番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye

I'd better say this right away: don't expect another announcement next Friday. This post following my recent announcement of the upcoming release of The Mill House Murders is more-or-less just a coincidence... Let's not make this a habit!

2021 was a weird year, as two mystery novels I translated were published, but not only that, on the surface, they had rather similar, but unique themes. Publisher Ammo's YAMAGUCHI Masaya's Death of the Living Dead was about well, the living dead. The lengthy tale follows Francis "Grin" Barleycorn who has returned to the family home, the famous Smile Cemetery in New England, as his grandfather Smiley Barleycorn is terminally ill. Meanwhile, a strange phenomenom has been plaguing the world: the dead have started to rise. The scientists haven't figure out why yet, there have been several cases across the world where people simply "wake up" from their death and are still able to think, speak and act basically as if they were alive. It's amidst these circumstances that mysterious deaths occur at the Smile Cemetery, and it's up to young Grin to solve these deaths, which is easier said than done when the dead don't stay dead. The book was originally released in 1989 and is one of earliest and definitely one of the best Japanese mystery stories that utilized a supernatural setting to present a fair play puzzle plot detective. The other book I translated last year was also about mixing the supernatural with the classic puzzle plot mystery: Locked Room International published IMAMURA Masahiro's Death Among the Undead, an absolute hit 2017 mystery novel in its home country. It told the story of Akechi and Hamura, two students who make up the Mystery Society. The two of them are invited by Hiruko, a fellow student and accomplished amateur detective, to join a short trip organized by the Film Club of the university. Staying at a mountain-side pension overlooking Lake Sabea, the idea is that the members will film a short film as a club project. But on the first evening, the students are suddenly attacked by a mob of something very unlikely and very unnatural. They barricade themselves inside the pension with no hope of escape from this closed circle situation as the beings try to get inside, but then one of the students is killed inside his locked room during the night: at first they suspect one of the beings killed the poor man, but they soon realize that isn't possible and that a human, ergo, one of them must've done it. But how did the murderer manage to get in and out the locked room of the victm, and more importantly, why now, while they're being attacked by those things and don't even know whether they'll survive this? The book is an excellent example of how a mystery story can still utilize very irrational and supernatural elements, and yet be a completely fair, puzzle plot tale.

And for those who enjoyed Death Among the Undead, I have good news, for Locked Room International will be releasing its sequel too! Death Within the Evil Eye was originally released in Japan in 2019 as Magan no Hako no Satsujin and is the direct sequel to Death Among the Undead. Once again, I was fortunate enough to be able to work on this translation: I originally read the Japanese version of Death Among the Undead late 2018, so I was thrilled when I learned the sequel would be published just a few months later, and I loved the book, just like the first novel. While the book is a direct sequel, it does not directly spoil any big details of the plot of Death Among the Undead, so you could start with this book if you want to, though obviously, it is much more rewarding if you do read these two books in order. Death Within the Evil Eye brings the members of the Mystery Society to a remote community deep in the mountains as they trace a lead connected to the events of the first book. Some other people happen to arrive at that place too, and the party eventually arrives at a curious, block-like building where an old woman lives who is said to have powers of clairvoyance, capable of telling the future. But the bridge collapses, trapping everybody in the building, and it's then they learn that knowing the future is certainly not always a good thing, as what if it is foretold you will die?

Readers might be surprised on one hand to see how different the theme is this time compared to Death Among the Undead, on the other hand, Imamura does here what he did so well in the first book too: Death Within the Evil Eye uses a supernatural premise, in this case prophecies, to bring an incredibly original mystery novel. I'll be lazy today and simply quote myself from my review of the Japanese version: "In a way, the concept behind the prophecies isn't very different from what was done in the first novel: Imamura locks his whole cast up in a closed circle situation, and then has a supernatural/unnatural phenomenon threaten our cast. What makes his novels different from most other closed circle mysteries is that the threat isn't simply a force of nature, like a snow storm or the raging sea or something like that, but something out of the ordinary. What's more, Imamura is sure to make use of these unique special circumstances to come up with situations that can only exist because he's utilizing these unique ideas, resulting in mystery stories that are in the core recognizable, but also like something you have never seen before." For those who are curious now, my review of the Japanese version is here, but you could also wait until you've read the book yourself and compare notes later.

Oh, and what prompted me to write this post in the first place: Publishers Weekly has their early review up already, and they seem quite enthusiastic too with a starred review! 

And the big question is of course, when is the book out? ... I don't know exactly myself actually! At least, I can't give you an exact date, though I believe we'll still have wait a few weeks at the least as there are still some i's that need dotting in regards to the final release. So consider this just an advance announcement, and I'll be sure to make another announcement once you can actually purchase the book.

In the meantime, you could always read Death Among the Undead if you hadn't already!