What is it with cats and covers for mystery-related books in Japan... A lot of anthologies with no connecting story/theme seem to default to cats on the cover when in doubt...
Glass no Ori no Satsujin ("Murder inside a Glass Cage") was written by Arisugawa Alice and is narrated by a private detective who hasn't seen much business lately. That day, he is visited by an old college friend, Saya, who needs his help: she works at a gym and one of the customers has become smitten with her. So much so he's turned into a genuine stalker: first hanging around the gym after closing time to ask her out, but lately he's found out where she lives and has been waiting for her near her home. Saya's attempt to get the police involved ended with a "But he hasn't done anything yet...", so now Saya wants to know who he is exactly and put a stop to it. The plan is for the detective to follow Saya after she's done with work and confront the stalker when he appears. This part of the plan goes well, but the stalker makes a run for it the moment the detective talks to him, resulting in a chase. The detective loses the man, but as he tries to find his way back to Saya, the stalker appears from behind him, and knocks him out. A few minutes later, he's awakened by Saya. They are discussing what had happened, when a policeman arrives, telling them a man has been stabbed nearby and asking whether they saw anyone suspicious. It turns out the man who was stabbed is the stalker, and eventually, he dies. Police investigation however lead to a curious conclusion. The police arrived almost immediately after the deed happened, confirmed by the fact the detective had seen the stalker (was attacked by him) just a few minutes prior. There were basically only four routes away from the crime scene, each leading in a different direction (a cross). There were people on all four routes: Saya found the detective on one of those routes, the police box was on another, a man who had been locked out by his wife on another and a noodle stand owner on the last. And yet one of them saw anyone come their way. So where did the stabber go? And if one of the witnesses was the stabber, where then did the knife go, as none of them could've gone far enough to dispose of a bloody knife before the patrol officer stopped them. This is a decent, semi-impossible mystery tale (a disappearing weapon from a closed circle), but it is very one-dimensional, in the sense that it basically hinges on one trick. There are a few hints that point to how the murderer managed to spirit away the knife, but I wish there were more 'steps' in the solution, as this is a very simple story indeed.
Choutsugai no Mondai ("The Problem of the Hinge") by Nukui Tokurou is interestingly one of two stories in this collection that revolve around a narrative within a narrative. We first see how the succesful writer and amateur detective Kisshouin is visited by Katsujima, an old friend who now works as a police detective. Katsujima tells Kisshouin about a curious case the police is having trouble with: five bodies were discovered in a rental home in the woods that day. Three of them had obviously been murdered, two of them had died of either an accident or suicide. A diary was also found penned by one of the women: it details how the five, who belonged to an acting troupe, had rented the place to rehearse an upcoming play. On the first night, one of them fell from the stairs and died. They had no reception on their phones in the woods, and the storm outside prevented them from getting help themselves (and unbeknownst to them, the road further down had collapsed due to the storm), so they were forced to stay in the house longer. However, one by one they got murdered, until the diary stopped. Katsujima now wants Kisshouin to figure out who the murderer is: anything that could precisely identify these five people had been disposed of, and the rental home had been rented by someone under a false name,so this indicates the murderer had planned all of this, but which of the five bodies belongs to the murderer?This is an interesting twist on the And Then There Were None formula, with the question shifting from a simple whodunnit, to guessing which of two (dead) persons is the murderer. Like the Arisugawa story, you could argue this too is based very much on one single idea, but I find the idea here developed much better, with far more hints, and also more subtle hints, that permeate the whole diary part of the story, and also using a multi-stage line of reasoning to lead the reader to notice that one important idea.
Maya Yutaka's Futatsu no Kyouki ("Two Weapons") stars his series detective Kisarazu Yuuya, who is visited by his 'friend' Tsukigase Naoko, who desperately needs help from the great detective. And she's sure he won't refuse, as he owes her for setting up a date for him in the past, a date that didn't lead to anything, but the date did provide Kisarazu with a clue vital to solving a case he was working on (so Naoko didn't do anything... but he still owes her). Naoko's brother Hidenori is a suspect in a murder that happened at the university: while he has an alibi for the murder as he was on the phone with Naoko, the police doesn't trust the testimony of family, which irritates Naoko greatly. Hidenori is one of two "over-doctors" (PhDs who can't get employed) belonging to the Miyamiki research lab of the Kyoto University of Science. The people here research nuclear fusion under the guidance of professor Miyamaki, though few people see a future in their specific research theme, which is also why they don't have that big of a budget. Lately, a new assistant's position opened up though, which had two candidates: Hidenori and... the murder victim. On the fateful day, the victim Ookawara Akira was working at the lab on the top floor of the building, when a man with a full-face helmet appeared: this was quite usual actually, as the lab had regular visits of Shimokoma Aisaku, who believed he had made a breakthrough in his research on nuclear fusion, but also feared "organizations" were after him, so he always kept his face hidden. The helmeted person was seen on security footage entering the lab soon after the victim did, and after a minute or so, was seen leaving hastily, and some other people on the floor saw the helmeted person too. However, it turns out this helmeted man was not Shimokoma, as he had been visiting somewhere completely different. When later Hidenori entered the lab, he found Ookawara dead, having been hit hard on the head. The police soon puts one and one together: someone had disguised himself as Shimokoma to hide their face from the security cameras. While the police hasn't made any arrest yet, they do know the murderer is one of the five Miyakami-affiliated researchers/students who had been present on that floor that day, as they were the only ones with a key to the lab. Hidenori's position in particular is not great, as he had the greatest motive for wanting Ookawara out of the way. What makes this mystery even more puzzling, is the fact the disguise and the murder weapon were discovered outside the university, but for some reason the package had two weapons: the wrench actually used to hit Ookawara, but also a knife. Why did the murderer prepare two weapons?
This is a story I like better as a concept, than the actual execution. It is a bit of a tedious read, with all the witnesses stating when and how they saw the helmeted person move around on the floor (there's a floor plan), and it drags a bit because of that (it is also the longest story in the collection). The solution is well-hinted, and I like the conclusion that derives from the fact they discovered two weapons (of which only one was used), but some elements of the solution I did not like because of how this was originally a story published as a competition: sometimes I can accept certain things to happen in a mystery story if it was published "as is", but if it's explicitly published in two parts (problem/solution), and you are challenging people to send in answers/have prizes available for the correct answers, there are some elements I'd like writers to avoid to ensure the story feels fair. Maya isn't being unfair here, but it's not something I particularly like in these kinds of stories.
Juugofunkan no Dekigoto ("It Happened in Fifteen Minutes") by Kirisha Takumi is set on the Shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo: Mystery screenplay writer Oogami Tsuyoshi had been visiting Kyoto to work on an upcoming script, but is now on his way home to Tokyo. After buying a beer from the purser, he spills the contents on himself, so he moves to the wash corner to clean himself, but he finds a man in a Hawaii shirt leaning over the sink. As the man doesn't move, Oogami touches the man on the shoulder to see if he's okay, but the man tumbles on the floor. The purser arrives and establishes the man has been hit on the head by something hard, as there's a bloody wound there. It turns out the victim had been a nuisance to more than few people: he had been overly rude to the purser, had hit a trainspotter when he got in the way and had even got into a fight with another rider on the train. So there were more than a few people who might have wanted to hit the man in the head, but which of them did it in the mere fifteen minutes after he was last seen? Like the Arisugawa story, this is a whodunnit story that relies on the howdunnit: the victim's wound was clearly afflicted via something hard (so not someone's bare knuckles), but none of the suspects seems to be carrying something on them that could have done that (or at least, not without it leaving a trace on the item in question). The solution is rather simple, and while Kirisha does add a whole extra, very well-established layer of clues to support that solution, it feels uncessary, as you can easily just intuitively guess the whereabouts and identity of the weapon used, especially after another prop has been introduced in the story. So the solution falls a bit flat, partially because it feels very similar to the Arisugawa story.
Abiko Takemaru's Hyouryuusha ("Castaway") has the most interesting set-up of all the stories found in this collection. A man, wearing a life preserver, is found floating near the shore of an island, with a dinghy floating nearby. The man is pulled on shore by a local and a tourist. The man is alive, but seems to be suffering from amnesia: he can't remember who he is and what he's doing there. They find what appear to be diary pages wrapped safely in plastic hidden inside his life preserver. The pages are apparently written by a manager of the young idols/actresses/singers Saori and Yuuka. The two young women were "cordially invited" to join a small party held on the private island of the entertainment agency's president, accompanied by an influential television producer. However, the true intention of the "party" was so have these girls "offered" to the powerful industry men to "help their career". The manager knew this was going to happen and wanted to prevent this: while Yuuka seemed to be aware of what was going to happen and seem resigned to this, Saori was completely oblivious to what was awaiting her. All the people on the island had their own cabin to sleep in, but it was made clear to the girls they were supposed to be going to the producer and the president's cabins that first night. The manager kept an eye on things, and made sure Saori did not leave her cabin that night. However, the following day the president was found murdered in his cabin. Luck has it the ship's engine broke down too and there are no ways to communicate with the mainland. The diary tells of more deaths occuring after the first one, but that leads to the question: who is the man who was found in the sea and what happened to the rest of the people on the private island? I found this the most memorable story in the volume. It is somewhat similar to Nukui's story, with a story-within-a-story narrative and the problem requring you to deduce something more than just a one-stage "whodunnit": in this case, you are required to figure out who committed the murder(s) on the island, but also who the castaway is. While the reader will go a long way if they deduce a certain fact regarding the murderer, something which might be a bit easy due to the fact the main clue that points to that fact is inserted rather crudely in the story, this is generally a fun multi-layered mystery.
While I think the anthology I read earlier this year was overall better than this book, Kibun wa Meitantei is still generally a very solid whodunnit anthology. I like how there's quite some variety in these stories, from classic closed circle stories like the one by Maya, to more urban settings in Norizuki and Arisugawa's contributions, to meta-mysteries with a narrative-within-narrative shenanigans by Abiko and Nukui. I think I like the Abiko story the best out of the five I read this time (having skipped Norizuki's story this time). I will remain a fan of these pure whodunnit stories though, with clearly defined problem/solution parts, so I'll be sure to check more of these in the future too.
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