Danger in Disguise

The clouds are heavy.

- Yes, a storm is approaching.

"The Valley of Fear"

It was late last year when I finally read Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead", 2017) and like the legends said, it was a highly entertaining, and cleverly written mystery novel that utilized a completely unique, supernatural background setting to not only create a closed circle situation, but also allow for lines of reasoning otherwise not possible. I also reviewed the sequel released early this year (which was great too), but in terms of popularity, it's (obviously) still the first novel that attracts most attention. Its success was not confined to the novel form: Shijinsou no Satsujin has not only seen a manga adaptation, as earlier this week (to be exact, two days ago) the live-action movie was also released in Japanese theatres. I'm dying to see this movie, as on top of the killer source material, both the director and the screenplay writer turn out to be people who have worked extensively on the drama TRICK (a personal favorite), and that distinct rapid-fire comedic tone of that series is also very noticable in the trailer for the movie.

A special prequel/prologue story to Shijinsou no Satsujin was released on the same day as the live-action film premiere, available in either issue 98 of the magazine Mysteries! or as e-book. As a fan, I obviously had to read this as soon as possible. Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead Episode 0- Akechi Kyousuke: Neither His First nor His Final Case" 2019) is set about four months before the events of Shijinsou no Satsujin, in late April. It's been only a few weeks since Hamura Yuzuru started his life at Shinkou University and has become a member of the Shinkou University Mystery Society (not to be confused with the Mystery Club). The club only has two members: Hamura, and the club president Akechi Kyousuke, a great admirer of detectives who has also solved a few cases himself on campus, earning him the reputation of "the Holmes of Shinkou". Akechi is hired by the university's Cosplay Club to investigate a certain incident. In a corner of the campus stands the old "box" building, which currently houses the Cosplay Club, a newly established university club officially affiliated with the university's design faculty. A few nights earlier, the campus guard noticed a suspicious light inside, and when he went inside to check, he found an unconscious burglar lying on the floor. The man was of course arrested, but he claims he was busy looking for something to steal, when someone else entered the building, who assaulted him and knocked him out. While nobody believes the burglar, the Cosplay Club still wants Akechi to investigate the case thoroughly, as the supervising teacher of the club is really fussy and might even close the club if the whole thing doesn't get sorted out.

For the situation is somewhat baffling. In the end, nothing was stolen from the building, as it was mostly used as a spot to hang out by the members of the Cosplay Club (the actual costumes are usually kept at the design faculty) and the money box was even left untouched. But there are indications the burglar may have been telling the truth about another intruder: not only were his gloves missing, some person had also wiped the handles of the doors upstairs clean for some reason, but not those on the ground floor. What reason could the second intruder have to go inside the building if not to steal anything? As the investigation continues, Hamura learns in his very first case that playing detective isn't as easy as the books make it out.

Obviously, this story is a bit different from the two full-length novels in this series (which, vexingly, doesn't really have an official series title yet), as this story does not feature any supernatural elements in any way. It is therefore a fairly normal, orthodox puzzle plot mystery in terms of setting. And while it's a pretty short story, it's also a very well-constructed mystery, one that follows the same type of logical reasoning you also see in the novels. There are enough indications that show a second intruder was there that night, so the problem revolves around the questions what the motive was of this second intruder, as while they did attack the other burglar, nothing was stolen. Guessing exactly what the intruder wanted to do might be a bit difficult just based on those clues, though I have read a different short mystery story, also in a school setting, that basically had the same idea (though executed very differently), and that made it easier to guess what was going on. What's a lot more fun is the subsequent process of guessing who this second intruder was: the elimination process is very simply, but elegant, and completely fair. Once you realize why it was done, all the set-up until then make it brilliantly clear who must've done it, and I like how Imamura also built in an extra little step to show how the culprit could be caught.

I also liked the story a lot as an academic mystery/campus-set story.  Clubs and circles are a pretty important element of university culture in Japan, and there are many mystery stories too that involve them (you may remember I have translated a few that also featured them), but I don't think I've ever seen a cosplay club mentioned/used extensively as a setting in a mystery story before (you do often seen anime/manga/cosplay clubs in err, anime and manga about university clubs). And one moment in particular makes brilliant use of the fact that this is indeed a mystery plot set at a university, and while in hindsight, it's oh-so obvious and nothing remarkable at all, the realization work really well because it's very likely you'll not think of it yourself until it's mentioned and then you see how even the most mundane and trivial specifics of a university campus can be used in a mystery plot.

Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken is a very short tale that perhaps doesn't show off what made the two novels so unique and exciting, but on its own, it's without a doubt also an entertaining piece. It's a cleverly structured puzzle considering the page count, and its competence in mystery combined with the actual character interaction (the fairly light tone of the narration) do give you an idea of what to expect of the novels featuring the Shinkou University Mystery Club.

Original Japanese title(s): 「〈屍人荘の殺人〉エピソード０　明智恭介　最初でも最後でもない事件」