The title of this book (named after the title story) is really simple as a term, but it does sound cool for some reason...
Sooo... this book probably has a good chance of being translated, right? Because after Yonezawa's success with the Hyouka series (specficially, its anime adaptation), his mystery fiction had been a bit neglected in the English translation sphere, but the critical success of his Kokuroujou led to it being translated as The Samurai and the Prisoner. Kanenbetsu is the first time Yonezawa has attempted to do a police procedural, but it was extremely well-received among mystery fans in Japan, ranking very high (or taking the top spot) in all the major end-of-year mystery rankings of 2023, so that should attract the attention of publishers, right? I know it attracted my attention when I saw it on all those lists, and as I enjoyed Kokuroujou enormously, I knew I had to read this one fast too!
As I started reading this book, I couldn't help but be reminded of Yokoyama Hideo's Daisan no Jikou ("The Third Deadline"), one of Yokoyama's best-known works and similar to Kanenbutsu, a police procedural short story collection. While both books are definitely police procedurals, I do have to say Kanenbutsu has a lot less attention to internal politics than Daisan no Jikou, so if you're not into that, you might still enjoy Kanenbutsu. I do think Yonezawa succeeded in presenting Katsura as the silent great detective within the format of a proper police procedural. The tone of these stories is very subdued and business-like: we get dry depictions of the crime scenes, characters are always introduced with age and current occupation, we never hear about the private lives of Katsura and his subordinates (thank you!), and the flow of each story is very, very deliberate, with Katsura doing every single thing step by step: sending a detective to check up on witnesses, have a detective contact some business, keep his boss up to date and ask for help for formalities when it comes to contacting other divisions in the police... At the same time, Katsura is definitely the great detective: while part of his brilliance comes from how meticulously he does his job, the sparks of inspiration he gets from seeing even the smallest clues definitely leads to the feeling of catharsis you get from "normal" puzzle plot mysteries when all the clues come together at the end, and I also like the book a lot for having a varied portfolio of crimes for Katsura to handle.
The book opens with Gake no Shita ("Beneath the Cliff"), where four men and women have gone missing one afternoon during a snowboard outing away from the regular course of the Kouge Ski Activity resort: one of their party didn't join them as she was still a beginner, but when they didn't return long after dinner, she and the pension owner decided to inform the authorities. When the first two men are found however, the rescuers stumble upon a surprising scene: the two men were found beneath a cliff, seemingly having fallen off, but one of them has been stabbed to death. Katsura's team is brought in to investigate the case, but they learn from the rescue unit there were no footprints leading away from the cliff when they first arrived there, which seems to prove that the other (alive) man must have killed his comrade. But this second man heavily injured his arms when he fell, making it impossible for him to hold a knife, and even more important: there's no sign of any weapon at the scene. Given the man, like the victim, couldn't move away from the scene, the weapon must be beneath the cliff if he's the murderer, but if it's not there, does it mean someone else did it?
While at first you might think this might be a whodunnit, you soon notice that, like with basically all the stories in the book, this is more a howdunnit or even whydunnit. The "most likely suspect" is usually the person to grab in these stories, but in this case, the most likely suspect is also the least likely person, for he couldn't have handled a weapon he doesn't even have, right? I think taken in a void, the solution to this impossible crime isn't very surprising, but Yonezawa does a great job at hiding it beneath the format of a police procedural, showing how Katsura moves step by step to eliminate other possibilities until he arrives at the one solution, how surprising it may be, that is possible. In the type of puzzlers I usually read, I think this solution wouldn't be overlooked for so long, but it works here because of its far more realistic approach, and I think it's a good showcase of showing how you can incorporate "more outlandish" murder schemes, and show them how not an eccentric brilliant detective, but the police would arrive at such a solution.
In Nemuke ("Drowsiness"), Katsura's team is not given any time to sleep, when Taguma Ryuuto, one of the major suspects in a murder-robbery, gets involved in a traffic accident in the middle of the night. Taguma was riding his van outside of town, tailed by two of Katsura's detectives. Because of construction work along the road, the car of the police detectives was stopped for a few seconds, while Taguma proceeded to the next crossing, when there's a big bang: Taguma's car was rammed by another car. The drivers of both cars are taken to the hospital, and after being awakened by his subordinates in the middle of the night to inform him of this turn of events, Katsura sees this as an opportunity, as if he can arrest Taguma for causing the traffic accident for driving through a red light, he could use that to also pump him on the murder-robbery. The following morning, hs team starts gathering witness testimonies from the people at the construction site, the corner convenience store and people living around the crossing, and Katsura soon gains multiple testimonies that say Taguma's van drove through a red light, but there's something bothering about the whole deal, but what? A rather interesting story, because indeed, you don't really know what's bothering Katsura so much even though it seems like an open-shut case, until he reveals why there's something wrong about it all. This is a great story for this particular format: I can't even imagine this working in those closed circle, logic-focused mystery stories I often read, but here, as a police procedural? Yes, it works, and while it might not be completely fair, I think it's surprisingly well-clewed, considering the twist Yonezawa is going for is really quite unique, but it really only works in this realistic setting.
Inochi no On ("A Life Debt") opens with the discovery of a cut-off human arm along the walking trail of the Kisuge Plains. It is clear from the state of the arm it's been here for more than a day, but it's still recognizable as an arm. The police is notified, naturally, and they start a search for the rest of the body along the plains. They slowly do manage to gather the victim part by part, finding legs and a torso and eventually... a head! The teeth are still intact and the man is soon identified as Nosue Haruyoshi, who had been reported missing by his son. Nosue's business was going to fold soon, so he had been lending a lot of money from a man whom he had saved several years ago: Nosue had found the man and his daughter below the mountain track they had fallen off, and the daughter was bleeding heavily. Nosue had carried the daughter to safety by himself, while getting help for the father too, who was of course indebted to Nosue. The last few years, he had lent Nosue a lot of money to keep the business afloat, but now it seems Nosue had went too far... But would someone really kill the man whom he and his daughter owe their lives? A cut-up body is the most "great detective puzzle plot mystery"-esque this collection gets, and the solution... is surprisingly close to the kind of solution you'd expect from such a story! As usual with these stories, Katsura soon focuses on the main suspect and during his investigation, things do seem to point to this man, but there's still some nagging feeling that not all is right. But what is it that lies behind it? I like the motive behind cutting the body up and leaving it along the Kisuge plains, as the goal sounds like contradictionary at first, but it really isn't, and it's pulled off really well here.
The title story Kanenbutsu ("Combustible Substances") deals with arson, a type of crime you don't often see in mystery fiction. For a week or so, somebody has been committing arson across town by setting fire to garbage bags which have been left outside at the disposal area on the streets early, in the evening before garbage day. The first incident was fortunately discovered by a passerby early, who then "borrowed" a bucket and hose from a nearby house to extinguish the fire himself, but since then, more fires have been discovered at garbage disposal areas, all with the same MO: setting fire to a flyer, which is then stuck into a bag of kitchen waste. Katsura's team is usually tasked with identifying a culprit after a crime has already been committed, but this time they need to find the culprit, but also prevent the culprit from starting a fire with deadly outcome, so every night, detectives are watching garbage disposal sites that are scheduled to be emptied the following day, making note of every suspicious person coming nearby, while at the same time, Katsura is also cooperating with the local fire department to learn more about the aronist's MO and checking up on known arsonists. But as Katsura learns more about how the arsonist is choosing their targets and committing these crimes, he feels something isn't quite right about this arsonist, but why? This is again more a story that focuses on whydunnit, as the identification of the main suspect is done via very, very mundane police work. The whydunnit is quite nice: there are a few seemingly contradictary actions taken by the culprit which are discovered while Katsura conducts his investigation, but the solution he proposes offers a very nice explanation for that, and because these stories are all very dry on the whole, the ironic twist at the end felt surprisingly hard.
The final story, Honmonoka ("The Real Deal?"), has Katsura and his team on their way back after a succesful arrest armed murderer, when there's an incoming call for available units to go to a nearby family restaurant, as someone has barricaded himself inside the restaurant. Upon arrival, Katsura speaks with a local detective and a restaurant staff member, and he learns the manager suddenly cried out for everyone to run from his office, an alarm bell went off, and that at least all the four employees made it out safe, as well as a few dozens of customers who were inside at the time. The manager himself however is nowhere to be seen, and suspected to be still inside as a hostage. When the hostage-taker shows his face near the window, a local detectives recognizes him as Shida Naoto, someone who had run into the police a lot when he was younger, though he supposedly settled down now with a wife and child. However, what attracts even more attention is the pistol-like object Shida was holding in his hand. Is it a real pistol, or a fake one? Katsura is ordered to stay put, gather information and try to ensure the hostage remains safe while the tactical unit prepares for deployment, but what can he do from outside? A fun story, as it's so different from the rest again! Katsura slowly reconstructs what was going on before the alarm went off by talking with the employees and some customers, and must try to assess how dangerous the situation is. But how is he going to do that? The puzzle of determining whether Shida's pistol is real, and finding a way for the tactical unit to enter the premise safely to subdue Shida seems a bit detached from the reader for the most part as a puzzle, but more mysteries follow in close succession as the story nears its climax, and they result in a story that is surprisingly satisfying as a puzzle too, and in terms of clewing and plotting, this might be the trickiest of the whole book.
Overall, Kanenbutsu is a really solid short story collection, and I do think Yonezawa really managed to pull off a nice fusion. I am quite surprised to see how formal this is as a police procedural, as you really see Katsura needing to file in requests to get information from other organizations, or you see it reflected in the way detectives from Prefectural HQ are seen and treated as "guests" at the local stations, but at the same time, the plots do deal with the type of twists you'd expect from puzzle plot mysteries, accompanied by proper clewing. I don't think the book is as memorable as Kokuroujou in general, but it's still a very good read, and recommended material!
I hope it does get translated. Sounds really intriguing!
ReplyDeleteI assume/hope publishers keep a better eye on Yonezawa with Samurai and the Prisoner out, so it should take long for them to notice this book...
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