Growing Up and Good-byes

'I forget them after I kill them,' he replied carelessly.  When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see her he said, 'Who is Tinker Bell?'

"Peter and Wendy"

First one of the year!

Slow-witted Bill the Lizard still hasn't found his way back to Wonderland and Alice, and after wandering into the Hoffman universe and the Land of Oz, Bill now finds himself taken care of by Wendy, her brothers and the adopted Lost Boys as they once again fly off with the eternal child Peter Pan and the fairy Tinker Bell. Their destination is of course Neverland, where previously the children had grand aventures with Peter Pan, the members of the Piccanniny tribe, mermaids and of course, Captain Hook and his pirates. Have things settled down now Hook was defeated? Of course not, as Mr. Smee is intent on getting even with Peter Pan, and Tiger Lily, princess of the Piccanniny tribe, is intent on taking revenge for the death of her brother. Wendy takes the role of mother of Peter and the Lost Boys again in Neverland, but after a rigorous day of fishing training at the inlet, everyone is shocked to find the fairy Tinker Bell brutally murdered in their underground hide-out: her wings torn off, thrown around on the floor and stabbed through her abdomen. Everyone was shocked? No, not everyone. For Peter Pan doesn't care about Tinker Bell, who he only thought to be nuisance and barely any different from a bug, and in fact, the reader knows Peter did this. While Bill the Lizard has only known the eternal child for a short time, he knows Peter Pan is actually a complete psychopath, because right in front of his eyes and the eyes of Wendy and the other Lost Boys, the 'innocent' child has cruelly slit the throats of pirates and tribe members without any hesitation. In fact, even the Lost Boys are not safe from Peter's sword if they happen to say something that doesn't please Peter, and Peter Pan is not only their "savior" but also their dictator, the one who might stab them right through the heart at any time if he just happens to feel like doing so. Peter Pan, in all his "innocence" doesn't care about death and he tends to forget about whoever he kills. Wendy somehow convinces Peter Pan to find the murderer of Tinker Bell and bring the culprit to justice, and Bill the Lizard is assigned to be his "Watson". 

Meanwhile, the university student Imori has travelled to an inn to attend to a reunion of his primary school class. Imori and Bill the Lizard are two sides of the same coin: while they are two distinct people with their own personalities living in completely different worlds, they share memories, so whenever Imori falls asleep in our real world, he'll remember Bill the Lizard's experiences in Neverland and vice-versa. In previous adventures, Imori met other people like him, who all collectively share "a dream" of a fantasy world, where they are different people who can also interact with each other in the other world. But more importantly, he also discovered that the lives of these people across worlds are linked: a death in the fantasy world, also means a death in the real world! And when at the school reunion, people start to die in various weird manners, Imori realizes that people in his class must be the counterparts to people in Neverland, and that they are all victims of Peter Pan's murderous outbursts in Neverland. But due to a heavy snow storm, the inn becomes isolated from the outside world, making it impossible to leave the place and while theoretically, Imori and the remaining classmates could try to find out who the avatar of Peter Pan in the real world is and try to restrain them (despite understanding they are different people), Peter Pan in Neverland is all-mighty and can kill everyone as easily as taking a nap and think absolutely nothing of his deeds.  Imori tries everything he can in the real world, but can only rely on the very, very unreliable Bill the Lizard in Neverland, so how are they going to stop Peter Pan's deadly games and catch the murderer of Tinker Bell in Kobayashi Yasumi's Tinker Bell Goroshi, or The Murder of Tinker Bell (2020)?

Tinker Bell Goroshi is the fourth and final entry in Kobayashi' Yasumi's wonderful Märchen Murder series which started with Alice Goroshi followed by Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and this final book. Kobayashi sadly enough passed away in 2020, just months after the release of Tinker Bell Goroshi, thus ending the series (I read the pocket release, which was released late 2022). Fortunately is perhaps not a really good word to use, but Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and Tinker Bell Goroshi are all prequels to Alice Goroshi, so story-wise, the series does feel "complete", as those books are all set "during" Alice Goroshi, when Bill the Lizard just gets lost and ends up visiting a few other fantasy worlds based on famous children's literature before returning to Wonderland to continue with the events of Alice Goroshi. As mentioned in previous reviews of this series though, it's strongly recommended to read them in release order though: the avatar-system is first introduced in Alice Goroshi, where Alice in Wonderland becomes a suspect in the murder of Humpty Dumpty, and Imori and fellow student Ari try to prevent Alice's execution in Wonderland by investigating the murder in both Wonderland and the real world. Subsequent books however build on build on the mechanics of the avatar system introduced in Alice Goroshi, with shocking revelations and twists about the system in Alice Goroshi being taken for granted in its sequels. So some discoveries about how everything works will just be treated as common knowledge in later books, so it's best to read them in order.

Me reviewing this series has also been me confessing I read very little outside of mystery fiction and having to admit I never read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, any of the Oz books or the Hoffman stories, and while I of course know about Peter Pan, I have never read the original book Peter and Wendy, nor even seen the Disney film. I have seen Hook though, if that counts for something! And I also knew Peter Pan was a bit of a creep in the original book, with the original book suggesting he just kills Lost Boys with the line "The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out." So the concept of him being completely off-the-hook psychopathic murderer didn't actually require any time to adapt to on my part. There are probably a lot of references to the original book that flew over my head, but a rudimentary knowledge of Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook is more than enough to enjoy this book, so I never felt lost, and like with the previous entries in this series, a lot of the charm of the books come from the children's literature-esque writing: heavy on dialogue with almost no narration, and the lines themselves are often very silly, almost nonsensical conversations, as the screwball characters discuss things in roundabout ways, like Peter not understanding the concept of twins, or Wendy trying to explain the logic of why killing everybody in Neverland is not a good idea to 'catch' the killer. The repeated jokes and constant misunderstandings might take a while to get used to for some readers, but not only do these dialogues help set the mad setting of this series and its characters, it's also often skilfully used to hide clues in these nonsensical dialogues, and often feel very rewarding mystery-wise too.

While I enjoyed Dorothy Goroshi, it had a bit of a 'more of the same' feeling, which certainly isn't the case with this book. First of all, we have the closed circle situation Imori finds himself in: the inn is snowed in, and while he knows a majority of his classmates (and their teacher) probably has a Neverland counterpart, nobody dares to reveal who they are because they are afraid that if they say something in the real world, Peter Pan in Neverland (who shares memories with someone in the real world) might want to get even with them there. Meanwhile, people are dying left and right due to Peter's casual murders, which puts Imori himself in a very tense and dangerous situation, something we seldom saw in this series. It's a closed circle situation, but not like one you normally see in mystery fiction, because while people are "murdered" one by one, the actual murders only happen in Neverland, while their Earth counterparts will "automatically" die in some way or another to correspond to the Neverland death. So Imori isn't "really" trapped in a closed situation with the murderer, but it sure feels like one. The book alternates between Neverland and the real world between chapters, and near the end, this is actually used quite cleverly while the murder on Tinker Bell is explained, splitting the "deduction" scenes across both worlds as different people know different things.

Meanwhile, the Neverland part of the book also feels fresh for this series... for we know Peter Pan is an unscrupulous murderer who I think literally can't spend one chapter without killing at least one other living being, preferably by slitting their throat. And what's also important is that Peter Pan cares so little about death, he literally forgets about the people he kills, and not even his counterpart on Earth can recall if Peter killed certain people or not, because all they share are each other's memories. This makes the investigation into Tinker Bell's murder rather farcical, because it all happens while Peter is continuing his multi-hit murder combo, but Wendy somehow still manages to convince Peter to investigate the murder of the fairy properly with Bill the Lizard and actually find evidence or testimony to prove who did it and there are actually a few surprising twists and turns while they look for the 'elusive' murderer.  It makes for incredibly interesting murder mystery, because it's hard to guess where all of this will eventually end and how they'll catch the murderer despite Peter's murderous tendencies. As you can guess, the avatar-system is also part of the mystery plot and not just a funny hook for the series, and it's used brilliantly again here, like the aforementioned break-up in deduction scenes, but also by hiding hints and clues in the way counterparts in both worlds behave and the exact things they say in their memorable dialogues. The big clue pointing to the truth behind Tinker Bell's murder is pretty clever in that it's also a "dual" clue, two clues pointing towards the same idea and yet from different angles, and it also fits the world of Peter Pan and Neverland. It's a concept that probably would have been incredibly simple and silly if it had been used in "realistic" setting and fallen flat there, but it works absolutely perfectly reading it as a part of a "sequel" to Peter and Wendy. The motive behind the murder however needed a bit more depth, it's treated a bit too light now despite it having really heavy implications, which almost makes it feel like an afterthought even though I don't think that was ever the intention.

Tinker Bell Goroshi is now the final entry in this series and whether I can't say Kobayashi would've continued the series or not if he had lived longer, I can at least say Tinker Bell Goroshi was another wonderful murder mystery adventure in the world of famous children's literature. It spins the story of the boy who wouldn't grow up into a tale of mystery that is both tense, but also very comical and silly, while at the same time offering a mystery plot that is original and only possible due to the unique story setting invented by Kobayashi. In that sense, the whole concept of the avatars and shared memories is one you could imagine to have been used in classic children's literature, right? If you have read the first book in the series and liked it, I think you owe it to yourself to read the rest of the series too as Tinker Bell Goroshi is a worthwile read, and of course, if you have an interest in Peter Pan already, this is a no-brainer and should be picked up immediately. A bitter-sweet ending knowing this is the last book, but what an awfully big adventure it has been!

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『ティンカー・ベル殺し』