"Unagi is a total state of awareness, only by achieving true unagi can you be prepared for any danger that may befall you."
"Friends"
One of my favorite reads last year was Shirodaira Kyou's 2011 novel Kyokou Suiri, which carries both Invented Inference and In/Spectre as its official English titles. In a way, the novel reminded me of the work of authors like Christianna Brand and Anthony Berkeley, as Invented Inference was also about multiple false solutions and a challenge to the notion of one truth, which are themes that come up in the novels by the aforementioned writers. But Invented Inference went far, far beyond what Brand and Berkeley ever dared, and Invented Inference was also a great example of show how the supernatural can be incorporated in a fair-play mystery plot, as well as a good example of showing that a good mystery story really doesn't need to revolve exclusively around the pattern of murder/other criminal case and the subsequent search for the truth. When she was a child, Iwanaga Kotoko was chosen by youkai (all kinds of supernatural beings, spirits, etc.) to become their Deity of Wisdom: with her sharp mind, she would help these supernatural beings whenever they were in trouble they themselves couldn't solve, acting as arbitrator and detective. In the first Invented Inference novel, Kotoko had to face the fearsome Steel Lady Nanase: the powerful ghost of a deceased idol singer who was being a danger for both humans and other supernatural beings. She was powered by the belief in the urban legend of the Steel Lady Nanase, making her nearly unstoppable as stories about her spread across the internet.The only way to stop Steel Lady Nanase was to weaken the belief in her existence, and it's here where Invented Inference showed its brilliance. For while it was actually the truth that a ghost was going around causing trouble, Kotoko had to come up with an elaborate lie (an invented inference) that would explain all the supernatural events that had happened in a non-supernatural manner. Ultimately, the novel wasn't about finding out the truth (in fact, Kotoko knew what the truth was because some spirits already told her everything), but about cooking up a lie that was even more alluring than the truth. Invented Inference thus showed what people fundamentally like about mystery novels: it was a story based on logical reasoning, but it also provided a (false) truth that was entertaining.
Though I'll be honest and say that not all the stories are gold. The very short Unagiya no Kouunbi ("A Lucky Day At The Unagi Restaurant") for example feels more like a short horror story to introduce Kotoko to new readers, almost like a The Twilight Zone story. The story is set inside an unagi (Japanese eel) restaurant, where Kajio Takaya and Juujuji Ryoutarou, two old friends, are having a meal. The two hadn't seen each other ever since Kajio's wife was murdered by a street robber six months earlier. When they notice a young-looking girl, beautiful but almost inhuman-looking, sitting all alone in the restaurant, the two start a little game of deduction to guess why a girl like her would be in a restaurant like this on her own, as it's not the type of restaurant even they would go alone to considering the prices and atmosphere. As they pile up their ideas about her presence here however, Ryoutarou slowly moves the discussion to a daring accusation. There's little 'real' deduction here though, as most of what we see here are fancy guesses at best. Weirdly enough, this is the second story in the volume, even though it'd work much better as the introduction story, showing us Kotoko from a third person's view before we get into the stories with more prounounced supernatural elements.
The first story for example, Nushi no Orochi wa Kiiteita ("The Lord Orochi Heard"), is one of the best stories in the volume, making great use of the supernatural to provide a unique problem for Kotoko to solve. An anime television series based on the first novel was broadcast at the start of this year, but it also included an adaptation of this particular story. Kotoko is asked by Lord Orochi (a Great Snake) of Mt. Chikuna to provide the answer to a problem that's been bugging him. One month earlier, a corpse was found in the swamp on Mt. Chikuna by some mushroom hunters. It didn't take long to identify the corpse as Yoshihara Hiroo, who worked at a construction company. The arrest of Tanio Aoi followed soon. Five years ago, her boyfriend had committed suicide together with another woman, because he had embezzled money from the company. It appears Yoshihara had actually been the real culprit, and he had killed Aoi's boyfriend (a colleague) to take the fall. He felt regret now and had confessed it all to Aoi, who had then killed him in a rage. Yoshihara's body was thrown in the swamp of Mt. Chikuna, right behind Aoi's own home. Lord Orochi actually saw Aoi dumping the body in the swamp, so there's no doub that the police got the right person, but there's one thing that bothers the Great Snake: after Aoi had thrown the body in the swamp, she was overheard muttering "I hope they find him quickly" by Lord Orochi. But why would she carry a dead body all the way up the mountain to dump it in a swamp, if on the other hand she hopes it will be found soon? What follows is a great story of invented inferences, where Kotoko has to come up with an explanation for the seemingly contradicting actions of Aoi. The brilliance is of course is that this situation is only possible because we're taking about spirits here: Lord Orochi only overheard Aoi muttering those words because Aoi never noticed there was a spirit around: a human could just go to the police and testify about this. Kotoko comes up with various theories for Aoi's actions, but Lord Orochi's not easily pleased and quickly pokes holes in each of Kotoko's theories, but with each rejected theory, she slowly builds a case that is likely to convince both Lord Orochi and the reader. Ultimately, the fun lies in the fact that Kotoko isn't looking for the truth though: she just has to come up with an explanation that will convince Lord Orochi. A great showcase of the multiple/false solution trope of mystery fiction.
In Dengeki no Pinocchio, Arui Wa Hoshi ni Negai wo ("Blitz Pinocchio, Or: A Wish Upon A Star"), the small fishing town of Todomizu is facing a crisis as every few days, they find countless of dead fish washing ashore. While a popular television drama last year did make the town a tourist destination, the local economy still revolves around the fishing industry, so people are quite worried to see the fish being killed by some unknown force in the sea. While nobody dares say it out loud, there have been some vague sightings of a wooden puppet walking around lately. The wooden puppet belonged to old Zenta, whose grandson was killed by some tourists visiting here in a traffic incident. People in town however seemed to care very little about the death of the boy, fearing that negative news would kill the stream of tourists. The grieving Zenta had been working on a wooden puppet until he himself died too, but the puppet was never found. People in town now fear the puppet has come to life and is taking revenge on the town. And that's actually the truth: every few nights, the wooden puppet descends from the mountains, makes its way to the sea and uses an electric shock blast to kill the fish in the sea. Not even the local spirits can subdue the Pinocchio figure, so they ask Kotoko to deal with the dummy. What troubles Kotoko however isn't the actual threat of this Blitz Pinocchio, but its actual goal. I really like the explanation behind the real intent of the Blitz Pinocchio, but oh, how I wish it had been clewed more fairly. The story first points out that the will of old Zenta and the actions of Blitz Pinocchio don't seem to match up completely, but in order to arrive at the conclusion Kotoko proposes, you need to think of something that may not be on your mind immediately, so it's not completely fair. Had this been extended into a longer story, with more fleshing out of the background story and for example included a mini-lecture on puppets as supernatural themes, this would've been a great story: now it's a fun story, but it feels a tad cheap because Kotoko points out something that you, as the reader, can not know for certain is relevant or not until it is mentioned within the universe of this story. But the solution is definitely original and wouldn't work in any other series except for this one, where we know the supernatural is very real.
In Guillotine Sanshirou we follow the illustrator Sayoko in the train. From her thoughts, we learn she has a connection to Miyaigawa Koujirou, a man who was recently arrested for murdering his brother-in-law and decapitating him with his own guillotine. Miyaigawa owned a genuine Japanese guillotine, constructed in Japan in the nineteenth century, but ultimately never used. When confronted by the police about the decapitation, Miyaigawa said that he had killed his brother-in-law by accident, after fighting over money, but when he saw his brother-in-law was dead, he wanted to try out the guillotine just once. Our look into Sayoko's mind however shows she too is involved with Miyaigawa's crime. When Kotoko and Kurou confront Sayoko however, she's very surprised. Kotoko tells Sayoko that she's hired by the spirit of the guillotine, who apparently is named Sanshirou. When Miyaigawa decapitated his brother-in-law, he muttered the words "Now it should be alright" which seems to suggest there was more to it than just trying out the guillotine. But what? This story is not completely fair to the reader, as Kotoko is told something by the guillotine which she doesn't mention until the conclusion and it's pretty damning information. It does lead to an interesting situation though, as it gives a very good explanation (the foreshadowing in particular is good) as to why Miyaigawa would want to decapitate his brother-in-law like that and it also makes good use of the idea that it was the guillotine itself which provided Kotoko with that information, as nobody else would ever be able to tell her that. So I do think that the plot justifies the use of the supernatural, as it leads to a situation you normally couldn't have in a mystery story (a witness seeing a very important moment, but not able to tell that to others/the police), but that the information gained from that isn't conveyed in a fair manner to the reader, so it feels slightly cheap.
Maboroshi no Jihanki ("The Phantom Vending Machine") is my favorite story of the collection, as it features a truly original conundrum. We learn that a few shape-shifting tanuki (raccoon dogs) have been making some really delicious udon noodles, and they had been selling them to fellow beings of the other world through an udon vending machine in a small building in a phantom rest area along a mountain road. The rest area is located not in this world, and therefore only accessible for supernatural beings. At least, that's normally so, but occassionally humans driving up the mountains do end up at the interdimensional rest station, giving birth to the urban legend of the "phantom vending machine" with the delicious noodles. The tanuki didn't mind the urban legends, but now they're involved with a criminal case! Honma Shun had killed his business partner accidently in self-defense after accusing him of drug smuggling and being attacked himself. After the murder, Honma drove around in a daze, ending up in the mountains. When he arrived at a small rest area, he talked a bit with the maintenance man of the udon vending machine (actually a tanuki who had transformed into human form), had a bowl of noodles there and then drove on to arrive at a coast town in the neighboring prefecture. The problem is that when Honma left the interdimensional phantom rest station, he was not put back in the exact same spot on the mountain, but further down the mountain. Because of that, he arrived at the coast town much sooner than usual and that inadvertently gave him an alibi for the murder, for nobody could've committed the murder and arrive in the coast town at one in the morning! While Honma admitted to the murder, the police find it puzzling that he didn't seem to realize he has an alibi, but the problem is that they can't find the rest area, nor the maintenance man who serviced the vending machine. One detective in particular is very keen on finding the rest area, which is making the tanuki very nervous, so they hope Kotoko can think of a solution that can explain the situation without actually revealing there is a real phantom rest area.
Absolutely brilliant premise for an alibi story! The culprit is been given a perfect alibi by accident because he wandered into an interdimensional space, and now Kotoko has to crack this real alibi by coming up with a logical, believable solution that does away with the supernatural even though that is what actually happened. It's really fun to see Kotoko build a logically sound case based on the known facts, even though you know it's not even remotely true. Like I mentioned in the introduction, it's at these times where you see how Shirodaira dares to go beyond Berkeley and Brand, by actually rejecting the truth and opting exclusively for the false solution as the "correct" solution, even if it's not the truth. Seeing Kotoko spinning a tale based on the facts to explain how Honma got his perfect alibi, makes you realize that mystery fiction is really often not about finding the truth: it's about finding an amusing solution and that's exactly what's done here fabulously.
Kyokou Suiri Tanpenshuu/Invented Inference Short Story Collection has a few stories that I'd have liked even better with some tinkering, but the first and final story in the volume are absolutely great must-reads. They do great things with the supernatural premise of the series, providing you a type of mystery you simply can't get with other 'conventional' mysteries. I mean, how many series do you know where you know the murder weapon can actually explain what happened in person, or where someone is given an alibi by accident due to interdimensional shenigans!? It's easy to assume that this would make this series not a fair-play mystery because of the use of the supernatural, but by shifting the focus of the mystery from 'finding the truth' to 'finding a logically reasoned solution that does not rely the supernatural even though it exists', Invented Inference can offer some great moments not seen in any other detective fiction.
Original Japanese title(s): 城平京『虚構推理短編集 岩永琴子の出現』：「ヌシの大蛇は聞いていた 」/「うなぎ屋の幸運日 」/「電撃のピノッキオ、あるいは星に願いを」/「ギロチン三四」/「幻の自販機」
Does the anime for Kyokou Suiri do the novel justice?
ReplyDeleteI never did get far in the anime actually, though not because it was bad or anything, just forgot about it one week, and then the next week again etc. Seemed like a pretty okay adaptation.
DeleteThe manga (upon which the anime is based) has become the main focus of the series nowadays though: stories are now even featured first as manga before the prose versions are released...