tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post2434506888076132399..comments2024-03-29T00:31:02.713+01:00Comments on ボクの事件簿: Problem at SeaHo-Linghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-51058611072336612592012-03-06T20:59:58.722+01:002012-03-06T20:59:58.722+01:00I do intend to keep myself to this purchase restra...I do intend to keep myself to this purchase restraint this last month. Just a few more weeks and then it's all over. I have to admit that I <i>do</i> try to find loopholes within my own rules though: a purchase like <i>Kamaitachi no Yoru 2</i> counts as a <i>game</i>, not a detective novel. Even though it's in fact a detective sound <i>novel</i> written by a famous New Orthodox writer and stuff.<br /><br />I might take a cue from your recommendations though and reread some of the <i>Judge Dee</i> novels. I like them, but my memories of the stories tend to get a bit mixed up because of the multiple case set-up of the novels and also because I read <i>Parallel Cases under the Pear-Tree</i>, which naturally has a lot in common with van Gulik's stories.Ho-Linghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04673330638260132388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8031063966272508587.post-4924134015277818872012-03-05T10:02:15.553+01:002012-03-05T10:02:15.553+01:00You could pick up some easily available Dutch auth...You could pick up some easily available Dutch authors to cross the bridge from this month into the next: Baantjer has a few classically-styled detective novels, Janwillem van de Wetering has a collection of short stories set in Japan and Bertus Aafjes and Robert van Gulik will definitely keep you occupied until April if you settle for them. <br /><br />On the book you just reviewed: the <i>fudarakutokai</i> ritual also impressed me as the most interesting element of the book and I feel your frustration when a writer introduces an interesting (impossible) situation, but fails to capitalize on it. I sometimes really wonder why they bothered introducing an impossible angle in the first place, when they just let it sit there doing nothing. <br /><br />The only time I have seen this work was in Neuman's <i>The Seclusion Room</i>, in which the locked room had to be sacrificed in order to achieve a certain effect. It almost morphs into a anti-detective story (from a complex and highly unlikely murder case that could've been plucked from the pages of a GAD novel to a more realistic, everyday crime). <br /><br />A counter example would be Paul Doherty's <i>The Assassins of Isis</i> that introduced two intriguing impossible killings, but what he does with them (or rather what he doesn't do with them) makes you want to throw the book across the room and they can be considered cheats, too! If I recall correctly, I offered an alternative solution to the first locked room situation in my scathing review of the book. <br /><br />But I have babbled on long enough.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com