I have to admit, as much as I like reading short story collections, I really don't like writing reviews for them because they either become too long, or I try to discuss them too briefly...
While visiting England when he was younger, Charles Bertrand got involved in an old-fashioned duel to the death, but in a very different form than usual. Henry Goodfellows had been accusing Francois Manolisque of being a fraud psychic, whil Manolisque claimed he could make an astral projection of himself and thus commit acts far away from where his physical body is. And thus, the challenge was born: Francois Manolisque declared he would kill Goodfellows, but his astral body would do the job, while his physical body remained in his own home, commonly known as the House with the Hanging Tower, tied up and observed by witnesses. On the night of the duel, Manolisque is put in a suit of armor, and tied to a chair and put inside an underground room in the house. Five witnesses, including Bertrand, keep an eye on Manolisque in the coming hours, until the designated period is over. They check at intervals whether Manolisque is still there. The dagger with which Manolisque declared he would kill Goodfellows is also kept safely inside a box by these five men: with one having the key, another person knowing the code to the combination lock and one physically watching the box itself. Hours fly by and nothing seems to happen, and when it's past the deadline, the five witnesses enter the room again, but to their great shock, they find Manolisque dead inside the armor. And what's more: he's been shot to death, even though the armor is completely intact and nobody ever heard a shot. Meanwhile, Goodfellows is also found dead inside his home thirty miles away, and he was stabbed to death. Shockingly, they learn Goodfellows had shot at his assaillant, and the bullet found in Manolisque matches Goodfellows' pistol, while when they open the box, they find the dagger is stained with blood. At first sight, it seems Manolisque did indeed manage to send his astral body to Goodfellows and that they eventually killed each other, but is that really the case?
The title and opening story Shibarikubi no Tou no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Tower of Hanging") is also by far the best story of the book, and I don't mean that because the rest is so awful. It's just a really neatly constructed story that isn't super long, but full of details that help set-up the puzzle and the solution. I don't really get the title to be honest: while there is a dead person eventually found in the tower of the house, the main mystery is of course how Manolisque could've ended up shot to death while he was inside a suit of armor, in a room that was observed by five different people, and how he could've killed Goodfellows at the same time, who was in his own home thirty miles away. I don't think the solution is super surprising, as there are just so many elements necessary to facilite the solution, it's likely you'll think of at least one part of the solution yourself, and from there you could work your way through the whole thing, but the construction o the whole operation is really good, with a keen eye for detail and clues, and the result is simply an incredibly solid impossible crime.
Jinrou no Kage ("The Shadow of the Werewolf") details the first time Patrick assisted his uncle in his investigations. At the time, Paris had been shocked by a series of abductions of young women. When the first woman was found dead, her body was covered in countless of wounds, with the fatal wound being a bite that crushed her throat and people of Paris starting to call the murderous kidnapper the Werewolf. When the wife of Duke Loreine is threatened too, police officers are posted around the duke's home, but they are unable to prevent a tragedy: The wife is staying inside a locked room by herself, but when she doesn't react to calls by the maid and she and the duke look through the keyhole, they find the wife's been decapitated! They manage to open the door, but while the maid has gone to call for reinforcements, the duke is attacked and bitten too, and the "Werewolf" escapes with the wife's head, But how could the werewolf have entered the house, and the victim's room, and later escaping, without the police noticing? The story is rather simple, and a lot of elements have a few similarities with another Kagami story I read recently (* I basically read all of them "recently" as I acquired the books soon after another), so that made the solution probably a bit easier to guess than normal. More a story that is enjoyable due to the pulpy shock factor than being a highlight of the collection.
In Wendigo no Sasayaki ("The Whisper of the Wendigo"), Irene Simpson hopes Charles Bertrand can help her uncle Abner, who is apparently being threatened by the widow of Joseph Desbitt, brother of Arthuer Desbitt whom many years ago, helped Abner on his deer hunts in Canada, but who disappeared mysteriously. In fact, it was only recently Joseph too visited Abner, hoping to learn the truth behind the disappearence of his brother, but he could not believe what Abner had to tell: according to Abner, the two had gotten lost on their way, and one night, they were attacked by something that he believed was the Wendigo, and it was the Wendigo who took Arthur's life. Joseph obviously didn't believe this story, but he was later also found dead under mysterious circumstances in Abner's home, which prompted the visit of Joseph's widow and a help to come to Abner to find out what really happened to the Desbitt brothers, and they are not willing to play nice with Abner, who in turn keeps denying any fault. The widow and her companion are allowed to stay at the house, but the following, the companion is found dead in the garden of the Abner residence, but the death is impossible: the man must've dropped from a tremendous height, but considering his location, he obviously did not fall from the clock tower from the neighboring lot. The only explanation seems to be... a Wendigo lifting the man up in the sky and dropping him. Or is it? I think I like the basic idea behind how it was done, but the clewing is a bit sparse, and there's not that much synergy with the Wendigo/Canada backstory, so as a whole, the story feels a bit chaotic? I think I'd have liked the main trick to the impossible fall better if it had been used in a different story where the reveal is set-up a bit better and where *a certain thing* doesn't feel like it came out of nowhere.
The last two stories do feature Charles Bertrand, but are at the same time also directly inspired by two John Dickson Carr stories: Vampire no Tou ("The Vampire Tower") is based on the (backstory mystery) of He Who Whispers, while Circe no Shima ("The Island of Circe") is based on The Burning Court. I haven't read the last one, so I don't know how similar the two are, but Vampire no Tou is very similar in terms of set-up, about a man falling of a tower while he was alone there, and the entrance being watched, and also focusing on a woman who is rumoured to be a vampire. While the actual solution is a bit different from He Who Whispers, it's still very similiar, and if you're familiar with the Carr book, I think you can guess a lot in advance. So I am guessing Circe no Shima is similar. It is about a mysterious woman (a witch) who is seen to commit a murder in a room, but who then disappears completely. Technically, it's a good, solid impossible crime story, but I kept wondering about how much of this would be similar to The Burning Court, so that did distract me. I am fairly sure that someone who has read The Burning Court, might enjoy this story better as a kind of pastische/homage (not to say the story is bad, but I kept wondering how much of it was just mirroring the original story).
This book features insert illustrations by JET, who also did manga adaptations of works by Ellery Queen and Yokomizo Seishi. The art is truly amazing, and you can really see how Bertrand was based on Bencolin!
In the end, I do think Shibarikubi no Tou no Satsujin was the weakest book by Kagami I have read. While the title story is great, and it alone makes the book worth reading, the rest never reaches the same heights. The middle two are a bit 'okay, they're not really bad, but not really memorable either' and the two stories directly inspired by Carr stories, or at least the one I knew, was better, but stayed a bit too close to the source material, taking away some of the surprise. While the art is awesome, I wouldn't say this book is top priority if you want to read Kagami.
The Vampire story, if I remember right, copies from He Who Whispers, and a Sherlock Holmes story (Fhffrk Inzcver)
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
Delete