The Mystery of the Yellow Room

もしも 生まれ変わっても また私に生まれたい 

この体と この色で 生き抜いてきたんだから 

「Yellow Yellow Happy」（ポケットビスケッツ）

 

If I would be born again, I want to be born as myself again

Because I have survived in this body and this color until now

"Yellow Yellow Happy" (Pocket Bisquits)

No, this book is not set in a place where rocks levitate...

It has been three years since the traumatic events at Katsuragi Teruyoshi's family home, and now the great detective and his best friends Tadokoro Shinya and Mitani Rokurou are all studying at different universities, all having an idea of their future. They still see each other often, but they have not travelled together in ages, however, exceptions are made for special occassions: Katsuragi and Tadokoro have received a letter from Asukai Hikaru, the former high school student detective whom Tadokoro looked up to when he was young. A few years ago, Katsuragi and Tadokoro met her, now in her late twenties and working as an insurance agent, at the house of  mystery author Takarada Yuuzan, where they were confronted with a horrible murder. Katsuragi and Hikaru had clashed about their views about what a detective is, so Katsuragi and Tadakoro are surprised to learn she had written them a letter. She informs them she's going to be married to Dotou Kouki, the son of Dotou Raizou, the world famous multi-disciplinary artist, especially known for his paintings, sculptures and architecture. While Kouki is "a normal guy", his sisters have inherited their father's artistic talent, with Yukie being an accomplished illustrator, Tsukiyo a sculpter and Kanon a singer. Because of Kouki and Hikaru's engagement, they're going to have a rare gathering on the last day of the year at Raizou's home the Wasteland Manor: a house with four towers Raizou himself designed, located in what is basically a small, square valley, with the house surrounded completely by four rock walls. 

Raizou turns out to be a friend of Takarada Yuuzan, who has passed away since. It was Raizou who designed the house of Yuuzan, and in exchange, Yuuzan had written a mystery novel set in Raizou's home. It is this unpublished manuscript that worries Hikaru, prompting her to contact Katsuragi and Tadokoro. It appears Hikaru's presence at Yuuzan's manor three years ago had not been a coincidence, but set-up by Yuuzan, and she fears she's being manipulated again by this unpublished manuscript of Yuuzan. She hopes Katsuragi and Tadokoro will come to the house, as her "relatives" and see if they can get their hands on the manuscript and see what is hidden within the pages. Katsuragi has no intention of meeting Asukai again, but he agrees to at least join Tadokoro and Mitani on their way to the house. The three young men meet with Hikaru and Kouki outside the house to discuss what they'll do, but then they are surprised by a heavy earthquake. While they are all unharmed, the road has collapsed and trees have fallen on the road, blocking it completely. Very conveniently, Katsuragi alone finds himself on the outside world side of the road, while the rest are now trapped on the house-side of the road. Katsuragi says he'll go to the nearby town and stay there, while Tadokoro and Mitani will go with Hikaru and Kouki as planned. 

Things soon take a turn for the worse however. Tadokoro and Mitani are introduced to the rest of the family (as well as two other guests), though none of the Dotous seem very interested in them. Everyone is shocked to learn they have been cut off from the outside world, but they have enough supplies to last for about four days. And while there are occasional aftershocks, the house itself is sturdy enough to withstand the violent movements. However, the following day, patriarch Raizou is found dead in the courtyard of the house: the elderly man has been shish-kebab'd on a statue of a knight holding a sword up high and what's more: the murderer has left no footprints in the wet garden. When they go looking for Yuuzan's unpublished manuscript in Raizou's room, they find someone has taken it: is it a coincidence a manuscript about a murder case happening in this house is now missing? Meanwhile, Katsuragi has barely managed to find a room in the only inn in town, which is swarming due to the sudden earthquake and trains not running anymore. His attention is soon drawn to his roommate Ogasawara Tsuneharu, who is acting rather suspicious. Of course, Katsuragi has no way to know that Ogasawara is planning to kill the proprietor of the inn: not because he has a motive to kill her, but some hours ago, Ogasawara had agreed to do a murder exchange: when he was not able to go to Raizou's home due to the road collapse and fallen trees, a woman called out to him from the other side of the blocked road, who offered to kill Raizou for him, if he instead kills the inn proprietor for her. Can Katsuragi and Hikaru solve all the crimes happening in and outside the house in Atsukawa Tatsumi's Koudokan no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Earthy Yellow Manor" 2023)?

This is the third book in the series which now bears the name Manor Quartet, which obviously suggest this series will be four parts in total. The first book had fire and the summer as its theme, the second water and autumn and this third book revolves around earth and winter. So yes, that suggest the final book's theme will be wind (air) in the spring. A murder in a house during a typhoon? Anyway, I enjoyed the previous two books about Katsuragi, the young detective who has the ability to sense people lying to him, and while I had not read the premise of the book before, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Asukai Hikaru from the first book returned too in a prominent role, so once I got started with this book, I had gone through it really fast.

The book takes on a rather interesting structure: the first third of the book is actually an inverted mystery: we follow Ogasawara Tsuneharu as he makes his way to the Wasteland Manor to kill Raizou, whom he hates for a very personal reason, only to find the road collapsed and blocked by fallen trees. When he grumbles out loud he now can't kill Raizou now, a woman calls out to him from the other side of the road. While they can't see each other, she offers to kill Raizou instead of him, if he then kills the propriator of the local inn. The woman suggest she'll kill Raizou first and use a flare signal so Ogasawara will know she has succeeded in her task, after which he'll kill the proprietor. Ogasawara accepts the offer for a murder exchange, and arrives at the inn, but can only stay he shares a room with Katsuragi. And so Ogasawara slowly starts to plan his murder (luckily, he was already planning to kill Raizou so he has things like poison with him). But as this is an inverted detective, we of course see how Katsuragi slowly starts to suspect his roommate isn't just some innocent guest. But how did he figure it out? This part is fairly short, but I do like the clewing Atsukawa employed to allow Katsuragi to get on the trail of Ogasawara. We know Katsuragi starts to have his suspicions very early on, but the clues that allowed him to zero on his roommate are fairly clever hidden. In the aftermath, Katsuragi learns about the murder exchange, finally realizing his friends Tadokoro and Mitani may be in danger, as there's a murderer in Wasteland House. 

At this point, the book jumps back to the last day of the year, and we now follow Tadokoro, who together with Mitani visit the Wasteland House. Kouki's sisters Yukie, Tsukiyo and Kanon seem not interested in the two men, nor are the two other guests (an art broker and Kanon's manager), but Raizou himself seems interested in Tadokoro, as Raizou is aware Tadokoro and Katsuragi where involved in the incident in the house of his friend Yuuzan, and Raizou also seems more interested in Hikaru's past as a high school student detective, rather than as his future daughter-in-law. The following day however, the man is found dangling from the sword of the knight statue in the courtyard, but how could anyone have lifted the victim and stabbed him on a five-metre high sculpture? As there's no landline phone and for some reasons, their mobiles don't have any reception, all they can do is wait until the road's been restored or outside help comes via some other way, but they don't have much time, as more mysterious happenings occur, from sightings of a masked butler who can escape from a tower room with only entrance even though they were being chased by Tadokoro and someone being shot inside another tower room, even though it was locked from inside and the only window in the room looks out... on a rock wall. With Katsuragi not present, and Asukai Hikaru having sworn off ever playing detective ever again, Watson Tadokoro finds himself forced to be the Holmes himself this time...

In Gurenkan no Satsujin and Aomikan no Satsujin, the respective themes of a mountain fire, and a flooded river added a note of excitement to the mystery: like Ellery in The Siamese Twin Mystery, it wasn't just that Katsuragi and Tadokoro found them having to deal with a musterious murder committed in a house, they also had to deal with an unstoppable force of nature, a force that also had its influence on the murders. In Koudokan no Satsujin, we have one major earthquake at the very start of the book, followed by unpredictable aftershocks, but I have to admit I found the theme not as strong here as in the previous books. The initial earthquake creates the closed circle setting, and also sets up the murder exchange, but from that point on, we just have aftershocks happening now and then. They don't really serve as a constant threat, as they come and go swiftly, and it's not like you can predict them. The earthquakes are not a theme that permeate throughout the novel, only popping up now and then, so that kinda weakens the "earth" theme, even if the couple of themes they do feature in the mysteries, they are integrated cleverly.

 What you can't accuse Atsukawa of, is him skimping on the mysteries though. We have Raizou skewered on a sword in the courtyard, even though there are no footprints left in the courtyard, even though rain had softened the ground last night. We have masked butlers being chased into rooms with only one entrance and disappearing from those rooms. We have a body which appears in a room, even though everyone has an alibi for the time between the discovery of the body, and the last time people visited the room, and many more. What I do like is that a lot of these mysteries do share a common thread, used in a few ways. I have to admit I have read so many of these books by now, I found the big trick a bit easy to guess because I have seen similar ideas quite often, but the execution is well-clewed and because Atsukawa utilized the idea in various ways, it feels fairly substantial, rather than a one-trick pony. The earthquakes in return are featured now and then in the mystery, for example forcing the murderer to do something in a certain manner, or the earthquake creating an unforeseen situation for everyone. As mentioned before, the synergy between this 'force of nature' theme and the mystery isn't as prominent as I had hoped, but when it's done, it definitely presents interesting parts of the mystery.

That said, I do find the whodunnit rather disappointing. The first part is an inverted mystery, so of course who the culprit is, but Ogasawara himself never learns who his partner in crime is, so we don't know who the murderer inside the house is. However, the way Atsukawa planted the clues to point to the murderer are a bit too obvious. While from an in-universe point of view, it makes sense it takes some time for the detectives on both sides to catch up as you need information obtained from both in and outside the house to solve everything, it doesn't mean the reader isn't already in possession of that knowledge, and it makes the attempts to present false solutions feel a bit weak, as you know the big elephant in the room hasn't been addressed yet. 

Overall though, I do like how this book is set three years after the previous books, with a more mature Katsuragi Teruyoshi who has learned to deal with his trauma gained in the previous two books, and we see how that also helps Asukai Hikaru, who has her own trauma. I'm not really that interested in character development, but for those looking for that in a detective character, you can definitely find it in this series, and what I do like is how Katsuragi's character does influence his detecting style a lot: it's his experiences that leads him to act like he does now as a detective, so in that sense, I do like seeing the change in him, as it's directly reflected in the way the mystery is plotted and how Atsukawa decides to have the story solved.

Koudokan no Satsujin is overall a solid third entry. While the earth theme isn't as strongly present here as the force of nature themes in the previous two books and it is overall a bit simpler, I do like the twists Atsukawa presents here, like having an inverted mystery section, and focusing on basically three detective figures in Katsuragi, Hikaru and Tadokoro. Can't wait to see how the last volume will wrap things up!

Original Japanese title(s):阿津川辰海『黄土館の殺人』

Invisible Green

To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man—the mystery, the power, the freedom.

"The Invisible Man"

For some reason I thought the original 2020 paperback release of this book had a different cover with a more greenish tint, and the 2022 pocket release had similar, but different art with a more blueish tone, but it turns out they have the exact same cover...

I quite enjoyed the two novels by Atsukawa Tatsumi I read previously, so it was only a matter of time before I would try out his short stories, as I tend to prefer the the short story format when it comes to mystery fiction. Toumei Ningen wa Misshitsu ni Hisomu ("An Invisible Person is Lurking in the Locked Room") was originally published in 2020 and consists of four short mystery stories, which are all unrelated to each other. The only connection between the various stories is that each story has a clear source of inspiration: each story is book-ended with a short bibliography with the stories that served as inspiration or helped deepen his tale. Sometimes, the stories are directly based on the premise of the main inspiration source, sometimes it's just a single sentence that helped this imagination. If I had to voice a "complaint" about this short story collection however, is perhaps that it's rather short, and not having a real connecting theme between the four stories means that while I did generally enjoy all of them, the book as a whole doesn't really leave much of an impression. It's over before you know it and perhaps works well as an 'inbetweener' between longer books, but I think that for example in the future, if I were to refer back to this work, I am more likely to recommend a specific story from this collection, rather than the collection as a whole because everything is so disconnected away. This doesn't mean the book is bad, the opposite actually, but it somehow still lacks impact because it's all over too soon.

The title and opening story Toumei Ningen wa Misshitsu ni Hisomu ("An Invisible Person is Lurking in the Locked Room") is inspired by H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man and tells about a worldwide disease which makes people invisible. People slowly turn completely invisible, including their bodily fluids and human waste and for the moment, No permanent cure has been found yet, and society has learned to adapt to the people with invisibility condition. Modern society generally only works if everyone is visible, for even doing groceries or walking down the street can be difficult if people can't see you and constantly walk into you, so invisible people are expected to either use make-up to become visible, or take daily inhibitor pills that turn them visible again, The story starts with narration by an invisible married woman, who one day learns a professor at a nearby university is close to producing a permanent cure to the invisibility disease. The woman decides she needs to kill the professor and destroy his research, and plans his murder: her plan involves parking near the university, undress completely and in her invisible state, sneak inside the lab offices and kill the professor. She meticulously plans her deed, plotting which route to take so she won't bump into people, stop taking her inhibitor pills early in the week so she becomes invsible again, but masking that fact by wearing make-up and even making sure to have an easy to digest breakfast, as until the food is digested, you'd see food flying around. The woman manages to slip in the lab and indeed kills the professor, but then loud cries come from the other side of the door. At that moment, we switch to the viewpoint of the husband, who first thought his wife might be cheating on him and hired a private detective to trail her, and eventually, the two realized the woman was planning to kill the professor. They arrived at the lab just after the murder occured, and together with two students, they enter the room and immediately lock it behind them, for they know the murderer, the invisible murderer must still be inside the room. And thus starts a game of cat and mouse, where the four men try to catch the invisible murderer hiding in the lab, while our murderer knows that if she manages to escape this locked room, they can never prove she killed the professor.

An incredibly fun premise and it's almost a shame this is a short story, because there is a lot of potential for more! Because of the relatively short length of the tale, the game of cat and mouse is over pretty soon, but it's a fun one: the four men know the murderer is somewhere in the room as the professor is dead and nobody had opened the door since he was last seen alive by his students, but it's a pretty spacious lab with desks for the various students, so how are they going to find an invisible person here? They try all kinds of things to search the spacious room, but also have to be careful she doesn't attack them suddenly in an attempt to escape. Meanwhile, the invisible woman has staked all her bets on one attempt to escape this room, and it's a pretty daring one and while after a while, you probably start to guess what she's doing, it's a perfectly well-clewed solution to her situation. But it's all over rather soon, and you just wish Atsukawa had done more with the idea of the invisibility disease. Perhaps as a follow-up novel?

Rokunin no Nekkyou Suru Nihonjin ("Six Enthusiastic Japanese") is inspired by Mitani Kouki's play 12nin no Yasashii Nihonjin ("Twelve Gentle Japanese"), itself a parody of the film Twelve Angry Men. In Twelve Angry Men, we had jury members in a murder trial who were immediately convinced of the defendant's guilt, 12nin no Yasashii Nihonjin started with the jury members all being convinced the defendant is not guilty, so what is this story about? The narrator is a professional judge, who together with two other professional judges and six lay judges are deliberating over a murder trial. The defendant and victim were both fans of the idol group Cutie Girls, and they had been travelling together to attend to a two-day event of Cutie Girls. The victim had been murdered in their room at an inn, apparently they were watching a DVD of Cutie Girls together when they started arguing resulting in an unfortunate lethal blow. Initially, most lay judges seem to agree the defendant is guilty as he has confessed to the crime, but one isn't convinced, and as he starts zooming in on all kinds of facts at the crime scene, the others are slowly won over and together, they arrive at a rather surprising solution... This story is really funny, and definitely intended as a kind of parody. The crime scene is rather unique in that the story utilizes a lot of "idol otaku props", like glow sticks, idol calls and more, and you get surprisingly deep deduction chains about something like the proper way to store a glow stick. The big climax of the story is really something you have to behold, and while I think that the individual deductions are not super memorable, the "punchline" of this story definitely is.

Touchou Sareta Satsujin ("The Tapped Murder") introduces us to Mimika, a young woman who works at a detective agency and who has superior powers of hearing, being able to make out the smallest of noises. But that's all she can do however, so usually, it is her boss who has to make the connections based on the evidence Mimika heard. Their current case however, is special. For the last week, they had been investigating Kunisaki Chiharu, whose husband suspected she was cheating on him. With the help of the husband, they planted a teddy bear with a sound recorder inside it in the sitting room, but one day Chiharu was killed in the sitting room. When the teddy bear was discovered, the detective agency of course became a momentary target of investigation by the police, so now Mimika's boss wants Mimika to help clear their name. The teddy bear had indeed recorded the moment of the actual murder, and while listening to the audio file, Mimika hears a faint dissonant tone, but she can't figure out what the noise exactly is. Because they know the husband himself was actually also cheating on his wife himself, they suspect he might be the murderer, and they come up with an excuse to visit the apartment and the crime scene again, with Mimika trying to figure out what the dissonant tone was she heard during the murder and whether it can help them solve this case. This is a story that I really would have wanted to experience as an audio drama! The mystery of the dissonant tone and other hidden "audio" clues in the audio file are all fairly clever, though I do think more clues pointing directly to the murderer would've been nice, but reading about these clues you were supposed to hear does make it feel a bit less impressive than I think it should be. Definitely a fun take for a mystery story though. In fact, it's a shame you don't really have "direct-to-audio" mystery fiction...

Dai 13-gou Senshitsu Kara no Dasshutsu ("Escape from Cabin 13") is inspired by Jacques Futrelle's The Problem of Cell 13, but with a very modern twist: escape rooms! Kaito is a high school student who is attending a special invitation-only preview of an escape room event of the popular series Great Detective Sakuragi. The murder game event is held on a ship and has the participants solve a series of puzzles which will eventually lead them to the identity of the murderer. At the event, Kaito runs into his classmate Masaru, with whom he has a kind of a rivalry going. Masaru and his younger brother Suguru are sons of a wealthy family who happen to be sponsoring this event, which landed them the special invitations. During the game however, Kaito and Suguru are abducted by men dressed as sailors and held captive in Cabin 13, while for some reason Masaru keeps on playing the escape room game. Why were Kaito and Suguru captured, can they escape their predicement and why is Masaru still playing the game? I believe this is the longest story in the collection, and it is pretty "busy": we have Kaito and Suguru trying to figure out how to escape the cabin, but meanwhile Masaru is playing the escape room event as planned, so we get the four puzzles in the event to solve ourselves too. Of course, the big surprise is to see how these two plotlines eventually connect back together again, and while I do like the basic ideas behind this story, it somehow didn't quite work for me. The plot of the story is a bit reminscent of Detective Conan treasure hunts, with a few puzzles with a hidden meaning behind them, and while I like the big connection that is revealed, the actual puzzles of the escape room didn't really interest me (they are also discussed rather briefly), while the escape attempts from Cabin 13 also move rather slowly. 

As mentioned in the introduction, I think Toumei Ningen wa Misshitsu ni Hisomu on the whole has some pretty good stories: three of the four I really like, and I don't really dislike the last either. But the stories are all very short, so especially the first story feels like it has an underutilized premise and because the book is so short, I also kinda hesitate recommending this in this specific form, as a short story collection. I will gladly point to the title story if I happen to be talking about invisible murderers in the future, but perhaps some of these stories will make their way into an anthology or something like that, and you might as well read them there then. 

Original Japanese title(s): 阿津川辰海『透明人間は密室に潜む』:「透明人間は密室に潜む」/「六人の熱狂する日本人」/「盗聴された殺人」/「第13号船室からの脱出」

Dead in the Water

Resignedly beneath the sky 

The melancholy waters lie

"The City in the Sea"

Will the next cover be a green one, like in a forest? Or a yellow one, like in a desert? Who knows!

High school students Tadokoro Shinya and Katsuragi Teruyoshi had been suspended for a while after the two had snuck off during the summer trip to meet a famous mystery writer, getting themselves not only trapped on a mountain on fire, but also getting involved in a murder case occuring at the home of the writer. But even after their suspension ended, Katsuragi did not return to school. At first, it was because his grandfather had died and he was given leave, but he's been absent from school longer than he was supposed to be, which worries Tadokoro greatly. Due to his upbringing, Katsuragi is very sensitive to lies, a trait which has made him quite a talented amateur detective. However, the events on the mountain had thorougly shaken Katsuragi's beliefs in what a detective is supposed to be, as he had been confronted with can happen if you just call people out on their lies without thinking about other people's feelings or how they may react. Learning that Katsurugi is currently not staying in the city, but the manor of the Katsuragi clan in the village of Y and that the Buddhist service on the 49th day after Katsuragi's grandfather's death is coming up, Tadokoro and classmate Mitani decide to visit Katsuragi to convince him to return to school. 

Tadokoro and Mitani make their way to the remote village, where they find the Katsuragi manor standing on a hill, where they are welcomed by Katsuragi's older brother Tadashi, a police detective who thought his little brother how to be a detective. He's glad to that his brother actually has friends who are worried about him and brings the two to his brother. Katsuragi himself is glad to see some familiar faces, but is clearly still coping with his trauma. During their visit, Tadokoro and Mitani also meet the other members of the Katsuragi clan who are present for the service, and at first sight, they all seem like nice and impressive people: Katsuragi's own parents are accomplished politicians and scholars, he also has a sister who's a model, and his uncle and aunt are all succesful in their own fields. But it doesn't take long for Tadokoro to realize how Katsuragi became so sensitive to people's lies, as it's clear everyone is just keeping up appearences. Tadokoro and Mitani aren't the only uninvited visitors: the sleazy reporter Sakaguchi used to date Katsuragi's sister Michiru is hanging around and seemingly has something regarding the death of Katsuragi's grandfather some weeks ago. Tadokoro is also puzzled by statements by Katsuragi's little cousin who seems to suggest his grandfather didn't die a natural death. Due to a heavy storm, Tadokoro and Mitani are offered to stay for the night, and even the reporter is allowed to stay at the manor because with roads flooded, it's honestly too dangerous to go outside. During the night however, everyone is awakened by the disaster alarm on their phones, warning them of the river flood and advising people to evacuate Y Village. When they realize that Tadashi hasn't shown himself, they go looking for him and his body is discovered in the annex. The annex was originally grandfather's quarters and had been offered to Sakaguchi last night, but Tadashi and Sakaguchi had swapped rooms. Tadashi was shot in the face with a shotgun, so it's obviously a murder, but due to the relentless rain, the village below is slowly flooding, making the arrival of the police impossible. But as time passes on and they discuss Tadashi's death, Tadokoro notices something horrible: the whole Katsuragi family is trying to push a narrative that it was an outsider who killed Tadashi, and definitely not someone of the family. Realizing that he and Mitani might be in danger with the family seemingly conspiring to push the blame elsewhere, they hope Katsuragi can help him by solving the murder, but his earlier trauma and the death of his brother seemed to have its toll. Meanwhile, the water keeps on rising and rising and slowly, but surely, the water is swallowing the villlage below and creeping up to the manor on the hill. Can Tadokoro escape this predicement in Atsukawa Tatsumi's Aomikan no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Marine Azure Manor", 2021)?

I read Atsukawa's Gurenkan no Satsujin in 2020 and found it an entertaining mystery novel: it was absolutely packed with classic mystery tropes and the way it made use of the mountain fire to create a suspenseful closed circle situation was actually surprising, not being just a "thrilling" plot device but actually intricately connected to the core puzzle plot. It was a bit too packed perhaps, as the novel was definitely not short, and the meta-discussions on what a detective should be and how they ought to act is something your mileage may vary on. Still, when I learned that Aomikan no Satsujin would be a direct sequel to Gurenkan no Satsujin, I knew I wanted to read it, as Atsukawa had shown he could plot a great mystery novel. Oh, and have you seen that cover! The cover also has the English title Murder of Aomikan by the way.

Aomikan no Satsujin will feel very familiar to to those who have read Gurenkan no Satsujin already, as the plot structure is nearly identical. The first half of the book sets up the murder, but also introduces us to the cause behind the closed circle situation: the storm and resulting flood. Last time, it was a fire that trapped our heroes on the mountain, this time it's the rising water that forces the people of Y Village to evacuate, and near the end of the novel, some of the remaining people find themselves forced to evacuate to the Katsuragi manor on the hill, which isn't actually that safe either as in the past, floods have reached inside the manor. Like the previous book Aomikan no Satsujin's second half also takes on a slightly different form: after the initial investigation into Tadashi's death and the proposals of several theories regarding his death, we see Katsuragi once again peeling away the layers of deceit of everyone involved, as everyone inside the Katsuragi manor seems to be hiding something, even if it's not directly related to Tadashi's death. This is the exact same set-up Gurenkan no Satsujin had, so at times, the book will feel a bit too familiar.

For those who like Ellery Queen-type mysteries, Aomikan no Satsujin is once again a book worth checking out. In the first half, we have a few interesting moments where the rest of the Katsuragi clan seem intent on proposing theories that point away from the family and towards any of the outsiders present in the house. The focus on the physical evidence, as well on the actions and knowledge the characters have to create elaborate hypotheses regarding the murder on Tadashi is of course straight out of the Queen school. The initial crime scene may seem simple, as it's basically a man shot in the face in an annex building, but the scene holds many clues that allow for diverse possible theories regarding the murder, but at the same time these clues also function as evidence to disprove incorrect theories. As the reader, you'll be asked to stay focused, as new theories are proposed constantly, making a seemingly simple murder an amusingly complex matter. The focus on physical evidence remains throughout the novel, even when the initial hypotheses have been discarded, so it's interesting to see how some pieces of evidence are considered from multiple angles to support different theories.

Things go into overdrive as the water rises more rapidly in the second half, and Katsuragi's father decides to evacuate the last remaining people in the village and invite them into the Katsuragi manor. Katsuragi meanwhile finally makes up his mind about what a detective ought to do, and he decides to solve all the mysteries that have puzzled him until now, whether they are directly related to the murder of his brother or not, hoping to find who his family members truly are behind their facades. Everyone has something to hide, and this section can be a bit slow: basically everyone is involved in something that is making the murder on Tadashi so mysterious, whether intentionally or not, so Katsuragi has peel away all the layers of lies that are currently covering the truth. It's only by solving all these minor mysteries Katsuragi starts to see the true shape of the crime, which allows him to unveil a rather diabolical truth behind the murder on his brother, but like in Gurenkan no Satsujin, the plot does seem to rely a lot on coincidence. This is a consequence of how Atsukawa plotted these books: if you want everyone (even those innocent) to be involved in some minor mystery, and have all those mysteries ultimately connect together to the main crime directly or indirectly, you're bound to have to rely on coincidence. There are actually quite few parts of the mystery where we learn the murderer was secretly trying to influence things, but it's basically a matter of luck whether they'd be successful and the way so many things just happened the way the murderer planned, seems a bit hard to swallow. Of course, coincidence often plays some role in mystery fiction, but there's a lot of it in this book and some of the machinations of the murderer seem rather farfetched attempts. That said, the core puzzle regarding the murder on Tadashi is surprisingly complex and does feel rewarding after all the fake solutions proposed in the first half of the book. The murderer actually pulls off some quite memorable feats throughout the tale, and while that's also definitely partially because they simply had a lot of luck that everything went as planned, the fundamental scheme is a fun mystery unravel, leading to a great climax scene where Katsuragi slowly pieces the underlying logic together to work his way towards the identity of the murderer. Guessing who the murderer is based on instinct may be easier than the book actually thinks it is, but figuring out how it was actually pulled off and more importantly, figuring out the logic that points towards the murderer is far more difficult, but fun to read for fans of logic-focused mystery fiction.

Aomikan no Satsujin is a book that is very similar to Gurenkan no Satsujin, almost to a fault. While it does not recycle actual plot points/clues, the story structure and themes are basically unchanged, so I think it's best to wait for a while after reading one before starting on the other. But like Gurenkan no Satsujin, Aomikan no Satsujin is an entertaining mystery novel, that is obviously written by a mystery fan, for mystery fans. It builds clearly on familar tropes, but uses them in a confident, capable manner, weaving a plot that, despite its reliance on concidence, is really the kind of complex murder mystery fans of the Queen school will enjoy. I like Aomikan perhaps a little bit better than Gurenkan, though I'd say you'd best read these books in order, as Aomikan is really a direct sequel and answer to the first book. If you liked the first book, you know exactly what you can expect here.

Original Japanese title(s): 阿津川辰海『蒼海館の殺人』

The Secret of the Fiery Chamber

From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. 

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

>> The spambots have been very active lately in the comments, so I'll have to manually moderate comments for the moment. I'll try to approve comments as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Bluuuurgh, Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet has been moved to a 2021 release definitely! The first time in almost a quarter-century there's been no new annual Conan film...

The cover art of today's work is fairly straightforward in terms of concept, but I really like the actual artwork. It was actually the cover art of this book which first attracted my attention, back when the publisher first announced it on Twitter.

Tadokoro Shinya had always wanted to become a detective himself, but then he realized his classmate Katsuragi Teruyoshi was, in fact, the most gifted detective he ever saw. Born as the son of a rather wealthy family, Katsuragi grew up surrounded by people who are always keeping up appearances and trying to act as nicely as possible, which made the boy especially sensitive to being told lies. This helped him hone his deductive skills, which have also been used to solve actual crimes. Tadokoro on the other hand has also been dabbling with writing mystery fiction, and it was through his editor he learned that the famous veteran mystery author Takarada Yuuzan was living near the place where his class would be staying for school camp that summer. Takarada is one of the giants in the genre, but he's been silent for the last five years due to his age. As both Tadokoro and Katsuragi are big fans of him, they quickly agree that they'll use their free day during school camp to sneak away and make their way to the Takarada manor in the mountains. While climbing the mountain path however, the two are surprised by a sudden thunderstorm, which causes a mountain fire. With the path down blocked by the fire, the two make their way to the Takarada manor together with several other people who too seek refuge, like the neighbor living down the mountain. The son of Yuuzan is at first reluctant to let people inside, but given the emergency and the pleas by his own two children, he decides to let everyone in as they await the emergency workers to make their way to the house. The guests learn that the cliff-facing Takarada Manor is full of gimmicks like hidden rooms, flip-wall closets and even a drawing room with a double ceiling, which can be lowered all the way down to the floor.

Yuuzan himself has been bedridden for some years now, but Tadokoro is surprised to see another familiar face: the insurance agent who was visiting the neighbor and who fled together with him is Asukai Hikaru. They only met once ten years ago, when Asukai as a high school student solved a murder case right in front of him, inspiring him to become a detective too. Ten years later, she seems to have lost all interest in detection, which highly disappoints Tadokoro. However, the following morning, it seems that having both two detectives (Asukai and Katsuragi) at the scene may have been tempting fate, for in the morning, they notice some blood in front of the drawing room. When they can't open the inwards-opening doors, they realize the double ceiling must have been lowered, preventing the doors from opening. When they go check out the winch system, they find it the wirings have snapped loose from the winch, which must have dropped the ceiling instantly instead of gently lowering it. After a quick repair, they enter the drawing room to find a horribly crushed victim inside. At first, it's assumed to be an unfortunate accident as it doesn't seem likely nor practical that someone could've timed the ceiling to drop on someone inside the drawing room, as the inside of the room is not visible from the winch control room, but Katsuragi isn't completely convinced it was an accident. But is it wise to start accusing people of murder here and now, given that they are all trapped in a house with a mountain fire closing on them? It's a battle against both fire and setting the right priorities as the timer counts down in Atsukawa Tatsumi's Gurenkan no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Fiery Red Manor" 2019).

Gurenkan no Satsujin seemed to garner a fair amount of attention when it was released last year as a very classically-styled puzzler, which is of course quite clear when you read the summary above: a motley crew trapped inside a manor in a closed circle situation due to a mountain fire, two detectives working on the same case, a house owned by a veteran mystery author full with gimmicks, hidden passageways and a death-trap murder with the double ceiling which has slight impossible elements to it, and as the story continues, we'll also learn a serial killer from the past has also has cast their shadows over the house and a lot more happens too. In a way, this reminded me of my first review of this year, of Houjou Kie's excellent Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller"), which was also a novel absolutely brimming with classic tropes and set mostly inside an isolated manor with a time limit to destruction upcoming (but it was also a story which included a scifi element because of the time travelling aspect). The time limit aspect is emphasized in this novel, as each story section is not only accompanied by a title, but also a timer which counts down to the eventual fall of the house (starting at 35 hours before the end).

The mountain fire trapping the characters in a manor in the mountains is of course a device that is very reminiscent of Ellery Queen's The Siamese Twin Mystery, though I'd say that the comparisons do stop here (we don't have a plot revolving around a dying message for example). In fact, what I think surprised me the most about Gurenkan no Satsujin is how the story often moves in a different way than you might expect. For example, the murder in the room with the double ceiling is mostly solved (save for some details) in the first half of the book already. It's really weird, as at the least, you'd expect it be only the first in a series of murders which will make use of the unique gimmicks in this house, but yeah, it really doesn't go the way you'd expect. This horrible murder where the victim was crushed by the moving ceiling gimmick is used in a very clever way: obviously it's not about the direct question of how the murder was committed, but Atsukawa addresses a lot of points, using the opposing detectives Katsuragi and Asukai, to explore the matter whether it was an accident or murder: it's here where Atsukawa shows his careful plotting, as both characters will point out countles of clues to support their own theory, and which really allow the reader to think along. Early on for example, the characters argue that if the doors to the drawing room were closed, the murderer could not have known whether someone was inside the room and who, and if they were open, the ceiling would've been held up by the doors, making it impossible to crush someone with it. While the idea of a ceiling coming down seems simple enough, Atsukawa cleverly makes it a truly mystifying murder as no theory seems to fit completely with the facts, making this a very alluring problem. It's not a true impossible situation, but it's definitely surrounded by contradicting facts, and they ultimately do point towards the cleverly thought-out, but truly horrible truth of what actually happened in that room.

But like I said, most of this is handled in the first half of the book already. So what happens next? Well, I'm not going into details, but basically, Atsukawa has been laying many trails of bread crumbs in the first half of the story that aren't even directly related to the murder, and he starts following them to their respective conclusions. Character dynamics change completely in this second half as Katsuragi starts peeling away the layers of deceit that have been covering up the truth in this novel, setting up the finale and truly revealing who committed the murder in the manor. I'm a bit torn on this part, to be honest. Katsuragi starts pointing out a lot of contradictions that occured earlier in the story, but a lot of them are so... uninspired, they don't really make an impression on their own even if their ultimate implications are important to the plot. Sure, the fact that character lied is of course important, but when the lie is uncovered because of classic tropes of the type of Ye Old They Said They Were Right-Handed But Used That One Thing With Their Left Hand Clue, you can probably understand why I say it can be a bit underwhelming. What I do like is how Atsukawa has really laid out a lot of crumb trails all across the story up until the second half and it's quite satisfying taken as a whole process to see everything come together, but some of these puzzle pieces just seem too familiar. The plot also relies heavily on coincidences, which can be a bit dissapointing: Tadokoro meeting the one woman who inspired him to try become detective himself at this manor right during a mountain fire even though they had only met once in a completely different place is actually one of the more realistic coincidences that occurs in this story compared to what is revealed later in the novel. Regarding the mountain fire though, at first I felt it didn't really add that much to the plot, but Atsukawa actually ties it to the core puzzle plot in multiple ways, and cleverly too, and I think it's actually more important to the plot than it ever was in The Siamese Twin Mystery.

Gurenkan no Satsujin is on the whole a capably plotted mystery story that really loves the classic tropes. I think that lovers of Ellery Queen especially will appreciate the book, as a lot of plot-pushing deductions are based on the interpretation of either physical clues or observed facts or following them to their logical conclusions. The book does suffer a bit from the author's intention to include so many ideas though. It's a very long novel, that also jumps between perspectives at times and even includes a rather meta discussion between what a detective ultimately ought to be, but that together with the already beefy mystery plot results in a book that takes its time to unfold. That said, Gurenkan no Satsujin is a story I myself did not find absolutely extraordinary, but still a very cleverly, and skilfully plotted mystery novel that's well worth a try.

Original Japanese title(s):  阿津川辰海『紅蓮館の殺人』