Sunday, September 7, 2014

番外編: The Lure of the Green Door

This is probably the second time in the history of this blog that a post features a title that isn't a reference and lacks an introducing quote. The first time was an announcement that I had written the introduction to Kurodahan's release of Edogawa Rampo's The Fiend with Twenty Faces.

And as you have probably guessed, this is another service announcement. Readers of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine might have noticed that the November 2014 issue (on sale now in September) features a story by Norizuki Rintarō in the Passport to Crime section. The Lure of the Green Door is a wonderful and fairly humorous locked room murder mystery featuring Norizuki Rintarō, a writer / amateur detective, who happens to be dragged into the case as he was researching a new book / trying to hit on the librarian. As many of the best locked room short stories, the solution is surprisingly simple, but elegant and The Lure of the Green Door is a very well regarded bibliophilic impossible crime story in Japan.

And I had the pleasure of being the story's translator. Some might remember that I had posted an older version of the translation here many, many moons ago. But after an extensive overhaul of the text by me and the force that is John Pugmire of Locked Room International (who came up with the idea of submitting the story to EQMM and also adapted the story), we finally got The Lure of the Green Door published. It's not the first story by Norizuki  Rintarō available in an English translation, but hopefully, it won't be the last either.

And yes, schemes are designed and plans are made for future releases. But that's a tale for another day.

11 comments :

  1. Just wanted to warn you guys that 4 novels of Edogawa Ranpo are to be released this fall

    http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/jp0064cate.html.html

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    1. Thanks, but I was already aware of that for quite some time now. They're short stories by the way, not novels. Fun stuff too.

      I usually don't report on news of upcoming translations etc. on this blog because I want to focus on 'just' the stories themselves (unless I'm involved with a publication, like with "The Lure of the Green Door"), but I do usually keep an eye on these things. Also, it would be kinda unnecessary for me to do so, because Dokuta over at the Asia Mystery League keeps up a very detailed list of recently published translations, and announced/upcoming translations of Japanese mystery novels and while the site is in Japanese, the list and links on the halfway point of the page should speak for itself.

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  2. And a fine translation it was, too. Here's to many more

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  3. Can you tell me what these books are?

    "2015年X月:【英訳】米国の小出版社「Locked Room Internatinal」より島田荘司『斜め屋敷の犯罪』と『切り裂きジャック・百年の孤独』の英訳が発売?"

    "
    201X年X月:【英訳】桐野夏生『IN』の英訳"In"発売予定。(以前はamazonで2015年5月発売予定とされていたが、発売日の表示がなくなった。中止?)"

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    1. It's talking about (uncertain) future releases of Japanese mystery novels in English (so I can't say anything about whether they're really coming or not).

      Somewhere 2015: Shimada Soji's "The Crime at the Slanted Mansion" and "Jack the Ripper - Hundred Years of Solitude" by LRI
      201X: Kirino Natsuo's "IN" (which appears on Amazon, but without a proper release date)

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    2. what is the jack the ripper novel about?

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    3. Dunno, haven't read the book. I guess it's about JTR...

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  4. Congrats Ho-Ling!

    Any easy way to add this Ellery Queen edition to my physical collection?


    Origami

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    1. Sorry for the late reply.

      I'm afraid it won't be easy. It's been out for a year now and I don't think that many "regular" shops keep their physical stock of older EQMMs. I think you'll have to look for specialist stores or second-hand stores.

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