The Inside Man

 Come on, let's Twist again like we did last summer

"Let's Twist Again" (Chubby Checker)

It was like only last month or the one before when I mentioned I hadn't been reviewing critical works on this blog for some years, and now I did like three in two months...

A few years ago, I reviewed Iiki Yuusan's Misshitsu Mystery Guide ("The Locked-Room Mystery Guide", 2023), a book in which mystery critic Iiki discussed fifty prominent locked-room mysteries, both Japanese and non-Japanese. What made this book especially interesting was that the book was split in two halves: in the first half, each book would see a brief introduction, an explanation of the locked-room mystery in question and Iiki's analysis on why the locked-room mystery was notable. The reader was also treated to neat diagrams and floor plans that further helped the reader get a good idea of why the locked-room mystery was interesting. In the second half however, Iiki was allowed to actually spoil each title and explain in full detail why the title was worth selecting. Because the whole premise of the book was that it was going to spoil the solution, Iiki was allowed to select the fifty titles based on the solution. This allowed Iiki to make a list of locked-room murder mysteries that included both the usual suspects as well as unexpected picks, which was possible because he was not only selecting locked-rooms based on how original the trick was for example, but he could also select a title because the manner (the logical trail) in which the mystery was solved was memorable or even titles that aren't even locked-room mysteries at first sight but only become one once you enter spoiler-territory: because Iiki was free to write in the second-half, he could always explain his reasons for picking a certain title in full detail, with many of his observations truly adding something if you like locked-room mysteries.

So of course my interests were piqued when I heard he was writing a similar book, though on a different type of mystery. Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide ("The Plot-Twist Mystery Guide") naturally is about mystery stories that have a twist ending, and here we have an interesting theme. Because don't you just hate seeing "best-of lists of mysteries with a twist-ending"?! The knowledge there's a twist ending waiting at the end of the book is of course a spoiler on its own. The reader is always kept on their guard until the very last word, as you always suspect something is coming, while of course, twist-ending mysteries are best experienced without that knowledge, with the reader being suddenly confronted with something that turns all their beliefs until that point around, and of course, the best-written ones will then have the reader slap themselves for not realizing the twist ending was coming, as it had all been foreshadowed and clewed ahead. At the very beginning of Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide, Iiki warns the reader that indeed, the list of chapters alone will be spoilers, as it will inform the reader the work includes a twist ending, but having given the reader that fair warning, it allows Iiki to once again go into great detail for each work, and explain exactly why he selected each work. Like the previous book, Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide is divided in two halves, with the first half dedicated to giving brief introductions to each the work and setting-up the story/situation, and the second half being used to explain what the twist-ending exactly is for each work and why it works exactly.

Obviously, I can't give you a list of titles included in this book, as that would spoil each work. I can only tell you the book includes twenty non-Japanese titles (mostly originally English books) and forty Japanese books, all spanning the complete history of the mystery fiction genre. Many titles will be familiar to seasoned readers of mystery fiction, but there will be a few titles in the list that might raise an eyebrow initially, thought it is likely Iiki's analysis will answer any questions you may have about the reasons why certain titles are included.

Not being able to name any of the titles (novels and short stories) included in this book however does make this a very difficult book to review, as I can't really give clear examples why I find Iiki's analyses so interesting and educational here. But I'll try to explain it without giving too much away: as an Ellery Queen expert, Iiki focuses a lot on the set-up of the plot and naturally, who-knows-what-at-what-time, aspects that are crucial to Queen's mystery plotting. Iiki applies the same technical analysis to a lot of the titles he discusses here, giving the reader a firm idea of how a plot twist is established in a technical manner (what information is being fed to the reader and in what way, and how does that help establish the twist). By analyzing these sixty mysteries with a plot-twist, Iiki basically creates a typology for plot-twists in mysteries, which is actually a brilliant thing! We have mystery stories with Locked-Room Lectures, Alibi Trick Lectures, Mitate Lectures, Dying Message Lectures, Motive Lectures, Nursery Rhyme Lectures, Disappearance Lectures and Decapitation Lectures, but I have not seen one with plot-twists before. Of course, this is not a novel (a fictional work), but in Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide , Iiki provides us with framework with which we can examine mystery stories with a plot twist from a technical POV: what "technique" facilitates the plot twist? A simple example would for example be the the narrative trick: a plot twist that is played on the reader (or an in-universe "reader") because they were led to believe that X to be Y via a narrative/story. A lot of the most famous mystery stories with a plot twist might hinge on such a trick, but Iiki also shows how other mystery stories also manage to set-up plot twists via different techniques, and some of them you might not even realize feature a genuine plot-twist until you read Iiki's analyses and see how the reader's expectations were set-up to anticipate something the wrong way.

Iiki also wrote two very short stories as a practical "plot twist" problem for the reader to solve: they are really, really short, but it does offer a playful twist on the plot-twist mystery.

Anyway, like Misshitsu Mystery Guide, I think Dondengaeshi Mystery Guide is definitely worth reading if you're interested in the technical aspects of how a mystery is plotted and written. While this book due to its set-up can't be recommended to everyone, Iiki offers a great resource work here for those who want to to delve into the hows behind mystery fiction. His analyses of how plot-twists are set-up through certain techniques deepen a reader's understanding of the genre and might help a reader appreciate certain stories even better because it allows them to understand certain plot-related set-ups better, while aspiring and active writers will also manage to learn a lot about how to set-up an effective twist, especially using the typology Iiki offers via this book. So reader be warned, as the book contains a lot of spoilers, but it offers a really rewarding read.

Original Japanese title(s): 飯域勇三『どんでん返しミステリーガイド』

The Vampire Strikes Back

"I want blood."

"Like, you wouldn't like mine. It's yellow."

"The Scooby-Doo Show" 

A few weeks ago, I reviewed another book by Ichikawa (a self-published one) and mood-wise, these two books couldn't be further apart...

Twenty years ago, Derek Reilly made the news as the Vampdog, the serial killer who was behind a series of murders nobody had even suspected to have a connection. Derek had developed a lust for blood when he was a teenager, and by that, I don't mean he wanted to shed people's blood; Derek literally wanted to have a taste of people's blood. The first victim whose blood he drank was his first girlfriend, when he was still a teenager. He used a tool to disfigure the original wound on the victim's throat to hide what he had done, and with that, he managed to fool the police. After he and his family moved away to another town, more people would occasionally be murdered in similar ways, but it wasn't until his adulthood he was finally caught and the police made the connection to the other murders in Derek's past. His lust for blood was also found out, which led to the nickname Vampdog. The man was of course sent to prison, where he his peculiar preference was also treated and analyzed. Twenty years have passed since...

It's early Febrary, 1984, when Theodrick and his old gang of old friends Elmer, Inigo, Susanna, Kim succesfully pull off a money transport robbery in the state of MD. As per Theodrick's plan, they ditch their getaway van in the state of A and then lie low in a house in Phoenix just for a day or two, before fleeing the country with the loot. They have just enough supplies for the short time they intend to stay here, though they don't expect the police to find their trail that fast. Which is exactly why they are so surpised that after their arrival in their hideaway, they notice how there's a lot of police moving about in Phoenix, with the police checking out houses and cars. Maria and Ren, the two star detectives of the Flagstaff Police Station (if Maria actually starts working) are also ordered to report at the Phoenix Police Station, a command they don't understand as surely the Phoenix Police Station has enough staff to do traffic checks to find a gang of robbers? However, it is only upon arrival in Phoenix, where they meet a few familiar faces, they are informed that the Phoenix police is not mainly on the look for the money robbers. It turns out Derek "The Vampdog" Reilly has escaped the facility where he was being held. Because someone was murdered in Phoenix in the exact same manner as the Vampdog committed his murders several decades ago, the police suspect he is hiding here, a suspicion that is also founded on the fact he used to live in this area. The police doesn't want the general public know the legendary Vampdog is on the run, so they are using the search for the robbers as an excuse to conduct a thorough investigation of the city. And if only Theodrick and his friends knew this... for during their stay in their hideway, the friends are being killed one by one, each having their throat sliced upon like the Vampdog did. Did the gang happen to hide in a house where the Vampdog was hiding too, or is something else going on in Ichikawa Yuuto's 2023 novel Vampdog wa Sakebanai, which also carries the English title The Vampdog Never Crys (sic)?

Okay, so there's usually nothing wrong at all with the English titles of the books published by Tokyo Sogensha, so I'm going to assume that The Vampdog Never Crys is spelled like that on purpose...

The Vampdog Never Crys is the fourth novel in Ichikawa Yuuto's Maria & Ren series, which started with his debut novel The Jellyfish Never Freezes, one of the best mysteries I experienced in the year I read it. I've been a fan of the series since, though I have to admit I completetely forgot to write a review of the fourth book in the series; while The Vampdog Never Crys is the fourth novel following The Jellyfish Never Freezes, The Blue Rose Never Sleeps and The Glass Bird Will Never Return, the third novel The Glass Bird Will Never Return was followed by the short story collection The Boneyard Never Speaks, which featured short stories focusing on the main characters' pasts. A few characters and names mentioned in the stories in The Boneyard Never Speaks are also featured in The Vampdog Never Crys, though I wouldn't say you're missing something absolutely essential story-wise if you skipped the short story collection, though it does feature a few cool stories (I should probably do a review anyway, even though it's been nearly two years since I read it).

As the fourth novel in the series, the reader can of course guess the general set-up of the story pretty easily. The story is of course set in the country of U (a thinly veiled United States of America), in the state of A(rizona), where the red-headed and hot-blooded Maria works as a police detective in the Flagstaff Police Station, assisted by her subordinate and handler Ren, a very capable Japanese detective who however misses the brilliant sparks his superior sometimes has. Author Ichikawa's debut novel The Jellyfish Never Freezes was strongly inspired by Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakan no Satsujin/The Decagon House Murders (disclosure: I translated the book!), and follows the same dual-narrative structure, with one narrative being set within a closed-circle situation and the other narrative outside the closed-circle, a plot device Ichikawa has continued to use in this series since. In this book, we also have intermezzos that detail Derek Reilly's descent into madness, starting with his first taste of blood when he was young and the build-up to his girlfriend's murder. 

In The Vampdog Never Crys, this results in one narrative that follows Maria and Ren as they get involved in the investigation into the missing Vampdog and the murders commited by the Vampdog in Phoenix, and another narrative that follows Elmer, one of the money transport robbers, as he details how he and the rest of the gang are staying in their hideout, when they start getting killed one by one: the closed-circle situation in this book is interestingly not a hard closed-circle situation, but a self-imposed one: each of the gang members could opt to leave the house and flee, but they are wanted robbers who killed people during their act of crime, so they choose to stay in the house to evade the police. Many years ago, I wrote a short piece on the closed-circle situation in mystery fiction, and this type of closed circle would fit firmly in the Other category: there is no actual physical reason why the robbers don't leave the house, not some force of nature that is keeping them there nor some bridge that's fallen down the river: it is their own choice to stay low. I do have to say that this closed-circle narrative has not been as captivating as the ones in the previous novels: while there is some suspense going on as the robbers feel how the police are closing on them while they're getting killed one by one, it misses the building suspense of Jellyfish, or the sheer mad mystery presented in The Glass Bird. Here we just have a group of robbers who get offed one by one.

The other narrative follows Maria and Ren, who are asked to investigate a series of murders occuring in the city of Phoenix. The victims all show clear signs of being killed by someone using the exact same MO as the Vampdog: the fact the Vampdog has escaped prison is being kept a secret, meaning it's not likely a copycat killer is active. This narrative has Maria and Ren running late for everything, as the number of Vampdog victims go up really fast and each time they have visited one crime scene, it appears the police discovers a new one. Maria and Ren also learn a lot about Derek via the doctor who examined him during his captivity.

It is when the two narratives collide, the mystery really unfolds. How could the Vampdog have been killing the gang of robbers in the house, while also committing a whole series of murders in Phoenix? What is the reason for all these murders and how did the Vampdog manage to escape his prison in the first place? Due to a very small pool of suspects, a lot of readers will probably find it easy to at least strongly suspect who the true mastermind behind everything is, but on the whole, this is another very competently-constructed mystery by Ichikawa, who manages to connect the two narratives in a way that not only creates a mystery (as mentioned above), but also provides the solution, as the events of the two narratives help solve each other, with hints being hidden in both sides. 

This books in this series  are set in a kind of alternate universe in the late 70s/early 80s, with the "Jellyfish" (a zeppelin-like airship) featured in the first books one of the biggest change in history. All of the other novels also focuses on a different scientific (sci-fi) theme: the vacuum airsac of the Jellyfish was a major theme of the first novel, the second was all about the illusive blue rose and the third novel featured glass panes which can be turned transparent and opaque again in an instant. These examples were kinda sci-fi, the inventions are kept practical and realistic enough to not feel fantastical at all. The Vampdog Never Crys however seems to do the wildest things in this series sci-fi-wise. While the previous books revealed their sci-fi elements relatively early in the story, this time the sci-fi element is kept a secret until relatively late in the book. I can't say too much about it, as it is a fairly spoiler, but while I have to admit it feel a bit more fantastical than the previous books which surprised me a lot, in the end, you can feel Ichikawa tries to keep it all fairly-clewed. While the workings of the sci-fi element in this book is not as intuitive as "a zeppeling-like airship", especially in terms of its rules, in the end, I think the reader is given enough time to process how the sci-fi element works, allowing them to solve the mystery themselves. And I do really like how this sci-fi element is incorporated in the mystery: it creates a great connection between the two narratives and results in a devilishly clever puzzle.

I think that The Vampdog Never Crys is also the most readable of the books until now: it captures the reader right away with a creepy recount of Derek's younger days as he slowly becomes the blood-craving Vampdog, and both the police investigation and the narrative following the robbers basically keep on throwing surprises at you. While this book does becomes slightly more fantasy-esque compared to the previous books, the Maria & Ren series remains a great mystery series for lovers of well-constructed and challenging puzzles with satisfying conclusions when it all comes together. Ichikawa remains working in a very strictly-defined format in this series, and while there are some entries I prefer over others, the overall quality of the series remains really high so I will always look forward to a new entry!

Original Japanese title(s):  市川憂人『ヴァンプドッグは叫ばない』

The Fixer-Upper

"I looked upon the scene before me — upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain — upon the bleak walls — upon the vacant eye-like windows — upon a few rank sedges — and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees — with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium — the bitter lapse into every-day life — the hideous dropping off of the veil. "

"The Fall of the House of Usher" 

I don't read them as often anymore, but there was a time, you'd very regularly see a Kindaichi Kousuke review on my blog ( Note: I wrote this review before I watched the recent Yatsu Haka Mura film...) There are still some novels I haven't read yet, but I have read most of the famous books already, so it's only natural the books started to become less prominently featured here on the blog, but I'll always have a weak spot for Yokomizo Seishi's literary creation, and I am not alone: even though there obviously aren't new Kindaichi books being written anymore (though there are occasional pastiches, like by Ashibe Taku), it's like every few years, you will have a book on Kindaichi Kousuke published. And today's book is one of those.

Kindaichi Kousuke no Madori ("The Floor Plans of Kindaichi Kousuke", 2026), as you can guess based on its title, is a book that is all about the floor plans of buildings featured in the stories with the famous detective. The book is written by Mokugyoan, a Kindaichi Kousuke scholar who has written several books on the literary detective, and features many, many illustrations by Honma Itaru, who is an architect. In fact the book actually collects a series of columns originally published between 2024 and 2025 in the architectural magazine Kenchiku Chishiku ("Architectural Knowledge"), though the text and perhaps also the illustrations have been brushed-up for the book release.

Each chapter is focused on a different book from the long career of Kindaichi Kousuke. The text introduces the building in question, like the Inugami manor of Inugamike no Ichizoku, the Ichiyanagi manor and the annex from Honjin Satsujin Jiken or the Tajimi residence of Yatsu Haka Mura. The book introduces each building in an easy-to-understand manner, using the source text to first give the reader  a basic idea of what kind of building we're talking about, but also using historical and regional context to give the reader more details about how the building should look like. Honma's illustrations do a lot to really bring these observations to life. It's not just one illustration per chapter either; the same house might have several diagrams, from an overhead floor plan to cross-section plans. Certain stories will feature buildings with secret hallways or other objects of interest, which are often also accompanied by detailed illustrations by Honma. The material culture found in Yokomizo's books is thus examined in a very accessible manner. 

The duo also go beyond just floor plans, despite the title of the book. They often firmly place the building in question in its local setting, which for example means that in the Yatsu Haka Mura chapter, we not only get detailed floor plans of the very spacious Tajimi manor, we also get maps for the titular Village of Eight Graves and its surrounding mountains, as well as plans for a certain location that is revealed midway. A novella like Kuronekotei Jiken features plans for the titular Black Cat Cafe and diagrams of rooms, but also plans for the city block the cafe is located in, and analyses on how the town would have developed in that region in that period in history. Writer Mokugyoan does a great job at not only being a Kindaichi Kousuke scholar, using the texts to link the various books (chapters) featured in this volume in terms of where and when the adventures took place, but also in terms of real history/geography, and all of this information is made even more accessible via Honma's great illustrations.

As you can guess though, a lot of the chapters will contain spoilers for the books in question: some might be "fairly" mild, so it might mention that some persons will die at a certain location, some might include more significant spoilers, like showing where a hidden passage is even though it isn't revealed in the book unti late. So it is a read-at-your-own-risk book, though it's not going out of its way to spoil the identity of the murderer each time, so for most of the chapters, I don't think it's really that dangerous to read them before reading the actual book (unless you were like planning of reading the book-in-question like the following day). They might spoil a few plot points, but nothing that would spoil the whole experience, and in fact, the analyses by Mokugyoan add a whole dimension on their own.

Perhaps we need more detective-themed coffee table books. Kindaichi Kousuke no Madori is definitely one; you're not going to read the whole book in one go, but place it somewhere where you can easily grab it, and once in a while, when you have some spare time, you just peruse the book and read another chapter. Each chapter offers some interesting, from the way Mokugyoan analyses the featured book and the historical and architectural context to the captivating illustrations by Honma that bring the Kindaichi books alive. I don't review critical works that often anymore, but this is definitely recommended material for Kindaichi Kousuke fans!

Original Japanese title(s): 木魚庵（文）、本間至（絵）『金田一耕助の間取り』 

The Baited Trap

"That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen!"
"The Secret of Monkey Island"

With many readers nowadays moving to consuming their books in a digital format, we have also seen writers and publishers moving to ideas and formats that make use of the physical format, to provide an experience that is enhanced by the paper format, and that also holds for the mystery genre. There are of course the Escape Room-esque books that include puzzles (some even that require you to fold or cut certain pages), books that make use of the way a physical book can have fixed layouts and fonts (as opposed to e-books that allow you change font and font size) and as a recent minor trend in Japanese publishing, making use of unusual book sizes. In Japan, there are of course the familiar book sizes like tankobon, bunko and shinsho, which are certain standard book sizes that most publishers adhere too. But as of late, we have also seen books that use unusual formats, like Chinen Mikito's Swipe Genkin ("Forbidden to Swipe"), which presents itself as a smartphone (you read through the story via "screenshots" of the home screen, chat, photo and other apps) and the book itself has a size that is very similar to a modern smartphone.

Shirai Tomoyuki's Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken ("The What-Goes-On-In-The-Minds-of-People-Who-Read-Super-Fast Murder Case", 2026) is even smaller though, as the book is a mere A7-size! In fact, Shirai and their editor were present at the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony this year, and they were handing out small pocket tissue packs out as promotional material for this book, as the book is the same size as a small pack of tissues! Anyway, the book is both small and very short, so while it's a standalone release, it's basically the length of a short story, so there's not too much I can write about the story without giving too much away.

The book starts with the murderer announcing their intent on killing someone, after which we jump to the POV of a young boy, who is, surprisingly, recruited by a secret organization to defend Earth by keeping an eye on an alien who is living disguised as a human on Earth. The boy has to keep an eye on Big Burp, who lives and works in an office visible from the boy's room. Big Burp however really just resembles a real human, running a business built on the reputation of Big Burp's uncle, who was world-famous fast reader of books. The boy witnesses Big Burp being killed by a person.... and when the police arrive at the place, it turns out Big Burp was just a human and not an alien in disguise, and that he was really just murdered by someone. But by whom?

As mentioned, this book is basically a short story, so soon after the murder has happened, we are introduced to a very small cast of suspects who could've wanted to murder the victim, as they were all not happy with the way the man was running the family business. Shirai crafts a capable whodunnit mystery, but of course, this is a very short story, so nothing really mind-blowing goes on here... BUT, then we come to the matter of why this book was printed in an A7-format, which is really small, even for Japanese book formats (which are generally smaller than books published in the West).

What Shirai does here, is a fun idea on its own: indeed, the book being the way it is, does function as a clue to solving Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken. What is more interesting is perhaps how it is not a direct clue per se: it is not like examining Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken will provide you with the answer to the mystery of whodunnit, nor is it a "puzzle" to be solved like Real Escape Room-books. No, the book format of Hon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken is just something that will point you to the correct direction, and it works quite elegantly.

That said, considering this is a short story, and the book is fairly small, I can't help but admit the book is relatively expensive. Of course, printing a non-standard-size book will probably be more difficult than a standard book, but still, it's relatively pricey for something that provides an interesting idea in terms of clewing in a short story, but little beyond that.

Also, perhaps now I should also admit I bought this and read this digitally... Would the physical version have given the clue an extra dimension? Sure. But to be very honest, just knowing what the book looks like in real-life (I've seen it in the store) is technically enough for the clue to work...

SoHon wo Yomu no ga Chouhayai Hito no Atamatte Dou Nattenno Satsujin Jiken is an interesting experiment that uses the physical paper format to faciliate the mystery plotting, but I can't say it's much more than an interesting experiment. It's a fun idea and it's great to see authors play with the book format, but it would have been more interesting if we had seen a longer book (short story collection?) that would've used the smaller book format in different ways in each mystery. As it is now, it's a single idea that kinda works, but is it truly more than just a gimmick? Hard to say.

Original Japanese title(s): 白井智之『本を読むのが超速い人の頭の中ってどうなってんの殺人事件』