I read a lot of series here, but I don't really often "finish" series now I think about it...
Disclosure: I translated Yamaguchi Masaya's Death of the Living Dead. What, you haven't read it yet? Go read it!
Darashinai Otoko no Misshitsu or The Locked Room with a Untidy Man of a Broken Body opens with a man waking up in a locked study, which looks like it has been ransacked. The man, James Norman, can't quite remember why he's in this room, but eventually he finds a cut up body in a casket in the room, and somewhere else is the cut-off head of the victim. When somebody knocks on the door, he unlocks it from the inside and slowly he realizes what is going on: he woke up in the room of Robert Cohen, a wealthy elderly man of whom he is writing his official biography. Cohen is also quite dead now, with his head seperated from his body, and Norman is of course the number one suspect, considering he was found inside the study/crime scene, which was locked from the inside. The mystery of this story is not as much focused on the how behind the locked room, but more about the curious behavior of the elderly victim before his death, the reason why his study is in such a mess and how come James Norman woke up in the room. The story revolves around a twist which I think is easily guessed at, but I think the execution is pretty good: clever writing and calculated multi-stage misdirection, as well as a nice extra twist at the very end make this a competently written story, even if the major elements feel a bit familiar.
Leather Men ga Oosugiru or Too Many Leather Men starts with a flashback, when Kidd, Pink and the MD Beverly Lewis (from The 13th Detective) managed to arrest the serial killer Edward Gormon, better known as "Leather Man" as he kidnapped multiple women, skinned them and wore them. Kidd, Pink and Beverly came too late for some of his victims, in time for others, but with his arrest peace returned. Or did it? One year later, there are still sightings of copycats who think it's funny to impersonage the Leather Man. One day, Jill is out jogging and sees her neighbor Ellen and after a very short talk, they part ways, but from a distance Jill sees a hooded figure approaching Ellen, and the two of them go off towards the abandoned factory. Reminded of the stories of the Leather Man still roaming around, she becomes worried and as she finds Frank, Ellen's husband-about-to-become-ex-husband, the two of them go together, but they don't seem to be able to find any suspicious signs in the factory, though Jill swears she saw the hooded figure take Ellen into a car and drive off from the factory. But when Frank and Ellen later visit Ellen's home, they find Ellen safely at home. More sightings of the Leather Man follow however and eventually, a skinned body is found in the factory. Kidd, Pink and Lewis are put on the case as this appears to be the work of the Leather Man, even though Ed Gorman is in prison. The story is rather long, but probably the best of the collection. Some of the twists regarding the identity and motive of the killer may seem a bit dated (even though the story's from 2009), but I think some of the foreshadowing/clues in this story are really clever: I especially like one early on in the story, that is incredibly easy to miss (I did), but the moment you realize the true implication of the clue, you see how it changes everything. Despite the gruesome subject matter involving a serial killer who skins his victims, I have to say this story kinda feels like an Agatha Christie short story to me, in the sense it very much revolves around a twist that makes you look at previously shown events in a completely manner. Not all elements of the story are as strong as others, but still an enjoyable Kidd story.
Sannin no Saiyaku no Musuko no Bouken or The Adventure of the Three Sons of Disaster on the other hand is easily the weakest story of the three. We start with a scene which seems to invoke Saw, Danganronpa or Zero Escape, with James, Jerry and John each waking up in white rooms, not knowing how they got there or what is going on. As they leave their rooms, they run into each other and find they are in some kind of hospital or clinic. Meanwhile, they also run into Kidd and Pink, who also seem to be roaming inside this building without any exits, but they seem less disturbed by their current situation compared to the three J-named men. But what is going on? The surprising truth revealed at the end isn't that surprising, especially not considering this is a 2010 story, and not the mid 90s. It's a very short story too, so on the whole this feels more like an experiment by Yamaguchi to see what ways he could go with this series and while there is an interesting concept for a kind of whodunnit here, the execution isn't as strong as we have seen in some of the more succesful stories in this series.
The Shameful Conduct of Kidd Pistols is certainly not the strongest entry in the series, and it's a shame the final story in this volume, and at the moment the final story in the series, isn't even close in level to the strong stories found earlier in this series, but I am still glad I have read the book. Overall, I have enjoyed the adventures of the cynical Kidd, the rather chaotic Pink and the various MDs they assist in their investigations, and there are some strong short mystery stories found in the earlier collections, especially those that revolve around the theme of people with fixations/curious ways of thinking, and how that influences their actions. Which is I guess a major theme of the series in general. My recommendations are definitely the first two short story collections and The 13th Detective, and if you like the stories/atmosphere found there, I think it's worth it to read the rest of the series too.
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