Wheel of Death

It's the circle of life

And it moves us all

"Circle of Life" (Elton John)

For me, my enjoyment of mystery fiction comes for a great deal from the feeling of catharsis when at the end of the story, the mystery is revealed and you are shown the complete picture. It's the feeling of being shocked by finally knowing where every piece of the puzzle is supposed to be, and the sense of amazement to see what that picture is actually portraying. The mystery stories I have enjoyed best in many years of consuming the genre, generally have both an interesting mystery set-up and solution, as well as an interesting (logical) process that leads to that solution. So there's usually a clever mystery (a trick to a problem), but the road to the solution equally features interesting ways for the reader to interact with, be it through ingenious clewing or the opposite, shrewd misdirection. Catharsis can be felt with a good-written mystery whether you managed to solve it (partially) or not: perhaps the sense of utter shock is weakened if you guessed how it all fit together already and correctly interpreted all the clues, but you can still be amazed by just how meticulously and neatly the story was planned. Often, the implementation of an original setting, or a completely original take on what is otherwise a classic trope of the genre, can be enough to give me this sense of satisfaction when consuming a piece of mystery fiction, making it all worthwhile when you get to the end and it all falls in place. I am not per se looking for "shocking reveals/truths" in mystery fiction, mind you. In fact, I can still often be very much amazed simply by the process of clewing that is supposed to lead the reader to the truth, even if that truth is telegraphed too obviously.

On the other hand, if a story doesn't manage to quite reach that threshold of "amazement/shock/wonder" for me, it can feel a bit.. disappointing, even if the book isn't actually bad by any standards. I might recognize clever ideas here and there, but if the execution of the ideas feel underwhelming, I miss that feeling of catharsis at the end of the book, the satisfying feeling of finally realizing how all those lingering questions you had about the mystery and the clues fit together.

Tomonaga Rito's Kanransha wa Nazo wo nosete, which also has the English title Ferris Wheel With Mysteries on the cover, is an example of a book where I simply didn't manage to get that satisfying feeling at the end of the book, even if I see there are clever ideas there. But ultimately, it just doesn't quite manage to provide that feeling of wonder and surprise I am looking for in mystery fiction. Tomonaga made his debut in 2020 with Yuureitachi no Fuzai Shoumei ("The Alibis of the Ghosts"), a book which may not have been perfect, but which did make it into my favorite reads of that year, exactly because there was that sense of catharsis when you finally learned how a student could have been killed without anyone noticing during a haunted house event inside a classroom. It was the reason I immediately bought Tomonaga's second book when I learned it had been released, because I craved for more of his work and the concept of the book sounded interesting: a ferris wheel in a nature park mostly visited by families and young children makes a sudden stop due to small mishap, and while nothing is wrong with the wheel itself, it will take about ten-twenty minutes to start turning again as a safety measure. We follow six groups of people in the carriages of the suspended ferris wheel who all cope with different problems at that very moment. For example, we follow a teenage girl who has followed a middle-aged man inside the carriage, who handcuffs her... and takes out a sniper rifle, for he is a hired killer and she has hired him to make a hit from the ferris wheel when it is in its heighest position. Forced to wait due to the sudden stop, the man however suddenly starts to wonder why this girl wanted to come with him in the carriage and why she ordered the hit in the first place. Meanwhile, we follow a man who actually ends up speaking with a ghost who haunts one of the carriages. She was killed many years ago inside that carriage and only appears whenever the ferris wheel makes an emergency stop like now. She wants the man to solve the mystery of her murder: her memories are vague, but she was stabbed inside the carriage, but how did that man escape from the carriage without any of the attendents noticing there was a body in the carriage? But there are also other, less criminal mysteries going on, like the two female high school students, of which one now wonders why the other girl invited her here and told her to dress in more boyish clothes today. The ferris wheel carries six mysteries, and they all have to be solved before the ferris wheel starts turning again...

Ferris Wheel With Mysteries follows all six groups simulteanously, jumping back and forth between the six different storylines constantly in real-time as they all wait until the ferris wheel starts turning again. The concept itself is fun: it reminds of real-time drama like 24 and this story could easily be adapted for an actual television production. The groups are quite diverse, and provide different kind of mysteries, some more serious like one person who has to solve a puzzle box or else be bombed, some more "mundane" like a boy wondering why that girl he hung out with for so long said she hated him when he confessed his love to her. But ultimately, Ferris Wheel With Mysteries didn't work for me, because the mysteries provided are just too simple in set-up and execution. They don't really provide the sense of shock and wonder I am looking for in the genre, neither in the actual solution nor in the process leading up to the solution. While you are coping with six mysteries taking place simultaneously, you're likely to have very close guesses as to the solutions of most of the mysteries, because more often than not, they are among the first guesses you'll have based on the limited information provided. Even after the different plotlines develop a bit more as you read on, you'll realize your first guesses probably still fit, and at the end... you learn your early guesses were actually correct all the time. This wouldn't be disappointing per se if only the process towards the solution would be more clever, but most of the mysteries are just solved by... the main character of the specific storyline just remembering stuff in a very convenient order, and then realizing what is going on. Very seldom does the book expect the characters, or the reader, to actually contemplate about the logical implications of clues introduced or think more than two seconds about a statement. Everything is very straightforward in this short novel, so you don't get that satisfying feeling of catharsis at the end: you could already see most of the book coming miles ago, and the road to the end didn't provide much excitement either.

There are some clever ideas in this book, but those ideas often feel underutilized. There are some parts of the story that actually do make good use of the unique setting of a ferris wheel, but they are short, and rather pushed to the background, making them hard to stand out. The book even tries to pull a "gotcha!" on you involving the ferris wheel at one point, but it just falls flat because the build-up ("the process") is barely there, making you once again think "Okay, it's not a bad idea, and in fact, it can be interesting if it had been presented in a different way." And that is how I feel about the book as a whole: it somehow fails to present the mystery ideas it has in a rewarding manner for the reader, sometimes because the mystery solving process is boring, sometimes because the truth is not particularly surprising. The attempt to connec these various stories through the ferris wheel is interesting in concept and has a few moments where it does work, but it's hard to be really impressed by it if the minor mysteries that function as the focal point of this book, don't appeal to you.

Tomonaga Rito's debut novel had its flaws, but still managed to become one of my favorite reads of 2020. His second novel Kanransha wa Nazo wo nosete or Ferris Wheel With Mysteries, however does not manage to invoke the same positive feelings. The easiest way to put it would to be say it's underwhelming. While the book does deal with six very different mysteries, the truths behinds these mysteries and the path leading to them just feel too straightforward, never truly surprising or impressing the reader, and while they are not bad in concept, I couldn't help but shrug at the end of the book, for the book just never really managed to "get" me. It's a very short book, and perhaps some of the ideas would've worked better with more pages, but it's not a book I'd put very high on the priority list unless you're specifically looking for ferris wheel mysteries.

Original Japanese title(s): 朝永理人『観覧車は謎を乗せて』