributed more to the safety and reputation of Raihen than the legendary great detective Tokiya Yuu: she was a student at the school in the early 1990s, who solved many incidents that occured at Raihen. While they started out as minor incidents, things soon escalated to even murder. Yuu eventually figured out there was a mastermind behind all these crimes: Yuu confronted the mastermind at the waterfall behind the school and in the subsequent struggle, both fell down, with Yuu's remains never recovered. Tokiya Shou had never heard specific stories about her great-aunt, which is why she's surprised to learn she gets to study at the prestigious Raihen Academy for free. When she arrives at the school, she's welcomed as if she were a princess, as for Raihen, Yuu was indeed a queen. In fact, the dorm director was a student at Raihen herself in the early 1990s and assisted Yuu. Shou becomes classmates with Mima Shizuka, president of the newspaper club with a knack for making up stories. Shou is first shown around the school, which has memorial plates for Yuu all over the place, commemorating the various incidents she solved, like the mystery of the unconcious student in the communal bathroom or the murder of a student in the art room. 

The rumors of Shou, a relative of Yuu, soon spreads across the school, and it doesn't take long for a student to ask Shou for help. She recently got a polaroid camera, and while playing around with it, she and her friends took risqué pictures of each other in the bathroom while getting undressed. However, after they had their bath, they found the pictures missing, and now she got a blackmail letter with one of the stolen pictures, demanding for money. The victim rather not have the police involved, which is why she wants Shou to help. The problem: Shou isn't any good as a detective. Of course, just because your great-aunt happens to be a great detective, doesn't you are, but Shou can't say no, and ends up accepting the request. Out of her wits, Shou strolls to the waterfall where her great-aunt met her end and to her great surprise.... a ghost appears! The ghost agrees to help Shou and act as an armchair detective for her, if Shou helps gather her remains and properly bury her, so her spirit can finally pass on to the life beyond. The case is soon solved, earning Shou a reputation as a great detective herself, but then more incidents start to happen at Raihen, and another figure who saw Yuu's ghost, starts plotting against Shou...

It's of course no coincidence the school's called Raihen (Reichenbach) and that the great detective and her nemesis both died falling down a waterfall. The book's not designed as a Sherlock Holmes pastische though, nor are there really meaningful references to Holmes canon beyond these ones, so you don't need any knowledge of Holmes to enjoy this book. The book is structured as a connected short story collection, where Shou is confronted with ever-escalating cases during her time studying at Raihen, culminating in a grand finale involving both her great-aunt and her nemesis. One thing I have to mention first is how different this book is than Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi ("The Count and the Three Coffins"), the only other book by Shiotani Ken I have read at this point. That book was a historical epic with drama and tragedy like a Dumas novel, while this is a fairly light-hearted, comedic short story collection set at a girls' high school. Shiotani Ken does like using unusual settings/ideas though, and that's what we do have here too: Shou being helped by an armchair detective ghost each time, all just to maintain her reputation as a great detective herself (or as her excuse goes to keep the family name high). This device has some parallels to how Conan feeds Mouri his answers to maintain the Sleeping Kogorou's reputation high, only in this case, Shou herself wants to be fed all the answers, as she genuinely isn't smart enough to solve the crimes herself (though she does get "educated" as a great detective herself slowly but surely over the course of the book).

While I do describe this book as a short story collection, the individual mysteries are not titled as "stories", but as "chapters" in a novel, so I guess they do want to present this as a novel rather than a story collection. Anyway, the first story involves the stolen polaroids, with the mystery revolving around who could have stolen the polaroids and how: the only persons to know about the pictures are the group of four who took the pictures in the first place, but the pictures had been put in a locker while they were in the bathroom, and nobody had the pictures on them when they left, so the theft was impossible. This is a fairly short mystery, as it is also used to explain how Shou first went to the waterfall and stumbled upon the ghost, but it is a fairly well-constructed, if simple mystery, doing what you usually expect of an impossible heist story (offering multiple false solutions, offering a true solution that builds cleverly on the discarded false ones). The banter between Shou and all the other school girls is really fun though: not only with her roommate Shizuka (who's a bit insane when it comes to wanting to find a scoop and has no qualms about making things a bit more spicier in her articles), but also with her ghostly mentor, as she too is basically just a high school student who likes to chat about ordinary life (or at least, the ordinary life she saw pass by ever since she became a ghost). The second story is about an assault on an art student that occured in a classroom that could only be accessed via another classroom, that was occupied by the art club at the moment. Again, a seemingly impossible crime, and while I didn't like this mystery on its own that much, I loved how it really built on the previous story, as it showed the previous story had real consequences for the student life at Raihen Academy, making people act and think differently. 

The third story in turn has the first murder: members of the newspaper clubs of several school are invited to the house of an alumnus of one of the clubs. It's supposed to be a kind of training camp to hone the journalistic skills of the members, but Mima Shizuka, who had attended last year too, knows the organizer just uses this occassion to vent his frustrations on the current club members by completely roasting their writings. During the snowy evening, the girls sleep together in the storehouse of the manor, which can only be locked from the outside (as it's not meant to be lived in). During the night however, the organizer is found dead in the courtyard, his head bashed in. The only footprints left in the snow in the courtyard however belong to the victim, with no footprints of the murderer. The victim was furthermore found near the window of a room of the annex, where the guests were sleeping, but the windows on that side can't be opened, so the occupant of that room couldn't have hit the man either. Shou is asked to look into the case, not only because of her roommates involvement, but her uncle, a police inspector, is also on the case and has heard of the exploits of his niece. This is quite an elaborate story, that is great at using the various moving parts of the story (characters) to create a seemingly impossible mystery. The reason why the murderer ended up dead in the courtyard is a bit silly, but well-clewed and the way the culprit created the footprint mystery isn't per se that impressive method-wise, but very convincing motive-wise.

Up until this point, the stories also saw short intermezzos told from the POV of a character, who has also seen Tokiya Yuu's ghost herself, and has deduced that Shou is actually getting assistance from Yuu in solving the mysteries. This person however absolutely hates what Shou's doing, so they set a trap for Shou.

Shou, her uncle, the dorm director and some of Shou's allies have gathered, because they have realized the incidents Shou has been involved with, mirror those Tokiya Yuu solved during her time at Raihen. Yuu at the time deduced a mastermind "M" had been orchestrating all these crimes, and she died during her confrontation with M. It is now suspected a new mastermind has also been behind all the crimes Shou has been involved with. During their meeting however, Shizuka keels over after drinking her tea. A message is then delivered to the room: the tea cups have been poisoned and the door has been locked, with no way to call for help. The only way to open the door and get help for Shizuka, is if Shou drinks one of the cups: only one will not kill her. With no way to go to the waterfall to get help, can Shou manage to solve this mystery herself? The story feels a bit like a Liar Game game, where Shou has to deduce which of the cups is safe to drink (with a lot "if they think I think they think..." type of thoughts). The solution is simple yet elegant, and the story moves right to the finale, where Shou is confronted with the mastermind behind all the crimes and the truth behind the death of her great-aunt. This part of the mystery is elegantly clewed, with great foreshadowing planted throughout the various adventures to build up to this Reichenbach Falls-esque finale. Unfortunately, I already knew a bit how this finale would end up, because I happened to have met the editor of the book who kinda spoiled it to me, but despite my prior knowledge, I did think the mystery was constructed very neatly.

So while Meitantei Futatabi is not at all like the historical epic drama that was Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi, I did greatly enjoy the book: it's a fun, light-hearted school mystery (the sometimes venomous banter between Shou and her ghostly mentor is especially a highlight) with a clear, overarching story that manages to achieve exactly what it sets out to do. The individual mysteries are often fairly short, but competently constructed and the overall storyline, with Shou slowly growing into a detective herself, is satisfying. This is a great book to read between heavier stuff.

Original Japanese title(s): 塩谷験『名探偵再び』 

Picture of Death

But if this ever changing world in which we live in

Makes you give in and cry,

Say live and let die!

"Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney & Wings) 

So I didn't know anything about the actual story of this book when I got it, so simply based on the title and the cover, I was expecting this to be something set in the Middle Ages/Renaissance exploring the theme of death. It was nothing like that.

Several months ago, I discussed Kenchiku Shizai (2001), a book which also carried the English title The Builded Dead and which is considered officially Monzen Noriyuki's debut work: it was the winner of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, which is aimed at writers who haven't made a professional debut yet. However, Kenchiku Shizai  was not really Monzen's first work. Several years earlier, Monzen had already sent it a different manuscript for the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award and it was in fact deemed the best entry of that year by Ayukawa Tetsuya himself, but the other people on the committee did not agree, and the work didn't win.Monzen therefore decided to self-publish the book in 1997, with the title Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death"). After Monzen made his professional debut in 2001, he wrote a few other novels, and then publisher Harashobo decided to revisit Shi no Meidai again: Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death") was re-edited and given a new title (the shi in the title in the 2010 differs from the 1997 version), giving the book a new opportunity to reach the audience.

The book starts with the arrival of Shinohara Tsunajirou, Monoda Yoshihara and Mashime Kyouka at the Mishima residence, located in the forest surrounding Lake Ensui in the mountains near Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture. The two-storey building belongs to Professor Mishima Souichirou, or to be exact, his widow: the professor had started construction on his home, but he died in an accident on the lake. His widow, Otono, however had the project continued, with a large part of the house dedicated to her husband's accomplishments and his hobbies. Some time has passed since the professor's funeral,  and Otono has invited a few old friends of her husband to stay a few nights at the lake, including the aforementioned trio, who were students of the professor. Tsunajirou and Kyouoka often visited the professor and his wife and knew them privately, so they are a bit surprised Yoshihara was also invited, and it's also a bit awkward: Yoshihara was never close to the professor nor his wife, and Yoshihara and Kyouka also used to date when in university. They broke up and now Tsunajirou and Kyouka are now an engaged couple. When they arrive at the house, they learn their host is not present. The physician Miyabi Daisuke, a Mishima family friend who knows Tsunajirou and Kyouka as well, arrived earlier, and explains he found a package hanging from the door knob, which included the keys to the house, as well as a letter signed by Otono, who explains she had an accident herself and can't freely move. Because it happened only a few days ago and she knew all her guests had already made arrangements, she asks their guests to entertain themselves despite her absence: food supplies have been prepared, so they can enjoy a few days off at the lake. Everybody finds this a bit weird, including Annosawa Ikuo, a budding mystery novelist who's a patient of the doctor (he was brought for some social contact).  A late arrival is Takao Hiroshi, a salesman for a medical company who was also invited. 

As they discuss their current situation, they note that the note doesn't actually sound like it was written by Otono, and Kyouka seems eager to leave, saying they should pay the widow a visit in the hospital, but they decide to stay for at least one night, especially as it starts to snow heavily. They explore the house a bit to admire not only the late professor's collection of insect specimens, but also his collection of torture devices, including the giant guillotine standing outside the entrance of the house. The following day however, a horrible discovery is made: Kyouka is found dead in the garden, with her face having been hit with immense force. It's obvious not an accident, as the object that inflicted the damage is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile,Monoda Yoshihara can also not be found, so the others start looking for him: they find his body floating in the lake, having first been strangled and then thrown into the lake for him to drown. The police is informed, but the road conditions due to the weather prevent them from coming at once. As the survivors await the police however, more deaths occur: a poisoning, a man being split in half with the guillotine... And when the police finally arrive... they find all six guests in the house have died, with the last one apparently having committed suicide.

 It's the sister of the last person to live who visits Kumode, who runs a construction consultancy agency which double-acts as a detective agency, after earlier success in detection by Kumode. The sister naturally can't stand her brother being painted as a cold-blooded killer who killed five people and then himself, so she wants Kumode to investigate the case, which is done by an investigation of the crime scene itself (the Mishima residence), as well as the inspection of two diaries: one by the mystery author Annosawa and the other by the supposed killer: these were the last two men surviving and both men claim they were not the horrible serial killer in their respective notes. Can Kumode figure out what really happened at the lake?

Kenchiku Shizai/The Builded Dead was an interesting book as it showcased author Monzen's knowledge of architecture (which he studied): it was a very realistic book when it came to the presentation of how a building is actually constructed, and at times, the realism did hurt the presentation of the mystery a bit, but it was still a memorable experience. Shi no Meidai is surprisingly enough not at all like Kenchiku Shizai, being a far more unrealistic book, as it embraces the familar tropes of mystery fiction. The premise of the book is a classic And Then There Were None set-up: all people in the isolated house end up murdered, but by whom? Like And Then There Were None, there's a second part that follows the initial closed circle narrative, focusing on the investigation conducted by an outside party after the murders (in this case, Kumode's investigation). 

Shi no Meidai follows the familiar tropes fairly faithfully, and some characters even point out how everything feels a bit fishy, from their host not appearing herself and the selection of guests being weird. Which is why it does feel a bit strange the characters don't decide to leave at once: they're apparently somewhat savvy enough to realize not all is right, but they still stay, and that's a thing that continues throughout this book: the characters really feeling like characters in a detective novel, doing the exact things needed to get the plot going, but not really fully explaining why those characters would ever want to do that. 

The same holds for the core mystery plot: there are some cool ideas that are at play here, some honestly really memorable (and gruesome!), but many of the ideas used here are quite forced, especially if you consider them having all happened in the same story! Like, the murder of Kyouka is actually pretty interesting as an idea: it's actually an impossible crime, as the garden was covered in snow and yet only Kyouka's own footprints could be found in the snow, despite being hit from nearby with an object. I can easily imagine this part being a short story on its own as it has a memorable trick, but then you also remember the murders on the doctor and Annosawa also happened in their specific manners, and you start rolling your eyes as that's a bit too much luck/coincidence that is happening in one sequence. The murders on the doctor and Annosawa again would have been great core ideas in their own story (it's actually really good while being incredibly silly at the same time, and I love it for that), but it loses its impact here because it just becomes one small cog in a much larger machine. A far more fantastical machine than the realistic mechanism we saw in Kenchiku Shizai too. The way the murderer planned for all of this is almost farcical, as it relies on one coincidence or lucky turn after another, so taking this story in as.... one story feels a bit difficult. There are really good individual ideas, but they didn't need to be taken all together, especially as it works towards a conclusion that only strengthens this sense of forced coindence. I think if the book had been written differently, this theme could easily have worked, but the book is still told in a fairly straightforward manner that doesn't really dwell on the thematic consequences of its events, so you are never sure whether the author actually realized his book borders on a parody.

The book actually opens with a Challenge to the Reader, containing 5 'pointers' that act as a kind of tease of things to come. I think the book's fair enough to warrant a Challenge, though I'm not sure whether it works best in this position of the book (why not just before the soluton?).

 Shi no Meidai is a book I think some of the parts are better than their sum, with some good mystery ideas and tricks, that however become a bit deluded when taken all together, because all of that happening in the span of like two days feels a bit too much, especially as part of a plan by the killer. It's also completely different in terms of atmosphere from Kenchiku Shizai, despite being the same series, which might be a good or bad thing depending on what your thoughts on that book was, or vice-versa. I think that the individual elements of Shi no Meidai are far more memorable to me than Kenchiku Shizai, but I found the latter a better novel overall.

 Original Japanese title(s):  門前典之『屍の命題』

The Tuesday Club Murders

Sur les crédences, au salon vide: nul ptyx

"Sonnet en X" 

And yet I'm sure this is not the only book that's been on the 'to-read' list for over fiteen years...

The retired French literature professor Zuimon Ryuushirou is a huge fan of the poet Stéphane Mallarmé and owns a curious home which is named, and designed after meaningless word "ptyx" Mallarmé used in the poem Sonnet en X. To be exact, it follows the Japanese translation of the word, with a stem word for "shell", so the two-storey building is built like a spiral, with spiraling hallway on both floors, and a courtyard at the center of the building, that can only be reached by the stairs that are found at the very end of the hallway upstairs. Zuimon often holds gatherings at his manor to discuss literature, aptly called the Tuesday Club. In 1987, members of the Tuesday Club included, among others, an active professor in French literature and three students, a famous actor and... the great detective Mizuki Masaomi and the legally required Watson, Ayui Ikusuke, who has been chronicling all of the adventures Mizuki and he have as succesful novels. That night, after everyone has gone to sleep, a loud cry wakes everyone up and as they look for the origin of the voice, they find one of the guests lying dead in the courtyard, apparently having slipped from the stairs upstairs down onto the courtyard. But it was in fact not a natural death, and of course Mizuki promptly solves the case, allowing for Ayui to write a new book. The Ptyx House Affair is serialized in parts in magazines as always and while basically all of the story was serialized, with the case solved and perhaps only needing an epilogue, the book was never actually finished, and also never collected and published as a single, standalone release. This also marked the last of what the public would learn about Mizuki: Ayui stopped writing books and nobody heard of Mizuki again.

14 years later, the great private detective Isurugi Gisaku is contacted by a literary editor who wants Isurugi to reopen the investigation of the murder that took place at the Zuimon residence 14 years ago. The editor finds it strange Ayui never had the final book properly published and suspects there could only be one reason why Ayui had made such a drastic decision: what if in the process of writing down the adventure he had with Mizuki, he had inadvertently realized Mizuki might actually have nabbed the wrong culprit in this case? Isurugi, who is a big fan of the Mizuki Masaomi novels, accepts the request, and investigates the case by not only reading the installments of The Ptyx House Affair, but also by interviewing the real people involved in the actual case 14 years ago, and as he asks more questions, he slowly starts to notice little things in Ayui's account that bothers him too. Can he outwit the great detective Mizuki in Shunou Masayuki's Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi, which also carries the German title Im Spiegel ist Sonntag ("It's Sunday in the Mirror", 2001)?  

Shunou Masayuki was an author who was only active for a very short period of time, writing about seven books in four years, but he is still well-remembered in the world of Japanese mystery fiction and you'll often find one of his titles (especially Hasami Otoko ("The Scissor Man") in 'best of' lists. I don't know why I hadn't gotten started on him yet, especially as fifteen years ago (back when we had like only three people blogging in English on Japanese mystery fiction!), I already wrote I had put this book on my 'to-be-read' list...It took me a bit of time, but I finally got around to it!

The books in the Isurugi Gisaku series are apparently all takes on familiar mystery tropes, with Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi being an obvious variation on the familiar yakata-mono, murders occuring in a curiously built building like we see in Ayatsuki's House series. Here we have a house that is built in the most inconvenient manner as the house is just one giant spiral that goes up one floor, and it's of course nuts you'd need to go walk down the spiralling hallway of the first floor, go up the stairs, go down the spiralling hallway of the second floor and go out on the balcony and go down another set of stairs just to reach the courtyard, which is of course completely surrounded by walls so there's nothing to see (as there are no windows looking out into the courtyard). Houses like these are great for mysteries, not so for actual living.

That said, while the main mystery might seem to be the mysterious death in 1987 at the Ptyx house, one could argue that it is in fact another trope that is the main topic of this book: the unreliable narrator. Which might seem like a huge spoiler, but not only are we already told that Ayui apparently suspected Mizuki might have been wrong, meaning the solution presented in Ayui's book should be wrong, Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi in fact opens with the most unreliable narrator we could have: a person suffering from Alzheimer in 2001. This person, closely related to the 1987 murder, does not recognize themselves, and can barely recognize people anymore by 2001. Isurugi Gisaku's investigation into the murder however stimulates the narrator in ways Isurugi could not have foreseen, and flashes of memories slowly show a glimpse of the solution awaiting at the end. The second part of the book flashes a bit back and explains how Isurugi Gisaku's investigation actually gets started and is interspersed with The Ptyx House Affair written by Ayui Ikusuke in 1987. It's here where we get another glimpse of how the 'unreliable narrator' works: while Ayui is almost fanatical in being accurate and truthtful in his account, as he thinks that is the best way to show how much of an amazing detective Mizuki was, Ayui does have to let his imagination do the work when it comes to portraying the people other than himself in his book. When in Isurugi goes interviewing the people involved in the case 14 years later, we see that Ayui often didn't get things quite right in his book, creating slight gaps between reality and his reconstruction of the case and the people involved. For example, in Ayui's book, he decided to use one of the visiting students as the main narrator, but the real "him" differs from the fictional one in quite a few ways. It's of course up to Isurugi, and the reader, to figure out whether these little discrepencies relate to what really went on 14 years ago, and whether Mizuki got the right killer or not.

Ultimately, I think the book's merits also lie in how these various narratives (Alzheimer/Isurugi/Ayui) intertwine, and the truth hidden between the web spun between these three that makes Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi an interesting mystery novel, The actual murder itself, and the clues leading up to resolving that, are not as interesting as seeing what is really hiding within Ayui's The Ptyx House Affair and learning how the narrator with Alzheimer links up with Isurugi's investigation and what these threads all actually mean. It's hard to explain precisely what this book does well, because that does go a bit too much into spoiler territory, but I can safely recommend this as a well-structured mystery novel. The only caveat I could have is simply the fact I feel nothing for Stéphane Mallarmé, and obviously, they do talk about him and his work a lot in The Ptyx House Affair

The bunko pocket version of Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi includes the direct sequel Shikimi/Muro ("Anise/Juniper"), originally released in 2002. These are two interconnected short stories, with an interesting title convention: if you take out the "tree" radical from the kanji of either title (Shikimi and Muro), you end up with the word misshitsu, or "locked room". And thus both stories are about locked room mysteries. Shikimi ("Anise") is a story written by Ayui Ikusuke and details a case he and Mizuki had while visiting a small town with hot springs, as they had been invited to the hotel run someone they had become acquainted during a previous adventure. Ayui and Mizuki learn about a local legend telling a Tengu (a bird-like goblin) used to live here and that he had dropped his axe: the axe is enshrined in a local shinto shrine. Lately, the priest claims he saw the Tnegu with its long nose on Tengu's Hill in the night. What sounds like a tall story, turns into a creepy seed of doubt when one night, one of the guests won't come out of his room. They try to unlock the door with the master key, but the door is latched from the inside. When they finally break into the room, they find the guest lying dead on his bed, having been hit fatally with... the Tengu's axe.

Muro ("Juniper") is set 14 years later and follows Isurugi Gisaku, as he goes visit an old friend who runs a certain hotel in a town with hot springs... Isurugi actually lived in this town for a short period fourteen years ago to prepare for his school entrance exams, though he had left the day Mizuki and Ayui solved the locked room mystery in the hotel. His friend had been working part-time in the hotel at the time, and later married the proprietor. Isurugi is glad to see his old friend, though the wife is seemingly not so happy to have her husband's friend staying at the hotel as a guest (any hopes for a discount are soon thrown away as soon as Isurugi meets the wife). History seemingly repeats itself when a student reports to the reception his professor won't respond to knocks on his door. The professor had been a guest 14 years ago too and all of this soon sparks fears into all that were here too then, so after confirming the door is indeed latched from inside, they force the door open again... only to find the room empty. The professor later appears, saying he had gone out drinking, but who then had latched his door from the inside?

Both stories feature fairly simple tricks for their locked rooms, but the way the two stories intertwine, one set in the past and the other in the present, is good. Some things in Shikimi take on a different meaning when you have read Muro, and the trick in Muro definitely benefits from having read Shikimi first. These stories do really feel like a set, and while they are short and quite lite, I did enjoy them, espcecially as an extension of Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi, as it once again plays with past/present narratives.

So overall, I really enjoyed Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi and its sequel Shikimi/Muro. They provide fun takes on familiar mystery tropes which allow for some pondering on the genre conventions, while at the same time, they are actually written in a very accessible manner, being very easy reads. I do recommend reading Shikimi/Muro together with Kagami no Naka wa Nichiyoubi though, as they are really too lite on their own (which would explain why they are published as one single book nowadays). Anyway, I will be reading more of Shunou soon!

Original Japanese title(s): 殊能将之『鏡の中は日曜日』/『樒 / 榁』 

Turnabout Memories - Part 15

 "I have to go over everything that's happened. I have to remember"  

Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories

 

Another year has passed, so it's time for the annual recap post. It's been another hectic year, so while I have managed to keep posting my (at least) one post a week, I haven't really been able to do editorial posts, and don't get me started on game-related reviews... Fortunately, I never run out of mystery novels and short stories to discuss, so while some media may not have seen much attention on this blog, I think I've managed to highlight quite a few interesting books this year. I've also managed to have some great mystery-related experiences outside the blog this year, for example attending the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony for the first time in my life. I have been a member for years, but never managed to actually attend the ceremony because of simply not being in Japan when the ceremony is held, but this year, I finally managed to have a look and I met a lot of authors I've been reading for so many years now like Ooyama Seiichirou, and I also managed to meet a few of the authors whose work I've translated like Imamura Masahiro and Norizuki Rintarou. I'm also happy to say the Honkaku Discord server has recently seen its third birthday, and thanks to the wonderful people there, it's grown to a place where everyone can discuss Japanese mystery fiction (and horror) and participate in community projects like book clubs and guess-the-culprit games. So come and take a look inside the server if you're interested in Japanese mystery fiction! Anyway, 2026 is coming up soon, but don't expect much to change on this blog: I'll just be writing about (mostly) Japanese detective stories here, both old and new, and with a bit of luck, sometimes also announce something about my translation work! Have a nice Christmas and a great new year!

The Best Project Outside The Blog! In 2025!

The Clock House Murders

Another year, and fortunately, I was able to translate another book! The Clock House Murders by Ayatsuji Yukito is the fourth book released in English in the successful series about murders happening in strange, creepy houses designed by the same architect and it's perhaps my favorite of the series. In a way, it feels a bit like a new take on The Decagon House Murders, but with a lot more slasher horror segments added as Ayatsuji had released a few horror novels in the meantime. The grand trick behind the murders is absolutely fantastic and one of my all-time favorites. Ayatsuji is particularly proud of this book and he had wanted to see it published in English for some time now: before the English release of The Labyrinth House Murders had been decided on, he had suggested perhaps going straight to The Clock House Murders in case The Labyrinth House Murders would prove troublesome in terms of translation. Ayatsuji would win the Mystery Writers of Japan Award with this book and next February, the live-action adaptation will release on Hulu in Japan. If you haven't read the book yet, please do! While the UK release was earlier this year, readers in the US have to wait until next year though.

And as it's already listed on some sites, it's not really a secret anymore, but you can expect the next book in the series too somewhere next year... 

Best Premise! Seen in 2025!

Momiji no Nishiki ("Breathtaking Red Leaves") 

A lot of the books I read, especially of authors I haven't read yet, are picked because of some alluring premise. From the premise of witches and time travel in Minami Asov's Eigoukan Chourenzoku Satsujn Jiken - Majo wa X to Shinu Koto ni Shita ("The Super Serial Murder Case at the House of Eternity - The Witch Chose To Die With X"), a murder mystery where both the victim and the suspects has been in a thousand-year cryogenic sleep in Sennen no Whodunnit ("A Millenial Whodunnit"), to murders commited on a space station, mystic murders in medieval China, or a hospital with detectives as doctors: they all have story set-ups that sound interesting on their own. So it might surprise I picked an otherwise very "plain" story as the tale with the best premise I read this year: Maya Yutaka's Momiji no Nishiki ("Breathtaking Red Leaves") is a short story that's just about a murder that occurs in a mountain town with hot springs, which is basically the description of every other mystery story, but Maya adds a brilliant twist at the end of the first part of the story, a twist that is both soooo simple and yet so ingenious: while the premise of the story, as a guess-the-culprit scenario, is to guess who the culprit is based on the hints provided, the first part of the story does not actually show who the victim is! So the reader not only has to deduce who the culprit is, they have to deduce who the victim is first! It's such a great premise for the puzzle and Maya ends up presenting a very elegantly constructed short story. 

Most Infuriating Timetable! In 2025!

Mokusei no Ouji ("The Wooden Prince")

 

And as I just explained above, Maya Yutaka is almost never a straight-forward author. He plays with the tropes of the genre, makes fun of them and takes them to their oddest extremes. In Mokusei no Ouji, he goes far with the classic alibi-deconstruction story, presenting the reader with a devilish puzzle with not only a house with an insanely complex layout, but also an extremely detailed timetable that denotes the movements of all the suspects down to the minute as they all wander through the maze-like house. The result is a timetable that is absolutely infuriating to behold, but in a good way, as you know Maya has something in store for you by presenting you with such an odd puzzle.

Silliest Cover! Seen in 2025!

Noto no Misshitsu - Kanazawa Hatsu 15ji 45pun no Shisha ("The Locked Room in Noto - The Dead Leaving Kanazawa at 15:45", 1992).

I mean, no contest, right? The thing is, I honestly don't see the connection between the cover and the actual contents of the book. Sure, there's a woman in the book, but I'm pretty sure there was no giant hand in the story, nor a thumb growing out of the woman's face. And it's not like the actual art is bad either. It's just that the actual topic of the picture is so... weird, and not related to the book. I mean, I would've understood it if the hand was made to look like a train, because trains play an important role in the story, but as it is now... Well, it's memorable, at least.

Best Porn Mystery! Read in 2025!

Marina Mystery File

In general, I aim to discuss the mystery genre on this blog, and I don't really have any rules regarding form (medium) or hybrid genres, as log as there's an interesting mystery plot at the core. However, it was a coincidence I happened to discuss two forms of porn mystery earlier this year. Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri ("Molester Train: Seiko's Tush", 1985) was a softcore porn film in a long-running series, directed by someone who would go on to win an Oscar and I had known for years it also contained a locked room murder mystery which authors like Yamaguchi Masaya and Abiko Takemaru lauded. Marina Mystery File (1997-1999) was a manga that came under my attention thanks to manga artist and critic Nemoto Shou, about a teacher who manages to solve gruesome murder cases whenever she's thoroughly stimulated. While I think the locked room murder in Seiko no Oshiri is far more original and more complex than the plots we see in Marina Mystery File, I still think the latter is better as a porn mystery, in the sense the "sex" is integrated better in the mystery plots. Not always mind you, but in Seiko no Oshiri, the locked room murder feels completely unrelated to the sexy bits, while Marina Mystery File at least has some stories where the nudity and sex is actually connected meaningfully to the mystery plot.

Best Post I Accidentally Deleted And Had To Rewrite Completely! In 2025!

No winner.

Another year without casualties! Yay! *knocks on wood*

The Just-Ten-In-No-Particular-Order-No-Comments List

- Sekai de Ichiban Sukitootta Monogatari (The World's Clearest Story) (Sugii Hikaru)

- Kokumen no Kitsune ("The Black-Faced Kitsune")  Mitsuda Shinzou)

- Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God") (Kitayama Takekuni)

- Setsudantou no Satsuriku Riron (The Genocide Theories in the Mutilation Island) (Mori Akimaro)

- Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi ("The Count and the Three Coffins") (Shiotani Ken)

- Mokusei no Ouji ("The Wooden Prince") (Maya Yutaka)

- Yogen no Shima ("The Island of the Prophecy") (Sawamura Ichi) 

- Sennen no Whodunnit ("A Millenial Whodunnit") (Asane Juuji) 

- Momiji no Nishiki ("Breathtaking Red Leaves") (Maya Yutaka)

- Konrondo ("The Kunlun Slave") (Koizumi Kajuu)