Castle Skull

The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think.
"The Masque of the Red Death"

I read this book late last year and I actually wanted to post a review soon after reading it... but I forgot to actually write a review at the time, and I had been procrastinating since...

The French revolution had widespread effect on the views on aristrocracy all throughout Europe, so also on the people living in the Hereditaqua Peninsula in Central Europe. The narrator, Quello, is a young man raised as the second-in-line of a not-too-wealthy aristocratic family. When he was young, he came across a boy snooping around his family's grounds, but the boy assured Quello he was not just a vagrant: he introduced himself as Nagate, one of the Tuigo triplets. Stardio, Nagate and Orcida, who lived at the nearby San Georgius farm, were the well-known product of a scandal: their mother, a noblewoman, had become infatuated with a minstrel, but when she became pregnant with his children, he disappeared. The Tuigo patriarch of course became furious at his daughter, so she and her children were sent away from the capital to live at the farm until she died a few years ago, leaving the farm to the triplets. Quello became friends with the triplets and the four grew up together. Because Quello was not likely to inherit anything in the future, he holds ambitions to obtain a diplomatic post in the capital: however, in order to get such a prestigious job, he needs the personal recommendation of a higher nobleman, and so he becomes the scrivener of Count D, ruler of the D-region on the peninsula. As the scrivener, Quello is expected to be at his master's side all the time, to preserve everything Count D does and says for later generations. That is why he is right on the scene when his childhood friends make a proposal to the count: they will restore one of the decrepit fortress in his terroritory to serve as a line of defense, and rule it for him. As it is wise to have a proper running fortress along the Yana river in these times of political chaos, the count commands the the Tuigo triplets to do as proposed. For the Tuigo triplets, this is a chance to earn an actual aristocratic title: as bastard children, they have been shunned and denied their own title, but they are ambitious, and willing to work hard to earn a title themselves. The triplets have been educating themselves for such a task since they were children, with each of the brothers focusing on a different task (military leadership, diplomacy and architecture). 

The restoration of the fortress enters its final phase when the triplets get a shocking letter: it's from their father Adallo, who disappeared at their birth. According to the letter, he traveled the world and eventually ended up working for a French merchant who became a parliament member. Now he's going to travel to the Hereditaqua Peninsula and he hopes to see his estranged offspring. The triplets don't feel much for seeing him, as they have never met them and all they know is that he left their mother after she got pregnant, but they also don't want to look petty. Because Adallo is connected to the French parliament, they ask Count D whether they could meet Adallo with Count D as a witness at the restored fortress, now dubbed Four-Head Castle, to make it clear they are not collaborating with a foreign government. The Count agrees, and on the promised day, they all await the arrival of Adallo. However, the triplets seem nervous and they storm out of the fortress on horseback to calm their nerves. It is during their absence Adallo arrives and he walks around the courtyard guided by an old friend, who heard of Adallo's return to the peninsula. However, suddenly a figure emerges from the waterway crossing the courtyard and uses a pistol to shoot Adallo. The figure escapes via the waterway, which leads back to the Yana river, but all the witnesses agree on one thing: they all recognized the assailant as... one of the Tuigo triplets, but which one? The triplets are eventually found in a hut, having been knocked out via a drug mixed with the drink they all had. The conclusion seems clear: one of the brothers wanted to kill their estranged father and drugged the other two so he could commit the murder, and then returned and pretened he had been knocked out too. But how can they find out which of the three is the murderer, especially in this age, when there are no forensic techniques available? That is the driving mystery in Shiotani Ken's 2024 novel Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi ("The Count and the Three Coffins"). 

I can't be the only one who thought this would be more of a John Dickson Carr-inspired story when they first heard of the title, right? There's no real parallels with The Three Coffins though, and there's not even a real impossible crime going on here, so that's perhaps something worth pointing out to someone who's looking to read this book...

But don't let that be a negative point, for Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi is a really awesome mystery novel. I first heard about this book when I happened to be visiting Kodansha (the publisher) about a month or two before the book released: I heard editors hyping the "upcoming Shiotani work" up... but not to me (an outsider), but among themselves, as in, they were having private conversations and they were all gushing on the book! So it was obviously not "marketing" that made them all seem so excited for this release, so I decided to pick the book up myself too when it released, and I am glad I did as it is definitely one of my favorite reads of 2024 (yes, this review is posted late). 

The book does start very slowly, as it takes its time to set the historical scene: while the actual peninsula might be fictional, the book is firmly set in the European political reality of the time, with the French revolution and its societal consequences playing a major background role in the motivations of all characters. It is also surprisingly how deep Shiotani paints the fictional kingdom, even portraying traditional clothing and other cultural characteristics. It all makes the setting feel real and convincing, which is necessary, as while the core mystery might sound simple (one of the brothers shooting Adallo), there is of course a lot more going on in the background, and all of that is tied to this specific location in this specific period in history. The book is actually presented as a written account by Quello, who wrote the details of the case down decades after it happened. This account is presented to the modern-day reader, and thus includes historical footnotes by the editor to really sell the "historcal" setting. This is the first time I read a novel by Shiotani, but he definitely makes full use of the fictional setting set within a non-fictional Europe, and it makes me interested in his other works, as I know he always uses unusual settings and premises in his books, and if he can use them as good as he did here...

But as I said, the core mystery is quite simple at first sight: a classic Ellery Queen style "one of the three suspects". However, a bombshell revelation is made soon after the murder, which sends the investigation into chaos. Count D, hoping to demonstrate his leadership and talents to the people he rules by commanding the investigation himself, does the best he can, though he soon has to admit his own Court Investigators, who usually do the criminal investigations, are better suited to the task. However, even they must admit this is a tricky task: the three brothers all claim they were knocked out while they were having a drink before returning to the castle, and none of the witnesses saw something distinguishing about the assailant who shoot Adallo, making it impossible to visually determine who the murderer was. The story starts with an introduction by Quello written well into the nineteenth century, explaining how they didn't have access to the scientific investigation techniques in the late eighteenth century so the investigation might sound amateurish "now". However, as he also points out, this mystery can be solved by pure logic, and Shiotani shows himself to be a great plotter of mysteries, as he indeed does not need to resort to fingerprints, DNA analysis or other modern techniques to determine which of the three brothers shot Adallo. The strands of logic are well-hidden, but not overly complex and quite satisfying. The build-up to the ultimate reveal of all that went on at Four-Head Castle is also fantastic, slowly revealing information that seems to be positive on first sight, but upon second thought suddenly turn things around. Mystery-wise, there are some spots I really like, but I can't really go into them without spoiling too much. The bombshell revelation I mentioned earlier halfway the book already changes a lot of the dynamics of the mystery, making it much more complex, but I think it's more fun to arrive at that point yourself rather than me revealing that early here.

So yeah, I really enjoyed Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi a lot, and I can't recommend it enough. It starts off really, really slow though, so that is something to keep in mind perhaps, but it is well worth the pay-off. Oh, and I can't finish this post without mentioning that sick cover art, right? The physical book looks really cool on a bookshelf...

 Original Japanese title(s): 潮谷験『伯爵と三つの棺』 

Nightfright

She said, 'Some of the people I call on seem to curl up their toes and pass out just from having one look at me.' She laughed about it and said it was a coincidence.
"The Pale Horse"

Today: a book that is mystery-wise not particularly memorable, but still a book I enjoyed a lot.

The students Mari and Sonoko are driving through a typhoon, on their way to the second house of Minori Kazunori, professor in American literature at their M University. Sonoko has had her eye on the handsome and very rich professor since forever, and the fact he's married, means nothing to her: she plans to have an affair with him, and have him divorce his wife eventually. He's been evading Sonoko's approaches for so long, Mari is rather surprised when this morning, Sonoko calls Mari out of bed with urgent news: apparently, the professor has finally given in to his urges. Professor "Kazu" owns a second house on a mountain on A Plains, near Sonoko's home town, and when she called Kazu this morning, she was told his wife would leave the house for a week later today, and Sonoko could come and stay there. Sonoko has no car of her own, so now she's on the phone to beg for a lift from Mari, who very reluctantly agrees to accompany Sonoko. But not for the reason you'd think: it turns out Mari is having an affair with Kazu for some time now, so why has Kazu now chosen for Sonoko!? Mari agrees to go along with Sonoko (to spring a surprise on Kazu) and together, they hop in Mari's car. When they arrive at the house however, they are surprised by the person answering the door: the young man they don't know seems as surprised as them. He explains he's a student of M University too, and that he was hired to watch the house for a week: he was picked up by the professor's wife earlier today and she drove off again, though she didn't explain where she was going, where the professor was and when she'd be back exactly. Sonoko is baffled, because this wasn't how things were to go: she was going to have her special night with Kazu! But as they are wondering what's going on, more people arrive at the house: first a police detective arrives at the scene, who explains he visited the hotel at the top of the mountain in relation to a case, but on his way back to town, he found the road further down the mountain collapsed due to the typhoon, so now he's stuck. He borrows the phone to call his boss and asks for permission to stay at the hotel back up the mountain, but then a family of three (a couple and the elderly father of the wife) arrive at the house too, who tell them the road further up the mountain, to the hotel has collapsed too. When later the hotel shuttle bus driver arrives at the house too, the party is complete: everyone is stuck in this house until the road's been restored. They divide the rooms among each other (Mari of course sleeps with Sonoko) and after dinner, some of them retreat to their rooms, while others hang out in the living room watching television. However, a very unfortunate chain of incidents leads to.... Mari killing six people one after another in the house. While it was certainly not intended, everyone besides Sonoko ends up killed by Mari (and some in rather gruesome manners). Mari is naturally in complete shock and returns to their room to wake up Sonoko, but it is then Mari discovers... Sonoko has also been murdered! A heavy vase was dropped on her head, and for some reason, her hair had been cut short. While a broken window seems to indicate the murderer came from outside, the fact they're completely shut-off from the outside world, quickly points Mari to one conclusion: one of the six people Mari just killed, must have killed Sonoko earlier! This quickly leads to Mari's one plan for salvation: Mari will make it seem the killer of Sonoko killed Sonoko and the rest, and set things up so it'll appear like then the killer was killed by Mari in self-defence. But in order to do that, Mari must figure out who killed Sonoko in Nishizawa Yasuhiko's Satsui no Tsudou Yoru ("The Night Murderous Intent Gathered", 1996).

I don't always remember where I first learned about a book, but I certainly remember where I first heard about this book: I read this book in August 2024, and a few weeks earlier, the book had been trending on Japanese social media, despite it being a rather old book. The reason is simple: the blurb was just so silly: how does Mari accidentally kill no less than six people!? For that is the honest truth: while Mari in some cases did act in self-defence, most killings were really just... unintended outcomes of sudden movements. The book is actually really funny, even though it is not written in an overt "comedic" manner: the way everything happens is just silly. From Mari "accidentally" doing a multi-kill combo to Sonoko just openly trying to seduce a professor to it turning out that professor is actually having an affair with Mari and Mari constantly bad-mouthing Sonoko both in front of her and behind her back... the characters are over-the-top, and act very comedic, even though the book's tone seems more serious.

The "intention" to be serious can also be seen in a secondary storyline, which follows the police detective Mimoro Katsuya (a co-worker of the police detective who ends up at the house): he's been working on the case of a killer with necrophilic tendencies who's been killing attractive women. During his investigation, he interviewed Kose Tomoe, and the woman has been on his mind since then. After some drinking in the earliest hours of the morning (on the same day as the main plot), he ends up in front of her apartment building and makes his way to her room; an impulse he knows is wrong, but he can't help it. He finds her door not locked and sneaks inside, only to see Kose having sex with a man... but then the man strangles her to death. Mimoro doesn't know what to do: while he wants to help her, he also knows that there's no way he can explain how he came here, sneaking like a stalker into the apartment of a woman he only interviewed once. He flees and several hours later, he's called by his boss who informs him of the murder, but to his great surprise, there's another dead woman lying in the apartment now, and the scene is set to make it appear like that woman killed Tomoe and then committed suicide. Mimoro is the only one who knows that isn't the truth, but can't of course explain he was actually witness to the murder. He tries to find out who the man was who killed Tomoe, which brings him on a curious trail that leads him to a house on the mountains in A Plain....

So the second storyline involves a serial killer of women, and we hear about some other odd cases that have been going on in the region, like a killer of children. In general, these chapters are a bit shorter, and feature a very flawed narrator: Mimoro clearly has stalkery tendencies and is even jealous of the man who killed Tomoe, as he felt somehow disgusted and disillusioned with Tomoe when he saw her having sex with another man. Despite that, he's still trying to do his job and find the killer, and part of the mystery of course revolves around finding out how this plotline relates to the story set at the mountain villa of professor "Kazu".

As you can guess, Satsui no Tsudou Yoru reads more like a thriller than a pure puzzler, though Mari does show off some not particularly memorable, but at the very least, still "logic-based" deductions regarding who could've killed Sonoko (with Mari's own killing spree functioning as an important event to determine where everybody was at a certain time). Ultimately though, this is not a fair-play whodunnit, and a lot of the mystery revolves just around seeing how we learn how several strands of plotlines turn out to be connected by... sheer coincidence. Coincidence is a strange thing in mystery fiction (ha! See this review for example), but as this book is just a thriller, I didn't mind the humongous pile of coincidences at work here: the result is just something so silly, it becomes good. I do like the ultimate manner in which the two plotlines of Mari in the house and the investigation of Mimoro connect, as that was the one thing I really didn't see coming, and there were other interesting hidden parts of the mystery that made an impression on me as they were revealed, and while I doubt many readers would actually have been capable of deducing those parts based on the clues, I can't help but admit Satsui no Tsudou Yoru was just hugely entertaining in its... unreserved manner to present such a ridiculous story, with a straight face.

It's funny though... Nishizawa Yasuhiko is best known for his mysteries with a supernatural setting, from people stuck in timeloops to supernatural abilities to push people to think. This is the first time I read a book by him that does not feature a supernatural/sci-fi element and in a way, it ends up the least realistic one because it's so deliciously silly.

Satsui no Tsudou Yoru is no masterpiece or a must-read by any means, but I did enjoy it immensely because of how ludicrous it could be. The concept of Mari just accidentally doing a multi-combo kill spree is funny on its own, and the thriller Nishizawa writes around that is entertaining enough to keep you hooked for the short, but sweet experience.

Original Japanese title(s): 西澤保彦『殺意が集う夜』

The Sound of Murder

「『ミステリ』では人が死ぬ。人が死なない『ミステリ』もあるが、ほとんどは人が奇妙な死に方をしている。串刺しされたり、バラバラにされたり・・・それは忌むべき物語だ。だがどうして昔の人たちは、『ミステリ』を書き、『ミステリ』を読んだのだろう。どうしてそれを喜んで受け入れたのだろう。人が殺されると嬉しいから『ミステリ』を読むのではないのか？もっとたくさん、人が死ねば、君たちは喜ぶのではないのか？」

 『オルゴーリェンヌ』

 

 "People die in mystery stories. There are mystery stories where nobody dies, but in most of them, people die in curious ways, like being impaled or cut in pieces... these are stories we should abhor. So why did the people of yore write mystery stories and read them? How could they embrace them with such joy? Does it mean they read mysteries, because they become happy when someone is killed? Don't you find it more joyous when even more people are killed?"

"Orgellienne"

I'm never sure what to think of when they change the cover of a book when they release the paperback pocket version, but still keep the same general style/idea of the trade paperback version. Why change it in the first place then...?

A long time has passed since books were banned from the world: books were seen as the source of evil, planting ideas in the minds of people and thus needed to be eradicated from the world. Mystery novels in particular were seen as a shameful past: how could people find pleasure in stories about killing others? However, before all the books were burned, some great mystery fans did everything to make sure future generations could still enjoy mystery fiction: they decided to store all mystery fiction as pure data. These people hid specialized data sets, like a set on "locked room mysteries" with the relevant books and secondary literary in so-called "Gadgets": jewels that hold the data sets and which are imbedded in other items, like a scarf. Chris has inherited such a Gadget, holding the set on The Narrator in mystery fiction, and since then, he has become interested in the forgotten art of mystery fiction, and he hopes to become a mystery writer himself. For that, he needs to find more Gadgets, and that is why he is travelling the world. However, that is a dangerous trip, as Censors are desperately hunting after any remaining books in the world: whenever they locate a book, it's not only the book that gets burned down, but the whole place it was found, just to be sure there are no other books there. The Boy Censors are particularly feared throughout the world: they have been trained since their childhood to look specifically for Gadgets and are relentless in their hunts. However, during a previous adventure, Chris became somewhat friendly with the young censor Eno, who let Chris go despite knowing he was carrying a Gadget.

During his travels, Chris learns an old friend, Kirie, has been looking for him, and he receives a message telling him to go to the place they first met. Chris carefully makes his way towards the harbor town, but on his way there, he runs into the mute girl Yuyu, who is being chased by censors. The two are detected and chased throughout the city, but are surprisingly saved by Eno, who picks the two up in his car. Eno drives to the harbor town, where they find Kirie at a small clinic, as he's very ill and has not long to live anymore. Eno explains Yuyu is being suspected of being in the possession of a Gadget. Yuyu is a housemaid who lives in Carillon House, a house located on one of the "new islands" that have emerged ever since the sea levels have been rising (i.e. it is a part of a city that has become mostly submerged, making it into an island). The censors got anonymous information a Gadget was hidden at the house, and the boy censor Karte and his lieutenant Eve are now at the house looking for it, but last night, Yuyu disappeared, which of course made her the prime suspect of having taken the Gadget away. It turns out that very rarely, once every few months, a cramped path appears between the island and the mainland at low tide, and last night happened to be such a time, which is why Yuyu managed to escape without a boat. Yuyu manages to explain that her master sent her away from the island, but she was not given a Gadget with her. Eno is torn between wanting to let Chris go, and his devotion to his work, and eventually, they decide to go to the island together: they can prove Yuyu's innocence by finding the Gadget in the Carillon House, which should resolve everything. 

The Carillon House is owned by Crowley, a wealthy man who loves music boxes above everything. He has allowed several people to live with him, paying for their food and life expenses, who create music boxes for him and the whole house is full of them. When Chris, Eno and Yuyu arrive at the house, tey find Karte and Eve are rather off-hands with their search for the lost Gadget, claiming it will find their way to them. While Chris and Eno start searching for the Gadget however, they stumble upon a horrible sight: one of the disciples of Crowley is discovered impaled on a steel beam at the light house. But how would one lift an adult body several meters up in the sky and drive their torso through a beam projecting towards the sea? As the search for the Gadget intensifies, more people end up dead, like someone found in the ruins of a toppled building and someone found killed in a tower room which was locked from the inside... Is someone using the knowledge of mystery fiction from the Gadget to commit all these murders in Kitayama Takekuni's Orgellienne (2014), or as the inner work also says: The Girl Who Became a Music Box.

Orgellienne is the second entry in Kitayama's Boy Censor series, and.... no, I haven't read the first one. Yep, I seldom read things in order. I am not sure how much this book spoils about the first, but the book explains the basic premises of the Gadgets and the Censors are the start of the story, and that's the most important thing to know, so it's not difficult to get into this world even if like me, you decide to start with the second book.

Besides Kitayama's Danganronpa Kirigiri series and a few short stories, all the books I have read by Kitayama are either formally, or informally part of his Castle series, which has a distinct, almost fantasy-like atmosphere. While the degree in which differs per book, some of them really don't take place in our world, but a more fantastical world and that's also in Orgellienne: while concepts like book burning and censors isn't fantasy per se, the way people think about books, Gadgets and the way Gadgets work as data sets that can only be activated by special means do make it sound like books are magic in this world. There's also a fairy tale-esque backstory to this book: the prologue tells about a young boy who is taken in by a master music box maker, becoming his youngest disciple and him falling in love with the master's blind daughter, and the ending is tragic, but very fantasy-like.This backstory that of course somehow connects to the current murders at the Carillon House, somehow. Chris' interactions with the mute girl Yuyu also have a dream-like element, as Yuyu shows him the ruins on the island, which is when the post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the series is felt the most, perhaps. The idea of an urban island, a part of a town + forest which has become an island due to the rising water, is pretty cool, as you have complete buildings (that have become ruins) on the otherwise almost empty island. And... for some reason I know had to think of Arkham City from the same-titled Batman game.

As Chris tries to learn more about the house and its inhabitants, he finds them all being rather secretive and before he knows it, people get killed in seemingly impossible manners. Which is of course Kitayama's bread and butter: impossible situations that are quite grand  and almost ridiculous, in this case best exemplified by the stabbed man hanging over a sea cliff, and later someone being murdered in a tower room full of music boxes. To be honest, the actual solutions to these impossible crimes are not the kind of absolute insanity I've come to expect from Kitayama: while they do rely on physical tricks as always, the solutions miss just the right amount of crazy I usually like about Kitayama's work (they are still pretty much of the string & needle variety though) and in that sense, this book was a bit disappointing.I think I liked the impossible death in a building that toppled over the best: the building was lying completely on its side, and the victim seemingly either fell down themselves, or was pushed down through the broken windows of one of the higher floors (which because it was lying on its side, basically became a huge pit). The trick behind the fall is pretty simple, but well hidden with the clues and a good example of Kitayama's focus on physical tricks.

Mystery-wise, I found Orgellienne more interesting in the way it explored multiple/false solutions: Kitayama has the various characters fire various theories and solutions at each other, resulting in a rather exciting story, as everyone has very different reasons for wanting to wrap up the case quickly, but they all come up with reasonably convincing theories and it keeps the reader guessing whether they themselves are on the right track or not. Interestingly, Karte isn't really used as a straight rival detective in this book: while he's younger than Eno, he knows Eno's gone a bit soft as a censor, and Karte definitely works more ruthlessly, but at the same time, he's also content at allowing things to develop on their own and see where it gets him, and he doesn't feel as much as a rival, rather than someone who may have conflicting goals, but can end up on either side depending on his mood and how he wishes to accomplish his goals in the end.

Orgellienne is not exactly the book I'd immediately think of when I think of Kitayama's work: while it does feature Kitayama's trademark locked room murders and physical trickery behind them, the actual tricks themselves are relatively tame, in comparison to his other work. The fantasy-like world he depicts here is perhaps the best I've seen in his work though, with a young boy in look for detective fiction, because it's been banished from this world, and a mysterious house full of music boxes with a romantic, but tragic background story. The series is only two volumes long at the moment, so it's likely I'll read the first one too in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 北山猛邦『オルゴーリェンヌ』