Art of Darkness!

「人を呪わば穴二つ」

 

"Curses return upon the heads of those that curse"

(Proverb) 

Huh, I have done more audio drama reviews than I thought... Though it's been a while!

Kitayama Takekuni is a writer strongly associated with the locked room murder mystery and other impossible crimes, and as his nickname of "Kitayama of the physical tricks" implies, he specializes in impossible murder mysteries that rely on a physical trick. And with that, I don't mean a string and needle, but like (hypothethically) houses that rotate or fly around, corpses being shot across a field with a cannon, that kind of thing. Most of the mysteries I have read written by him will feature visual aids like diagrams and floorplans to help the reader visualize the scene, as you often have to think in two, or three dimensions to figure out how the murderer managed to set the scene in such a way. When the murder is being explained at the end of  the story, you can often expect an updated diagram with arrows and other additions to explain how a corpse disappeared from scene A and appeared at scene B, or how a Rube Goldberg contraption helped lock the door from the inside.

In that sense, Kitayama Takekuni is basically the last author I'd expected to write an audio drama, precisely because his mysteries often rely on the visual aspect. Of course, he does not exclusively write such mysteries, but it's definitely his trademark style and his strength, and it is hard to imagine how a genuine Kitayama Takekuni mystery would work within the framework of an audio drama.

Which is why I was pretty surprised when I learned that Kitayama Takekuni has indeed written the scenario of a mystery audio drama: Shiromajutsu Tantei Mashiro Mami ("White Mage Detective Mashiro Mami") was released in 2020 by Mausu Promotion (a voice acting school) in their "Two Actor Theater" line: these audio dramas only feature two voice actors, each having a fixed role, so the stories play out via the conversations of these characters. Shiromajutsu Tantei Mashiro Mami features the talents of Kuwahara Yuuki and Takada Yuuki and starts off with Rina, a high school student, on her way to visit a venue with fortune tellers: the place is hugely popular, with a three month waiting list and a consultation session is far from cheap! But when Rina arrives the venue, she's spoken to by a girl with an eyepatch and a crutch, who tells Rina she really shouldn't go to that place, as the fortune tellers there are just money-grabbing charlatans. The girl then introduces herself as "the white mage detective" Mashiro Mami, and explains she too is a fortune teller, specializing in undoing curses (She choose the title 'white mage detective' to sound cooler). Because Mami looks as suspicious as her self-chosen name sounds, Rina is at first hesitant to listen to her any longer, but when Mami manages to accurately point out something that relates to the problem Rina has, she decides to visit Mami at her office for a consultation.

For Rina has an occult problem. Her family owns a painting which is said to be cursed: the painting depicts a woman, with wet hair and a haze covering the painting, like it's raining or there's mist. A rope-like line can be seen extending upwards from behind her neck, which is why the painting is known online as the hanged woman. The painting belonged to Rina's uncle, but he and his family died three years ago: he and his wife were hanging from a tree in the garden, while their son had been drowned in a puddle just outside the garden, having been hit on the head first. The circumstances seemed to suggest Rina's uncle had decided to commit suicide with the whole family (killing the son first). While the fact Rina's cousin had recently quit his job and was becoming more and more socially isolated had been weighing on her uncle's mind, it seems a weak motive for a forced suicide. The fact her uncle and aunt died in the same way as the painting doesn't help Rina's worries, especially as soon after their death, an image of the painting started to make its rounds on the internet, accompanied by the story it is cursed. Murder however seems ruled out: it had been raining earlier that night, and no foot tracks of outsiders were found in the grounds surrounding the house. Rina hopes Mami can investigate the painting and lift the curse, if there's one. But surprisingly, Mami's method of 'lifting a curse' depends a lot on meticulous investigation and deducing what really happened at the house...

As a mystery story, this is pretty short and while nothing mind-blowing happens here, it's pretty decent. You can tell Kitayama does know he's writing for an audio production with only two actors: the list of characters is fairly limited and there are little "tricks" to make some conversations feel natural, like Mami being too frightened to look at a photograph of the cursed painting, so Rina is forced to explain it verbally to Mami (and to the listener). Which is why it's funny how one of the most important twists in the story is actually visually based, but if this were actually a visual medium, the twist might have been a bit too obvious: while it may have been more fair, the twist does work better having the relevant object being described to the listener, who will then imagine the object as they listen to the drama, and then having the twist sprung upon them. As a mystery, Shiromajutsu Tantei Mashiro Mami is a fairly lite tale, with Mami solving not only the mysterious deaths of Rina's uncle, aunt and cousin, but also the mystery of why there's an urban legend surrounding the painting, but don't come in expecting some of Kitayama's best work here, but it's decent enough. Though I guess, a lot of it does implicitly includes the disclaimer of "within the confines of an audio drama". For at the same time, I can't deny the framework of the audio drama really doesn't allow Takeyama to do what he's best at (impossible crimes based on almost ridiculously grand physical tricks) and the drama isn't very long either (less than a hour). I would have loved to see more of this series, as this feels more like a nice prologue/first story, and you can are left wanting for the "main body".

I also like the two characters a lot: Rina's a lot sharper than she appears at first and certainly not just a gullible high school student, while Mami on the other hand is obviously a clever detective, but can also be very clumsy and she's a bit of a scaredy cat and these two have some really funny interactions. Which is another reason why I'd want to see more of this series: they are set-up as a really entertaining detecting duo and the epilogue of the story also shows the two having becoming close, so you feel more should come.

Shiromajutsu Tantei Mashiro Mami is in no way really a work that allowed Kitayama Takekuni to do what he's best at in terms of mystery writing, but nonetheless, it's an entertaining short mystery that shows potential for more. Though I guess since this originally came out in 2020 and nothing has followed, neither as audio drama nor in any format, I guess this will be all we'll hear from Mami and Rina.

Original Japanese title(s): マウスプロモーション、北山猛邦 (シナリオ）『マウス二人芝居     白魔術探偵・真白真実』

8 1 3

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

"One" (Filter)

This is not the cover of the edition I read, but this is a great cover, so I'm going to cheat!

The Harrigans are a religious, and wealthy clan, though the three siblings carry their faith in different manners. Oldest brother Wolfe has dedicated his life to exposing religious confidence tricksters, second brother R. Joseph is a laywer with influence across town and sister Ellen is deeply religious and has remained single all her life, Recently unemployed Matt Duncan happens to become acquainted with Wolfe when he visits the Harrigan house: initially there to see Concha, Wolfe's daughter and the fiancee of his university friend Gregory (at least, Gregory claims she's his fiancee), Duncan happens to catch one of those swindlers who was exposed by Wolfe trying to kill the man. Wolfe is very grateful to Duncan and offers him a job as his assistant and writer, hoping Duncan can sift through all the data Wolfe has on religious fraudsters and write a book based on his research. The current target of Wolfe is the Temple of Light and its leader, who claims to be Ahasver, the Wandering Jew. Wolfe and Duncan attend a meeting of the Children of Light, where they hear Ahasver, clad in a yellow robe, set "Nine Times Nine" (nine prophets and the nine that serve those nine) upon their mortal enemy Wolfe Harrigan: his death will follow within a month. Only they didn't have to wait that long, for the following day at dusk, Duncan and R. Joseph are in the garden when they see a figure dressed in a yellow robe standing in Wolfe's study through the French windows. They rush inside the house to enter the room, but find one door locked from the inside, and the other door to the chapel turns out to have been under observation for quite some time now, and the witness didn't see anyone leave through this door either. Duncan makes it back to the French windows again, where he sees Wolfe lying dead on the floor, having been shot, but no trace of the figure in the yellow robe! The police of course also confirm later the study, save for some mouse holes, was indeed completely sealed from inside, from the doors to the French windows. Did Ahasver use his mystical powers to kill Wolfe and leave the study even though it was locked from the inside? Duncan is quite eager to help the police solve the murder on his new boss, but he's not alone, as Sister Ursula, of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany who have a close tie with the Harrigans, too seems interested in solving the mystery in Anthony Boucher's Nine Times Nine (1940).

Nine Times Nine, originally published by Boucher under the name of H.H. Holmes, is the first book featuring the character of Sister Ursula, and while I have radio plays by Boucher, this is the first time I read a novel by him. The book certainly reads very pleasantly: while not much really happens, the story feels like it's always moving about, and there are even some minor hardboiled-esque segments where Duncan has fisticuffs with people. While those segments aren't really necessary puzzle plot-wise, I found the story as told at least pleasant enough, and it didn't feel like it had been padded too much, nor did it really ever drag. 

Overall, I also did very much like the plot about the Temple of Light, the cult and of course the Wandering Jew Ahasver. Makes you wonder why someone who's been wandering the Earth for almost two thousand years would just resort to murder, you'd think they'd have created a better network of dealing with things if you've been around for so long already! I do wish the book had explored the cult in more detail, as the book ultimately focuses much more on the Harrigan family in general, and to a somewhat lesser extent Ahasver alone, rather than the whole organization around him. The other cult-related element is the person Swami Virasenanda whose attempt on killing Wolfe was foiled by Duncan the first night he visited, but you don't really hear much about how he worked as a religious fraudster, he's just used as the character who already tried to kill Wolfe once before.

The main problem of the book is certainly the locked room, which is probably also signalled by the fact the book is dedicated to John Dickson Carr. In fact, a whole chapter of the book is basically also dedicated to the infamous Locked Room Lecture of Carr, as at a certain point, the characters actually start quoting from the lecture in an attempt to solve the locked room murder of Wolfe Harrigan. The problem itself is technically not a true locked room by the way: why almost all windows and doors were indeed locked from the inside, there was one door that had been under observation by one single witness. So the situation only becomes a true locked room mystery if we choose to believe this character. I think Boucher did consider this point, and tried to sell to the reader we could absolutely believe this character regarding this point, but I do think it didn't work too well. The thing Boucher tries to pull off regarding the credibility of this witness testimony definitely has interesting elements, and I can also see it working in specific situations, but here it kinda falls flat, for ultimately, it's still basically just "let's believe the witness for the sake of the story". You either need to explore that specific character a lot more, or have a very specific kind of situation or world, where you can really sell the idea that witness would not lie regarding what they saw, for this to work, but in Nine Times Nine, the attempt to guarantee to the reader the witness told the truth, still feels like Boucher is just imploring you to believe him for the plot to work. It also kinda falls flat, for the same argument for some reason doesn't work for the actual culprit, whom is portrayed somewhat similarly to the witness, but for some reason, it doesn't hold for them? The two clues I refer to are the kind I actually really like, and they can work really well in specific settings (not explaining in more detail here as it would spoil the book), but here they just don't work the way the story pretends they are doing. There is also a kind of dying message. If you're better educated than me, it might have been very useful. It's somewhat Ellery Queen-esque clue, not just because it's a dying clue, but also the meaning behind it. Though one does wonder how trustworthy the dying message would be in practical terms, as to pull that off while a person is dying...But if this had not been a Anthony Boucher, but Berkeley book, the dying message would certainly have been fake and been used to manipulate Sheringham into arriving at a false conclusion!

The actual how behind the locked room is... alright? Practically speaking, it seems like a bit of a risky trick to pull off, especially with only one single attempt and also it having been impossible for the culprit to control all possible witnesses roaming around the house at the same time: if even one person had been standing at the wrong place at the wrong time, they'd have been found out. It's not my favorite type of trick to create a locked room, but it's alright, though what I actually liked better, was the simple set-up by Sister Ursula to guide the other characters (and the reader) at arriving at the same conclusion as she did. The simple questions she asks at the start of the denouement are so obvious, but they very firmly guide you to the right answer. Sister Ursula is also quite a fun character; though religious, she's not quite as religious as say Father Brown, with an almost cheeky, mischievous side to her.

Nine Times Nine supposedly ranks among Edward D. Hoch's favorite locked room mysteries. It comes nowhere close my absolute favorites, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. I do think it shows a lot of potential elements that could have been worked out even better, but as a mystery novel written by someone who obviously really looked up to Carr (and while not reflected as strongly here, Queen), Nine Times Nine is certainly a book I can safely recommend for a few hours of fun mystery.

Mischievous Scientist

Once we were a race of beings roaming the universe on the search for answers and knowledge, but only found more questions and misery. Eons have passed before the first member of our people realised that there was a deeper structured process behind the common reality we were able to see and live. 

"Mystery of Time and Space"

A non-fiction book for a change!

While Detective Conan is at the core a fair-play mystery manga, it remains a series that also has a lot of unrealistic elements that are a part of the series identity: the core premise of high school student detective Kudo Shinichi being turned into a child due to an experimental drug is of course the prime example, but because the rom-com and action genres are also a fundamental part of Conan, we also see characters sometimes pull off things that would be completely impossible in a "realistic" setting, and if their feats were part of the mysteries, it'd definitely feel unfair, but usually, these superhuman scenes only occur after the core mystery has been solved. That said. sometimes it's fun to think a bit more about these superhuman feats. Kuusou Kagaku Dokuhon ("The Fictional Science Reader") is a long-running series by Yanagida Rikao that explores the science in anime/manga/tokusatsu/games etcetera. Can our current knowledge of science explain how a certain scene in an anime played out? Or how much strength would be needed for someone to pull off that one memorable scene? Earlier this year, Yanagida released a special crossover volume with Detective Conan: Meitantei Conan Kuusou Kagaku Dokuhon ("Detective Conan: The Fictional Science Reader" 2024) looks at the long-running mystery manga with a wink, exploring questions like "How does the drug that shrunk Conan's body work?", "How many murder cases *does* Conan encounter on average?" and "How hard can Ran kick people?".

Many years ago, I wrote a short piece about how I wanted to see more reference/guidebooks on established mystery series: I referred to a Conan guide among others, that had short summaries for each case, including a focus on the important clues/trick/murder weapon, and a Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney guide that had timelines for each case, showing what everyone was doing at what time. I haven't seen many interesting guides released since then, sadly enough. But while Detective Conan: Meitantei Conan Kuusou Kagaku Dokuhon isn't exactly what I was talking about at the time, I think this was a pretty funny book for fans of the series, though not really for general mystery fans.

In the book, Yanagida explores several memorable scenes and pivotal moments from the Detective Conan series, focusing specifically on the manga until volume 105. He then uses science to muse about these scenes: a funny example is from one of the earliest chapters in the series, when Ran kicks a kidnapper and he flies a few meters until he lands on the ground. Obviously, it would be impossible in real-life for her to kick a grown adult so far: if she *could* be so strong, it'd mean other people in this world could also be so strong and use their strength to pull off what appear to be "impossible" crimes for us. But as I mentioned earlier, Ran's "super strength" (and that of other characters) is only seen after the core mystery plot has been resolved, so it's not really jarring, as you can easily see this is just "comics reality". Which is why it's so funny when Yanagida starts calculating how much force it'd require for Ran to kick that man the way she did, and ending up with the conclusion she has the kick strength of nearly 600 kickboxers.

There are some other interesting statistical analyses that are more mystery-related. It turns out that over the course of the first 105 volumes, there were "just" 202 murder cases,  a number which surprised me a bit, but I guess with the anime and other media around, you just get the idea there are more. As in-universe, not even a full year has passed since the first volume, Yanagida then uses that to compare Conan's "murder encounter" rate to that of the average Japanese civilian and to that of homicide detectives in Tokyo, which... of course makes it too clear Conan is really a death magnet. And if you count all the non-murder (but criminal) cases, it turns out Conan even averages over 1 incident per day. Something you kinda expect when reading the series of course, but it's more amusing by seeing the scientific support for the gut feeling. Life in Beika City is also shown to be a real dystopia, considering the murder rate in one single city...

Other funny musings are about the efficiency of Conan's tranquilizer wristwatch and his other gadgets like his turbo skateboard and ball-dispensing belt, the speed required for Kyougoku Makoto to dodge a shotgun shot at point-blank range, how painful would it really be to have a bag full of gold fall on you from a meter or ten (spoiler: very painful). Most of the scenes picked will be very familiar to Conan fans, and seeing them "nitpicked" like this is more than entertaining.

But as I said, this is really just for Conan fans, and not for mystery fans in general. But! I was thinking, it would be cool if there was a mystery-focused volume of Kuusou Kagaku Dokuhon, just not focusing on one specific IP, but exploring several famous mystery novels. Sure, it'd be full of spoilers, but imagine Yanagida going over the science behind the locked room murder trick in Honjin Satsujin Jiken/The Honjin Murders or all of those Kitayama Takekuni locked room murders. Going over the physics behind physical locked room tricks would of course be the major attraction, but I could also imagine a shorter column going over how poisons are shown to work in the novels and checking whether they really work like that. 

Anyway, Meitantei Conan Kuusou Kagaku Dokuhon is a fun coffee table-type of book for Detective Conan fans, with just the right about of "seriousness" about silly subjects. Because it's mostly about really specific scenes, I can't recommend it to anyone else, but it does show a lot of potential for a more "general mystery" entry in this series, and I hope that in the future, such a volume will be released!

Original Japanese title(s): 柳田理科雄『名探偵コナン空想科学読本』

Against the Rules

Thou shalt not kill.

"Exodus" (King James Version)

It took me longer than I like to admit to realize this cover was an island in the sea.

Oomuro Rie was quite fond of her uncle Shuuzou. Shuuzou started out with great successes on the stock market, and used his fortune to invest in other businesses that only resulted even more money. The small island he owned, was one of the ways in which he managed to use the money he had at his disposal.The island holds a larger two-story house, and five smaller bungalows, and when she was small, Shuuzou would invite her parents and their children to stay there on the island for holiday. The last few years however, she hadn't really seen her uncle, so the news her uncle had died in a traffic accident came as a shock. As he had no other relatives, Rie's father inherited from his older brother, though the size of the inheritance wasn't as big as it once had been. The island was of course also part of the inheritance, but when the president of a small leisure company contacted Rie's father about wanting to buy the island to develop into a resort, her father was quite positive to the offer, as it's kinda inconvenient to own a small island. They agree to have a look at the current state of the island and the buildings there together, as even Shuuzou himself hadn't visited the place the last five years. The president of the leisure company was friends with Shuuzou, and coincidentally, Shuuzou also knew presidents of a real estate agent and constructing company, who also want in on developing this project, so they and their assistants come too. Rie too wants to come along, as this might be the last time she can see the island of her memories, and as she didn't make it into college this year, she still has time now as she studies for her entrance exams. Ultimately, nine people make their way to the small private island, which can only be accessed via a small pier. When they arrive at the island, they find the buildings to be in pretty good shape, but to their surprise, they find that one shack is filled with explosives, hooked up to a system communicating with a smartphone. The bungalows are all locked, but also seem to be holding bombs. It seems someone has been on the island making these bombs for some reason, but because Rie's father can't be sure his brother is not involved at all, he wants to sleep over it one night before they call the police.

The following morning however, one of them is found dead down the cliff of the island, but more importantly, there is a note addressing all surviving eight of them: in it the murderer says they have taken the smartphone that controls the explosives on the island, and that they will detonate the island, killing everyone, unless the rest will follow the ten rules stated in the note. The ten rules range from everyone having to hand in their smartphone and keep them together in a sealed bag to not contacting the police or the outside world, extending their stay to a full three days and most importantly: they are to not even try to figure out who the murderer is, or they will all die. Can the eight survive their stay on this island while following these hard rules in Yuuki Haruo's Jikkai ("The Ten Commandments", 2023)?

Hakobune ("The Ark", 2022) was the first time I ever read anything by Yuuki and it was easily one of my favorite reads of 2023, so when I learned that soon after reading that book, Yuuki released another book with a similar, Bible-inspired title, I of course was more than interested in the book. I wonder what the next book will be! Revelations? The Tower of Babel? Resurrection? The Parting of the Sea? The potential! Besides the title, Jikkai is not connected story-wise to Hakobune by the way, so you can read them in any order.

* September 2024 edit: Okay, so I read Jikkai last year, and also wrote this review then, but I had a long queue of reviews waiting so the post got delayed until today... but earlier this year, I also reviewed Yuuki's (excellent) Salome's Guillotine: I read it soon after its release date, so I decided to push that review up ahead. While that book also has a title from an episode of the Bible, it is in fact part of a different series.

While Jikkai s basically a closed circle mystery in a very familiar form (an island!), the concept of the "ten commandments" laid upon the survivors is interesting, in theory. The final rule, that forbids them from trying to investigate the murder and learn who the murderer is, makes for a catchy marketing slogan, but the rest of the rules are far more practical, like not allowing them to use their phones unless observed by everyone else, or the rule where nobody is allowed to be with someone else for longer than thirty minutes, after which a five minute cooldown period must follow where you need to be alone. It is clear from the way the rules are laid down, the murderer must be one of the surviving eight: the rules only benefit if the murderer is among them, allowing them to control the rest and not have them solve the mystery, without having to reveal to the rest who they are. They also soon realize the murderer has probably set the explosives to go off unless they reset the counter every thirty minutes, meaning the five minute cool-down period is used to reset that counter, making it more difficult for the rest to do anything to counter the murderer. Due to these rules, the first half of the book might feel more like a suspense novel than a detective novel, as obviously, Rie and the other innocent survivors don't dare to do anything that goes against the ten commandments, and so they can't investigate the body or even ask about each other's alibis, something that would usually be done right away in a novel with a similar setting.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when the rules were actually introduced, because just based on the marketing slogan, I had expected something else. I guess I had expected something more game-like. The rules are very practical, but at the same time, because we know the murderer has to be one of the eight survivors on the island, they seem a bit inconvenient. How is one person going to keep track of the other seven innocent people on the island as they roam about and occasionally talk with each other? The rules don't forbid that, and it's not like the murderer has tracking tech or anything. Rules like "don't be in each other's vicinity for longer than thirty minutes" make more sense in a setting with more technology present. I was honestly first expecting something more Battle Royale-esque, or something like the Future arc of Danganronpa 3, where everyone had bombs attached to themselves, which would detonate if they violated a personal forbidden rule which was different for everyone. Here many of the rules were just so specific "Place this here, put that away", instead of rules that would be important to remember the whole time, which made the whole concept feel less impressive than it could've been. Ultimately, the only rule that mattered really was the one of not trying to find out who the murderer is, with the rest just being offshoots of that to ensure they wouldn't.

As the survivors wonder why the murderer told them to wait for three days, after which they are allowed to contact the police, the days pass by, but more people are killed. The murderer leaves more notes, telling the others that the new victims were only killed because they violated the rules and that the rest don't need to worry if they obey the rules, but of course, the others aren't really able to enjoy the holiday feeling on the island now. Because they are not allowed to investigate or basically even discuss the deaths, in fear of being bombed, the story offers, ostensibly, only minimal clues to solving the mystery, which is course also what makes the story interesting mystery-wise. That said, it's not like the story is completely devoid of clues, and there are a few things discussed shortly that serve as clues, before they are shut down in fear of the killer, but some notes, like the question why the murderer doesn't just command the others to destroy all clues for the murderer or else they will be blown up, is a very fair one. Of course, a lot of these minor questions would normally be developed more in discussion, but that's not possible here, so the questions linger a bit longer until they are picked up at the end again.

And as a mystery novel that tries to give you very little clues while being fair and giving a justification for why there are so few clues, Jikkai is surprisingly fun. Some things that are done here, were already done in Hakobune and I also think they were done better there, but the type of deductions presented here are still quite enjoyable: as in Hakobune, the deductions revolve around Queen-esque logic, focusing on the state of physical clues and the actions performed by the murderer as seen by the state of the scene of the crime, and there's a segment surrounding foot marks that is very interesting: regarding a late murder, the killer finally does order the rest to erase the tracks left by the murderer on a wet field, but for some reason, the murderer already did that for the victim. Why did they erase the victim's tracks themselves, but didn't erase their own? The deductions here are fun, and certainly also part of what I liked so much abotu Hakobune. In terms of the identity of the murderer, and also the whole motivation for why the murders were committed, and also the (barely existant) backstory to the explosives, I have to admit I felt less convinced. A lot of these aspects are barely justified in the narrative, and you keep wondering whether there wasn't some other way (some less convoluted way) to get things done...

Overall, I think Jikkai is a fun, and exciting mystery novel: it is suspenseful, it is mystery-wise interesting because it actively gives you a reason why there are few clues, and thus also challenging you to get as far as you can with the few clues you do have, but some elements are rather rushed, and ultimately, I think a lot of what Jikkai does, was done better in Hakobune. In fact, I would have totally expected these two books being released in reverse order, as Hakobune feels like the upgraded version of Jikkai. Anyway, I do hope Yuuki will continue with this Bible-themed series, as even if this book wasn't as good as Hakobune (which I thought was exceptionally good), I still had fun with it.

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央,『十戒』