Murder is no Fairy Tale

"Boys, be ambitious!"

William S. Clark

I love the unique cover art style for these books!

One of my favorite reads last year was Aoyagi Aito's Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita ("Once Upon A Time, There Was A Body", 2019), a wonderful short story collection where Aoyagi used famous Japanese fairy tales to tell fantastic tales of mystery. While each of these stories would start in the exact same manner as they have been told for generations, Aoyagi would always add a deadly twist to the tale, transforming the fairy tale into something that was familiar, while also subverting expectations at the same time. What was equally interesting was that Aoyagi embraced the magical fairy tale worlds of each individual tale: mystical crane birds, talking fish and magical tools were all used to bring very unique, but also fair murder mystery stories which made full use of the supernatural imagery from the original stories. To my surprise, the sequel to this book was released very soon after I posted my review of Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita and I didn't notice it until a few months later! As you may tell from the title Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau ("And On Her Way, Little Red Riding Hood Met A Corpse" 2020), this new short story collection presents four fabulous mystery stories based on European fairy tales. Unlike the previous volume however, this book also features an overarching storyline: the titular Little Red Riding Hood is travelling across the world with her basket with food and wine, but on her way, she keeps getting involved with murder cases. Because Little Red Riding Hood is in a hurry, she always finds herself forced to solve the crimes herself so she can continue her journey.

In the opening story Glass no Kutsu no Kyouhansha ("Accomplices of the Glass Slipper"), Little Red Riding Hood meets Cinderella at the river as she's washing clothes, lamenting that her stepmother and stepsisters are going to the ball of the prince, while she has to stay at home. A witch passing by decides to help the two girls out and uses her magic to give Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella wonderful dresses and a pumpkin carriage. On their way to the castle in the pumpkin carriage however, the two run over a man. In a panic, they decide to bury the body besides the road and continue their way to the ball, where Cinderella manages to impress the prince. But then a report comes that a body has been found in the forest and then Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella recall they never cleaned their carriage...

A hilarious opening story, which starts out as an inverted mystery story because it's Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella who run over the man in the carriage and try to keep their murder a secret at the ball. This part serves as an interesting introduction to the 'magical' aspects of this series, as we are clearly shown what the limits are of the magic used, and how it can be used to erase the evidence of their crime in rather simple manners. As the story progresses however, we learn the forest where they ran over the man holds more secrets and that's where this story really starts to shine: many minor events and remarks made over the course of the story suddenly form one connected line together, revealing a plot that had gone unseen until the last quarter of this story. This secondary plotline is also firmly built upon the various familiar elements from the Cinderella folk tale. It's a well-plotted intrige hiding beneath the more hilarious inverted mystery story, where Little Red Riding Hood shows you that she really isn't the young girl who got fooled by a wolf in disguise once.

In the opening scene of Amai Misshitsu no Houkai ("The Fall of the House of Sweets"), Hansel and Gretel manage to shove the evil witch into the oven in the candy house... and then the two children plot to kill their stepmother, who had been the one who had convinced their father to leave them in the forest. They manage to lure their stepmother to the gingerbread house by lying about money being hidden here and pull a cabinet down on her, crushing her beneath it. The two children return home to their woodcutter father who is delighted to see his children back safely. Little Red Riding Hood, who is travelling through these woods, is invited to stay for the night. But as the woodcutter's wife is gone now, they go looking for her, and eventually, with the guidance of the Guardian of the Wood, they find the gingerbread house, the witch in the oven and the wife beneath the cabinet. Because the gingerbread house was completely locked from the inside, it is suspected that the wife and the witch must have struggled and that eventually, the wife was crushed by the cabinet toppling over her. Little Red Riding Hood soon notices that Hansel and Gretel seem to know more about this house than they should, but how could they have killed their stepmother even though the house was locked from the inside? Again a kind of inverted story, though we don't actually see how Hansel and Gretel manage to lock the candy-house from the inside. The story is focused a lot on explaining on the 'mechanics' of the gingerbread house and the magic the witch used to create it, and at first it does seem impossible that Hansel and Gretel could've locked the delicious crime scene, even if it's made out of magic: the limits of the candy magic used are clearly defined. The solution is perhaps not as surprising as you'd expect it to be, but fair, it certainly is, and the locked room mystery here is certainly unique, as how often are you going to read a mystery about a gingerbread house!?

Nemureru Mori no Himitsutachi ("Secrets of the Sleeping Forest") is a rather unique story as it doesn't seem to have one clear defined mystery at first. Little Red Riding Hood's journey brings her to a land where a beautiful princess has been sleeping for four decades in an abandoned castle due to a curse of a witch who hadn't been invited to the ceremony to celebrate her birth. The royal family is no more, but in their place the Prime Minister is ruling the city-state until princess Aurora awakens again. Little Red Riding Hood happens to help out the Prime Minister who got stuck in the woods in his wheelchair and she is invited to spend the night at the Prime Minister's residence, where she is told the tragic story of the princess. The following morning, the Prime Minister's loyal servant Troy hears his son Melai is being accused of a murder which occured last night, but Melai denies the crime, saying he had been helping with extinguishing a big fire in an atelier in town last night. Meanwhile, a party is sent to the castle to do the monthly check-up on the princess, but they find her gone from her tower room! How are all these events connected? Well, in a convoluted way! This is an entertaining mystery story where you have a lot of threads that don't seem connected at all, but which ultimately are all brought together to form one cohesive storyline, but don't expect to solve this yourself, as while it all makes sense with the power of hindsight, it's pretty farfetched. It's amusing though, with a few semi-impossible elements to the story and there's a bigger secret behind all these chaotic events that make this story feel quite grand. The link with the Sleeping Beauty is at times a bit weak, as a lot of the story takes place in town, revolving around people who don't actually appear in the Sleeping Beauty tale, but at the same time, there are moments where it does make very good use of the unique magical elements of the fairy tale to create the complex plot of this story.

In the final story Shoujo yo, Yabou no Match wo Tomose ("Girls, Light the Match of Ambition!"), Little Red Riding Hood finally arrives at her destination, a harbor town which also houses the headquarters of the famous Little Match Girl's matches factory. However, Little Red Riding Hood's enemies know she's coming, and manage to capture and imprison her. Meanwhile, we also learn the story of the Little Match Girl who managed to climb her way up to the position of the director of one of the best-known match factories, but how are the tales of these two girls connected? The core mystery of this tale is quite different from previous ones, being closer to the strategic thrillers like Death Note or Spiral, as Little Red Riding Hood faces the problem of how she's going to escape her prison, and town, without giving up on the goal of her journey. There's an impossible angle to this mystery, as at one point Little Red Riding Hood does manage to escape her prison without the reader knowing how, but while this mystery is presented in a fair manner, it's still kind hard to solve this yourself. It would probably work better in a visual format. The highlight of this story is definitely the storyline of the Little Match Girl and her link to Little Red Riding Hood, which isn't really a mystery story on its own, but it makes for a great finale of a fun book.

Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu Shitai to Deau is in a way very similar to the previous volume, but also quite different. While the stories collected here are still wonderful retellings of familiar fairy tales to add a murderous twist while at the same time making fantastic use of the magical elements of those stories, this volume adds an extra dimension by having an overarching storyline with Little Red Riding Hood's journey. The stories are also more varied in terms of style: Mukashi Mukashi Aru Tokoro ni, Shitai ga Arimashita was definitely more focused on impossible crimes, but here we have inverted stories, mysteries where you don't even immediately see what's the matter and even a 'logic game'-esque story where Little Red Riding Hood has to outwit her foe and manage to escape her prison and still be able to accomplish her goals in town. In terms of plot quality, I think the previous volume is more consistent, but I still enjoyed this volume a lot, perhaps because it is definitely intended to be a bit different from the previous volume despite using the same core format. I for one can't wait for a third volume. I wonder what kind of fairy tales will follow! Arabian Nights?

Original Japanese title(s): 青柳碧人『赤ずきん、旅の途中死で死体と出会う』:「ガラスの靴の共犯者」/「甘い密室の崩壊」/「眠れる森の秘密たち」/「少女よ、野望のマッチを灯せ」