When the Cicada Calls

"The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."

"Revelation 8:7" (King James vers.)

I've never been invited by vague acquaintances to come to a remote island, but I'm pretty sure I'd never accept the invitation, because odds are I'm going to either get killed, or at the very least have a horrible few days with everybody around me dying.

The eight months that have passed since the horrible events that occured in her family home the Glory Manor have given Manami the time to move on with her life. She became friends with the freelance photographer Kanou Erika when Erika visited the Glory Manor to take pictures of the stately building and Erika decided to hire Manami as a temporary assistant. The two are headed for Komura, a small private island off the coast of F(ukuoka) and S(aga). The island is the home of the beautiful twins Ichinose Saori and Kaori. Gigantic cliffs surround the whole island, with only a small inlet allowing access to land. Most of the island is covered by a thick forest, but the hollow clearing in the center and the small hill there offer space to both the Ichinose home and a small chapel. Most people would find this island inconvenient, but not for the parents of the twins: their mother in particular was an extreme devout follower of the Roman-Catholic Church and believed truly that the Apocalypse would come: the island was where her family would await the End of the World. Saori and Kaori were both brought up with these ideas from her mother and had barely seen anything of the world outside the island, until their mother died. Kaori went to study art for a while in Tokyo, but returned to the island suddenly. But now she has sent invitations to seven people she met during her time in Tokyo, and one of the invitees is Erika, who decides to drag Manami along. It turns out that one of the seven invited guests couldn't make it, making Manami the seventh guest.

A small motorboat has been prepared to bring the party in several trips across to Komura Island, making Manami, Erika and a college student the first group to reach the island. As they arrive at the peer, they can make out the silhouette of Saori or Kaori far off, but she disappears immediately. When the three arrive at the house, they find a note from Saori welcoming them, and saying that she had to get out for a minute and will be right back. But neither Kaori nor Saori show themselves even after the remaining guests have been brought over from the mainland, so the seven guests decide to explore the house. In Saori's room they stumble upon a letter addressed to them, vowing to avenge what they did to Kaori and prompting them to take a look in the freezer in the kitchen. Inside the freezer, they find the horrifying, yet dazzling sight of the frozen corpse of Kaori, gently positioned in a praying pose. The guests realize this isn't just some joke, but the phone lines are cut and the boat to pick them up won't come until a few days. They suspect Saori is still somewhere on this island and hope they can reason with her, but decide to rest for the night. The smell of smoke wakes the guests during the night however and when they trace the source to the garden, they find the burned corpse of one of the guests, with a miniature trumpet stabbed in their chest. One of them realizes this is a reference to the Apocalypse as described in The Book of Revelation, when the angel would sound the trumpet seven times, signifying another apocalyptic event each time. As time ticks on, more and more victims fall in ways that invoke Revelation, but the hunt for the murderous Saori remains fruitless. Several days later, the police act on an anonymous call and arrive at the island, only to find six bodies and an unconscious Manami, who somehow survived the onslaught. She contacts Father Sakura again, as she hopes he can provide answers again in Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of the House of the Remote Island, 1998).

Last week I reviewed the first volume/story in the short The Case Notes of Father Sakura series, noting it was an enjoyable mystery story with a genuine Challenge to the Reader, a tale that should especially appeal to readers of Kindaichi Shounen as it had several thematic similarities. I also wrote I was going to read the second volume soon, which I definitely did: this review may be posted a week later, but I read the second volume the night after I read the first. Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken originally started serialization in Afternoon in August 1997 and was later compiled into a single volume in 1998. It's quite lengthy too, more than 300 pages compared to the 250 pages of the first volume, which is one of the more notable similarities it has with Kindaichi Shounen, which also features relatively long stories in comparison to other mystery manga.

Anyway, last time we had a locked room murder in a creepy manor, this time we have an And Then There Were None-inspired story, with a closed circle situation on a remote island with only one house and a chapel on it. The story follows Manami as she experiences the horror in Komura Island and in general, the story makes for an interesting pair together with the first volume. Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken had a plot that took its time to build things up and there were only two murders (and the second occurs quite late too), but we have a lot more deaths in this one. It shouldn't surprise you that this volume is a lot more thrilling to read, with all the gruesome murders patterned after Revelation, and the suspicions of the characters flying all over the place, never sure whether their opponent is Saori, one of their own or perhaps someone completely different. As the number of survivors dwindle, the remaining characters obviously start to harbor doubts against each other, resulting in the tense climax which ultimately leaves Manami the only living survivor on the island. This story is about a hundred pages longer than Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken, but it certainly never feels like it's too long.

That said, one can make the argument that a lot of Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken feels far too familiar. Most of the murders committed could've been anyone's work, whether by Saori or one of the remaining survivors, so for a long time, the plot is "simply" about the deaths, giving the reader little material from where they have to deduce the truth. For most of the time, this just feels exactly like And Then There Were None (where most murders 'just' happened and could've been committed by anyone), only here we have Revelation as the theme instead of a nursery rhyme. Now I think back to The Decagon House Murders and The Jellyfish Never Freezes, which are both also And Then There Were None-inspired stories, and realize they manage to avoid the same pitfall by using a dual narrative structure (disclosure: I translated The Decagon House Murders etc. etc.). The Decagon House Murders juggles between chapters set on the island and the mainland, while The Jellyfish Never Freezes juggles between chapters set before and after the murders. That allows for more depth and diversity in the story and while not every And Then There Were None-inspired story can benefit from such a dual narrative structure, having something to differentiate it from the same core plot structure can definitely help.

After the dust has settled, Manami is visited by Father Sakura in the hospital, who is told all the events as experienced by Manami and the reader too is challenged to solve the murders and figure out who killed the six victims on the island. It's a shame that this riddle is relatively easy to solve because one scene in the story stands out: the exact same thing happened with Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken. While not nearly as obvious as in the first Father Sakura story, one early scene in this volume does point to a specific group within the characters mentioned throughout the story and after a while, you'll soon realize only one character within that group can be the murderer. After that, it's not hard to reverse-engineer all the murders, as like I mentioned, most of the murders could've been committed by most characters. It's definitely a fair mystery though (fit for a mystery story with a formal Challenge to the Reader) and I do like it that there are a few more hints dropped throughout the story that point to this character as the culprit, which are actually more subtle/cleverer than the primary one, and the way you have to combine a certain early event with a very late event to arrive at the definitive answer is also well-plotted. In terms of the "model answer" of how to solve the case, the process in Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken is more impressive, while as a story, Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken is a far more gripping experience, also when talking about the background story.

But I had fun with Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken too, so it's kinda a shame I'm already through the complete The Case Notes of Father Sakura series! I wonder why writer Aoki and artist Ogawa only did two stories, as in terms of quality, it's been a fairly consistent and amusing ride and I would've loved to see more of Manami and Father Sakura. I liked the apocalyptic imagery of this volume and I can only imagine what this series would've been if it had delved more into the more occult side of the Bible as a theme for the murders! Anyway, I guess I'm back to finding more mystery manga gems in Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar. 

Original Japanese title(s): 青木吾郎 (原）, 小川 幸辰（画)『桜神父の事件ノート (2) 孤島館殺人事件』