I really shouldn't wait three months after reading a book to finally get started on the review...
Disclosure: I translated Norizuki Rintarou's short story The Lure of the Green Door.
The opening and ending story of this collection are definitely the surprises. The book opens with Hakumen no Tategami ("The Pale Mane"), where Rintarou is asked to read an unpublished manuscript by the deceased 'occult researcher' Tsutsumi Tomoaki, whom Rintarou became involved with during the events of Hanzai Horoscope. The manuscript involves Arthur Conan Doyle and two specific Sherlock Holmes stories and while Rintarou isn't really interested at first, he also happens to be working on a piece on G.K. Chesterton himself and during his research, he discovers a link between Tsutsumi's piece and Chesterton, leading him to an interesting theory regarding the Sherlock Holmes canon. In the final story Curtain Call, Rintarou is hired in an advisory role to a stage play of the Hercule Poirot novel Elephants Can Remember and also asked to write a short piece for the pamphlet. While he's doing research on Elephants Can Remember however, Rintarou sees parallels to the final Poirot story Curtain and eventually, he holds a little discussion group with the people in the theater troupe to find a truth Agatha Christie had hidden in her novels.
Both stories are quite similar in the sense that they are both primarily academic research papers that delve both into the internal themes of the works in discussion, as well as the relevant publishing and writing history (so for example, Conan Doyle's interest in the supernatural). Both stories may be presented in the form of Rintarou getting involved with these texts for some reason, but the bulk of each stories consists of quotations and literary research which honestly isn't going to be interesting at all to a reader unfamiliar with the material discussed. I knew the stories in question and found the literary theories proposed in these stories interesting, but I honestly can't imagine someone who hasn't read those specific Holmes/Poirot stories or who only has a passing interest in them to be entertained by these two tales, as you're basically reading a Literature paper, with analysis, quotations, more analysis and more quotations. Norizuki tries to make things a bit more interesting with minor mysteries for Rintarou in the outside world, but these two stories are definitely not among the most accessible in this series.
Abekobe no Isho ("The Switched Suicide Notes") is a story that was originally written for the 2017 7-nin no Meitantei ("The Seven Great Detectives") anthology and I already discussed it back then. I read it again this time as I had forgotten the details, but there's little to add to my original write-up back in 2017 to be honest. Inspector Norizuki brings an interesting problem back home for his son: He's dealing with two suicides, one by poison, one by jumping off a flat. Suicide notes
were also found at both scenes. However the suicide notes were swapped:
both victims had the suicide note of the other person. The two victims
knew each other and been fighting over the same woman, so
they had no reason to be committing suicide together, but why did they
have each other's suicide note? Like many of the short stories in this series featuring Inspector Norizuki, the plot develops in a discussion-style: Rintarou and his father are sitting at home, and keep throwing balls at each other to develop their theories: Rintarou suggests something, the Inspector counters that with a new fact, Rintarou comes up with a new hypothesis, the Inspector introduces another fact etc. The story itself is interesting because the problem of the switched notes is both puzzling and yet somehow realistic and it shows off exactly how a theory has to adapt to the new facts each time, but ultimately, this story is solely about theories. In the end, Rintarou does come up with a clever solution as to why the two victims had the other's suicide note, but it's completely based on layers of assumptions and guesses and the story ends with the Inspector leaving to find confirmation to their theories.
Korosanusaki no Jishu ("Confession of a Non-Murder") is very similar to the previous story, not only in structure, but also in terms of plot. This time, the Inspector is dealing with a case which just doesn't seem to make any sense. Some time ago, a man came to the police confessing a murder, but his "victim" (an old friend whose "advice" regarding breast cancer led to his wife's death) turns out to be alive and well. Later however the woman is really murdered following the man's confession, but the Inspector can't see understand why the man confessed to the murder before it even happened and it seems more likely someone else did it. When the Inspector also learns that the murder had been predicted by a psychic, the whole thing seems to make no sense anymore, which is why he needs his son's help. While the explanation Rintarou comes up with at the end is certainly entertaining and original, I think the whole story lacks a bit of oomph to really sell the idea. I won't say it fell flat, but I think a much more engaging story could've been built on the same building blocks if this for example had been a full novel.
Even as a fan of the series, Norizuki Rintarou no Shousoku is a difficult volume to really recommend as it's so different from the previous short story collections, which all featured excellent puzzler-type stories. There are only two of those in this collection this time and while not bad, they certainly do not rank among the best of Norizuki's puzzlers. The two other stories are interesting to read as literary research papers about Holmes and Poirot, but they are clearly meant for a very, very small niche even within the mystery fanbase. The result is a volume that longtime fans like myself will read anyway, but which ranks in the lowest spot in the priority list when it comes to this series, as the other volumes are much, much better.
Have you played Layton Birothers Mystery Rooms ?
ReplyDeleteIt's really good
I played it when it was first released, and I think I ultimately liked it, but I was really soured by the initial release. I bought it when it was first released in Japan, but it only had 4-5 cases then, and they never said whether more cases would be added later, and if so, whether it'd be paid DLC or included in the original purchase (which was fairly pricey for an iOS release). They used a different release model in the West I believe and the version I bought isn't even available anymore, but they really botched the initial release. They did add the rest of the episodes later as part of the game, but that was months later so a lot of time had passed between me playing the first few episodes and the rest, so it never left that much of an impression on me.
DeleteI'm intrigued by "The Switched Suicide Notes". I do have a guess for why the notes were "swapped", but it could be one of the false solutions. This reminds me, I should get The Seven Great Detectives anthology, if at least for the Norizuki and Arisugawa stories
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me again I should probably take a look at the two other anthologies, White and Black with the younger shin honkaku writers...
DeleteWhat a shame none of the books seem to be available in English. I ordered one in Japanese as my daughter is currently in a Covid-enforced year off college- she should be in Japan for a year increasing her knowledge of the language. Next year, we hope. Hopefully the book will help. Your reviews are a great look at the genre outside the west. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And I hope your daughter can go next year then. The period I spent studying in Japan was one of the most wonderful parts of my life, so I hope she'll be able to have a similar experience too!
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