The Shadow of the Goat

"Cry havoc and let slip the goats of war."

"Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse" 

Houjou Kie has been a personal favorite of mine ever since she made her debut. While she initially focused on novel-length stories, she has lately also been releasing short stories serialized in magazines, which are then later collected in one volume. Next week will see the release of the sequel to the amazing Amulet Hotel, but today, I want to take a brief look at two new series by Houjou. At least, one of them is confirmed as a series, the other might be developed into a new series!

Maison Initier no Kai ("The Mystery of Maison Initier") is a 2025 short story published in All Yomimono and starts with a freelance writer on the occult going inside an apartment building in Hachiouji as he films himself. There are rumors that the elevator in this building connects to different worlds. While there are many of such rumors, with elevators often going down to the underworld, this rumor is connected to a more specific story: twelve years ago, a murder was committed in the hallway of the top, seventh floor. Rumor has it that if you push in a certain combination in the elevator, you'll be brought to that scene fifteen years ago. Our writer pushes the buttons accordingly and when he arrives at the seventh floor... he finds a dead body lying in the hallway, killed in the exact same way as the victim fifteen years ago, stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Superintendent Hachijou Miku is the crime scene investigator in charge of the case, though she immediately regrets this when she learns who discovered the body: for Ikoma Soramichi is only a freelance writer on the occult in his spare time, as he is a real police superintendent himself too. Only with a love for the occult. However, even he realizes he didn't go back in time, and that the body he found is in fact "fresh". The parallels to the murder 15 years ago however are clear: 15 years ago, the owner of the building had been stabbed with a kitchen knife on the seventh floor, and a priceless jewel was stolen. The new victim however has a note planted on his body, saying "Pay for your sins with your life", once again suggesting a strong connection between the two cases. While Miku is investigating the case however, Ikoma is intent on finding proof the occult is involved one way or another...

Whereas Houjou specializes in writing mystery stories with special settings (time travel, vr-worlds, a hotel for criminals, ghosts), she this time opted for a realistic setting: while Ikoma hopes there are ghosts and other occult occurences, as if this first story we don't really have any reason to believe they exist. In fact, Houjou mentions having to rely on her editor for knowledge on real police investigations/organization structure, as they usually don't really play a significant role in her other stories. The story is fairly simple in design, with the mystery revolving around why the two murders resemble each other. I don't think the story showcases Houjou's strenghts (densily plotted mysteries) very good, as the story is relatively short and the riddle of the two murders, and the clues leading to the revelation, feel not as meticulously plotted as her other stories. That said, the story is highly readable, and I think this story is probably more appealing to "non-hardcore" mystery fans than some of her other stories.The banter between "science is everything" Miku and "I wish there were ghosts" Ikoma is fun... because it's actually Ikoma who solves the case! In stories with these "science vs occult" setups, it's usually the science person who prevails, but this time we find it's Ikoma, in his quest to find real supernatural phenomena, who quickly sees through the human deception. I think the actual truth behind the case is pretty interesting though, and I'm curious to see how this series will develop further.

Houjou also recently wrote a piece of mystery flash fiction for the anthology GOAT, which has a very cute goat on the cover (even though the title actually refers to the acronym "greatest of all time"). She wrote this for a special on travel, and she was offered a stay at the Book Hotel Kyoto Kujo for inspiration, so unsurprisingly, her Rakugaki ("Scribbles" 2025) is actually set in that hotel.  The story is about five pages long, so I can't really write too much about it: a woman staying at the hotel finds someone has scribbled on her book while she was gone for a moment, and a... book sprite? helps her figure out who did it. Very short, kinda cute... and apparently, Houjou's editor liked it so much they are now developing it into a full series, with this story either being the proper "first entry" of the series, or it'll just be the prototype and be developed into a new story. I'm always into bibliophilic mysteries, so I'm looking forward to whatever may come!

This were pretty brief write-ups on these stories, so perhaps they feel a bit lacking in information on the stories, but... consider them more like previews, as we'll likely see more of these two series in the future. Next week is Amulet Wonderland, which I'm really looking forward to, so I'll try to read that and start on my review as soon as possible!

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵「メゾン・イニシェの怪」/「落書き」