The Problem of the Red Rose

"There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."

"A Study in Scarlet" 

Unsurprisingly, I have quite a few mystery books that have red as the main color on the cover. I wonder what color is the rarest though. Something like purple?

Terada Satoshi is a young detective assigned to the prestigious homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department with a bright future awaiting him.... until he foolishly left confidential files at the house of a suspect during a house search. The woman living with the suspect posted the files online, making a laughing stock of the police, questioning their capabilities of actually conducting a criminal investigation. Terada wasn't a scapegoat, but the actual person who made the grave mistake of course, so he was severely punished for the deed: he was removed from the homicide division and effectively demoted by his assignment to the Red Museum. Following the example of the Black Museum of Scotland Yard, the MPD has its own Red Museum, where files and evidence concerning cases of which the statute of limitations have already passed are stored in the archives beneath the old brick mansion in Mitaka, Tokyo. His pride couldn't have been hurt worse, as gone are the days of investigating serious crimes, and left are just boxes filled with old evidence waiting for Terada to stick a nice label with a QR code on them so they can be registered into a database. The same old, day after day after day. 

The Red Museum is headed by Hiiro Saeko, an attractive woman but rather emotionally detached, and often referred to as the Snow Woman. Hiiro's rank is superintendent and she's supposed to be in the elite 'career path' within the police, so Terada suspects she must have really messed up too in the past to be stuck here despite her career history, staring at dead cases all day. However, soon after Terada's assignment to the Red Museum, Hiiro orders Terada to look into an old unsolved case they are registering into the database. Once he reports his findings to her, Hiiro manages to solve the case and identify the culprit decades after the murder happened! It turns out that while the Red Museum is storing away old cases, Hiiro doesn't consider all cases dead, and she goes over every case they register, solved or not, to see if she can uncover the real truth. In Ooyama Seiichirou's short story collection Akai Hakubutsukan ("The Red Museum", 2015), we follow Hiiro and Terada as they tackle five cases from the past... and the present.

In 2016, Akai Hakubutsukan had a live-action adaptation, which I reviewed back then. It was a feature-length special, adaptating multiple stories and in the end, I wasn't too impressed because it felt a bit chaotic. But on the other hand, I am a huge fan of Ooyama Seiichirou, which is partially connected to the fact I love short mystery stories, and Ooyama's a master in that form. As I have read most of Ooyama's work already (yes, I know I haven't written the review for the second Watson-ryoku yet...), it was just a matter of time I would get started on the Red Museum series. Actually, besides the television special, I had actually already read one of the stories collected in this first volume of the series, but for some reason it appears I never reviewed it, as I can't find a review of it on my blog. But as the third volume of the series released a few months ago, I knew it was time to finally get properly started on this series.

Pan no Minoshirokin ("Ransom for Bread") is the opening story. It was originally titled Akai Hakubutsukan ("The Red Museum") and is also about twice as long as all the other stories, so it was basically a pilot which was later extended into a full series. As such, it spends relatively much time explaining how Terada came to work at the Red Museum, his first impressions of the cold head of the museum, his meeting with the two other staff members of the museum and portraying Terada as someone who really is proud of having been in the homicide division, looking down at Hiiro as someone who probably has never conducted any real investigation herself and only being in a managerial role. Things of course change with this first case. Terada is sent to transfer evidence from the Shinagawa Police Station to the Red Museum for filing: the evidence is from a case that occured in 1999, when the director of the big bread supplier Nakajima Bread was murdered. Someone had been tampering with products of the company, introducing nails into the bread, which of course led to a huge drop in sales. The blackmailer then sent a letter to the director, demanding for a fortune if he wanted it to stop. The director was to bring the money in a suitcase by car, and he'd be contacted via his phone installed in his car. The police was of course not to be involved, but they were secretly informed and a police detective was hiding in the car's trunk, which allowed him to communicate with the director and maintain radio contact with the supporting detectives. The director was led to an abandoned manor in the forest. When he didn't appear after a while, the detective in the trunk sent supporting detectives in the house as he too entered the building, but they only found the suitcase with money in the house, and the director gone. While they did find an underground passage leading away from the house, they couldn't understand why the money had been left behind. Later, the director's dead body was found elsewhere, making this a murder case. The police soon suspected the ransom money had just been a ruse, an excuse to camouflage the real goal of murdering the director, but the person with the best motive for doing so had an iron-clad alibi and the case was left unsolved.

For some reason I thought this had been adapted as part of the first television adaptation, but I guess they only did the introductionary part and not the actual mystery. Which is a shame, as this is a great opening story. In a way, it reminds me a lot of the short story Y no Yuukai ("The Kidnapping of Y"), the last story in Ooyama's debut book Alphabet Puzzlers. It too deals with a case set in the past, an abduction case (a child in Y no Yuukai, the director who disappears from the house in this story), someone is ordered to drive around in a car as they are directed to deliver ransom money and the money ending up not being retrieved by the culprit, leading to speculations to their real goal. The mechanics behind the case and the way they are solved are completley different though. Pan no Minoshirokin cleverly disguises the main driving dynamics of its plot as a different kind of mystery, hiding the true solution behind a well-designed veil of deceit. Once you recognize the mystery for what it really is, everything falls nicely in place, showing the tight plotting Ooyama is known for. If there's one thing I would fault the story for, it's that it doesn't make as clever use of the series' premise as some of the other stories in the same collection: while the conclusion might feel more impactful because the story took place ago in the past, a lot of how the main mystery would've been solved, would have been the same whether the story had been told real-time (i.e. in 1999) or as it is now, as an account of something that happed long ago. I feel other stories, like the second and the last one in this volume, utilize the concept of these all being old cases to better effect.

Fukushuu Nikki ("Diary of Revenge") is Ooyama's take on a device seen in both Nicholas Blake's The Beast Must Die and Norizuki Rintarou's Yoriko no Tame ni ("For Yoriko"), being about the diary of someone planning to commit murder out of revenge. In fact, these three stories, written by different people at different times, form a kind of series: the diary of Yoriko no Tame ni starts the day after the diary in The Beast Must Die ends, and Fukushuu Nikki´s diary starts after Yoriko no Tame ni's diary ends! The diary in question is of Takami Kyouichi, a student who vows revenge for the death of his ex-girlfriend Maiko. The two had broken up some months ago, but one day, he suddenly got a call from Maiko who wanted to see him. When he went to her place, her body was found lying in the garden outside of her apartment building, having apparently leapt to her death from her balcony, but Kyouchi suspects there's more behind her death and based on evidence found in her apartment and the fact she had been pregnant when she died, he theorizes Maiko had been murdered by her current boyfriend, who wanted to get rid of her and the baby the easy way. Kyouichi feverishly starts to look for clues to identify this boyfriend so he can kill him, detailing his thinking process in his diary. After he managed to execute his plan, his diary was removed during a burglary in his apartment building and the diary was sent to the police, who of course wanted to have a talk with him: he died in a car crash while running away. 

Both Terada and Hiiro read through the diary, which seems like an open-and-shut case as the murderer confessed to every detail, from motive to how he planned the murder, in his diary, but to Terada's surprise, Hiiro seems dubious about the "truth" behind this case, as she notes a few strange discrepancies within the diary's account. The result is an excellently plotted tale of mystery, where Ooyama managed to plant so many clues and foreshadowing in a surprisingly short diary: the diary hides an intricately designed plot that, despite the diary's short length, allows for clever red herrings, multiple solutions and a neat conclusion to it all. I actually recently did go through The Beast Must Die in anticipation of this story, but I liked the clewing in this story so much better and the way the plot is constructed so much better, being much closer to the type of mystery I like (Ellery Queen-like plotting).  

Shi ga Kyouhansha wo Wakatsu made ("Till Death Do The Conspirators Part") is about a murder exchange, a trope very dear to Norizuki Rintarou, so these two stories do make it feel like Ooyama had him in mind while working on this book. Terada is out driving when he becomes witness to a tragic incident involving a truck hitting a car. The lone driver of the car is hit fatally, but in his dying words, he makes a confession to Terada. Twenty-five years ago, he was involved in a murder exchange: he wanted to kill somebody, but he'd become the main suspect, so he swapped his murder with someone else, allowing both of them to obtain perfect alibis for 'their' murders. While the man manages to explain they committed the murders one week after another, Terada unfortunately couldn't make out the names the dying man was trying to convey and by the time the emergency services arrived, the man had already passed away. The man is easily identified by his wife and his driver's license and so Terada and Hiiro start looking into a death that occurred twenty-five years ago in his circle, for which he would've been a suspect if not for a perfect alibi. They learn his wealthy uncle had been murdered, supporting the claim of the murder exchange and leading to the next question: who killed the uncle and who was the person they ordered a hit on?

This was the main plot of the (first) live-action special, but whereas I remember nothing about the plot from the special, I think it is a great story here. The story certainly starts out in an open manner: you know there have been two murders twenty-five years ago, one being on the rich uncle, but Terada's investigations into murders in the same time window lead to two possible candidates, where someone was murdered and there had been an obvious suspect in the possession of a perfect alibi. Here the fact this series is about cases set long in the past helps develop the mystery, as what makes this mystery hard to solve is the fact you can hardly expect someone to remember what they did on a certain day at a certain time twenty-five years ago, and how are you going to prove that? So it's neigh impossible to prove either of those suspects committed the uncle murder, and yet... Hiiro is not the type to give up easily and despite these setbacks, she boldly proposes a theory that proves with whom the traffic accident victim swapped his murders and how the other murder was committed. At this point of the series, Terada is still hoping he can one day return to the homicide division and as he was the one to hear the dying man's last words, he also wants to show Hiiro he's a better investigator than she'll ever be due to his hands-on experience, but of course, we all know who's better at this...

Honoo ("Flames") is a relatively short story and the one I know I had read before, but for some reason I never wrote a review for it. Hiiro draws Terada's attention to an essay written by a photographer, whose family died in a fire: when she was in elementary school, she had gone off on a school trip, only to return an orphan. It was only later she heard the horrible truth: her aunt (sister of her mother) was going to stay at their home for a day because she and her boyfriend had a horrible breakup and they needed to talk things over to calm things down. Her mother, pregnant with a sibling, and her father had also been present. A fire broke out and the burnt bodies of her father, her mother and her aunt were found in the ruins. It turned out that all three of them had been poisoned before they were consumed by the fire, leading to the conclusion the jilted boyfriend killed everyone after their chat went wrong. The case was never solved, but Hiiro seems quite interested in the account of the now-adult photographer about her childhood. As said, this story is relatively short and features few characters, making it a bit easy to guess how everything falls into place eventually, but it is a neatly constructed mystery, with a lot of subtle clewing. This is the second time I read the story, but it only made me realize how well the story is written, as so many little passages and comments take on a completely different meaning once you know the truth.

Shi ni Itaru Toi ("A Question Unto Death") has a great premise: the Red Museum is asked to release the files and evidence on the death of a man found near the Tamagawa River twenty-six years ago to the homicide division of the MPD, as the exact same murder has occured: from the location of the body to the location of the wound, down to the fact a blood sample of an unknown person (the culprit?) was left on the clothes of the victim. The police fear the same murderer has striked again and thus need the old files to compare, and Hiiro of course hands over the files, as she too recognizes the eerie similarities between the cases. However, Hiiro is then approached by an old friend in Internal Affairs, who wants Hiiro on the case too: because the new body is too similar to how the body was discovered twenty-six years ago and there's no reason why the original murderer would go such lengths to replicate their own crime, he suspects the new murderer might be just a copycat, and more importantly, a copycat with precise knowledge of the police investigation twenty-six years ago, as the new murder also mirrors the old murder in ways not reported in the media and only known to people involved in the investigation. Hiiro accepts the task and starts investigating both the murders in the past and the present, while the homicide investigation too tries to find a connection between the two cases, focusing on the blood samples found at both crime scenes.

And as I am writing this, I learn there was actually a second adaptation of this series, and that second installment was based on this last story. This story introduces an interesting way to have Hiiro involved in an on-going investigation while also keeping her firmly tied to the work of the Red Museum. The mystery basically revolves around the matter of why the two murders are nearly identical down to every point: if it was the original murderer coming back again after twenty-six years, why would they mirror their own crime down to such detail, even down to something that obviously hadn't been planned originally (the bloodstain left on the victim)? On the other hand, if it's someone copying the murder, how did they get hold of such details and once again, what is the goal in mimicking an old unsolved crime, especially as it wasn't even a high-profile crime (i.e. not the type of murder to attract copycat killers in the first place)? The answer Ooyama has prepared for this question is fantastic: he provides the murderer with an incredibly original motive for this mystery to occur, and while it does require one character to be not quite sane for this story to work, the payoff is great, with a twist that will take the reader by surprise, not only because it's so unexpected, but alo because it's surprisingly well-clewed despite of the out-of-left-field-ness. This is the kind of surprise I'm reading detective stories for!

Akai Hakubutsukan shows once again why Ooyama is so well appreciated as a master of the short mystery story. All the stories except for the pilot/first story are pretty short in page length, but he always manages to pack the plots full with clues and foreshadowing that lead to surprising twists, all the while without telegraphing the solutions too much. I think the series works best when it makes actual use of the fact we're investigating old cases now, with limited options to doing reinvestigations. As I mentioned before, the third volume was released late 2025, but given how much I liked this first volume, I think catching up won't take long.

Original Japanese title(s): 大山誠一郎『赤い博物館』:「パンの身代金」/「復讐日記」/「死が共犯者を分かつまで」/「炎」/「死に至る問い」 

The Borrowed Shield

"Do you understand, Seiya? To defeat this dragon, you must destroy my shield. And that is impossible. Your hardest punch or kick won't scratch this shield!"

"Saint Seiya" 

I suppose many people who read this blog, will have first heard about the spear and shield story from Ace Attorney. I first heard it from Saint Seiya of all places...

After moving to the Philippines, Kirishima Outarou got duped by a "friend" and was forced into a life of crime. He eventually found a way to escape and return to Japan, but with part of his life wasted, he basically had nothing to live for until an old friend pays him a visit. Kusatsu Masamori and Kirishima were great friends back in high school. Kusatsu had always been a fan of mystery novels, and as the son of a rather wealthy family, he was able to make his dreams come true in recent years, opening his own detective agency. However, Kusatsu was also infamous for his bad luck that usually manifested in streaks of unbelievable incidents happening to and around him. Indeed, a few months ago, he got into a horrible accident and he has lost the use of his legs. Kusatsu now wants to partner up with his old friend Kirishima. Kusatsu will handle the thinking, representing the "brains" of the partnership, while Kirishima, as his assistant, would represent the "brawn" of the agency, acting as Kirishima's man in the field and capable of doing the "dirty" things Kusatsu never could. Kirishima is reluctant to accept the offer at first, until he learns Kusatsu has been after a certain criminal for several years: "Himiko" is a consulting criminal, who aids criminals in fabrication and falsification. Her expertise lies in planting false clues that lead to false solutions, pointing away from the real culprit, putting the police on the wrong track and allowing murderers to get away scot-free. It turns out that this "Himiko" is in fact the third childhood friend: Himi Asuka, the girl who would always outsmart Kusatsu, and who would always outfight Kirishima. She has now turned to a life of crime, and Kusatsu is determined to stop her. In Houjou Kie's 2026 novel Tate to Hoko, which also has the English title When the Shield Meets the Spear, the reader is shown what happens when the impregnable shield for criminals meets with the unstoppable spear that penetrates through all the deceit in order to unveil all crimes?  

A new Houjou Kie book, and that of course means I'm there in the front row on the release day. This novel is not related to any of her previous books by the way, and if I remember correctly, it's her first novel via publisher Kadokawa too. I've of course been a fan of the former member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club since her debut novel Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller. Especially these last two, three years, her release schedule has become quite busy with a lot of regular short stories being serialized in all kinds of magazines, but to be honest, it's still her long novels that manage to impress me the most each time due to the insanely dense clewing and plotting going on in her books. So when it was announced her newest book would be released in March 2026 (in fact, it was released a week before this review goes up), I knew I'd be getting the book immediately. Especially as the title really interested: In Japanese (and Chinese), the characters for "shield" and "spear" form a compound word meaning "contradiction", originating from the tale of an invincible spear and impregnable shield (which of course, contradict each other's existence). 

It's not surprising that Houjou came up with a detective (duo) that represents the "unstoppable spear" and a criminal that creates an "impregnable shield": in most of Houjou's works, she plays with the idea that detectives and criminals are in fact two sides of the same coin, and most of the detective characters in her books have some shady background to them, from Ryuuzen Yuuki in Kotou no Raihousha ("Visitors on the Remote Island") being forced into a detective role despite him actually planning a crime, Kiryuu being the hotel detective and enforcer for the Amulet Hotel, which caters to criminals exclusively and Kuroba being the ghost of the "Perfect Crime Contractor" finding himself becoming a mentor in detection in Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai ("An Unsuitable Perfect Crime for a Girl"). In When the Shield Meets the Spear, we see similar dynamics. Himi "Himiko" Asuka is a specialist who can be reached via certain social media apps and she helps people, most often people who end up murdering someone, with the cover-up. She instructs her clients how to plant specific false pieces of evidence and clues, that will lead the police to a false solution, for example making it appear it was an accident. Himiko is a master at reading situations and adapting to them, which is also reflected in her thinking: she can instantly see how the police, or even Kusatsu and Kirishima will seize up a situation, and advise the criminal as to what clues to plant in order to point away from the truth. She therefore also has to act in a detective in a way, as she has to deduce how her opponents will react and build her defences around that. Meanwhile, Kusatsu and Kirishima form a formidable duo as the members of the K&K Detective Agency because they handle different parts of the detective work: Kusatsu is without a doubt the brain: with the loss of the use of his legs, he mainly acts as an armchair detective nowadays, building his theories based on the reports made by Kirishima, who investigates the crime scenes/interviews the suspects for him. More often than not though, Kusatsu will manage to solve the crime before Kirishima has completed his report. Meanwhile, Kirishima handles the brawn or "violent force" of the duo. Kirishima had always excelled physically, and his time as a low-time criminal in the Philippines only strengthened that side of him. Kirishima is not afraid to play dirty in order to win, which includes doing things that... aren't really legal, but hey, sometimes it's necessary to break into a house or restrain somebody to find evidence, right? The K&K Detective Agency being detectives who can play dirty, and Himiko being a criminal who thinks like a detective, are the ingredients for a great premise.

When the Shield Meets the Spear is a novel, though you could consider it a short story collection, as we follow the K&K Detective Agency and Himiko as they cross paths across three adventures. In the first story, K&K Detective Agency are asked by the police to investigate a strange death that occured in the home of a former boxer. The boxer had been holding a small party at his house to celebrate the engagement of two childhood friends. While everyone but one friend was out of the house for grocery shopping, this remaining friend died in the large bathroom, which houses its own hot spring bath. The house was completely locked from the inside, with the key being found lying next to the victim in the bathroom. The reader learns immediately it was indeed the boxer who committed the crime and immediately after the deed, he requested the help of Himiko to ensure the crime would appear as a simple "slipped in the bathroom" accident, though his initial attempt at disguising his crime, before he called Himiko, unfortunately led to a contradiction that led to the police asking K&K to look into the case.

What is interesting about this story is that it shows immediately that When the Shield Meets the Spear is very reminiscent of a Columbo-style story in set-up, even if it's not really an inverted detective story. To explain in more detail: in When the Shield Meets the Spear, Kusatsu usually manages to solve the initial murder early on, seeing through the first attempt by the murderer to disguise their crimes. In series like Columbo and Furuhata Ninzaburou, it's often the "Columbo is getting close, let's do something" follow-up attempt at fooling the police that leads to their arrest , but in this book, this is the point where the story really starts. After Kusatsu's first deductions, we'll learn Himiko is already messing with the crime scene, altering or destroying crucial pieces of evidence or planting false clues, that lead to new solutions (that of course point away from the real murderer). These are very entertaining and captivating parts: it shows how you can change chains of deductions and their outcomes completely by altering small points, and often it only takes a small nudge to lead you away from what you know is actually the truth. What is fun here is that Houjou plays the game in a fair manner here: the reader is always made aware of a key term or word in Himiko's instructions to the culprit, which allows the murderer to completely overturn Kusatsu's initial (correct!) deductions, often just by introducing one fake clue. From there, we see Kusatsu and Kirishima react again, having to penetrate through this second layer of defense and it's often here were Kusatsu's brain isn't enough: Kusatsu and Kirishima too have to play a little bit dirty to break through the illusions created by Himiko. 

Because of that, we get a lot of battles that go back and forth in When the Shield Meets the Spear, though moment-to-moment deductions are a bit simpler than we have seen in her other work. For example the initial locked room murder trick in this first story really relies on a very simple trick, but then Himiko changes something about the crime scene, which renders Kusatsu's deductions improvable to the police, so then K&K Detective Agency has to come up with something else again. This constant adapting to a new situation is something we have seen a lot in Houjou's work, but because the three chapters in this book are mostly self-contained, I can't help but feel the scale of the deductions in these stories are a bit shorter/simpler than what we might be used to. This first story does have some great moments as we see both parties going far to reach their respective objectives. Because the criminal only has limited time/means to mess with the crime scene, Houjou manages to present this "what false trail will they create with what false clue" mystery as a fair mystery, as this false solution is properly foreshadowed. Still, because the stories are mostly self-contained, you don't have really moments where an early planted clue is used to shake up things much later in the story, as you'd see in some of Houjou's other books, though she does manage to plant some lore clues throughout the stories. 

The second story starts with great premise: the president of a health product company and two of his managers were on a business trip on Thursday in Osaka, with Friday being a holiday. The president left his employees early in the evening in Osaka and hasn't been heard of since. Which is a bit odd, but still, it was a long weekend, so nobody really worried about him. On Monday morning, just as everyone was wondering why he was absent today, a large package from Osaka was delivered to the company and inside they found... the director's dead body! This second story is a lot trickier than the first story right from the start. While the first story starts with the reader being shown who the murderer is, making the first part of that story (until Kusatsu's initial deductions) a howdunnit, this second story keeps the murderer's identity a secret at first, making the first part (again, until Kusatsu's first deductions) both a howdunnit and whodunnit. From there, Himiko starts messing with the crime scene again, neutralizing Kusatsu's deductions and forcing him to find a new way to capture the culprit despite the changed circumstances of the crime and the initial pieces of evidence proving his theory being rendered useless. The puzzle behind why the murderer sent the victim's body in a package to Tokyo is pretty good even as is, and the added "confusion" created by Himiko only makes it more fun. This second story also builds to a surprisingly dramatic finale, with the second half of the story revealing there were pretty complex things going on behind the scenes, though it can be argued whether the build-up to some of these developments is fair enough. 

The final chapter is the longest and the most ambitious too. K&K Detective Agency is asked to look into the murder of a writer (who also happens to be son of the former head of the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Affairs Division). The victim was found dead in his own locked study at home in Kotakara Village, near the mountains of Okutama. Kotakara Village is a very small, isolated community, and the village itself can only be reached via one path. On the night of the murder, the whole village was engaged with their local festival, which celebrates children, giving them the freedom to do whatever they want that night. The few dozen of people in the village were all either in the village hall to attend to the festival or being on guard duty at the village entrance point. There were also two outsiders present, a police officer who was giving a safety presentation for the children and a journalist. Interviewing all the people in the village however lead to the strange conclusion that every single person in the village was accounted for during the time of the murder. So who could've killed the writer?

This is written as the grand finale and it definitely has the huge twists and reveals you'd expect of one... which is why it feels a bit disappointing this is chapter three of the book. In-universe, K&K Detective Agency has been active for about two years, in which Kusatsu and Kirishima crossed Himiko's path more often, but for us readers, these events all start about two-hundred pages/two stories in, which makes some of these events feel far too huge at this point of the book, like a season finale, even though we're just halfway into the series. Of course, it might have been difficult to "extend" this season before we got this finale (the book is fairly long as it is now, while unless you're a light novel series, it's hard to plan a series ahead because nobody is guaranteed a sequel), but I can't deny I really wish there had been more build-up as a series, to gain maximum satisfaction from this finale. 

This story is mystery-wise definitely the trickiest of the whole book: Himiko creates some great misdirection early on in regards to the crime scene, and we have multiple false solutions here (with proper clue trails) that will fool the reader/detectives.  At times, the story will even feel a bit unfair, though surprisingly, Houjou then offers a fair solution to the unfair situation, which basically undoes the initial unfairness. The mystery is thus full of twists and turns, with K&K Detective Agency being forced to alternate rapidly between attack and defense turns, and that results in some suspenseful moments despite a lot of the story just being... people explaining their deductions. The way K&K eventually resolves the situation is clever, and makes great use of the setting and the respective roles of both men, making them equal members in this partnership, even if Kirishima is always addressed as "Kusatsu's assistant." The setting of Kotakara Village is also pretty interesting, with a local festival and rituals that are used well in terms of setting up and supporting the mystery plot, though I do think this setting could've been exploited better with more pages: Kotakara Village is the kind of place you'll see in the Toujou Genya or Kindaichi Kousuke novels and with some more development, could easily have been the setting for a whole novel, but here things feel a bit hasty/underdeveloped, which is a shame. 

I do have to admit that as much as I enjoyed this book (and that's a lot!), the fact Tate to Hoko is basically set-up as an interlinked short story collection rather than a "normal" novel, means we don't really see the insane plotting and clewing going on in Houjou's other novels, and that's a bit disappointing. While most of her novels have her detectives dealing with several problems in sequence, her novels usually have her at her best, with later problems/crime scenes/situations often requiring clues planted much earlier in order to solve them, with some of her best work basically being a web of clues from start to finish. Tate to Hoko is far simpler, with most of the information necessary being contained to each chapter. The concept of the book is nonetheless great though, with the constant transformation of the facts and the crime scene creating a fluid mystery story that allow for fun back and forth deductions. The duo of Kusatsu's brains and Kirishima's brawn is also great, with especially the times when after a series of Kusatsu's "clean" deductions, Kirishima is allowed to play dirty. I do hope this becomes a series, because even though I thought this was a great mystery, I do feel some of the things done here might've worked better if she had more time(pages/books) to develop those ideas. I also wonder whether Houjou could also write one single story/one single case with the same premise of someone constantly tampering with the crime scene/clues to create false solutions.

Original Japanese title(s):  方丈貴恵『盾と矛』

The House on the Cliff

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"Saturae" 

Huh, guess this is the third Monzen review of this year on this blog within just a few months. Pretty rare for me to do reviews of the same author in such a short period of time.

Back in 2024, the bookshops Shosen and Horindou published a facsimile release of Monzen Noriyuki's Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death", which was technically published as his fourth novel, but can also be considered his first novel (see the post for more about that). A "upgraded" version of this  facsimile release was also offered, as it included a booklet with a completely new, original short story by Monzen himself. Tsukiatari no Ie ("The Building in the Cul-de-Sac") isn't long at about fifty pages (which is usually around the lower page range of most Japanese short stories I read), but the set-up is rather memorable, and I think it deserves a brief discussion here.

he book opens with Ninomiya Seiji, a man in his early twenties, arriving at a small building near the sea, built in a clearing in the woods, only reachable by following an overgrown path from the nearest parking spot through the wood for five minutes. The concerete building, slightly bigger than a shed, was used by ama (free-divers, usually women) as a spot to get dressed, rest, and warm up, but has been long abandoned. Inside, Ninomoya finds his employer, Inuzuka. Ninomiya served time after killing a person, and once he was free, it was Inuzuka who was willing to hire him at his construction firm. Ninomiya owes a lot to Inuzuka, as he only still treated him as a decent human being despite his past, and he wasn't a truly bad person either. That said, Inuzuka isn't a truly good person either, and he's been duping people into far-too-costly reconstruction projects. Ninomiya has stood by his friend's side for a long time, but fearing Inuzuka might go too far with his criminal endeavours sooner or later, Ninomiya wants out. Inuzuka agreed, but Ninomiya had to do one last job for him.

And thus Ninomiya arrives at the building, where Inuzuka explains Ninomiya is to keep an eye on a person, who is being held captive. The building consists of two "rooms": entering the building leads to the larger entrance room. In the back of that room, is a smaller room, which has no windows and can only be accessed via the door in the entrance room. The prisoner is being held captive in the smaller room, which is locked with a key and also barricaded with a heavy, sturdy-looking barricade bar, which is held in place with four metal hinges on the wall and the door itself. Ninomiya is to not communicate with the prisoner at all, whether it's him starting a conversarion or the prisoner, but also not treat him badly.  The task will last for seven days. Ninomiya hasn't quite sized up the situation, when Inuzuka also locks the outer door of the building, meaning Ninomoya himself is also locked up. Inuzuka assures Ninomiya he'll come pick him up in seven days, and that someone will bring food for both Ninomiya and the prisoner twice a day (both the outer door and the inner door have a small door near the ground, meant for air intake, through which food can be pushed inside).

At first Ninomiya adheres to his assignment, not talking to the prisoner and keeping to himself. Food is also properly delivered around noon and the evening, so he has not to worry about being hungry. The prisoner however is surprisingly quiet, which makes Ninomiya wonder whether there is a prisoner inside. Fortunately, after some time he does hear a person inside. As the hours and days pass by however, Ninomiya starts to wonder. Who is the prisoner? Perhaps Inuzuka has kidnapped someone, and making Ninomoya a scapegoat, keeping him prisoner too so he can be the fall guy. Ninomiya starts to wonder out loud and even starts to talk to the prisoner, who very occasionally answers with short replies. Ninomiya also keeps a diary, detailing the little that happens during these seven days.

Seven days later, the murdered bodies of Ninomiya and Inuzuka are found: Ninomiya in the entrance room, Inuzuka's body in the locked room, which is still barricaded.

So we have an interesting two-folded mystery here: why is Ninomiya asked to watch a prisoner, while he's being kept imprisoned in the building himself too, and how come both Ninomoya and Inuzuka end up dead in the house (with Inuzuka being inside the room where the prisoner was). It's a very short story, so　I do think some details should have gotten more attention, but on the whole, I did enjoy this story a lot. The first two-thirds of the story read as a thriller, as Ninomiya starts to get more doubts about the task he has been given by Inuzuka, slowly realizing he might be set-up for some huge crime and trying to negotiate with the prisoner in the room to see if they can get out together. But then we shift to a police investigation after the seventh day, in which we not only learn that Ninomiya was mudered, but that also Inuzuka was found dead in the locked room (and Inuzuka died hours before Ninomiya too). While I have only read Monzen's novels, I was both surprised, and not surprised, to see he included diagrams in this story too: he always makes very detailed diagrams and floor plans for his stories, as he studied architecture and it's often an important motif in his mysteries. One could say the same here, though I wasn't that surprised by the "architectural" deception going on in this story: it was in fact the whole deal about why Ninomoya is being kept captive together with the prisoner that presented a fun mystery. Not completely fairly clewed perhaps, but an interesting, and most importantly, suspenseful plot nonetheless.

As this was written exclusively for the Shosen/Horindou facscimile release of Shi no Meidai, I doubt this would be collected in a short story collection if Monzen would decide to write more short stories in the future. I personally would be interested in his short stories though, going by what Tsukiatari no Ie brought! He apparently has at least three other short stories published, so I might try and see if I can obtain them/get copies of them.

Original Japanese title(s):  門前典之「突き当たりの家」

By Dawn's Early Light

"Well, I'll be tougher than the toughies, and sharper than the sharpies -- And I'll make my money square!"

"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" 

Visited Sapporo recently actually. All the dairy products (soft serves!!!) were amazing.

Golden Kamuy is a highly succesful manga series created by Noda Satoru, set in Hokkaido, soon after the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. It follows Sugimoto, a war veteran and the Ainu girl Asirpa on their quest to find a fortune of gold of the Ainu people, with other parties also after the enormous treasure. The manga is well-known for its historical setting, incorporating real historical events into the plot. It also focuses a lot on Hokkaido and the Ainu culture, exploring the Ainu people in that period in time. The manga has been adapted into a succesful anime series, and there's also a live-action film series. 

And of course, there's a mystery spin-off book! Or else I wouldn't be writing about it here.

I have in fact not read the manga nor seen the anime. And I only caught like the only first 15 minutes of the first Golden Kamuy film. So I know next to nothing about the series. But when it was announced last year that not only the very first Golden Kamuy spin-off novel would be a mystery story, but that it was also written by none other than Ibuki Amon, I knew instantly I wanted to read it, even without knowledge of the series. It would not be the first time I have read a mystery book based on a Shonen Jump franchise I'm not super familiar with (which reminds me I also need to read the second Kinnikuman mystery short story collection), and more importantly: Ibuki Amon is basically the person you want to be writing mystery short stories with a historical setting, with plots that utilize the time period to their fullest, ranging from objects and historical events to culture. Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan ("Golden Kamuy: The Aspirations of Tsurumi Tokushirou") is a prequel short story collection set during the Russo-Japanese War and it follows Tsurumi Tokushirou, First Lieutenant of the 7th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Tsurumi is in fact the antagonist of the main series, but his popularity have thus earned him the honor of being the protagonist of the book. Tsurumi is a highly strategic, calculating officer who nonetheless cares about the men serving beneath and besides him. The 7th Division is sent deep into Russian grounds as they move from one battlefield to another to support other divisions and Tsurumi, in his position of First Lieutenant, acts as the platoon leader, being the link between command and the men on the ground. In Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan, we see how the 7th Division moves deeper into Russia as the war wages on, but during their deployment, the members of the 7th Division come across several mysterious incidents, including sightings of the ghost of a fallen comrade patrolling at night, the disappearance of a war prisoner from a guarded tent and a series of murders on Japanese soldiers right in the middle of their own camp, without the enemy ever being detected. While these cases baffle his soldiers, it's always Tsurumi who holds the answers to the questions.

I have to admit that while I bought this book without much worries about my non-existing familiarity with the series, I was taken aback by the first few pages of the book, which featured 15(!) named characters of the 7th Division, all with profile pictures and character introduction, and then more pages that explain the military ranks of the people in the 7th Division, and a chart of the battles the 7th Division were involved with during the war. Once you get reading, you'll realize you'll get explained all of this within the stories themselves too, but the front-loaded info-dump pages were a bit intimidating. The book features five stories, which all follow different members of the 7th Division as they encounter weird cases and see how Tsurumi handles all of them. Each of the stories show how these men become devoted followers of Tsurumi, recognizing not only the aspirations of the man, but also the heart he has for the mission and for the men who fight along him, which earns him the respect and loyalty of the men that see his actions in person. While the stories are all completely original creations by Ibuki Amon, the book does feature several original illustrations made for this book by the original series creator Noda Satoru. 

The book opens with Yuurei Hoshou ("The Ghostly Sentry"), which follows Tanigaki Genjirou, Private First Class. The story follows Tanigaki who is put on night guard. He stands on top of a hill, when he hears a bell, and then he briefly spots someone else standing on an opposite hill: for a moment he fears an enemy, but he soon recognizes the face of his fellow soldier Yoshino. He calls out to Yoshino, but the figure disappears, followed by Tsurumi appearing next to Tanigaki. Tanigaki mentions seeing Yoshino suddenly appear, when Tsurumi informs him that Yoshino already died two days ago on the battlefield. So who did Tanigaki see patrolling in the night? This is a story that is less about the how of how the ghost of Yoshino appeared in front of Tanigaki, but more about the why: which is absolutely fantastic. The reason is firmly grounded in the historical and cultural context of the story, being incredibly convincing. It is hard to even hint at the explanation, because I have the feeling a simple nudge in the right direction might give it all away because it's ultimately a surprisingly simple matter, but Ibuki does a great job at not pointing too much at it until the reveal.

Shiroi Nipponhei ("The White Japanese Soldier"), told from the perspective of Warrant Officer Kikuta Mokutarou, starts with Mokutarou on the verge of being shot by a Russian soldier who surprised him, but for some reason the Russian soldier hesitates for a second before he cried out "the White Japanese!" in Russia, giving Mokutarou's comrades the time to save him. Everyone is puzzled by the Russian soldier's cry, because Mokutarou, and all the other Japanese soldiers, were wearing their black uniform. After interrogating the soldier, Mokutarou learns that the soldier had previously had encountered a Japanese soldier in a white uniform, whom he shot at point-blank range, but the soldier was unharmed by his bullet. The Japanese soldiers doubt the accuracy of the story, suggesting the Russian soldier just missed his mark, though they have no idea why the soldier would have mistaken their uniform for black. When later Mokutarou visits a comrade, he's shocked when that comrade asks Mokutarou why he's wearing a white uniform instead of his usual black... This is a mystery story that has a cool idea in regards to the solution, but the way it works as a mystery story is a bit uneven: it's not really structured as a fair clue-to-solution style of story, making the reveal not as satisfying as it could've been. Again, it's less the how that is memorable, but more the why, with this why being a lot more ambitious than the previous one, but at the same time, because of that wider range, a little bit harder to swallow, because it immediately raises questions about the feasibility, something that the first story did much better.

Habutae Tent to Misshitsu ("The Sealed Field Tent") follows Usami Tokishige, Superior Private of the 7th Division. The division has been hastily moving across the battlefield as they are needed to support an important attack. On their way, they manage to capture a group of Russian soldiers and Tsurumi is ordered to interrogate the leading officer, as they need information on the Russian platoons stationed at their destination. While everyone, from Tsurumi's superiors to the men beneath him, suggest beating the information out of the officer, Tsurumi alone suggests treating their prisoner of war with the respect his rank deserves, and the man is kept in a private tent. Usami is one of the two guards placed at the exit of the tent, while Tsurumi goes out for a bit. Tsurumi returns later with some food for the officer, but apparently can't get anything out of the man, so Tsurumi leaves again. Another prisoner however manages to escape and attacks Usami's fellow guard, but eventually Tsurumi and Usami manage to take out the escapee. They suspect the escapee was trying to rescue his commanding officer, but when they look inside the tent, they find the Russian officer is gone! But this is impossible, as there's only one exit out of the tent, and while Usami had been distracted by the attacker for a while, he swears nobody escaped from the tent during his fight in front of the tent. So how did the Russian officer escape? This is the best story of the collection, as it manages to best combine both a good how and why. The way the Russian officer disappeared from the tent is perhaps a bit simple, but it makes great use of the historical/cultural setting and Amon also manages to introduce enough depth to also delve into false solutions a bit. The why is absolutely stunning, and really only works in a war-setting and with certain characters, but it works so insanely well in this story. It is an insane motive and while not as intuitive as what you'd see in the Father Brown stories, there's an essential core to it that does feel like it could've been in a Father Brown story: it hinges on a very instinctivee, emotional concept that doesn't sound logical at all, and yet it is very convincing.

Toki ni wa Yasashiku Minai Furi ("Sometimes Gently Pretending Not to Notice") is told from the perspective of Superior Private Ogata Hyakunosuke. The soldiers in the 7th Division are slowly becoming restless, when they learn there's been a second murder on one of their fellow soldiers. While soldiers dying on the battlefield is not a surprise at all, there's something special about two specific murders: these soldiers were killed in the middle of their own camp. As one would expect, the Japanese camp is set-up far away from the Russian enemy, with night sentries making sure that the camp itself is safe, but twice already an enemy has managed to strike at fellow Japanese soldiers, who assumed they were safe within the confines of their camp. While at first, they assumed some lone Russian soldier might have made his way into their camp and killed one of them before escaping, this theory quickly loses credibility by the second murder, as it's rather unbelievable an enemy could sneak inside the camp twice. Suspicion therefore turns to someone within the camp, so who is this traitor? This story is basicallly all about the why, as the story basically soon points out all the victims were basically just surprised by whom they thought was a comrade. The why is, as is basically the norm for this collection, a memorable matter that only makes any sense in the specific historical/cultural context of the story, being a war-time story of soldiers being gone for months from home, fighting daily deep within enemy grounds. This may even be the shortest story of them all, but the motive definitely ranks among the strongest of the collection in terms of memorability. In practice, you'd think some of the actions of the murderer are a bit contradictionary, but again, this being a story set right in the middle of an on-going war basically makes the motive not only viable, but even believable. 

The final story, Tsurumi Tokushirou wa Madowanai ("Tsurumi Tokushirou Does Not Waver") is about Sergeant Tsukishima Hajime, a very loyal subordinate to Tsurumi, who will follow his orders no matter what. The 7th Division is visited for an inspection by a commander who has been wavering in his leadership of the army as the war continues: while the soldiers fighting the battles on the ground have a feeling they'll get through, the commander is having second thoughts, which might endanger their opportunity at defeating their enemy. Tsukishima is handed a suspicious package by Tsurumi and is ordered to plant alongside the route the commander will be taking during his inspection. The very precise Tsurumi gives about where to place the package make it clear it's not a safe package, and Tsukishima understands Tsurumi is trying to take matters into his own hands to push the Japanese army forward, but Tsukishima apparently mistimed or misplaced the package, as the explosion does result in multiple casualties, but the commander goes unharmed. Will this botched-up attempt at the commander's life mean the end of Tsurumi and his aspirations? Well, now, because otherwise the main series wouldn't have an antagonist.  This one feels more like a thriller than a conventional mystery story, with Tsukishima being ordered to do something that obviously is illegal, and we see him have to deal with the aftermath of his mistakenly planted bomb. Because of this, it's also not a really a well-clewed story, as the emphasis lies more on the emotional turmoil within Tsukishima as he realizes his mistake will have consequences not for him alone, but also for Tsurumi, whom he sees as vital to the division. Of course, as the title says, Tsurumi does not waver and he manages to deal with the matter nonetheless, but the "solution" to what he does is not really set-up with clues or anything. While the solution does recontextualize a few things Tsurumi did or said throughout the story, the twist doesn't feel as strong as some of the surprises we saw in earlier stories in terms of character motivations/actions. It does portray a strong Tsurumi, in a way I suspect that ties deeply to the main series, and in that respect, I can't really fault this story, because I assume most people who read this book are interested in the character of Tsurumi, rather than the mystery set-ups, but I did find it disappointing I found the previous four stories stronger than the finale as mystery stories.

As I haven't read the original series, I can't say whether Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan contains anything that makes this instant recommendation to Golden Kamuy fans: perhaps just knowing it's about Tsurumi's time in the Russo-Japanese War is enough, or knowing which people of the 7th Division are featured in this book. As a fan of mystery fiction however, and as someone who has constantly been admiring Ibuki Amon's historical short story mysteries, I think Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan is overall a very solid book. Ultimately, I don't think my unfamiliarity with the source material really hurt my experience, as Ibuki always manages to write solid mysteries based on well-researched historical and cultural settings and presenting them well to the reader. The stories here are no expection, so it didn't take long for me to be all familiar with the setting, and at the same time, be amazed with the plots Ibuki comes up with based on the setting of the early 1900s setting and the Russo-Japanese War background. So I can safely recommend this book if you're just into cool historical mystery fiction!

Original Japanese title(s): 野田サトル（原作・イラスト）, 伊吹亜門（小説）『ゴールデンカムイ 鶴見篤四郎の宿願』: 「幽霊歩哨 《谷垣源次郎》」/「白い日本兵 《菊田杢太郎》」/「羽二重天幕の密室 《宇佐美時重》」/「時にはやさしく見ないふり 《尾形百之助》」/「鶴見篤四郎は惑わない 《月島 基》」

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』