A Case Of Spirits

"Tell me, Leonard," he said. "Has it ever occurred to you that one day wars will be fought with brains?"

Leonard picked up his coffee cup. "Oh dear. Won’t that be rather messy?" he said.

"The Fifth Elephant" 

It was only after buying today's book I realized I basically own no other books by the same publisher (Gentosha)...

The handsome Hamon Kyousuke is a medium who's been attracting a lot of attention lately and the television screenwriter Kagitani Takashi has organized a small seance at the house of an art collector with Hamon. Other guests include art-related people as well as three editors working for a magazine, including Tomoe and Makabe, the latter having a crush on Tomoe, but unable to propose due to an inherited debt. During the seance, Hamon is challenged on his psychic powers, and he defiantly announces he can use his powers to remotely kill someone. He asks for anyone to name someone they want to have killed, and while initially nobody dares to utter a name, Tomoe and Makabe's superior eventually names an artist, because he stood him and Makabe up earlier this day despite having an appointment. Hamon then says he will take control of the artist's body, forcing himself to commit suicide. While they initially don't believe Hamon, doubt starts to creep in so they drive by the artist's house to check up on him, only to find all the furniture being placed outside the house. They have to move stuff around, only to find the door locked from the inside. And inside the locked house, they find the artist dead, hanging from the ceiling as announced by Hamon! Unable to believe Hamon truly has powers, murder is suspected by those involved in the seance, including the detective Senoo Yuuji, but how did Hamon commit this locked room murder, and why was everything placed outside? When later Hamon once again announces a remote murder and another body is found, people start to think Hamon really has the power to control people and make them commit suicide, but Senoo is not convinced and assisted by Makabe, he uncovers the truth in Asukabe Katsunori's Leonardo no Chinmoku ("The Silence of Leonardo", 2004).

Leonardo no Chinmoku was originally released in 2004, but only got its pocket re-release in 2025, after the amazing revival of interest in Asukabe's work, that was set in motion after the bookshops Shosen and Horindo put out limited facsimile releases of his out-of-print works: the facsimile release Datenshi Goumonkei ("Torture of the Fallen Angels" 2008) in particular was a notable event, gathering a lot of attention. Since then, publishers have been re-releasing a lot of Asukabe's books from their catalogues that had previously been out-of-print for over a decade, like Lamia Gyakusatsu ("Lamia Massacre"). Leonardo no Chinmoku is another of these "hey, it's a bit late but perhaps we should put out a pocket" release.

The story revolves around a problem often see in other psychic/seance-themed mysteries: a psychic correctly announcing something will happen, with the mystery focusing on how they could've known that: of course the psychic in question in this case has an alibi for the death, meaning they themselves couldn't have known about the murder because they committed the murder (or did they, and did they fake their alibis in some way?) In this case, we also have the added mystery of the locked room, and the question of why all the furniture was placed outside. I have to admit I wasn't completely convinced by this murder. A lot of the mechanics surrounding the solution of this mystery revolve around coincidence, with certain events and people just happen to be timing up perfectly by sheer luck. The solution behind how the locked room situation was created too was simple, while the answer to why all the furniture was outside feels underdeveloped: while it touches upon a greater theme and the book does try to present as something big, I don't feel this whydunnit was developed properly as of now: it needed more set-up to give you that "Aha!" feeling, because as it is now, you kinda get what they were going for, but it's not completely convincing and even worse, it's basically unguessable from a fair-play mystery point of view. It'a s shame, because this is when the book is supposed to be most strongly connected to the Leonardo from the title Leonardo no Chinmoku, who is of course Leonardo da Vinci. Art is an important motif throughout most, if not all of Asukabe's books (he even made original paintings for his debut novel!), but I'd say that in this book, art might be of the least importance of all the Asukabe's books I have read until now. 

Whereas the first death predicted by Hamon was found in an 'inside-out' house (furniture found outside), the second victim 'killed remotely' by Hamon is lying found 'upside-down' next to a road, continuing the topsy-turvy theme. While this murder also depends on coincidence up to some degree, I like the build-up of this murder a lot more: the clewing is better, being more connected to other plotlines of the book and with a more even distribution of the clues across the whole book, and I think the way it's connected to the first murder works well too. In hindsight, it's actually funny how much more integrated this murder is to the rest of the book compared to the first locked room murder. I think basically all of the most interesting elements of Leonardo no Chinmoku's narrative revolve around this second death, rather than the first death, even if the actual scene of the first seance is better.

Leonardo no Chinmoku is the most straightforward mystery novel I have read by Asukabe until now, and it's also perhaps my least favorite. While the plot depends a bit too much on coincidence and I don't really think the whydunnit behind the first murder works well, the overall plot is an adequately constructed mystery, with especially the plotlines pertaining to the second half being well-planned. But on the other hand, I can't deny missing some of the insaneness I have seen in other works by Asukabe and while I am not very versed, nor interested in art in general, I do feel the general lack in discussion on art here hurts the book a bit. It's great the book's easily available again now and mind you, this is not a bad mystery novel by any means, but I wouldn't pick this as my first Asukabe to read.

Original Japanese title(s):  飛鳥部勝則『レオナルドの沈黙』

Hoedown Showdown

"And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"The Merchant of Venice" 

I'll be seeing the new Detective Conan film of course, but I guess I also have to see that sheep detective film too in the spring...

The year: 1810. Location: The entertainment district Kobikicho (current-day Ginza) in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo (Tokyo). Behold, the Morita-za,  a popular kabuki theater that on one cold winter night, is holding its last performance of a popular play. As the audience slowly leave the theater, their eyes fall on the infamous Sakubei, a ruffian who has become somewhat of a known face in the district due to his frequent appearances in the gamble houses. He seems interested in a beautiful women dressed in a gorgeous red kimono, and follows her to the empty lot next to the theater... but then the figure turns around, revealing himself to be a young handsome man: he loudly announces himself as Inou Kikunosuke, son of Inou Seizaemon, retainer of the Tooyama Clan in the Land of Minou. He declares he's here to take revenge for his father, who was slain by his own servant samurai Sakubei, who then fled to Edo. The audience coming out of the kabuki theater next door are getting a new bloody show for free, with hundreds of onlookers. The duel becomes the stuff of legends: while Kikunosuke's skills with the sword are splendid for his age and he quickly manages to wound Sakubei several times, Sakubei possesses monstrous strength, allowing him to overcome such injuries and pushing straight through Kikunosuke's attacks, resulting in a surprisingly even match. Eventually, the two duelists stumble into an empty shed, with the duel continuing outside the view of the audience. A horrible cry follows and out of the shed comes... Kikunosuke, his garments bathed in red and in his hand, he holds... the cut-off head of Sakubei. He announces he has avenged his father's murder and continues to report this warranted act of avenge, approved by the warrior code, to the local magistrate's office and to the representatives of the Land of Minou in Edo. Having fulfilled his mission, he returns to his home.

One year later, the ronin (masterless samurai) Kase Souichirou arrives at the Morita-za theater. He was once a top-ranking samurai serving under Inou Seizaemon, and his sister is to marry Kikunosuke. Kase has travelled to Edo, for while he knows the legendary story of how Kikunosuke slayed Sakubei and avenged his master, he... just can't believe it all happened like that. He learns Kikunosuke actually lived and worked at the Morita-za theater for six months while he was staying in Edo: Kikunosuke had followed Sakubei's trail to Edo, and because the head writer of the Morita-za theater knew his mother, he was allowed to stay and work at the theater while he continued his hunt for Sakubei in the great city of Edo. Kase starts interviewing people who knew Kikunosuke during his time at the theater and who witnessed the fight. They all confirm the stories that go around about the fight, but Kase still can't shake away questions, like how Kikunosuke, the young gentle man he knew so well, could ever commit such a cold-blooded act as actually killing and decapitating Sakubei, a man who may have killed his father, but who was also a person he had known since he was a child. Kase also wonders why Kikunosuke dressed up as an onna-gata (a male actor playing a woman in kabuki) before his duel to the death with Sakubei, and why Kikunosuke, after his return to his home domain, refuses to tell more about his fight with Sakubei. The more Kase starts digging into the legendary fight one year ago however, he starts to see how things don't quite add up in the 2026 film Kobiki-chou no Adauchi ("Vengeance in Kobiki-Chou"), of which the official English title appears to be Samurai Vengeance. 

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is a film released in February 2026, based on the 2023 book with the same title by Nagai Sayako. The book, originally serialized between 2019-2021 won two prestigious literary awards, the Naoki Prize and the Yamamoto Shuugorou Prize, but was also well received also among mystery/suspense/crime readers, as the book secured top ten positions in the Bunshun Mystery Best 10, Kono Mystery ga Sugoi and Mystery ga Yomitai rankings. The book hadn't really been on my radar to be honest, but the trailer of the film looked really cool: I first thought it was just a historical action film, as it showed the duel between Kikunosuke and Sakubei, but then we learn it's actually about an investigation into the duel, and I was actually imagining it'd be something like Rashomon, with all the accounts of the various witnesses not quite adding up or something like that. It wasn't like that by the way, and that's of course not the fault of the film itself, but yeah, don't go in expecting Rashomon.

What you can expect is a rather amusing film, both in the sense of comedy and simply being captivating. Kase is a seemingly simple warrior without master from the countryside, who is travelling to learn more about his future-brother-in-law and the legendary duel he had in the great city of Edo. But as he listens to the stories of each witness, he shows himself to be a lot cleverer than he appears, asking sharp questions that slowly undermine the legend. The people he interviews, all of them connected to the kabuki theater as they lived with Kikunosuke for half a year, are very colorful and provide quite some comedy as they interact with Kase, from a talkative and friendly barker who was great friends with Kikunosuke during his time at the theater to an aged onnagata who still seems mesmerized by how gracefully Kikunosuke looked as he entered the fight to avenge his father. These witnesses all focus on different aspects of the fight and their own interactions with Kikunosuke, giving a lot of depth to both their characters and that of Kikunosuke, who we never see "in real time" after the fight, only in flashbacks as everyone reflects on what happened that night and the events that led up to it. There is for example the swordmaster who teaches the actors how to handle weapons during a play who turns out to have actual military experience, so he taught Kikunosuke, aware of his mission to avenge his father, and we get an idea of how driven Kikunosuke was through his eyes. 

While the book did manage to rank into several mystery rankings when it released, and the film itself is also touted as a mix of the historical, human drama and mystery genres however, I would say they did downplay the mystery aspect of the story a bit, or at least, perhaps it was like this in the original novel too, but it focuses a bit more on the historical and human drama aspects, giving us an idea of life in the entertainment district in 1800 Edo. Which is alright on its own, but man, this story could have been presented as a much more solid mystery film with very few changes. It just decided to put the accent on different aspects of the (still interesting) story, making it easier for both Kase and the viewer to digest and make the connections. With just a bit more tweaks like requiring Kase to figure out more small contradictions or incongruities in each witness account, the film would have been definitely a more solid mystery film. A more Rashomon-esque approach could also have been cool, though a bit more difficult to pull with this story perhaps. Because the film puts its weight more on the human drama aspect, the moment when Kase realizes the real truth that was hidden behind Kikunosuke's duel comes surprisingly soon in the film, with the remainder more focused on seeing that truth's effect on those involved. It's not a long film though and I do think the payoff is good, but this is definitely a film I could imagine as a much tighter mystery story very easily and personally, I would have probably like that better, but I'd say the film as it is now will appeal to a much wider audience, and I still did enjoy the film.

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is basically a borderline case of what I usually discuss here on this blog: it can definitely be seen as a mystery story, but tbe way the film was shot and written, I wouldn't describe it firstly asa a mystery story. It does have enough elements of the mystery genre to at least understand why it'd rank into several mystery-related rankings in Japan when the book was first released, and the film is definitely entertaining enough overall, so in this case, I can accept the mystery atmosphere being downplayed a bit to allow for a film that appeals to a wider audience. I had a fun time with the film despite being somewhat disappointed it wasn't presented as a pure mystery story, which means it did pretty well, if you think about it: being good enough to help compensate for my initial disappointment!

Original Japanese title(s): 永井紗耶子（原）『木挽町のあだ討ち』  

Trapped At Sea

Under the sea

Darling, it's better

Down where it's wetter 

Take it from me

"Under the Sea" (Samuel E. Wright) 

Hmm, I only reviewed two mystery games last year! I definitely hope to do better this year... 

When the game Paranormasight File 23: Honjou Nanafushigi (Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo) was first announced in 2023, I knew I had to play it: not only was it a horror-mystery adventure game based on existing folklore/horror stories, the game was also written by Ishiyama Takanari, who was also responsible for the quirky series Kibukawa Ryousuke, which was one of, if not the longest running original mystery adventure game series released on feature phones in Japan. As far as I knew at least, Ishiyama had not really been involved with (major) game productions in a long time, so it was surprising to see Ishiyama heading a game released by Square-Enix. The result was absolutely fabulous by the way. I never got around to reviewing it properly here, but the game was excellent, presenting a dark tale of several persons getting their hold of Curse Echoes, which allow the user to cast a curse on a person when certain conditions are fulfilled, with each curse based on an existing legend connected to the location Honjo in Tokyo. The story follows all these characters as they move about one certain night, each having their own goals and agendas. This allowed for some interesting mystery storytelling, as the player had to make story-changing choices along the way in order to bring everyone to the best conclusions of all these intertwining storylines, while figuring out what everyone was trying to do exactly and trying to solve the mystery of why these curses were being "handed" out in the first place. The game also featured a cast of rather memorable, quirky characters, rather reminiscent of the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series (and yes, lots of Paranormasight characters also have rather unusual names, like in the Kibukawa Ryousuke series).

So fast-forward to 2026, when a second Paranormasight was finally announced for Switch, Steam, iOS and Android. Paranormasight File 38: Ise Ningyo Monogatari, localized as Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse was released in February, 2026 and once again tells a story of mystery and imagination, revolving around centuries-old curses, local legends and history. This time, the story is set in 1980s Ise-Shima Peninsula, with the fictional island Kameshima (based on the factual Kamishima) as its main location. Yuuza is a teenager hailing from Kameshima. 5 years ago, he lost his parents in a great storm that took the lives of many that were out on sea: Yuuza was the miraculous sole survivor. While he moved away from Kameshima for a while, he's returned to take care of his grandmother, who got injured recently. Yuuza has trained to become an ama (a free diver), just like his mother and grandmother, but the local ama seem not eager to let him do his work, for many people think he might be cursed. His mother was an island outsider, and never really managed to become one of the community, and there are many, especially the older generation, who think it was Yuuza's mother who caused the unusually heavy storm five years ago. Therefore, they also don't want her son Yuuza to be anywhere near the sea. Yuuza however is desperate to search the sea, as he has a strange memory of the time when he survived the storm: he thinks he was saved by a... mermaid. Mermaids are a part of Ise-Shima folklore, as it is said they live near the portal to the Other World, which is located in Ise. In Japan, it is also said that eating the flesh of mermaids provides one with eternal youth. He and his best friend Azami start diving around the sea around Kameshima in search of the mermaid. Meanwhile, other parties also converge to Kameshima.

The story follows three other characters besides Yuuza: Sato, a girl who suffers from memory loss after being washed up on the Kameshima shore three months ago and who has become good friends with Yuuza, Azami and Tsukasa; Shiki, a completely ordinary housewife who investigates paranormal cases for the police, and Arnav, a writer of fantasy romance novels who is investigating the mermaid legends of Ise. While these storylines all intertwine deeply, with the protagonists of each storyline occasionally working together, occassionally working against each other, the storylines do all focus on different aspects of the Paranormasight narrative, with for example Arnav's storyline focusing more on Japanese mermaid legends and the legends of immortal people (like the myth of Yaobikuni, the 800-year-old nun), while Shiki's storyline feels more like a police investigation, and Yuuza's story focusing more on the local Kameshima traditions and beliefs (which are mostly fictional, though loosely founded on actual history) As they all conduct their own investigations however, an ancient curse becomes active on the island, threatening to take the lives of many. It's up to the user to prevent this tragedy from happening and figure out who or what is the origin of this curse.

Note that while this is technically a sequel to the first Paranormasight, set about a year after the first game, you can play these games independently of each other. This second game drops the names of a few characters of the first game a few times, and makes vague references to the events that occured in the first game ("People were using curses in Honjo"), but that's about it, so you could easily start with this one and then go back to play the first one.

In essence, Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very similar to the first Paranormasight, once again featuring great atmospheric art design and immersive music. The player follows the stories of multiple characters that play out around roughly the same time (or in some instances, at exactly the same time), with each story scene being divided in distinct scenes. In each scene, you visit locations, which you can usually explore lightly via a panoramic view, and talk to people to move the story forward, though some scenes also allow for more interactivity, for example by offering story-changing choices, or adding small mini-games. Sometimes, a story-changing choice will lead you to a game over screen, though usually these bad endings do provide you with data that give you clues/more insight into the mystery, so it's never "a punishment" to see a bad ending. New to The Mermaid's Curse is the fact that scenes aren't necessarily shown in chronological order: sometimes you'll "reminisce" about earlier events. These scenes are added to the timeline and often offer more or even completely recontextualize the scenes that occur later and that you have already played through. 

Because of this, the actual mystery of Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is very much aimed at the player: while the characters have a good idea of what they are doing and why, the player is more-or-less given control of them in media res, without much knowledge about what everyone is doing for what reasons. It's by proceeding in the game and unlocking new and older scenes one by one that you realize how everything is connected. The story it tells in this manner is definitely compelling, and it keeps teasing you to play on more, but I can't deny a lot of the mystery exists solely because the story is not told in chronological manner.

The Paranormasight games are explicitly supernatural mysteries, with actual curses that can magically people, though Ishiyama does a good job at incorporating these curses with an actual fair-play mystery set-up, like adding conditions for a curse to work and asking the player to deduce what that condition might actually be. The first Paranormasight was also most definitely a horror mystery and even contained a few jump scares, as well as being a more lethal story in general. Writer Ishiyama intentionally made its sequel less scary, because they wanted to appeal to a wider audience. This change in focus is definitely noticable, so if you thought the first game looked a bit too scary, you might find it easier to get into The Mermaid's Curse. Ishiyama therefore introduced more puzzles in the game: the game checks more often whether you have erally been paying attention, giving you question prompts which you have to answer manually. Often, "simply" paying attention isn't enough, as a lot of information is hidden in the very extensive database that gets updated each time you meet new people/visit new places/learn about new topics. While some entries are related to game-specific lore, a good chunk of the database entries are actually applicable to our real world, with entries on many cities on the Ise-Shima peninsula, entries on mermaid legends, entries on historical wars, and also many entries on the occult. A lot of the mystery-solving is actually done outside the game, as the game fully expects the reader to actually read the database entries and make connections on their own in order to solve The Mermaid's Curse's mysteries. While this isn't Flower, Sun and Rain or Project: Hacker, it's definitely fun being required to actually read the database to fully understand what's going on. And while The Seven Mysteries of Honjo also contained some meta-puzzling, The Mermaid's Curse goes beyond that, with Ishiyama really making clever (and sometimes devious) use of the game format to throw some screwball puzzles at you. The way he links these meta puzzles with the actual mystery narrative is clever though and it adds a deep, extra layer to the already fun mystery of The Mermaid's Curse.

By the way, while I do keep saying this is horror-based, the Paranormasight games are really full of comedy. Similar to the characters in the Kibukawa Ryousuke games, a lot of the Paranormasight characters are really quirky, with a strange sense of humor (the strange nicknames Yuuza and Sato constantly use!) or overall exaggarated expressions (Arnav!). Because the story being divided in distinct scenes does help hide the fact some of these very comedic characters end up in very dark and scary moments, it does sometimes feel weird realizing these characters are caught up in a story full of deadly curses and centuries-long grudges.  

Because The Mermaid's Curse, more than its predecessor, focuses on the motivations of each character, I think the characters are fleshed-out better here han in The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, even if I do like the overall cast of that game better than that of The Mermaid's Curse. This game tells a much personal story, with especially Yuuza and Sato getting more attention and depth than any character in the first Paranormasight got. The way this story wraps up therefore also feels much more rewarding than that of the first game, with the many threads of the plot being tied up more neatly. Because of that, perhaps, I did find it easier to guess which direction the stories was going, exactly because I could see how the whole storyline was written more tighter than the first game. Not that I minded that really, as the story is presented in a way that keeps the player entertained throughout, and the game isn't that long anyway.

So in short, I enjoyed Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse a lot, just like I did the first game. I have to admit I like the subject matter of the first game better, as well as its darker atmosphere and the overall cast, but I think as a game, The Mermaid's Curse shows a lot of improvement, with a more tightly-written story and more interesting puzzles that are also well connected to the story. I can definitely recommend this game to any one interested in mystery adventure games, especially if you're also interested in Japanese folklore/myths. I don't think I will be doing a late review of the first game now, especially as ona technical and mechanical front, these two games are quite alike. I am reading the spin-off manga though, and depending on how that storyline unfolds mystery-wise, I might discuss it here on the blog too (though that will take some while, as the second volume won't release until this autumn and I'm not even sure whether that's the last volume).

Original Japanese title(s): 『パラノルマサイト File38 伊勢人魚物語』 

The Mystery of the Pyramid

Mon ami, Bouc! Why would you fly a kite on the pyramids?"

"Death on the Nile" (2022 film adaptation) 

We should have more murder mysteries set in pyramids... 

Kyuujou City is a small rural town, which is effectively run by the Ooki family. The wealthy family owns several enterprises located in the city, thus providing work for a large share of the population, but they are best known for the Ooki General Hospital, a large medical complex specializing in psychiatry. Its symbol is the Pyramid, a eight-storey high building that functions as the main hospital building, housing the psychiatric ward. The building consists of seven floors that form a stepped pyramid, with an open ceiling section at the center of the building. On top of the seventh floor stands a steel pyramid construction, from a smaller pyramid is suspended above the open ceiling of the floors below: this "eighth" floor is the private residence of Ooki Kimihiro, doctor at the hospital and the only son of Ooki Youta, the current director of the hospital, and his wife Ooki Nagi, who researches anti-aging technology at the hospital. This eighth floor is not built directly on top of the floor below, but being suspended as an anti-earthquake measure and was designed by Kimihiro's mother Nagi, who also has a degree in architecture and it was she who created the base design of the pyramid. The ground floor of the Pyramid has a two-meter high Pyramid model in a glass case, right at the center of the Pyramid: Ooki Youta believes in so-called Pyramid Power and once in a while, he prays to the model to enhance himself with Pyramid Power. Regardless of whether the pyramid truly provides him with power or not,  the pyramid has managed to stand in Kyuujou City for nearly four decades, a sign of the Ooki's hold on the city.

While the Pyramid still stands strong, some of the other buildings on the complex are growing too old, so they will be demolished and replaced. Ooki Nagi has made designs for the new building, but she needs more dedicated architects to fill in the details and overlook the construction, and through a mutual acquaintance, Kumode and Miyamura of the Kumode & Miyamura Architecture and Detective Bureau end up with this assignment. They work together with Tobuta Constructions, the construction company that has built all of the Ooki-related buildings. There is a joint meeting between the hospital people, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions and Kumoda and Miyamura at the Pyramid to discuss the upcoming plans. Kumoda sends a drone out to scope the land, and can't help but take a look at the top-floor of the Pyramid, where he sees Ooki Kimihiro having a row with his mother Nagi, after which he retreats to his private quarters (the suspended pyramid above the main pyramid), locking the door behind him. Some time later, Kumode and Miyamura are ready to get started on their work while the others too prepare to leave the pyramid, when suddenly... the suspended pyramid comes falling down the open ceiling, landing with a crash on the pyramid model on the ground floor. The private quarters of Kimihiro are completely destroyed and among the rubble, Kumode discovers Kimihiro, who is not only heavily injured from the fall down and being crushed by the building... he's also been stabbed with a knife! A sickly slender elderly man is also found among the rubble, who appears to be the man who stabbed Kimihiro, but how did he get in Kimihiro's (locked) room to stab him, and why did the pyramid room come falling down? That is only one of the many riddles Kumode faces in Monzen Noriyuki's latest novel Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid ("The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe", 2025).

Monzen's latest book opens with crazy diagrams for the Pyramid, a building which in a way symbolizes this story perfectly. On one hand, in real-life, nobody is going to build a gigantic stepped pyramid as the main building of a hospital, nor is anyone going to design that building so the top floor/pyramid is suspended from a metal construction above the rest of the pyramid. It's fantastical and only created like that to act as the setting for a mystery story, and that's great! But not realistic at all of course. But Monzen studied architecture, and realism in that regards is an important aspect of this books, so we have this unrealistic, fanciful, over-the-top building, which at the same time is designed realistically, with Monzen giving exact dimensions and the reader being given explanations of how the weight-baring is done and other things that need to be considered like patient safety, window regulations and how for example what the measures are to prevent rain/other downfall from entering the hospital via the open ceiling. The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe is honkaku mystery featuring a strange building at its most bizarre, but also its most realistic.

The book opens with the top pyramid come crashing down and the discovery of the stabbed Kimihiro and the unknown elderly man among the rubble, which Kumode soon declares a locked room mystery, because he saw Kimihiro enter and lock his private quarters via his drone, and the elderly man was definitely not inside those quarters at that moment. The book then jumps a few days back in time, where we follow Hotta, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions, as he meets a homeless elderly man living on grounds owned by the hospital. Hotta needs the man to move as they will be using this part as a supply road, but as the two men talk, Hotta becomes interested in this man he calls Mori. Mori turns out to have lived for thirty years at the Ooki General Hospital. He had been held as a mental patient, but Mori swears there was nothing wrong with him: he was just kept captured in the hospital, with his brother (who needed him out of the way) only paying the hospital to keep him there. After twenty years, Mori was 'basically' released, but as he had no money, skills or connections, all he could do was remain at the hospital doing odd jobs. Eventually though, he was completely released, leaving him no choice but to live as a homeless near the hospital. Mori reveals more of the dark history of the Ooki General Hospital to Hotta, how they often put patients in "isolation chambers" in one of the old buildings that is slated to be demolished now. Patients were tied down to concrete slabs and had to go without food for a whole day to "calm them strangle yourself/hang yourself, but the room itself was of course also locked from the outside. Hotta himself also knows of another incident that occured at the hospital that happened prior to this locked room mystery, when someone broke the glass case of the pyramid model: nurses came checking out what had happened as soon as they heard the glass break, but they found the pyramid model gone. But how could someone steal a two-meter high pyramid in mere seconds and leave without leaving a trace? The front door was found open, but the only footprints found outside in the snow belonged to a cat, and it surely wasn't a cat who did it, right?

While Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid thus starts right off with presenting the main mystery, the flashback to the days before the crash introduce more mysteries that occured several decades ago at the hospital: a locked room murder of a patient in an isolation chamber, and the incredible theft of the pyramid model. There are more mysteries beyond these, like Kumode being intrigued by the strange family sigils found on Nagi's clothes, the mystery of Mori's true identity and whether he's telling Hotta the truth or not, letters supposedly from patients who are being kept in the hospital against their will and more of that. Again, we have here parts that feel part fantasy, and part very realistic. The parts about people being held in the psychiatric ward for decades and eventually losing any reason for wanting to leave (because there's no way to survive on their own after being isolated from the outside world for so long) are creepily realistic, while at the same time, we get an ending where Kumode suggests some of the stories we were told might have been fictional creations by people who are indeed suffering from a mental disease. Because a lot of the mysteries in this story took place several decades ago, Kumode admits it's impossible to find evidence for some of the theories he proposes, but those theories are incredibly weird at times and in a way, honkaku mystery at their best and worst (fantastical solution that is in no way feasible or remotely realistic), so there's always this clash between the fantastical and the realistic throughout the book. This is the most apparent in the mystery of the locked room murder in the isolation chamber about three decades ago: the description of the isolation chamber is horrific and also eerily real, with people being basically tortured there to lose all hope and to basically force them into becoming mentally unstable, while the solution suggested by Kumode is just crazy in terms of how unrealistic it would be. And at the same time, it has some brilliant moments, for example as to how the murder weapon would be disposed of. Kumode later on suggests a different solution that might be as viable as his 'main' one, which is more realistic perhaps, but also just less fun. 

 

The mystery of the stolen model of the pyramid is also a good example of the realism clashing with the fanciful: the idea of how and why the model was stolen is good and just what you want to see in a mystery novel, but Monzen presents its very realistically, showing calculation of certain objects to show how it could actually work, when in most mystery novels you'd just get an explanation and you'd nod, instead of going through all the numbers to make sure it actually works. The way how one hint connects to the isolation chamber murder later on is great though.

And then we come to the main mystery, of Kimihiro being found dead and stabbed in the remnants of the suspended pyramid after it came crashing down seven floors. The locked room aspect of this mystery is surprisingly simple and to be honest, not very impressive: it's basically a variant on one of the oldest tricks, only with a 'grand' presentation due to the pyramid setting. The how behind the crashing pyramid and especially the why though, are fantastic. The whole motive behind the murder is absolutely stunning and genuinely insane. I think the motive could've been worked out better by doing a more robust set-up for the reveal, but the idea itself is one of those motives you'll keep in mind for a loooong time after reading the book. The way it ties back to the fantastical setting of the Pyramid hospital building is impressive too, and on the whole, you do feel this is something perhaps only Monzen could pull off due to his focus on actual buildings. This is definitely the part that makes the book worth reading.

I do think the book could've been longer to flesh out some of the better aspects of the book.As it is now, I feel some important moments just lack the proper build-up and at times, the book borders on the unfair when it comes to it being a mystery novel: more pages would have definitely helped making feel the overall picture more consistent and connected. As it is now, some of the important elements feel like they just suddenly appear to take the main spotlight and it makes the book feel uneven. The book features a recommendation by Nikaidou Reito, and it almost makes me wonder how this story would've been if the two authors had worked together, as a lot of elements in Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid I can also see working in Nikaidou's style for the earlier Ranko novels. The story is wrapped in a way I have also seen in Nikaidou novels, with a hint of fantasy, which at one hand feels like it should clash with Monzen's style, but I guess having a setting like a mental hospital helps out a bit. 

 Overall though, I think Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid was a worthwile read, even if there are definitely elements I feel are underdeveloped or not connected well enough to the main narrative yet. At the same time, I enjoy the core mystery plot and the ideas shown there, and the main motive that drives this mystery is just amazing and probably one that I will remember for a long time.

Original Japanese title(s): 門前典之『ネズミとキリンの金字塔（ピラミッド）』