Terror at High Tide

"And then I threw a rock at him!"

"Almost Got 'Im" ("Batman the Animated Series")

Finished the Higurashi: When They Cry console-exclusive arcs Someutsushi and Tsukiotoshi and added my thoughts/inferences based on them to the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. This means I'm done with the first set/flowchart of "case files" as found in the console release of Higurashi no Naku koro ni Hou, so now on to the second set of files/stories. I suppose that after Himatsubushi (the first story in the second set), the answers will start coming...

It's simply a style thing, but I usually don't like to spend more than one paragraph summarizing the plot of a novel in my reviews here. I never manage to do that with the Toujou Genya novels though...

Toujou Genya series
1) Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono ("Those Who Bewitch Like The Evil Spirits", 2006)
2) Magatori no Gotoki Imu Mono ("Those Who Are A Taboo Like The Malicious Bird", 2006)
3) Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono ("Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless", 2007) 
4) Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono ("Those Who Sneer Like The Mountain Fiend", 2008)
5) Himemuro no Gotoki Komoru Mono ("Those Who Stay Inside Like A Sealed Room", 2009)
6) Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono ("Those Who Submerge Like The Water Spirit" 2009). 
7) Ikidama no Gotoki Daburu Mono ("Those Who Turn Double Like The Eidola", 2011)
8) Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono ("Those Who Resent Like The Ghostly Courtesan", 2012)
9) Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ("Those Who Are Deified Like The Haedama", 2018)

10) Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono (2019) 

11) Ina no Gotoki Nieru Mono (2021)

Horror mystery novelist and amateur folklorist Toujou Genya and his editor Shino form a strong team, at least, that's what Shino likes to think, even though Genya has learned by now that the strongheaded woman isn't the best person to bring along on his travels to remote villages when doing research. Lately Genya has also been in contact with publisher Eimeikan for work, and his assigned editor is Ootani Hidetsugu, who hails from the remote Goura region. The Goura region consists of the villages Tokuyuu, Shiaku, Ishinori, Isomi and Yuriage located on a very small strip of land wedged between thickly forested, rocky mountains on one side, and a very treacherous sea with many dangerous underwater reefs and rocks on the other. The five villages are mostly seperated from each other too due to the steep cliffs between them, and life has been very harsh here for centuries: the little level ground available was used for homes, meaning there was no space for crops or cattle. The dangerous sea meant that the villagers couldn't go out fishing either, as larger boats would get stuck in the reefs. And the thickly grown bamboo forests in the mountains meant they could do litttle there too. The worst of was Tokuyuu, which lies deepest in the strip of land, while Yuriage at the end of the strip still managed to have contact with the bigger Heibei City nearby, even if it's not really near either. Goura's isolated location means the people here didn't have much contact with the outside world, resulting in local beliefs and customs unique to the region. The local kami being deified here for example is Haedama, a large rock in the bay of Tokyu Village that is believed to govern the sea and there's an annual festival to appease Haedama. But there are also many ghostly stories unique to this region, from a creepy figure roaming the bottom of the sea to a monster that devours people hiding in the bamboo forests. As a collector of folklore and ghost stories, Genya is of course interested in his new editor's home region, especially when he hears that there's been a ghostly occurence relatively recently. Lately, more people have been moving into Yuriage Village because of the flourishing spinning mill in Heibei City, and living in Yuriage is cheap and there are even rumors of a merger between all Goura villages to form a new city, but some employees have seen a ghostly figure appear several times on the automobile road connecting Yuriage Village to the city.

Having heard about a mountain route in one of the Goura region ghost stories, Genya decides to take that long forgotten route to Tokuyuu Village, with Hidetsugu and Shino accompanying him on this two-day trip through the mountains. While Hidetsugu acts as a well-prepared guide for Genya, Shino of course soon ends up the weakest link on the harsh mountain climb. When after some delay they finally arrive in Tokuyuu Village, Hidetsugu has arranged for Genya and Shino to stay at the local Shinto shrine Sasame Shrine, which is run by Ganki, grandfather of Hidetsugu's childhood friend/secret love interest Suzukage. Genya hopes to learn more about the history of the Goura Village from Ganki, but he also learns Nozoki Renya, another folklore researcher is staying in the region at the moment, and he doesn't have a good reputation. He has been around for a while, but nobody has seen him these two days. The following day, Ganki guides Genya, Shino and Hidetsugu to the "bamboo maze" which appears in one of the ghost stories Genya heard about: there's a small shrine hidden in a clearing surrounded by a maze of bamboo trees. When they arrive at the clearing however, they find the starved body of Nozoki Renya lying near the shrine. The police is called in of course, but the death is rather odd. Nozoki Renya essentially starved to death, but there is no indication as to why, as there are no indications whatsoever on his body that he had been held at the center of the maze against his will. When he was found in the clearing, he was just lying there on the ground, no signs of him having been tied up and there are even traces to indicate he had attempted to enter the maze in order to leave, but for some reason he didn't. Was he afraid of something lurking in the bamboo maze, preventing his escape to find food and water? While the police are investigating the curious death however, more mysterious events occur, like Ganki suddenly gone missing. What is happening in the Goura region and how are the incidents connected to the ghost stories that had lured Genya here? Find out in Mitsuda Shinzou's Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ("Those Who Are Deified Like The Haedama", 2018).

Three months ago, I reviewed Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono ("Those Who Resent Like The Ghostly Courtesan"), the sixth full-length novel in the Toujou Genya series, and while you may remember that I did like the book, it was definitely not the kind of novel you'd usually expect from the series, and while I enjoyed it as a book that tackled a unique topic and did things a bit differently, I also mentioned I wouldn't want the series to be like that book all the time. Fortunately, Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono, as the seventh novel in the series, is a return to the familiar format of the series, with a series of mysterious deaths (sometimes of the impossible kind) set in a rural, isolated location with unique folklore. Even the slow opening chapter is back! It always takes me ages to get through the first part of these books, because the stories do use a lot of pages to set-up the new locale/the folklore, though I have to admit this was one of the easiest to get through. The opening chapter introduces the reader (and Genya) to four ghost stories from the Goura region, set in different times and places. As always, the local folklore is actually also very deeply connected to the core mystery plot, so while the stories do feel a bit disconnected at first, it's quite fun to see when at the end, Genya proposes a certain interpretation of these stories and their relation to the series of deaths in this novel and see how everything is connected. I do appreciate that the set-up is relatively short this time, compared to earlier novels.

Unlike some of the other novels though, the core mysteries of Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono are less tightly defined. The first mystery presented to the reader is the curious death of Nozoki Renya, who starved to death at the center of a bamboo maze even though it appears he could have easily just left the center, gone through the maze and escape to find food, as there are no signs he had been physically held agains this own will there. The problem of course reminds of Knox' short story Solved by Inspection, but the 'problem' here is of course that for a long time, this death can't be treated as a murder, as it can't be proven Renya was being starved here by someone else. The problem shifts for a while to the question of who of the people with a motive to kill the man had an alibi, as it would have taken quite some time for Renya to starve to death, and that combined with the last known time Renya was seen by others, means only a few people could have captured the man if this was a murder, but even then the story hesitates with calling this an actual crime. Of course, the reader knows they're reading a detective story, so of course the starvation of Renya was schemed, and the solution to how a man could be forced to starve to death even though they could literally just walk out of the maze, is simple in concept, but executed very admirable here. The hint to the solution in particular is very cleverly done, with a chance utterance making so much sense in hindsight, basically telling you what must have happened right in the face, but it's so easy to miss it.

In the second half of the novel, Ganki disappears and later a witness appears who states they saw Ganki mediating on the lookout tower at the end of the cliff overlooking the sea during the night: Ganki often did this, sitting on a plank sticking out of the lookout tower, basically suspended above the sea. According to the witness, Ganki fell off the plank into the sea, though she can't say whether the man fell on his own, or whether someone pushed him. This again presents a mystery that for a long time feels a bit too open: some of the investigation focuses on the question who could have pushed Ganki at the time stated by the witness and how someone could've reached the lookout tower without being seen by the same witness, but until the end, the explanation that Ganki just fell into the sea by accident can't be discarded. The actual answer to the mystery makes use of an idea that most mystery reader will know probably, but it really fits the situation created in this novel, masking what is actually a well-known idea in a very elegant manner. A more clearly-defined impossible murder occurs later in the novel, with someone being killed in a shrine inside a cave only accessible through the sea. Witnesses state only Suzukage entered the cave where the body was found, but even she couldn't have killed the witness, as the only footsteps in the pebble path near the shrine, were of the victim himself, meaning nobody approached the victim even though his wounds make it clear he had been in close proximity of his killer. The solution might not come as a total surprise, as the core idea is similar to another happening mentioned in the novel, but 'mirroring themes' is a plot device often utilized in the Genya novels, so I guess it fits.

Another sign that we have returned to 'normal' Genya novels after Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono are the lists of questions Genya asks himself, and the many hypotheses he proposes only to discard them himself! Like always, Genya makes a list of questions and mysteries he thinks form the core problem, and by answering all of them, it's possible for him, and the reader, to solve the murders. It functions somewhat like a guided Challenge to the Reader, pointing you to the fundamental problems that need answers. The thing is: these lists are always very, very long, almost hilariously so. I think that in Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono, Genya has about seventy questions he thinks need answering first in order to solve the mystery (many of them are of course related). These questions also lead to the parade of hypotheses (false solutions) that's also a staple of this series. Unlike other novels, which may make use of foil detective character types or just use the Brand/Berkeley tradition of having everyone pose hypotheses/theories, Genya does everything himself: he is the one proposing theories based on his questions, but he's also the one to reject his own theories. Unlike Ellery Queen, his method involves thinking out loud, which annoys the people around him a lot,  as all the clearly wrong theories just seem like a waste of time, but for fans of Ellery Queen, Christianna Brand and Anthony Berkeley, these segments are always a joy to read, showing off how deep false solutions can go. And as always, a lot of the theories I had while reading Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono, turned out to be false solutions... Some of them are really ingenious and wouldn't have disappointed anyone if they had been the actual solution, but Mitsuda always tries to go beyond that.

People who read my first few reviews of this series, may remember I absolutely loved those books and praised them as among the best novels I had read the last few years, and you probably also notice that I am not heaping as much praise on this novel right now. Mind you, Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono, is by no means a bad mystery novel, but entries like Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono and Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono were just so insanely good, it's hard for any work to reach those standards. I think my 'greatest' disappointment with this book is that the link between the local (fictional) folklore of Goura and the core mysteries do not result in the same synergy we saw in other novels. In Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono and Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono, understanding the true meaning of the religious rituals shown there or the underlying truth/origins behind certain local myths/ghost stories would instantly also give you insight in how the (often impossible) murders were committed. Everything was interconnected, with the book presenting multiple puzzles, but most puzzle pieces could be used in multiple puzzles instead of just one. Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono is not as strong in that regard: Genya does arrive at a fantastic interpretation of the local kami Haedama and the various ghost stories of the Goura villages and while this ultimately does tie back to the motive behind the series of mysteries death, the insights into the local folklore do not also explain how the murders were committed. They feel like seperate components, background story/motive, and the actual manner in which the murders are committed. Which isn't a bad thing per se, but  the synergy some of the prevous novels had, was exactly what elevated them high above many other mystery novels, so Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ends up as a perfectly fine and engaging mystery novel I can recommend to everyone, but it misses just that little bit of extra to make a book I really want to rave about. I do think Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono is perhaps the easiest Genya novel to get into, as the writing is much more inviting than some of the slower older entries and Mitsuda is still an absolute master when it comes to creating convincing local folklore and horrifying truths behind local customs and religion, and use those ideas to create captivatng mystery stories. Ultimately, I think Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono's plot might depend a bit too much on coincidence at times and the synergy between the various plot elements isn't always as strong, but it's still a great book to read.

Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono might not be the high point of this series, but after the very different Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono, it's reassuring to read a "straightforward" entry in this series. The way in which this series mixes horror, detective puzzlers and semi-academic writing in folklore is absolutely unique and always a joy to read, and this entry is not an exception. It has a wonderfully deep setting in the (fictional) Goura region, with very captivating folklore that serve as a great hook into the core mystery plot. The individual murders will often utilize ideas that seem a bit familiar, but it's only someone like Mitsuda, who has been playing this game for a long time now, who is able to weave all those elements together to present a very consistent, neatly written mystery novel that is engaging to read from start to finish.

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『碆霊の如き祀るもの』