When the Cicada Calls

"The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."

"Revelation 8:7" (King James vers.)

I've never been invited by vague acquaintances to come to a remote island, but I'm pretty sure I'd never accept the invitation, because odds are I'm going to either get killed, or at the very least have a horrible few days with everybody around me dying.

The eight months that have passed since the horrible events that occured in her family home the Glory Manor have given Manami the time to move on with her life. She became friends with the freelance photographer Kanou Erika when Erika visited the Glory Manor to take pictures of the stately building and Erika decided to hire Manami as a temporary assistant. The two are headed for Komura, a small private island off the coast of F(ukuoka) and S(aga). The island is the home of the beautiful twins Ichinose Saori and Kaori. Gigantic cliffs surround the whole island, with only a small inlet allowing access to land. Most of the island is covered by a thick forest, but the hollow clearing in the center and the small hill there offer space to both the Ichinose home and a small chapel. Most people would find this island inconvenient, but not for the parents of the twins: their mother in particular was an extreme devout follower of the Roman-Catholic Church and believed truly that the Apocalypse would come: the island was where her family would await the End of the World. Saori and Kaori were both brought up with these ideas from her mother and had barely seen anything of the world outside the island, until their mother died. Kaori went to study art for a while in Tokyo, but returned to the island suddenly. But now she has sent invitations to seven people she met during her time in Tokyo, and one of the invitees is Erika, who decides to drag Manami along. It turns out that one of the seven invited guests couldn't make it, making Manami the seventh guest.

A small motorboat has been prepared to bring the party in several trips across to Komura Island, making Manami, Erika and a college student the first group to reach the island. As they arrive at the peer, they can make out the silhouette of Saori or Kaori far off, but she disappears immediately. When the three arrive at the house, they find a note from Saori welcoming them, and saying that she had to get out for a minute and will be right back. But neither Kaori nor Saori show themselves even after the remaining guests have been brought over from the mainland, so the seven guests decide to explore the house. In Saori's room they stumble upon a letter addressed to them, vowing to avenge what they did to Kaori and prompting them to take a look in the freezer in the kitchen. Inside the freezer, they find the horrifying, yet dazzling sight of the frozen corpse of Kaori, gently positioned in a praying pose. The guests realize this isn't just some joke, but the phone lines are cut and the boat to pick them up won't come until a few days. They suspect Saori is still somewhere on this island and hope they can reason with her, but decide to rest for the night. The smell of smoke wakes the guests during the night however and when they trace the source to the garden, they find the burned corpse of one of the guests, with a miniature trumpet stabbed in their chest. One of them realizes this is a reference to the Apocalypse as described in The Book of Revelation, when the angel would sound the trumpet seven times, signifying another apocalyptic event each time. As time ticks on, more and more victims fall in ways that invoke Revelation, but the hunt for the murderous Saori remains fruitless. Several days later, the police act on an anonymous call and arrive at the island, only to find six bodies and an unconscious Manami, who somehow survived the onslaught. She contacts Father Sakura again, as she hopes he can provide answers again in Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of the House of the Remote Island, 1998).

Last week I reviewed the first volume/story in the short The Case Notes of Father Sakura series, noting it was an enjoyable mystery story with a genuine Challenge to the Reader, a tale that should especially appeal to readers of Kindaichi Shounen as it had several thematic similarities. I also wrote I was going to read the second volume soon, which I definitely did: this review may be posted a week later, but I read the second volume the night after I read the first. Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken originally started serialization in Afternoon in August 1997 and was later compiled into a single volume in 1998. It's quite lengthy too, more than 300 pages compared to the 250 pages of the first volume, which is one of the more notable similarities it has with Kindaichi Shounen, which also features relatively long stories in comparison to other mystery manga.

Anyway, last time we had a locked room murder in a creepy manor, this time we have an And Then There Were None-inspired story, with a closed circle situation on a remote island with only one house and a chapel on it. The story follows Manami as she experiences the horror in Komura Island and in general, the story makes for an interesting pair together with the first volume. Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken had a plot that took its time to build things up and there were only two murders (and the second occurs quite late too), but we have a lot more deaths in this one. It shouldn't surprise you that this volume is a lot more thrilling to read, with all the gruesome murders patterned after Revelation, and the suspicions of the characters flying all over the place, never sure whether their opponent is Saori, one of their own or perhaps someone completely different. As the number of survivors dwindle, the remaining characters obviously start to harbor doubts against each other, resulting in the tense climax which ultimately leaves Manami the only living survivor on the island. This story is about a hundred pages longer than Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken, but it certainly never feels like it's too long.

That said, one can make the argument that a lot of Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken feels far too familiar. Most of the murders committed could've been anyone's work, whether by Saori or one of the remaining survivors, so for a long time, the plot is "simply" about the deaths, giving the reader little material from where they have to deduce the truth. For most of the time, this just feels exactly like And Then There Were None (where most murders 'just' happened and could've been committed by anyone), only here we have Revelation as the theme instead of a nursery rhyme. Now I think back to The Decagon House Murders and The Jellyfish Never Freezes, which are both also And Then There Were None-inspired stories, and realize they manage to avoid the same pitfall by using a dual narrative structure (disclosure: I translated The Decagon House Murders etc. etc.). The Decagon House Murders juggles between chapters set on the island and the mainland, while The Jellyfish Never Freezes juggles between chapters set before and after the murders. That allows for more depth and diversity in the story and while not every And Then There Were None-inspired story can benefit from such a dual narrative structure, having something to differentiate it from the same core plot structure can definitely help.

After the dust has settled, Manami is visited by Father Sakura in the hospital, who is told all the events as experienced by Manami and the reader too is challenged to solve the murders and figure out who killed the six victims on the island. It's a shame that this riddle is relatively easy to solve because one scene in the story stands out: the exact same thing happened with Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken. While not nearly as obvious as in the first Father Sakura story, one early scene in this volume does point to a specific group within the characters mentioned throughout the story and after a while, you'll soon realize only one character within that group can be the murderer. After that, it's not hard to reverse-engineer all the murders, as like I mentioned, most of the murders could've been committed by most characters. It's definitely a fair mystery though (fit for a mystery story with a formal Challenge to the Reader) and I do like it that there are a few more hints dropped throughout the story that point to this character as the culprit, which are actually more subtle/cleverer than the primary one, and the way you have to combine a certain early event with a very late event to arrive at the definitive answer is also well-plotted. In terms of the "model answer" of how to solve the case, the process in Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken is more impressive, while as a story, Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken is a far more gripping experience, also when talking about the background story.

But I had fun with Kotoukan Satsujin Jiken too, so it's kinda a shame I'm already through the complete The Case Notes of Father Sakura series! I wonder why writer Aoki and artist Ogawa only did two stories, as in terms of quality, it's been a fairly consistent and amusing ride and I would've loved to see more of Manami and Father Sakura. I liked the apocalyptic imagery of this volume and I can only imagine what this series would've been if it had delved more into the more occult side of the Bible as a theme for the murders! Anyway, I guess I'm back to finding more mystery manga gems in Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar. 

Original Japanese title(s): 青木吾郎 (原）, 小川 幸辰（画)『桜神父の事件ノート (2) 孤島館殺人事件』

Angel of Death

「…君…もしかしてアケルダマの…」

『栄光館殺人事件』

"Are you... perhaps from Akeldama...?"

"The Murder Case in the Glory Manor"

I haven't spent much time in Nagasaki, but it was funny I could instantly recognize the town in today's volume, even though it's only decribed as "N." The trams especially gave it away.

On the outskirts of the city of N(agasaki) lies the Glory Manor: it was only a few centuries ago that kakure kirishitan (underground Roman Catholics) lived in secret on these grounds and later, a person in the Tokoyoda clan bought the manor as well as the countless of religious art pieces and relics of the members of the church. The spacious garden is riddled with stone statues of religious figures, and the interior of the house is also full of crosses, Maria-Kannon figures and other valuable pieces of religious art. As their parents are no more, the sisters Manami and Ritsuko live here together with their grandfather and clan patriarch Kousuke, as well as their uncle Kensuke and his family. Manami is trying to get out of the dreary house as soon as possible: life at the Glory Manor is neigh insufferable, not just because of her good-for-nothing uncle, but especially because of her controlling grandfather, who is about to ruin older sister Ritsuko's life for good. Ritsuko is only twenty, but Kousuke has arranged for Ritsuko to be married into a powerful family right away, robbing her of any chance to live a life of her own, and that same fate awaits Manami in a few years. A special gathering is scheduled for the twenty-eigth of December, where Ritsuko and her fiancé are to exchange their engagement rings to seal the deal. Among the invitees are the family friend and doctor, as well as the young Roman-Catholic priest Sakura Souichirou, who is here to convey blessings to the engaged couple, as his religious mentor has close ties with the Tokoyoda clan. Despite the joyous occasion, grandfather Kousuke seems to have trouble getting out of bed that morning, but the maid can do much about it: while she has a spare key, her master's bedroom is also bolted from inside. After noon however, everybody becomes worried and they break the door down, only to find Kousuke lying dead on his bed, his head bashed in with an art piece of Jesus on the Cross. But curiously, they also find the windows facing the garden bolted from the inside (even covered in spider webs), meaning the man was killed inside a locked room! The police finds the house has more than enough suspects: from Manami and Ritsuko whose lives were being controlled by their grandfather to uncle Kensuke, who was about to be thrown out the house together with his family. Even Father Sakura is suspected, but he is the only one who can see through all the mist and bring forth the truth in Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case in the Glory Manor" 1997).

2018's Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar was a highly informative work on the history of mystery manga and it has helped me identify a lot of interesting titles. My attention was especially drawn to the period of 70-80s, with the works of female artists like Hagio Moto, Yamada Mineko, Maya Mineo and Takashina Ryouko writing the earliest original puzzle plot mystery manga which would pave the way for Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Detective Conan and Q.E.D. in the early to mid nineties. But there are of course also plenty of mystery manga created after the great turning point, and one of the titles mentioned in Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar stood out in my eyes. The Case Notes of Father Sakura was a short series created by Aoki Gorou (writer) and Ogawa Koushin (artist). The limited series that first introduced the reader to the silent priest Sakura was serialized between 1996-1997 in the comic magazine Afternoon with the title Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken as a single story, but Father Sakura would return again later in 1997 for a serialized sequel, which completed the two-volume series.

What caught my attention however was not the promises of locked room murders or anything like that. What made the description in Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar stand was the mention that this comic featured a formal Challenge to the Reader. Series like Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Detective Conan and Q.E.D. do have faux Challenges as the protagonists have key catchphrases that indicate when they have solved the crime (meaning the reader can do so too at that point) or they make use of the division in chapters to convey when all the clues are there, but I am a big fan of the formal Challenge to the Reader, where the author speaks directly to the reader to indicate that now all the necessary clues are available and you can logically deduce who the killer is. Having a Challenge to the Reader creates expectations of a mystery story that is written and structured in a particular way, so I was quite excited to try this short series out. In this series, the Challenge to the Reader is framed as the writer of the manga, Aoki Gorou, addressing the reader, as he recounts a tale he has been told by Father Sakura himself.

In general, Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken is a good mystery story, that however perhaps could've been tweaked to make for a better challenge. Story-wise, the volume follows a familiar formula: a hated family patriarch who is killed in a creepy house, everyone in the family has a reason to want to kill the man, etc. The volume is about 250 pages long, so similar to a regular serial in the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series, but that's actually quite lengthy for a mystery manga, as single stories are seldom this long. It works great for Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken though, as it takes its time to set the scene and work in all kinds of clues over the whole length of the story, without the tale ever feeling too dragged out. Some of the visual clewing is really clever too: some hints are shown very early in the story, before anything has even happened, but it's definitely fair to show it to the reader at this point already (it's shown a few more times later on too) and it shows that Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken is a tightly plotted story from start to finish.

It's therefore such a shame the second murder in the story gives so much away! Just before the reader is presented with the Challenge to the Reader, a second killing occurs, where someone is stabbed in the back and thrown off a balcony, but the presentation here is so obvious any reader can instantly guess who the murderer is! Some of the clues are well hidden in the visuals, but you don't even really need to identify those clues because the whole thing is telegraphed so obviously to the reader, and once you guess who the murderer is in this second killing, it isn't hard to work out the way this character fits in with the first murder. Which is a shame, because I really like how the reasoning process surrounding the  first locked room murder ultimately leads to the identity of the killer, and this alone (so without the second killing) would've been pretty good too. The solution to how the locked room was achieved is not super complex, but I like how it's set-up so the attentive reader can figure it out without expecting the reader to be some kind of genius who miraculously thinks fo the solution by combining obscure hint A and obscure hint B. But what makes Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken an interesting story is how it builds on that solution and some other facts uncovered during the investigation and how a logical trail is laid out for the reader to follow. Even if you manage to solve the locked room conundrum, you'll still find a few crafty contradictions blocking your path. We see the bread and butter of the Queen school of detective fiction here, as you have to consider the logical implications of those contradictions, the actions or inactions of the killer that could've caused those contradictions and the underlying reasons for that, and only by considering all of that, you can make a logical argument against the killer. So it's such a shame the second killing makes the identity of the murderer so painfully obvious, as the way the story was built around the first killing is quite good and perfect for a mystery story with a Challenge to the Reader.

The way Roman-Catholic motifs are incorporated in the story is kinda weeeeeird by the way. Father Sakura's first appearance involves him talking randomly about Akeldama and the Glory Manor is supposed to hold all kinds of art objects involved with Roman-Catholics but we also have a stone statue of Abaddon in the garden for some reason. Abadddon! It's almost like they want to take the occult angle, but the themes are not going nearly far enough to really be about occultism, so it just comes across as really weird Catholicism in this story.

But for what it's worth, I think Eikoukan Satsujin Jiken was an entertaining, and at times very well plotted mystery story which did suffer from a less thought-out second half. While the characters themselves and the storytelling can be a bit on the dry side, I think the volume is a good example of a carefully plotted mystery story that also makes use of its inherent visual properties. I think that people who like the Kindaichi Shounen series because it features longer stories, will also appreciate this series as it also has a similar tone. I have the second volume with Father Sakura waiting for me too, so I'll be sure to check that one out soon too.

Original Japanese title(s): 青木吾郎 (原）, 小川 幸辰（画)『桜神父の事件ノート (1) 栄光館殺人事件』