The Stolen Turnabout

「いや、奴はとんでもないものを盗んでいきました。あなたの心です」

『ルパン三世　カリオストロの城』

"No, he did manage to steal something very precious. Your heart."

"Lupin III - The Castle of Cagliostro"

It's been a while since I did a review of a short story collection, let alone one where I actually discuss all of the stories!

Resort towns across Japan have been hit by a nasty series of jewel thefts lately and all of the incidents all have one thing in common: the capers, some of them committed in what seems to be impossible circumstances, were all done with both genius and audacity, which has led to the police's conclusion the thefts were all committed by one and the same person. This thief is indicated with the codename S79 in the police files and a special task unit was formed to investigate, and capture S79. Just like how Lupin had his Ganimard, S79 has to watch out for inspector Tougou and his subordinate Ninomiya, who see S79 as their arch-enemy and will stop at nothing to capture the brilliant thief. Awasaka Tsumao's Youtou S79-Gou ("Phantom Thief S79", 1987) collects all twelve of the S79 short stories with impossible capers and more.

Awasaka Tsumao (1933-2009) should be a familiar name on this blog now. The mystery author and stage magician has written some of Japan's finest mystery stories, from the wonderful A Aiichirou  short stories (many of the A Aiichirou stories rank among the best impossible shorts from Japan), while I have also been enjoying his novels as of late, with 11 Mai no Trump being a true gem in the genre. Youtou S79-Gou marks a return to his short stories for me, though I have to remark that Youtou S79-Gou is a linked short story collection, like Yamada Fuutarou used to write them: while the short stories (originally published between 1979-1987) can be read apart, the best experience is gained by reading them in order, as they are actually interlinked and there are often references made to events from earlier stories or characters reappearing.

Youtou S79-Gou is also a remarkably varied short story collection. In essence, the S79 stories are 'phantom thief' stories in the spirit of the Arsène Lupin stories, with the focus lying on the mystery of how S79 manages to pull off some of these fantastic thefts, though there are also some interesting differences with what you'd usually expect from such a collection. For example, there is no one single detective character in this series. S79 always manages to escape with the loot, but the character who eventually figures out how the theft was committed is not limited to only police detectives Tougou or Ninomiya: a character who only appears in that one particular story is just as likely to solve the impossible crime. The stories aren't all (impossible) capers either: many of them are 'traditional' howdunnits, but there are some screwballs there too, and some of the impossible capers become really impossible to solve if you focus only on the impossible aspect.

The collection starts with three fairly traditional howdunnit capers. In Ruby wa Hi ("Ruby is Fire"), we first learn about the thief S79 when a ruby is stolen at a small beach at a resort, with only a few people on the beach. Inspector Tougou and Ninomiya had been watching the place all the time, so while they don't know who S79 is, they know that one of the people present on the beach must be the thief. They figure that a simple body search should solve the problem of S79, but to their surprise, nobody is possession of the ruby, so how did S79 get rid of it? While the solution is simple, it's also very cleverly clued, and there's even a good fake solution! Ikiteita Kaseki ("The Living Fossil") is the direct sequel to the previous story, as Inspector Tougou is still convinced one of the people on the beach was S79. He has invited all of them to a exhibition featuring an extremely rare seashell, hoping that he'll tempt S79 into trying to steal the shell. The seashell is kept inside a glass display, watched by guards and with an alarm that'll go off the instant somebody touches the glass. And yet, the seashell disappears from the watching eyes of the guards, the policemen and other visitors! The solution is highly original, but also highly unlikely to be succesful in real life.  Sapphire no Sora ("Sapphire Sky") has S79 help a young girl stage a fake kidnapping, as the girl doesn't like her stepmother. She only wants to see her stepmother suffer, so she asks for her sapphire as the ransom money and wants to see it fly away into the sky tied to a balloon. S79 can keep the sapphire if the thief can figure out how to retrieve the balloon. But even with policemen tracking the balloon the moment it is released from the top of a temple, S79 manages to do the impossible: the container tied to the balloon holding the sapphire only has a thank you letter from S79! This is an ingeniously plotted impossible situation, which had a great piece of misdirection, but also some minor points which make the whole trick a bit less practical than you'd think. Still a surprising good story.

The following four stories are not all howdunnits, and are perhaps more surprising in seeing how more obsessed Tougou is becoming with S79, imagining the thief behind everything. In Koushinmaru Ibun ("The Curious Tale of the Koushinmaru"), Tougou and Ninomiya received tickets for a New Year's performance of a "hyper-realistic" performance of the kabuki play Sannnin Kichisa. The performance is hyper-realistic, so the actors not only speak normal dialogue instead of 'theater dialogue', they also all speak "realistically" (i.e. not loud so the audience can actually hear them), and other elements like their hairstyles and even the fights are done 'hyper-realistically'. Near the end of the play though, Tougou suddenly announces to the whole audience S79 is in the theater! The mystery lies in how Tougou figured out that S79 was connected in any way to this play, and the solution is brilliant. This story is similar to many of the A Aiichirou stories, where you'd never even suspect you're reading a mystery story until it's suddenly set loose upon you and you see how much foreshadowing there was. Kiiroi Yaguramasou ("Yellow Cornflowers") has Tougou and Ninomiya set a trap for S79 during an elementary school's sports competition, as they know a necklace the thief stole is hidden in the school garden. The way S79 manages to get away with the necklace is brilliant, and incredibly funny. In Moebius Bijutsukan ("The Moebius Museum"), two museums receive letters from S79 that some paintings will be stolen, and despite Tougou and Ninomiya making their rounds in the museum, S79 does manages to get away with the paintings. This is a very tricky story, as there are several plot-lines running simultaneously, but the way in which the thief manages to fool Tougou and Ninomiya in order to steal the painting is brilliant, yet very, very impractical, as it's unlikely nobody would've noticed (as there were other visitors in the museum). By Mizunotototori Kumi 129537 ("Water Rooster -  129537"), Tougou is really seeing S79 everywhere, as he suspects with no real reason that the thief will try to cash in on a lottery using a proxy representative. A suspicious figure does appear who wants all the money cash, but no matter how hard they look, the lottery ticket Water Rooster -  129537 seems genuine, and the man leaves with the money. The policemen tail him, but a simple, but smart trick shakes the men off. The way how S79 managed to get the lottery money is devilishly simple, yet effective, though in no way could it ever work in the modern day and age. There's a nice piece of misdirection too.

In the following three stories, S79's targets are rare pieces of art and while they are technically impossible capers, you aren't likely to solve them by focusing on the impossibilities, as the solutions require some very out-of-the-box thinking. Kurosagi no Chawan ("The Black Heron Tea Cup"), Nanpo no Yuurei ("The Ghost of Nanpo") and Himouji no Kannnonzou ("The Kannon Statue of Himou Temple") are similar in the sense that a piece of antique art manages to disappear from a place under observation. Kurosagi no Chawan is interesting as this caper happens within Ninomiya's home. The theft is a bit simple, but there's an interesting subplot running too that makes the thing more complex and entertaining. The other two stories hinge upon a similar idea actually, but you'll never recognize that in time, and the way these pieces of art managed to disappear is absolutely stunning. 

The collection ends with S79-Gou no Taiho ("The Arrest of S79") and Tougou Keishi no Hanamichi ("The Crowning Achievement of Superintendent Tougou"). In S79-Gou no Taiho, Tougou and Ninomiya travel to France, as it appears S79 has been active in Paris for some months now. S79's latest target was an art piece in the possession of the Sernine (ha!) family. While Ninomiya recognizes the Japanese woman visiting the Sernine family as their main S79 suspect, she still manages to walk off with a priceless piece of art due to a brilliant piece of misdirection. A very surprising story, as besides the theft, there's another very clever trick pulled by a different person. The S79 series ends with Tougou Keishi no Hanamichi, which isn't a mystery story per se, but it has Tougou finally figuring out who S79 really is and gives a happy ending to the story (complete with everyone from previous stories appearing again).
  
Youtou S79-Gou is a very good, at times absolutely excellent short story collection that manages to mix brilliant originality with very humorous characters. While some of the tricks are arguably repeated within this collection, Awasaka is very good at redressing these tricks into completely different ideas, with different results and new surprises. There's also a lot of variety within these stories, from normal capers to kidnappings to stories that only reveal themselves to be proper mystery stories at the very end. While I'd say the A Aiichirou shorts are still the best I've read from Awasaka, Youtou S79-Gou is certainly worth the read.

Original Japanese title(s): 泡坂妻夫 『妖盗S79号』：「ルビーは火」/「生きていた化石」/「サファイアの空」/「庚申丸異聞」/「黄色いヤグルマソウ」/「メビウス美術館」/「癸酉組一二九五三七番」/「黒鷺の茶碗」/ 「南畝の幽霊」/「桧毛寺の観音像」/「S79号の逮捕」/ 「東郷警視の花道」