The Book of Changes

"postea vero quam Tyrannio mihi libros disposuit mens addita videtur meis aedibus" 

"Ad Atticum"

"And ever since Tyrannius has arranged my books, the house seems to have acquired a mind."

"Letters to Atticus"

Since the last five years or so, a lot of my reading has shifted from the physical format to the digital format. While I personally like the medium of paper better, sometimes books aren't easily available physically anymore while an e-book is just one click away, and more important (for the wallet), digital storefronts very often have sales and coins-back campaigns, which make digital releases often a lot cheaper, and this also makes it more easy for me to try out all kinds of books (whereas I'd be much more conservative in the books I'd buy if I'd only read physical books).

So when I was in the bookstore a while back, I suddenly got the urge to look for a mystery novel that doesn't have a digital release, and when I googled on the topic, one book was recommended a lot: Sugii Hikaru's Sekai de Ichiban Sukitootta Monogatari (2023), which also carries the English title The World's Clearest Story on its cover. The obi mentions how it is a book that only works in its physical format and indeed, there isn't even a digital release available of this book. And yet, when you pick the book up, you wouldn't expect this to be the case, as it looks very normal, and it's not like the book comes with physical pieces of evidence like the Crime Dossiers or anything like that. The book is actually quite thin, so on the surface, it really looks like nothing special.

Of course, that's until you start reading it. Or to be exact, when you reach the ending.

Fujisaka Touma is a student who lost his mother recently: his mother was a well-known proofreader, who once had an affair with the famous mystery writer Miyauchi Shougo, a notorious playboy who quite often cheated on his wife. Touma's mother decided to raise Touma herself, accepting nothing from Miyauchi and cutting all ties between them, though most people in the industry know about the affair and that Touma's Miyauchi's child. When Miyauchi also passes away, he's suddenly approached by Matsukata Tomoaki, his half-brother. Touma had not even ever spoken to his father, let alone his half-brother, but the first impression is not a favorable one: Tomoaki is only calling Touma to tell him his father was not nearly as rich as people thought he was and that there's nothing left for Touma, if he dares to make a claim on the inheritance, and he wants to know whether Touma knows anything about "The World's Clearest Story": Tomoaki found notes indicating his father had been working on a manuscript with that title, and that a version of the manuscript had even been sent to a proofreader, which Tomoaki suspects might have been Touma's mother, considering their history. Because the inheritance is so small, Tomoaki wants to have the manuscript published posthumously soon to cash in on his father's death. Touma says he's sure his mother never had anything to do with his father anymore, but Tomoaki is quite pushy, and eventually strikes a deal with Touma, who will be paid to find out where the manuscript went to (but Touma has to relinquish any claims on the Miyauchi inheritance). And so Touma starts looking for the last story his father wrote, a story nobody seems to know about or what is about, with the title The World's Clearest Story as the only clue.

This is a very difficult story to talk about, as not only is it very short, explaining why this book indeed can't be released digitally would of course spoil the surprise, and even hinting at it might ruin the fantastic ending Sugii has prepared for the reader. The story itself focuses on Touma's investigation into the manuscript, trying to find out where it has gone to: diary notes by Miyauchi across a longer period of time do indicate the existence of an advanced version of The World's Clearest Story and that it has been sent somewhere, but where? What makes the manuscript even more elusive is that there are no notes on the actual contents, so no research or drafts/summaries. Tomoaki gives Touma the contact information of all the known affair partners of his father hoping Touma can trace the whereabouts of the manuscript, but Touma also receives valuable help from Kiriko, a literary editor at the major publisher S who often worked with his mother, and who has become a family friend. She acts as this story's armchair detective, as she's the one's who is able to properly process all the testimonies Touma gathers from all the "suspects" in order to arrive at the true meaning behind The World's Clearest Story. As the story progresses, Touma learns about more the man his father was through the eyes of the people he questions, slowly forming an image of a man he never actually knew. Where someone like Miyauchi's own son Tomoaki has nothing good to say about his father, others are far more forgiving, remembering the great mystery writer as someone to be respected. This ever-changing image of Miyauchi is also what colors what Touma, and the reader, will think The World's Clearest Story will be, as it is obvious Miyauchi wasn't working on "just" another mystery novel.

To say even more however, would be spoiling the fun. What I can say is that I was hugely surprised when the truth behind The World's Clearest Story was revealed. While I had already suspicions about certain things, I had never expected it to be utilized in such an amazing manner. It also helps Sugii really helps set up the surprise in a human manner too, as his portrayal of Miyauchi (through the eyes of the others) really sells the idea: without this context, you might think "cool idea, but why would anyone go to the trouble of doing all of that?", but in this book, you just understand why someone would want to endeavour to accomplish exactly that. But yes, this is impossible to do correctly in a e-book, it is only possible in a physical book format, and it's really worth the experience.

So I can't really talk too much in-depth about this book, because that'd spoil the fun, but I can safely say Sugii Hikaru's Sekai de Ichiban Sukitootta Monogatari has been one of my favorite reads of this year and I can easily recommend this. Even if you generally read e-books, it's definitely worth getting this as a physical book, as it will provide a reading experience simply not possible with an e-book. With many moving to digital books, it's cool to see people coming up with such great books that only work on paper! There is a sequel by the way, which does have a digital release, so I do wonder what kind of thing is played out there...

Original Japanese title(s): 杉井光 『世界でいちばん透きとおった物語』

A Body To Die For

"Bart, I have a riddle for you. What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
"The Simpsons"

 

Never seen a full sumo match before now I think about it.

 

Disclosure: I translated Yamaguchi Masaya's Death of the Living Dead. What, you haven't read it yet? Go read it!

 

Kazumi hadn't been in Sam's life for a long time as his stepmother before she passed away, but she had a great influence on Sam's life, and it sparked a life-long interest in Kazumi's home country of Japan. After losing his father too, Sam decided to emigrate to Japan. Fortunately, his stepuncle reassures Sam he's welcome in Japan in a letter, and soon, Sam found himself boarding the ship on its way to Kannon City, a harbor city known for its gigantic statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon (which also serves as a lighthouse). Sam has studied the language and culture of Japan in the States, but of course, there's a lot one can only learn "on-site". However, soon after he lands in Japan, he finds himself involved in several curious murder cases that are inticrately connected to Japanese culture, from a harakiri ritual where the head is stolen to a murder in a locked tea ceremony room. After solving these cases successfully, Sam, who now goes by the nomer Tokyo Sam, decides to open his own detective agency, and after getting the right licences, he's all ready for business in Kannon City, but what Japanese wonders await him in Yamaguchi Masaya's short story collection Zoku: Nihon Satsujin Jiken ("The Japan Murder Case: A Sequel", 1997)?

Or, if you have read the first Tokyo Sam book, you'd know that the "real" author of this book is one "Samuel X", an American who got all his knowledge on Japan from books and stuff, but who had never visited the country itself. Yamaguchi, supposedly, came across this book in a used book shop, and found it so curious, he decided to translate it after managing to contact Samuel. The Japan as envisioned in the book was set in the modern world, but was at the same time an amalgation of  'all the cool Japanese stuff Samuel knew' with a good dash of cultural misunderstandings, with for example people using mobiles, but also samurai walking around, and people still using rickshaws. After the success of this translation, Yamaguchi contacted "Samuel" again, and it turned out he had an unpublished manuscript lying about for a sequel, and after some nagging by Yamaguchi, he got permission to translate this second book.

Yes, this is just a framing story, but it's a really fun one, and it was what made the first book so special: the setting was incredibly unique as it was about a fictionalized, idealized and misunderstanding-filled Japan, imagined by someone who had never visited the country and made up of stereotypes and very broad interpretations of Japanese culture. But, Yamaguchi also used this laughing-mirror Japan to present mystery plots that were only possible in that very unusual Japan, making use of ideas and concepts that were genuinely Japanese, but still transformed in a way that felt unnatural, in a deliberate manner. If this had been written by a non-Japanese author, they would have been criticized due to their complete mispresentation of actual Japanese culture, but because we had a Japanese author do this, it resulted in a very unique experience, as it was Yamaguchi's knowledge of actual Japanese culture, but also the stereotypes that allowed him to write this.

 

The book opens with Kyojin no Kuni no Gulliver ("Gulliver in the Land of Giants"), which starts with Tokyo Sam opening his detective agency, and soon he is visited by his first client: a sumo wrestler he met the day before via a shared acquaintance. While this wrestler belongs to a sumo stable which focuses not on competitive sumo, but in ceremonial sumo, they do occassionally participate in matches, and recently, there had been tragic accident during one of this wrestler's matches, and his opponent passed away after tripping in an unfortunate manner. But a few nights ago, in the garden, he heard his dead opponent calling out his name and he swears he saw the man's head sitting on one of the garden lanterns. Tokyo Sam is to find out whether this is the handiwork of someone trying to scare him, or the actual floating ghost-head of his opponent. Sam visits the sumo stable where he learns about ceremonial sumo, and during his visit, the stable is also visited by wrestlers from the stable to whom the dead wrestler belonged, and these wrestlers are clearly still very pissed about the deadly incident. Tokyo Sam of course suspects wrestlers from the other stable are trying to scare his client, but one afternoon, after following up on a lead and returning to the stable, he finds one of the wrestlers has been murdered. He loses consciousness due to a timely earthquake, but then finds the body gone, and later finds the gigantic body hanging from a torii gate. Who has committed this murder, and why?

This is a fairly long story (about 2/3 of the whole book), more like a novella, and feels quite different from the stories in the first book because of it, even if it has a lot of recurring characters and does have the same slapsticky feel at times. The story uses the extended page count to slowly set-up the story, and the story focuses more on Tokyo Sam's adventures/investigation than previous stories, even with chase scenes and Tokyo Sam going undercover in search for clues. I personally liked the more "problem-focused" approach of the previous book more, but your mileage may vary here, and while of course the Japanese aspects in this story are fictionalized up to a degree, learning about other types of sumo besides competitive sumo was quite interesting. As a mystery story, I think the tale has some good ideas, some others I'm rather indifferent to. There's one clue for example regarding symbolization that is really good, and very well based on Japanese culture which I think even local people might fall for pretty easily, and that works really well in the context of the book: presenting misunderstandings about Japanese culture even Japanese might have. But other parts like how the (big) sumo wrestler's body disappears from the stable and ends up hanging from the torii gate I found not as interesting, especially not because a certain revelation related to that trick seemed to fall flat for me: the way it was presented here, the "revelation" didn't feel like one, and just a weird oversight by everyone until the story decided it should become relevant now.

 

Jitsuzai no Fune ("The Ship of Existence") has Tokyo Sam befriending a travelling zen monk, who has been planning to visit a local temple Tokyo Sam thought to have been abandoned. The monk brings back a manuscript written by an American who had also been visiting the temple titled The Ship of Existence, where he questions his understanding of zen and pleads for help. Tokyo Sam, mesmerized by the manuscript makes his way to the temple, where he sees the American being killed by a figure. What is going on? To be honest, even after reading the story I don't really know. This story is completely different from the previous stories, delving into zen and philosophy to basically work towards a punchline. I have seen Yamaguchi do something similar in a different short story, so to me, this felt a bit like a rehash, but the way it was told here, via zen koan problems to make Tokyo Sam realize something, just didn't appeal to me personally. This might be an interesting story if you're into zen philosophy, but I found this so extremely different from the other stories, I just couldn't enjoy it at all.

I liked the first book in this series a lot, but I have to admit I didn't like Zoku: Nihon Satsujin Jiken that much. While the first story is alright, it misses the impact the stories in the first book had, and it's fairly long despite the mystery plot not being that dense. The second story is just a completely different type of mystery, being based on philosophy, and that's just not really a topic that really interests me, and I found this story really not fun to read at all. So overall, I was a bit disappointed with this second volume of Tokyo Sam, as I did enjoy the first book a lot. This is also the last book featuring Tokyo Sam, so it's a bit of a sad way to end the series for me, but nothing to be done about it!

 

Original Japanese title(s): 山口雅也『續・日本殺人事件』:「巨人の国のガリヴァー」/「実在の船」

The Gambler's Club

"It's me, Kaiba. And this time, you don't stand a *ghost* of a chance."

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" 

The Kyoto University Mystery Club is a name you'll hear about sooner or later whenever you get into Japanese mystery fiction. It is, in essence, the birthplace of the shin honkaku  (new orthodox) movement in mystery fiction, as the first writers who were actually promoted with the term "shin honkaku" were members of the Mystery Club. Members of the club are all fans of crime and mystery fiction in general and there are quite a lot of members who after graduation find work in related industries, like publishing (editing). I attended the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony earlier this year and I was surprised to learn so many people there had roots in the KUMC, with a few people even I knew personally from my own time there. But with quite a few well-known alumni who have become established mystery authors, it's no wonder there are also many members who focus on the creative side of mystery fiction, ergo, writing stories themselves. 

Houjou Kie was active as a writer during her time in the club too, but she made her professional debut in 2019 with the stunning Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller") and she has since become a personal favorite of mine. Since her debut, she has been entertaining her readers with tightly-plotted mysteries that utilize original settings, ranging from murders inside a virtual reality game, a girl teaming with a ghost to solve a murder and a series about a hotel for the criminally inclined. She has also been writing a lot of short stories lately, published in several magazines. The last time I wrote a post tagged short shorts, I discussed two stories by her and funnily enough, this time I will be discussing another short story by her. 

Shoubu no Yukue ("The Outcome of the Match", 2025) was written for a new series of flash fiction titled "5 Minute Labyrinth" in the weekly magazine Shuukan Bunshun ("Weekly Bunshun"). As the story is only about four pages long, you can guess I can't tell you too much about it, but the premise is pretty alluring: the story opens late at night, in a nearly empty bar with only a few regulars hanging around until it's time to close. A woman enters and she starts a wager with the other people in the bar: the bar regulars have to guess whether a new customer will arrive within the next fifteen minutes or not. If they guess right, the woman will pay 30.000 yen, while if they get it wrong, they'll have to treat her on a glass of the most expensive drink in the bar. It turns out the regulars in this bar had already heard about the woman: she has been doing this bet in all the bars in the neighborhood. The regulars accept the bet and start guessing whether it's likely a new customer will come or not, but why is this woman repeating this wager with everyone?

As I said, the story is very short, but Houjou does manage to make it a neat armchair detective experience, with proper hinting available and even surprise twists, all tightly compressed in a few pages. The somewhat sinister ending is also very Houjou-esque, who has been doing these "dark ironic twists" a lot in her Amulet Hotel stories, but you already saw glimpses of anti-hero nuances in her Ryuuzen Clan series. In fact, I could actually imagine the basic idea of Shoubu no Yukue as an Amulet Hotel story with some rewriting. 

And to move on to another Kyoto University Mystery Club member who has made a professional debut: Washuu Takumi is actually a current member of the club, who recently (jointly) won the third iteration Sougen Mystery Short Story Award, which is given by publisher Tokyo Sogensha for the best new short mystery story by an amateur writer. As is usual with these awards, the winners are given a publishing contract for their story, in this case, the stories are published in Tokyo Sogensha's literary magazine Shimi no Techou and as a seperate e-book. Washuu Takumi's story is titled Yuurei Shashin ("The Phantom Photograph"), which starts not long after Anri lost her father suddenly. While reminiscing about her father, her uncle mentions her father loved to take photographs as a hobby, though Anri only has vague memories of that and says she didn't really see him doing photography that often anymore in recent years. They go through her father's study though and find some undeveloped negatives. She goes to a nearby camera shop to have them developed, but one photograph stands out: it is a picture of her father in his study. Nothing wrong with that, but the camera also printed the date on the picture and it is dated on the day after her father died. This is thus not a photograph of a ghost, but a phantom photograph, a photograph that shouldn't exist. But why is there a photo of her father dated the wrong way?

This is a tightly-written mystery with an everyday-life theme: while one can easily come up with a direct reason why the wrong date could be printed on a photograph (wrong setting, battery failure), one wonders how exactly it could have happened. The commentaries of the three judges in the committee on all the finalistsis included and regarding Yuurei Shashin, they note how this is an incredibly complete story, almost unimaginable from an amateur writer. One even wonders how Washuu could develop from this point on. Indeed, the story is very competently written, with a mystery that is, admittedly, a bit too mundane for my own personal taste, but as a story, Yuurei Shashin is very well-plotted, with good clewing for the mystery too and even substantial character development. As a standalone mystery story in a slice-of-life setting, I think it's a very well-crafted tale worth a read.

Oh, in case you missed this post, last year I discussed a Danganronpa guess-the-culprit scenario written by another current member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club. 

Anyway, I just wanted to briefly discuss these two KUMC-related short stories that happened to be published around the same time. It's become easier for me to get hold of these kinds of stories in serial publication, so you might see the short shorts tag used more often in the future too.

Death of a Clown

"X marks the spot."
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"

This book was released with a new cover in 2024, and the art is really great! So do try to get this one if you're interested in the book.

One evening, wheelchair-bound Takemiya Kaori and her father Munehiko are talking in her room, when they hear a loud cry. Carrying his daughter out of the room, the father and daughter see how a woman runs across the cross-shaped corridor, barges through the balcony doors at one of the far ends and flings herself out from the balcony down to the cliffs below: the funeral of Kaori's mother Yoriko followed soon after. Mizuho, Kaori's cousin, is asked by her mother to go visit the Cross Mansion to learn more about the death of her aunt Yoriko. Three generations of Takemiyas live at the Cross Mansion, named so after the characteristic cross-shape of the main hallway. Takemiya Shizuka is the matriarch of the family, having lost her husband recently. Yoriko had become the CEO of Takemiya Industries, but now her husband Munehiko has taken over her position. Besides Kaori, there's also a college student Jinichi living in the house, the son of a family friend studying at a nearby university.  Also visiting are Yoriki's cousin (who also works at the company) and Shizuka's personal hairdresser and family friend. Upon arrival at the Cross Mansion, Mizuho learns that the family had recently acquired a clown doll, which for some reason had been put on a display shelf on the night Yoriko flung herself from the balcony. The first night, Mizuho wakes up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, when she notices a button lying on the floor. She figures someone must have lost it, and places it in a visible place. The following day however, the dead bodies of Munehiko and his secretary/affair partner are found in the music room, having been stabbed. Everyone's surprised, not just by the murder, but also by the fact the secretary is in the house in the first place, as she left after dinner last night and it doesn't seem likely the two would be that daring to continue their affair in the Takemiya manor. Mizuho however is very shocked when she learns a button has been found outside the house, seemingly indicating the murderer left the house and dropped the button there.... but because Mizuho knows the button had initially been dropped inside the house, on the first floor cross-shaped hallway to which all the bedrooms are connected, she realizes someone inside the house must have placed that button outside after she had found it, suggesting the double murder was an inside job.

The day of the murder, the monk Gojou Shinnosuke presents himself at the house, claiming he is looking for the clown doll: it is supposed to be cursed, having brought all of its previous owners a premature death and he needs to purify it. It turns out the clown doll had been placed inside the music room, meaning it is evidence for now, so Gojou sticks around, hoping to retrieve the doll once the investigation is over. However, what nobody in the house knows is... is that the clown doll actually has a mind of its own. While it can't move or commnicate, it has been a silent witness to everything that has been happening in this house, from the death of Yoriko to the double murder in the music room, and he knews who the murderer is in Higashino Keigo's Juujiyashiki no Pierrot ("The Clown of Cross Mansion", 1988). 

Some might remember I mentioned this book in my review of ("How to Make A Crime Scene"), where it is discussed as one of its case studies, especially in regards whether the house was designed well enough keeping in mind one of its inhabitants (Kaori) is bound to her wheelchair.

 Juujiyashiki no Pierrot is one of Higashino's earlier mystery novels, back when he was still writing more classical detectives rather than the human-drama-focused mystery novels he writes nowadays. And I guess that is clear right from the start due to its unique premise: here we have a house with a unique layout (a cross layout), and there's the matter of the clown: each chapter is bookended by a monologue of the clown doll: it is a silent and truthful witness who has seen the murders happening right in front of him, even seeing the actual murderers doing their jobs, but they can not actually communicate with the other people, so they are basically a "seperate narrative" within the story. Surprisingly, this is actually used in a clever way to make the mystery much more interesting, even though the clown actually knows what is happening and there's not much of a mystery going on in their eyes: however, certain discrepencies between what the clown has seen and what we learn via the police and Mizuho's investigation of the crimes really help flesh out the mystery, creating a few "Aha!" moments that only work because we have testimony from a detached, otherwordly witness who can't interact otherwise with the world. 

And if you're mostly familiar with Higashino's modern-day writing, it might surprise you how very much not human-drama this mystery is, and a lot of the mystery-solving is very much evidence-based: Mizuho's whole reason for suspecting the murderer is in the house, is based on a deduction based on the button and the fact she knew at what time she found it, and at what time the button was later found outside the house. There are more of these "phsyical evidence-based" deductions in this book, which combined with the curious layout of the house, as if it were a Ayatsuji novel, really make this feel very different from what you'd expect of a Higashino novel nowadays. In fact, a lot of the characters are decidedly not very engaging nor nice in this book, not in a 'but it's human' kind of way, but almost comically so. The live-in student Jinichi for example is one, who constantly hits on Kaori and keeps saying he'll be the one who'll marry her... even though Kaori never ever shows any sign of thinking that much of the young man. 

While more deaths follow, the main mystery revolve around the double murder of Munehiko and his secretary in the music room, which is located on the ground floor of the Cross Mansion: interestingly enough, the living quarters of the house are all set on the first floor of the building, while the ground floor only holds the music room and a storeroom. While some clues seem to indicate the murderer might have stabbed the two, and then fled through the backdoor, the earlier button-deduction tells Mizuho the murderer was in the house, and the clown testimony tells the reader too the murderer was one of the people in the house, but who was it? A lot of Mizuho's investigation delves into the exact times everything happened, and also the mystery of why the secretary was in the house: she most definitely left by car to go home after dinner, so for what reason did she return to the Cross Mansion? While the bulk of the book is dedicated to solving the mystery, I have to admit developments felt a bit slow at time (even though this is a very short book), and moreover, the murderer's plan really involved very risky stuff for... like some benefits I guess, but was it really worth risking that just on the off-chance things would go as they hoped it'd go? Large parts of the mystery just feel more aimed at the reader, rather than it being the safest plan for the murderer (and in fact, luck does play a large part), so that feels a bit unsatisfying. It's not bad per se, but I can't help but shrug at it because it feels complicated for the sake of being complicated, and not for the sake of accomplishing the murderer's goals in a safe and sure manner.

A murder that is focused on much later in the story is more memorable, and makes better use of its props to present a more convincing mystery, though I admit it's rather simple in design, and I am going to guess a lot of people are able to guess what's going on here very early on. Saying more would perhaps already point too much to it, but I do want to make a special mention of the very clever use of the clown doll in this part of the mystery: it's not outrageously clever taken on its own, but by using the clown prop, a propr that actually can "testify" to the reader alone about what it sees, Higashino does manage to give this part of the mystery more flair than if he had just used the concept 'as is'.

Overall, Juujiyashiki no Pierrot is fairly light reading, so it's not a book I would go out of my way of recommending because it's not really making a huge impression, even if it's pretty decent. It is very, very different from what you'd expect of Higashino Keigo now though (especially considering what part of his output is available in English), so if you're interested in his earlier works, that are much closer to formal orthodox mystery fiction, this book is a fairly good example, similar to Kamen Sansou Satsujin Jiken ("The Masquerade Mountain Villa Murder Case") and the Great Detective Tenkaichi series.

Original Japanese title(s): 東野圭吾『十字屋敷のピエロ』

The Chinese Gold Murders

"No Chinaman must figure in the story."
"Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction"

I mention this basically every time I do reviews of stories I read in Japanese but set in a Chinese-language setting, but I hate how much more time it takes for me to write these reviews, because I have to look up what the Chinese pronunciation is of all the names...

Pei Jing, a state examination candidate student living in the bustling city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, is one day summoned by Mole, the Kunlun slave (= the dark-skinned slaves hailing from isolated parts of South-East Asia) of his friend Cui Jing. While the bright young lad knows it's quite impertinent for someone of his standing to request anything, he hopes Pei Jing can help him save his master: according to Mole, Cui Jing has barely been returning home lately, going to work, but asking not to be picked up after work, and he only returns very late, without providing for any explanation. Pei Jing learns from Mole that this all started after Cui Jing had been sent as a representative to the Palace Attendant Yaun Zai, one of the men closest to the emperor, and that since that night, Cui Jing has been acting suspiciously. Pei Jing, worried his friend might have gotten involved in something shady, starts asking questions, but as he follows the trail, he ends up stumbling upon the mutilated body of a merchant, whose stomach has been cut open and whose intestines have been removed: the latest victim in a series of gruesome murders with the exact same M.O. that have been happening in Chang'an. Dou, a friend and police detective in Chang'an, confides to Pei Jing that for some reason, the local district police forces have taken off this case, with the investigation being headed by a group of guards who are under the direct influence of Yuan Zai. The official investigation is focusing on Xu Long, a shady Taoist who has been gathering followers lately and is supposed to be well-versed in the mystic arts: he might have eaten the intestines as part of the rituals needed to attain immortality. Dou however feels something is not right, and suspects the murders might have to do with the reason why Cui Jing has been mostly absent from his home for the last few weeks, Pei Jing and Dou start investigating the case together, which brings them on the trail of a big corruption scandal, and an impossible crime where a group of assassins appeared out of nowhere and disappeared with a heap of gold in Koizumi Kajuu's 2024 novel Konrondo ("The Kunlun Slave").

Some years ago, I discussed Koizumi Kajuu's 2000 debut novel Higa ("The Moth"), which featured a highly original setting, being set in twelfth century Middle-East and focusing on the mystic side of Islam as its theme, while also presenting a locked room mystery. Interestingly, Koizumi basically disappeared after his debut novel, as he wouldn't write another novel until 2024's Konrondo, which again uses a rather unique setting, and being a 'modern' take on a wuxia romance with the exact same title, a tale revolving around the nearly supernatural Kunlun slave Mole who endeavours to help his master. Koizumi once again shows he does a lot of research into these settings, and he paints a very unique background for this sometimes fantastical tale of mystery. While a lot of mystery readers might be familiar with a classic China setting mystery through Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories, Konrondo definitely feels different enough in both its setting and style. For one, like in Higa, Koizumi focuses a lot of the mystic side of culture: Konrondo will teach the reader a lot about mystic Taoism and the search for life elixers and eternal life by these Taoist, whereas van Gulik's Judge Dee books usually focus more on the "official" sides of society like the upper class and state Confucianism. Koizumi also has an eye for the minorities in the community of the Chang'an metropolis. From the bright Kunlun slave Mole to informant proprietor's of brothels and Dou being of Turkish descent, it's quite interesting to see how many of the major characters are not ethnically Chinese or not from the higher social classes, again in contrast to a majority of the settings in Judge Dee stories.

As a mystery, Konrondo starts off a bit slow, as there's no clear mystery: things start off by Pei Jing looking for Cui Jing, but it's not like anything really mysterious is going, Cui Jing is just barely coming back home. And just when you think things become more "properly mysterious" when we learn about the series of murders on officials who have their guts taken out of their bodies, this investigation also seems to not move as quickly or deeply as you'd suspect, as Dou isn't officially on the case and can't be too overt in his operations with Pei Jing. In the end, a lot of this story is about characters talking, and some parts do feature a lot of exposition: when Dou first tells Mole about how the official investigation is suspecting the Toaist Xu Long, they have a whole historical and theological discussion about how Mole cannot believe Xu Long is actually a follower of the deity Lushanjun, the Lord of Mount Lu. Which is interesting and all, but it's a very slow way to tell you just that Xu Long might be a swindler and how the belief the murderer is just someone who's into eating intestines is probably wrong. 

The mystery becomes more interesting when Pei Jing and Dou learn about a corruption scandal involving Yuan Zai and a shady deal that went completely wrong: Men affiliated with Yuan Zai were supposed to make an illegal deal with merchants to by-pass taxation, with the men on both sides meeting in a small hut in a lonely field. The merchants and buyers went inside the hut, where heaps of gold and the imported items would trade owners. Guards under the influence of Yuan Zai were posted on the field to keep an eye on things, but something went wrong suddenly: a fire broke out in the hut and people started screaming, and suddenly three assassins appeared from inside the hut, having killed the people inside, and continuing their kill spree outside, taking out over a dozen of Yuan Zai's guards: the sole survivor had fleed the scene and laid low, keeping an eye on the hut. After the assassins had left the scene, the survivor went in the burnt-down hut, but to his great surprise he found the loot gone: while it was logical the imported items had been lost to the fire, where did the gold go to? It obviously couldn't have been burned, but he saw the assassins leave empty-handed, so where did the gold that was carried into the hut go to, and how had the three assassins appeared inside the hut in the first place? The solution to the impossible appearance of the assassins isn't really surprising nor impressive, and in theory, the impossible disappearance of the gold isn't that interesting either, but the latter mystery and solution however is really well-grounded in the world Koizumi has depicted in this novel: while it might not be really surprising if you are somewhat familiar with the themes and subjects Koizumi is talking about in this book, I'd say he made good use of the historical and cultural background to create this impossible situation.

The mystery behind the men being found with their stomachs cut open/intestines removed isn't always at the forefront of the investigation conducted by Dou and Pei Jing, but it does of course become very relevant in the conclusion, and I'd say that Konrondo is quite impressive in its themes regarding whodunnit and whydunnit: while the 'bare explanation' of why someone was killing all these people and ripping them open might sound a bit silly, Koizumi does a great job at themetically setting up this explanation, and once again it all feels very grounded in his depiction of the culture of Chang'an and its inhabitants' habits and beliefs. There are really clever hints and thematic mirrors throughout the tale and the ironic motive for cutting up the bodies is fantastic: it plays so well with a certain piece of misdirection that is thrown at the reader constantly, but when you realize how that piece of misdirection actually works as a hint too, you start to see that a lot of what makes Konrondo works as a mystery, is it's actually a very straightforward mystery, but set in a world that is not straightforward (seen from the POV of the modern reader). This is definitely one of those mysteries you can't judge based on an isolated look at the main mystery/trick, the core mystery plot only works because of all the talk around it that help set it up. It is a motive that only works in this world, and that is what makes this a very memorable read. The ending by the way adds a more fantastical, almost fairy-tale-like epilogue, a reminder of the direct inspiration of this novel.

Which does remind me, this book definitely takes the opposite position compared to van Gulik's Judge Dee stories when it comes to trying to be an easy read. Whereas van Gulik will always try to present his China in a very accessible manner, avoiding Chinese terms and using simple accessible translations/equivalent words instead, Koizumi constantly drops references to Chinese literature and culture, using the original Chinese terms. Van Gulik's writings might sometimes feel a bit anachronistic because he'll use very English (Dutch) terms to describe certain things, but Koizumi is on the other side of the spectrum, with every other page dropping a certain term, immediately followed by two paragraphs where he will explain that term, and then the very next sentence, he will drop another term, so then he has to explain it again and again... That is another reason why the book does feel rather slow, as Koizumi constantly stops to explain that term he just dropped. Some readers might be more bothered by this than others, so it can't hurt to keep this in mind.

So while a lot of the mystery when taken in isolation isn't really remarkable, Konrondo as a whole is a very memorable story, which uses its historical setting to its fullest to bring a tale of mystery that could only work in this specific time and culture. While at times, the book can feel very slow because it spends so much time just at... explaining things about the time/culture, it's ultimately necessary knowledge to solve the mystery of the serial killings and the disappearance of the gold, and on the whole, I think it's a really well-written novel that feels original due to its seldom-seen setting and the specific themes it touches upon.

Original Japanese title(s):  古泉迦十『崑崙奴』

The Lamp of God

Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God's good earth. 

"The Lamp of God"

Kitayama Takekuni is an author discussed on this blog and that is usually in his role as a writer who specializes in locked room murders with a mechanical trick behind them. If you look at his work in the Danganronpa Kirigiri novels, as well as the Danganronpa and Rain Code games, and of course his Castle series, and the adjecent novels Alphabet-sou Jiken/The Case of Alphabet (2002) and Gettoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Moonlight Manor Murder Case" 2022), you'll quickly recognize his knack for inventing original and usually bombastic mechanical tricks to his locked room murder situations, almost like he's playing a round of The Incredible Machine. The first installment in the newest Castle book, which started its serialization in the summer, too promises to be another show his inventive mind.

But before that, we have a different kind of impossible mystery to discuss in regards to Kitayama. Late September saw the release of his newest short story collection Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God", 2025), which collects five stories set in different times and about different people, but all connected through one theme: the impossible disappearance of houses. In each of these stories, Kitayama pulls off the magnificent feat of making a whole building, or in one case, a while city disappear without leaving a trace. This might be the very first mystery short story collection that is built completely around this trope in the genre, and in fact, on the obi the editor of the book mentions how the mere suggestion of Kitayama to write such a collection caused them to feel dizzy. But Kitayama certainly managed it, and the result is a fine example of short mystery fiction.

The first story was originally published in 2004 and is titled 1941-nen no Mauser ("A 1941 Mauser") and starts in 1986, in an old bar in Leningrad. A hunter has ventured to visit this bar, named Heroes, because many old veterans who fought in the Second World War still visit this place: our hunter looks up to the military life and hopes he can become a sniper one day, so he hopes to chat a bit with the war veterans. One of the veterans, a former sniper, tells the man about a strange experience he had back in 1941, right in the middle of the war when the Nazis were entering the Soviet Union. The Nazis were also after treasures, and one of those targets was the Glass Room, a "sister" to the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace. As the name would suggest, the Glass Room consisted of beautiful glass and crystal ornaments and was worth a fortune. The Nazis were planning to move the valuables out of the room, but such an operation would take days due to the delicacy of the treasures inside. The Red Army therefore decides to install a two-man sniper unit at a place overlooking the manor faraway: they could easily take out any Nazis attempting to steal the Union's treasure, especially as the Nazis could only transport the treasures out during the day, meaning they don't even have to watch it overnight. The two men brought to an impromptu watchtower, which allows for a good sight on the manor. They spot a Nazi soldier on the rooftop, but don't take any action. When the sun sets, they move to their camp and return to the watchtower the following day, only to find the whole manor missing. Did the Nazis steal the whole building in one night, or something else going on.

This is a great opening story: like the other stories in this volume, it makes great use of the historical setting, both for the atmosphere, but also in terms of how it relates to the mystery, for example when it comes to clueing. While the story is fairly short, Kitayama manages to go over a lot of the "likely" theories that would explain the impossible disappearance and discard them for various reasons, from practicality problems to some "solutions" simply not making any sense to do in the first place. The way Kitayama manages to use a certain clue to both discard a likely theory, but also use it as a definite clue to point to the true solution is really great. The trick itself is grand, as you might expect from Kitayama. It's nuts in terms of how feasible it is in real-life, but it is thematically very fitting. You could easily imagine this trick being used for a "minor" disappearance, but it wouldn't be Kitayama if he didn't use it on something as grand as a whole building.

The title story Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God") goes one step further, and is about the disappearance of a whole city! A not-so-lucky gambler strikes up a conversation with someone at a bar who challenges our gambler, promising to pay out some money if our gambler can come up with a mystery our challenger  can't solve. The gambler himself doesn't even need to know the answer himself, as long as it's a mystery that occured in real-life in relation to himself. The gambler recalls the mysterious experience his grandfather had in 1930: unlike his grandson, his grandfather George was a great gambler: a well-honed sense of memory allowed him to win often at cards and other games and while he had to be careful, he managed to slowly amass enough money to allow him to leave his hometown and try his luck in Las Vegas. He knew the casinos there were careful for people like him who could memorize cards, so his idea was just to make one single strike that could set himself up for life. As he explores the various games, he happens to overhear some high-rollers, who talk about an exclusive invitations-only bus leaving in the early morning for a secret location. George quickly deduces the bus will bring those guests to a special casino with higher stakes and payout rates. He sneaks in the luggage compartment of the bus the following morning and an hour later, he finds himself in a secret city built in a kind of basin. He manages to win some money and decides to steal a bike to get out of town quickly before they realize he's not an invited guest, but soon after he's out of town, his bike breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a small cabin. When he wakes up the following morning however and looks back.... he finds the whole city missing, and a mysterious light shining down at him. The whole experience makes him feel dizzy. The next moment, he wakes up at the airport, with some pocket money and a ticket for the first flight out of town in his pocket. What happened here?

The title of the story is of course inspired by Ellery Queen's The Lamp of God (another impossible disappearing house story) and the divine light George sees is a vital clue in this story too, but otherwise, there's not much that ties these stories together.This is a story with a great atmosphere though and we also have a Kitayama who's great at snubbing out the solutions you're likely to think of first with both physical evidence and otherwise logical arguments against them. While these stories are all fairly short, usually consisting of 5 segments of which only the middle ones are dedicated to the mystery, and the first and last sections to the framing story, Kitayama always manages to discuss multiple theories, which is pretty impressive. I think the build-up and the atmosphere of this story is great, but depending on your background, the solution might be a bit easier to guess than for the average Japanese reader. I like the story a lot, but certain references did nudge my mind towards a certain theory early on, which proved to be right. Which is a bit of a shame, because it makes me feel like I solved it partially not based on the clues, but just on random knowledge. Which is perhaps a thing here, the solution is definitely better more memorable than the actual path to the solution/the clues.

The third story I already discussed last year, as it was included in the anthology Honkaku-Ou 2024 ("The King of Honkaku 2024"). I refer to that review for my thoughts on the Poe-inspired Mikansei Gekkou - Unfinished moonshine ("Unfinished Moonshine"), but it is cool to see how that story too is part of the "historical setting" theme of this collection.

Fujiiro no Tsuru ("Lavender Cranes") is a story set in three different ages, focusing on three impossible disappearances of buildings. All stories focus on a female member of the Fujiwara clan who possess enigmatic abilities and the young men they protect in their respective ages. In the Heian period, in 1055, while a young male heir of the Fujiwara clan is on the run, a shrine maiden manages to make a whole shrine standing on top of a mountain disappear. In 1999, a young man who lost the ability to play the violin visits the countryside, where a girl preparing for a local festival spirits a shrine on a hill away. And in 2055, a woman of Japanese descent who is a member of the clan running FUJIWARA Industries is suspected to be involved in making a whole military fortress disappear. What binds these three mysteries across the ages? 

A mystery that is somewhat reminiscent of Rurijou Satsujin Jiken (The" Lapis Lazuli Castle” Murder Case): while they don't talk about reincarnation here, the fact we have similar characters appear across multiple ages in a kind of star-crossed destiny manner, and have them deal with similar mysteries of course rings some bells. This is a story, where the atmosphere wins it from the actual trick behind the disappearances: while the trick, which is basically the same across all ages, is one you can understand on a theoretical level, it becomes a bit fantastical when you have to imagine it being used for real. However, because there's a somewhat fantastical atmosphere in the first place, with the story jumping between the ages and presenting a similar disappearances in different contexts, it does work here.

 Synchronicity Serenade is a story originally written for this collection and deals with a reporter who has a recurring dream of an ash-white house, which is then swallowed by the fog and disappears. He mentions it on social media, and is suddenly contacted by a professor, who says he's been having the same dream, and that there are others too who experience the same. He invites the reporter to join his workgroup, as the professor has been researching this phenomenom, but while the reporter initially thinks it has to be fake, he slowly starts to have doubts when the professor shows him a picture of the very house he had been dreaming off. The professor even has an address, so the reporter decides to investigate the house himself to learn why he's been having these dreams, but can he reach an answer?

This is a somewhat different story, as it's set in the modern time and we don't really have an impossible disappearance: it only disappears in the dreams, and the investigation is more focused on why they are having these recurring dreams, and whether the professor is really investigating these dreams or not. The whole story has a somewhat dreamy feeling to it because of that, and while I think the final solution presented is interesting on its own and fits the vibe of the tale, I think the false solution presented earlier feels more in-line with the other stories in this collection.

These were the five stories included in this book, but if you buy your copy of Kami no Hikari via the stores of Kinokuniya within a certain period, you actually get another extra story. At least, your receipt is extended to include an original illustration by Kitayama himself celebrating the release of the book, and a QR-code that leads to another Kitayama story about an impossible disappearance. The story Sayounara, Usagi-dan ("Farewell, Bunny Gang") was originally published in 2011, in issue 49 of the magazine Mysteries! and it was meant to be a farewell to the black bunnies that had been featured on the cover of the magazine for quite some years. Kitayama had been a fan of the illustrations, so he wanted to give them a grand farewell, which involved him reimagining the bunnies as a gang of children without parents, who act as phantom thieves while wearing bunny masks. Hot on their trail are two other children, a sister and a brother, who are great detectives. The tale starts off with the Bunny Gang pulling off another heist succesfully and the narrating bunny gang member announcing their next heist will be his last, as he's too old to remain in the gang. Their next taget turns out to be an entire building, but can the detective siblings prevent such an audacious heist?

This story has been described as a hidden Kitayana masterpiece, and indeed, it's much better than one would expect as a playful farewell story to some magazine mascottes. The story is fairly short, but withi that limited amount of space, Kitayama manages to set-up the whole fictional world of the Bunny Gang, our narrating bunny and the two detective siblings, and also set-up two impossible crimes: one in the in media res opening scene and the main mystery of the disappearing building. The solution of the latter is as grand as Kitayama can get, but it's a bit easy to guess and I have seen another impossible building story that uses the same basic foundation (but with a very different outcome). The first one is the kind of impossible theft you could imagine Lupin the Third of Kaitou KID to pull off and is pretty fun. But I honestly don't understand why this story isn't included in the Kami no Hikari collection properly. While I get it's a bit different in terms of atmosphere, as this is cartoonier than the historical, realistic settings of the stories in the collection and perhaps the story works better with the context of them being Mysteries! mascottes, but still, it's a damn fun story that should be in a proper collected release.

At this point, you can guess what I am going to say here: yes, Kitayama Takekuni's Kami no Hikari is definitely worth a read. It's unique as a collection focusing on disappearing buildings and while some of the solutions to these mysteries feel a bit more fantastical than others, I think these stories are worth a read, as they are all really solid stories, with great set-ups and fantastic atmosphere. If possible, I'd also recommend you to purchase a copy via Kinokuniya in Japan to get the bonus story, though this might only be applicable for physical copies and bought at the physical stores themselves (as I got the code printed as an extension to my receipt). 

Original Japanese title(s):　北山猛邦『神の光』:「一九四一のモーゼル」 / 「神の光」 / 「未完成月光 Unfinished moonshine」 / 「藤色の鶴」 / 「シンクロニシティ・セレナーデ」/「さようなら、ウサギ団」

Case for Three Detectives

"The more that you read, the more things you will know."

"I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"  

I know I haven't been keeping up with my video game reviews lately, partially simply because I have found it more difficult to find the time to play games, and when I do finally finish them, I forget about writing the review. So err, Staffer Case review, I'll get to it one day!

And yes, I did also play Toshi Densetsu Kaitai Center, or as it's better known outside of Japan: Urban Myth Dissolution Center. I had of course already played the Wakaidou Makoto games by the same developer in the past and reviewed them here, so I been looking forward to playing Urban Myth Dissolution Center when it was first announced, and I did get it on the release date. Long story short, I loved the game overall, though it's definitely a game that was better in atmosphere and mood than the actual gameplay, which can be very tedious and repetitive. The game has been well received in Japan, with a lot of merchandise being produced, the series seeing a manga adaptation and a novel adaptation and it also won a Japan Game Award earlier this week.

Anyway, I have been really into the game, so I had been looking forward to Toshi Densetsu Kaitai Center - Danpenshuu (2025) or as the cover also says: Urban Myth Dissolution Center - Collection of Fragments, which released last week in Japan. While there is a "straight" novelization of the game events available too, Collection of Fragments is a short story collection by five different authors, each presenting a completely original story. These stories are "fragments" set before, during and after the events of the actual game, so fans of the game who long for more material, should defnitely look into this book. For those who haven't played the game, the basic premise is that there is a shady organization called the Urban Myth Dissolution Center, a kind of detective agency specializing in abnormal occurences that are related to urban legends. The center is led by the enigmatic Meguriya, an absolute nerd for all things urban legend, but also cunning and manipulative in the way he controls his employees. The center has two "field workers": Jasmine, who provides transport and support and recently hired (duped) Azumi, a college student who has a weird ability that allows her to see ghosts of the past, a power that proves useful in solving the cases she and Jasmine investigate under the supervision of Meguriya. One warning however is that this book is best played after playing the game, as it does spoil certain key events and character reveals of the game. Also: you play the game from the perspective of Azumi, but the three stories of the five that focus on the center, are told from the POV of Jasmine, and because of that, certain things you only learn later on in the game, are revealed right away to the reader (as obviously, Jasmine herself would know about herself). So reader, be warned.

The first story, Ten wo Tsunagu Mono ("Those who Connect the Dots") is by Van Madoy, who mentioned on Twitter (what doesn't he mention on Twitter) that he did his best to make sure it was a proper puzzle mystery story. His story is set soon after the first case in the game, and starts when Azumi and Jasmine are asked to investigate a fried chicken restaurant's security footage, which for some reason has been leaked on the internet. The footage is of the owner closing his shop, but after the shop's closed, a mysterious animal-like creature walks by, sparking rumors of genetically modified chickens being used in the shop. As Azumi and Jasmine investigate the rumors and the footage however, they learn there's more behind this case than meets the eye. Of all the five stories in this collection, this is definitely the most orthodox mystery story. Because the story is told from the point of view of Jasmine, the story feels different from the game: important segments in the game where you'd play as Azumi and solve certain mysteries, happen off-screen while Jasmine is relaxing in the company van, and things like that, but overall, the mystery is decently constructed (though a bit obvious) and while the identity of the mysterious creature is a bit silly, it kinda works in this world, considering the theme of these games and the use of the social media aspect of the game in this story is pretty clever.

Shikku suru Bourei ("The Racing Phantom") has Jasmine and Azumi investigate a famous urban legend: the headless motorcycle racer! A video of an influencer has been gaining views lately, as the image of a headless motorcycle racer was spotted in the background, and more witnesses claim to have seen this racer on the mountain roads. Is this headless racer really a ghost, or is it the handiwork of a man? This story by Tsukinami Kira is very faithful to the atmosphere of the game, following the same structure of Azumi and Meguriya first determining what the urban myth is they are dealing with and the subsequential dissolution of the myth, and also includes the social media investigation aspect of the game; while the Madoy story use the social media aspect in a more clever way, the use here feels more like the game. While the trick behind the racer itself is not super surprising, I think as an Urban Myth Dissolution Center story, this one was by far the most succesful at providing "more content like the game." 

Ki no Mori, Tatariishi ("The Forest of Taboos, The Cursed Stone") by Miyamoto Mirei and Hibe Seika's Shinrei Flamenco ("Ghost Flamenco") both focus not on the center trio, but on fan favorite characters, going by all the fanart on social media: in the former story, we see the influencer Kinoko and Yamada Gasmask go on a camp together, while in the latter, we follow a certain tour guide soon after he returns to Japan after living abroad, and his experience with a ghost haunting the place he lives at. The first is barely a mystery story, but the tour guide story is actually a pretty fun, if predictable horror-mystery story that is also genuinely funny. 

Tomariki ni Kyuusoku wo ("To Perch") by Okita Yoshihito is set some months after the climatic finale of the game, so even more spoiler warnings here. The story once again opts to follow Jasmine, who this time is on her own as she's hired to help transport the young child of a high-ranking official to a safe place. The boy however claims he saw a ghost. Jasmine has no powers unlike Azami and Meguriya, so she doesn't feel like she's the right person to be doing this, but the reader soon learns she can certainly hold her own when t comes to investigating seemingly supernatural cases. The case itself is not super exciting, but it proides an adequate explanation to why the boy saw a ghost. While the story is set after the main game, it works perfectly as a bridge to the epilogue of the game, so definitely recommended reading for those who like Jasmine as a character.

Overall, I'd say Collection of Fragments is a pretty fun read... if you're a fan of Urban Myth Dissolution Center. It does the bare minimum to explain the basic setting/characters of the game, but on the other hand, it is not afraid to spoil certain twists of the game early on, so it really knows it audience. This also means the mystery plots are not that complex, as they were not like that in the game either. In that respect, I do think Madoy wrote the most complex one (even if on a scale, it's still fairly simple). The second story is the best Urban Myth Dissolution Center-esque story though, and the one you must read if you long for more of the type of stories you played in the game.

While I am at it, I wanted to very briefly discuss two other game-related stories I read earlier this week: they are so short they don't really warrant their own post, so I might as well talk about them here. The first one is Kamaitachi no Yoru: A Novel (Night of the Sickle Weasles - A Novel", 1995) by Abiko Takemaru. This was a completely original novella included in the Kamaitachi no Yoru Official Fan Book and acts as another "variant" of the basic story of the first and very influential Kamaitachi no Yoru game on the Super Famicom, a game that plays as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and which revolves around a murder that happens in a small lodging house that has been snowed in. Abiko was the original writer of the game, and so it's only fitting he wrote this extra scenario, which again revolves around murders happening in the pension Spur. The story is presented as a Guess-the-Culprit scenario, with seperated "problem" and "solution" parts and a Challenge to the Reader, but the story is fairly short and Abiko spends a lot of time focusing on the clues necessary to solve the mystery, making it too obvious what the main trick is about. This scenario was included in certain later ports/remakes of the game (I believe the GameBoy Advance port, as well as the PS Vita remake), but it's not something you're really missing out on if you happen to have a different version that lacks this story. Interestingly, this novel is actually printed "backwards" in the Kamaitachi no Yoru Official Fan Book: if you start from the normal "front" cover, you get all the fan-oriented content like interviews and things like that, if you start from the "back", you simply start reading Kamaitachi no Yoru: A Novel. 

The other story I wanted to discuss is Kitayama Takekuni's Choutantei no Narikata - Halara Nightmare no Baai, or How To Be A Master Detective: A Halara Nightmare Case, which is a short story Kitayama wrote for the enhanced release of the game Rain Code (Rain Code +), with Halara being one of the master detectives who works with game protagonist Yuma as they investigate the curious incidents in the Kanai Ward. This story is set in the past and starts with Halara being transported in a prison van. They infiltrated the prison in search of missing mafia money, but things went wrong, and now Halara's being treated like a real prisoner. An accident later means an escape not only for him, but also for the other inmates who were being transported. It's snowing heavily outside though, so they seek shelter, but when they arrive at a little cabin, they find the murdered body of another fellow inmate who was being transporte. Who is the killer? The story is fairly short, but I think Kitayama did a great job at presenting a story that builds on Halara as presented in the game, but used in a way the game couldn't do. I was actually surprised by how neatly he pulled it off. If you already have vanilla Rain Code, I wouldn't say it's worth upgrading to Rain Code + just for this story, but if you can read it, definitely do!

I didn't really manage to write too deeply about the mystery plots of today's books, but the main theme is the same for all three books: these books are definitely meant for the people who have already played the games they are based on, so don't even consider reading them if you haven't played them. Of these three, I think the Urban Myth Dissolution Center and Rain Code ones do have interesting points about them that make them worth a read, while the Kamaitachi no Yoru story fails to add something substantial or original (and you can actually play it in game form in certain versions of the game anyway).

Original Japanese title(s): 『都市伝説解体センター　断篇集』:円居挽「点を繋ぐ者」/月並きら「疾駆する亡霊」/  宮本深礼「忌の杜、祟り石 」/ 日部星花「幽霊フラメンコ」/ 尾北圭人「泊まり木に休息を」 

我孫子武丸『かまいたちの夜　A Novel』 

北山猛邦『超探偵のなり方 ハララ＝ナイトメアの場合』

Mr Brain

"Thoroughly respectable and honest. Not, perhaps, remarkable for brains."

"Murder on the Orient Express"

Now I think about it, it's been easily over a decade since I first read about this book...

Magical Zunou Power!! ("Magical Brain Power!!") was a long-running primetime television quiz program presented by Bandou Eiji and featured a mostly fixed pool of participants of television personalities, some of which are nowadays so huge they have their own television programs like Tokoro George. The program consisted of several rounds of various quizzes with which you could earn 'Brain Power' and of course, the one who has accumulated the most BP at the end, wins that week's episode. The show itself ran from 1990 until 1999, but for the mystery fans, the period that is of interest, is the early days of the show, from 1990 until 1992. For it was during this period, the final round was the Magical Mystery Theater: a short 5-10 minute drama show where a mystery would be presented. While the Magical Mystery Theater segments are all very short, there is "continuity" between them: in the 'series', we follow the private detective Nakatani Shouichi and his niece Natsuko, a college student who acts as her uncle's assistant. The difficulty of each 'story' would be indicated with a Brain Power value, which was also the maximum of points you could earn if you got the answer right (you could be rewarded points for getting it partially correct). After watching the video, the participants would have to guess how it was done or who did it, with an explanation of course. Once everybody had presented their answers, a final, one minute video would follow with the solution. As it's just one round in a quiz program and participants need to be able to briefly explain their solutions, most of these stories are fairly simple in set-up and often revolve around just one single idea, but even so, some of the ideas seen in these segments are actually quite interesting. That is easily explained, when you learn that among those who provided the screenplay writers with the core mystery plots, there are mystery writers like Orihara Ichi, Abiko Takemaru and Shinpo Hirohisa. According to Abiko, Magical Mystery Theater was actually the highest-rated part of the program initially, but even after the overall show started to get higher ratings, this segment's ratings didn't really change accordingly, so it was eventually cancelled.

Shinpo Hirohisa, one of the 'mystery plot' writers, would later revisit some of the scenarios he wrote for the show in Satsujin Trick Gekijou - Nandai Mystery 11 Renpatsu ("Murder Trick Theater - 11 Difficult Mysteries", 1996). The concept of this book is quite interesting. On one hand, it is a book for fans of the original Magical Zunou Power!! corner: Shinpo gives us a glimpse behind the scenes of the Magical Mystery Theater segment, describing what they were going for, how ideas would be discarded and how the segment eventually was cancelled. The eleven stories featured in this pocket are also all followed by an essay on the specific story, noting when the corresponding Magical Mystery Theater segment was broadcast, reception on the quiz, the creative process behind the story/trick etc and what authors/works he drew inspiration from for the trick. This makes this book very informative also for mystery authors I think, as you get an idea of how a mystery writer might develop an idea seen in work X into a different idea, but with the same "foundation."

On the other hand, the eleven stories in this volume are also decidedly not Magical Mystery Theater stories... because obviously, Shinpo doesn't own the show and the characters created for that show. Because of that, he has rewritten all these scenarios with new characters, as well as sometimes changing the plot/trick/clues to accomodate for the book format. It's not the detective Nakatani nor his niece Natsuko who stars in these stories, but we mostly follow Yukiko and Fuyumi, two friends who after graduating haven't quite decided what to with their lives, and so Fuyumi suggest they become detectives, much to Yukiko's shock. They apply at the agency of the detective Mei, but while they don't get hired, they remain on friendly terms with him, occasionally getting him involved in the incidents they end up in, or vice-versa. One important thing to note is that this book also features many original illustrations by Noma Miyuki, the creator of the extremely long-running mystery manga Puzzle Game ☆ High School. They really add a lot of character to this book, especially as it's not 'just' character art, but also depictions of scenes from the stories etc.

Ultimately, these stories were created to be quizzes, so they are by design very straightforward and simple, usually only utilizing one single idea. The book acually retains the "Brain Power" concept of the original show, with each story being worth a number of points, and there's usually also a story section before the solution, that is considered optional: you can skip it to get a high score, or read it to be pushed in the right direction. Note that this optional section isn't just a list of hints, it's a proper part of the story with dialogue and sometimes even story developments.  But because many of them are really just single-idea concepts that you may have seen elsewhere already, I am not going to discuss each story this time.

The first story, Hito wo Kuu Heya ("The Room That Eats People") is the story that first made me aware of this book: it was mentioned in a mook on locked room murder mysteries edited by Arisugawa, being mentioned in a long list of recommended short locked room/impossible crime stories. In this story, we first see Fuyumi and Natsuko visit the detective agency of Mei, who decides to test the two girls with an excercise in a stake-out. He puts his assistant Dan in a room, and tells Yukiko and Fuyumi to keep an eye on the room, making sure his assistant doesn't escape. Fuyuko is told to watch the door from the corridor, while Yukiko is brought outside and told to watch the window from the street. After a hour, the two are to swap places, and after another hour, Yukiko is to enter the room and apprehend Dan. The two girls do as told, and two hours pass by without anything suspicious happening in the room. But when Yukiko enters the room, she finds the room empty. How did Dan escape? The trick behind Dan disappearing from a room under observation is pretty simple and it's likely you will have seen a variation of the same idea before, but Shinpo does a great job at planting the clues that point to that solution, and I would have loved to have seen the Magical Mystery Theater segment. In the essay, Shinpo mentions how Miyabe Miyuki told him how she really liked the tale, only for Shinpo to reveal he actually got the idea from a Miyabe story, transforming it in a way so even she herself didn't recognize it!

In Shide no Tabi ni mo Kinen Satsuei ("Taking Photographs Even When On Your Way to the Afterlife"), the comedian Hashiba Kenzou wants Mei to help him, because he received a letter from an unknown sender, saying "she wants to return her key, but also talk with him on the 7th, when he's filming at a cliff: Hashiba suspects it's one of his three exes with a key to his apartment, but he finds the letter very creepy, especially as she apparently knows his work schedule and wants to meet him at a cliff. Mei declines the job because he is not a bodyguard, nor does he like the playboy comedian, but then Hashiba is indeed murdered, having been pushed off the cliff.  Miraculously, someone managed to take a picture of Hashiba as he was falling, which provides a vital clue to finding out which of three women pushed him, but how? Once again, the solution is very simple, but I love how it does make very good use of the original visual format: while the illustration by Noma does wonders to support this story in the novel format, I imagine it would have felt more intuitive as an acted segment on Magical Mystery Theater.

In Totemo Kimyou na Yuukai ("A Very Curious Abduction"), Mei tells Fuyumi the tale of the abduction of Yuuka, the daughter of a client, with whom he often played shogi. Mei was present when the father received the call, instructing him to go to a coin locker at the station with a stash of money. Mei is sent instead, and in the coin locker, he receives further instructions to make a phone call to a certain number from the public payphone in a nearby park. The number given goes to Osaka, but the man answering the call says that while he does know Yuuka, he doesn't know anything about an abduction. Because of that, the money deal with the kidnapper seems to have failed, and Yuuka is soon found murdered in a nearby park. Police investigation show that the man answering the phone call in fact did have a perfect alibi for killing Yuuka, but how could have kidnapped Yuuka and killed her in Tokyo, if he answered a phone call in Osaka? The trick itself I find remarkable because it is so much a trick that only works in the period this story was created: it wouldn't fly at all now, because society has changed so much and we don't use certain things anymore. But that is why I really liked this story: it is a simple, but clever trick, but it would also be very understandable to people who don't have any interest in mystery fiction, because it used an object people would know in the nineties in an original manner, but also a manner which would make you go "Aha!" because it's actually so simple. There are a few other stories that have a similar vibe, using everyday life objects/customs of the early nineties which feel out-of-date/not obvious anymore, like in Satsujin yo, Kinou ni Kaere ("Murder, Go Back to Yesterday"), where an alibi is shot down by pointing out a certain object isn't where it should be, but which nobody in Japan nowadays would really think of.

Satsujin Trick Gekijou isn't really a must-read for mystery fans, though I would definitely recommend it to those who used to watch Magical Zunou Power!! as the behind-the-scenes essays are really interesting (and I say that as someone who hadn't even seen the show!). And of course, I do have an interest in mystery shows that are formally divided in problem and solution sections, so being able to experience the show in some manner, even if in a different format, is something I appreciate a lot. While most of the stories in this book are very simple, focusing on single-idea tricks that you likely have seen in other mystery-themed quizzes, or other mystery stories already, I find the presentation of this book very consistent: Noma Miyuki's illustrations do some of the lifting, but Shinpo's writing is easy, and while the main tricks are pretty simple overall, he does a very consistent job of properly clewing everything, making these stories a bit more involving than just single-concept mystery quizzes. 

Original Japanese title(s): 新保博久『殺人トリック劇場　難題ミステリー11連発』

Accident by Design

Firmitas, utilitas et venustas 

"De architectura"  

 

Firmness, commidity and delight 

"On Architecture"

I wanted to say it'd be cool to have a mystery set in an Escher building, but then I remembered I already read one....

Kenchiku Shizai (2001), which also carries the English title The Builded Dead on the cover, is the 11th winner of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award and is the "professional" debut of author Monzen Noriyuki, though he had previously self-published a different novel (interestingly enough, that book got a professional release later on). Monzen studied architecture in university, which is all too clear in his debut novel, which originally was sent in to the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award committee under the title The Building That Eats People. The book is narrated by Miyamura Tatsuya, a man in his thirties who's having a long holiday in Nagoya: after attending to a friend's wedding there, he decided to stay at his uncle and aunt's place, which is also an udon restaurant. His cousin Yuuichi is still in high school and (should be) studying for his university entrance exams, which explains why he is still up late at night. One evening, Yuuichi spots a light source moving about on one of the floors of the construction site across the street: a large new building is being erected there, but work has been paused for a few days due to the obon holiday season. His childhood friend Momose, whose father is a subcontractor for the construction site and working in their own workshop to meet a deadline, also sees the light. The two keep an eye on the building, and eventually confide to Tatsuya about the intruder. They decide to sneak inside the construction site to see what's happening. Fortunately, all the foundational work is already done, with the load-bearing walls/support pillars and the stairs finished, allowing them to move about relatively safely. They spot a shadowy figure and chase them into a meeting room on the second floor, but the figure locks the door behind them. Momose is sent to watch the windows outside, while Tatsuya and Yuuichi try to get into the room, which they eventually do by breaking through one of the non-bearing walls. However, they find nobody inside, and the windows are locked from the inside. The trio are puzzled by the disappearance of the figure, and Yuuichi and Momose stay up all night to see if they can spot the figure escaping the site, but it appears the shadow has really just disappeared into thin air.

The following day, they contact Kumote, the on-site supervisor, as he's the only one in authority whom Yuuichi knows the address of, and who hasn't gone somewhere travelling during the holiday season. They have another look in the half-finished building together, while Yuuichi explains what happened the previous night, and suggesting the figure might have hidden themselves inside the walls, but Kumote explains the process of constructing the various walls in the building and how it'd be impossible to either hide into a load-bearing wall, or how they would've instantly spotted someone in one of the non-finished non-bearing walls. The mystery is left unsolved by these men, but then the police becomes involved in a rather surprising manner. The president of the contruction company has gone missing, and the previous day, a cut-off finger had been sent to his home. His secretary is missing too, and one of her body parts was also sent to her home. This also happened to a teacher, who seems to have no connection to the president or the secretary. It also turns out a day worker with no fixed address had sneaked into the construction site on the same night as Yuuichi, Momose and Tatsuya did, hoping to stay in the half-finished building during the holiday, knowing it would be empty. However, he claims he fled the scene when he found three bodies cut up in pieces there, The police suspects those are the bodies of the people they are looking for, but where are the bodies? It seems obvious to assume they are somewhere in the building, but the workers themselves, with their expertise of actually constructing the walls/ceilings/floors seem very sceptical of the possibility of that, as most of the construction involving concrete/mortar was already finished and you'd instantly know if something was 'added' later on. However, when more murders occur at the construction site, it seems clear the building is indeed the crux of this mystery and it is Kumote, with his knowledge of building a house, who tackles this challenge.

A challenge indeed, but not for the reason you might expect at first. The book immediately makes an impression when you open it, as you'll find the volume opens with very detailed floor plans of the five-storey building around which most of the mystery revolves. And while having each floor printed on its own page isn't that uncommon (especially not in Japanese mysteries), the fact each floor is in fact printed on tracing paper is highly unusual! It is here Monzen already shows his familiarity with building design and construction, as tracing paper is used extensively in those fields and it is used here in the book like it is used 'in real life', to show exactly how each of the floors overlap, making you aware of where walls on different floors overlap or not and how corridors/rooms are different between floors. This of course seems to suggest something incredibly clever will be done with this... but I'd say 90% of the justification of this insert, is simply to be authentic, and not per se to faciliate the mystery. Which is a shame, because I was genuinely surprised by these pages when I first opened the book.

In a way, this experience with the very first pages of the book perfectly symbolizes my experience with the whole work. Throughout the book, Monzen really shows he's an expert on the topic of designing and constructing a building and you can feel his enthusiasm throughout the book as he builds the mystery, but it's also his knowledge that really limits the possibilities behind the book. A lot of the mystery revolves around what the murderer did with the three bodies seen by the homeless worker that night: Yuuichi and Momose didn't see anyone carrying three people's worth of body parts out of the building and because the police didn't manage to find the bodies in open spots in the building under construction, the most "mystery-tropey" solution would of course be that the bodies are buried in the walls, but Kumote quickly rejects that possibility by giving lectures on how buildings like these are actually constructed, and with most of the supporting concrete 'parts' of the building set and finished long ago and the non-bearing walls/floors/ceilings simply not lending themselves for hiding spots. Via Kumote, we learn Monzen has obviously given a lot of thought about whether the body-in-the-wall trick could work realistically without anyone noticing, and he gives several detailed reasons why he thinks that's unlikely.

So that leaves the question, where did the bodies in fact go? And how did the dark figure Yuuichi, Momose and Takuya chased, disappear from the locked meeting room? And later in the book, we have another murder on the roof, and all the suspects seem to have a good alibi for this murder, as the time of the crime can be estimated by the fact the murderer left their footprints on a part of the flooring that hadn't set completely yet at that time. While this book thus has as few impossible mysteries (a locked room disappearance even).... I have to admit I basically found all the solutions a bit disappointing. Ironically, this was not because Monzen didn't do his homework on the topic: in fact, it is the exact opposite. He was so thorough in sticking to actual architectural details and realism, the tricks he ends up using just come over as too... plain? While Kenchiku Shizai is definitely a honkaku mystery novel where they talk about locked room mysteries and impossible disappearances and tropes like hiding bodies in the walls, Monzen ends up with far too few options for truly surprising solutions to his own mysteries, and you end up feeling a bit... indifferent to the reveals of what really happened. I can agree his takes would work in real-life at a real construction site, but that doesn't make those solutions really exciting or anything, they just seem like more... realistic and practical versions of tricks I have seen used in more unrealistic, but infinitely more amusing manners, or at least presented with more energy and surprise. I think if you're into architecture, this book can be quite interesting, especially after seeing the more fantastical ways in which buildings are used in Japanese mystery fiction, but for me, it just felt lacking because of the reality.

That said, there are also really brilliant points that help support the mystery. The motive behind the death of one of the victims is really the kind of ideas I love to see in mystery fiction: it strangely fits the realistic angle of Monzen in this book despite also being pretty crazy. The same regarding another late murder: there is a very specific reason for the victim to be found with a knife in his back, which is also brilliantly realistic and at the same time so out-of-there. It's moments like these that really make an impression especially because they make a perversion of the rather realistic look at the construction industry and they really did help elevate my experience with the book.

 On one hand, I can really appreciate the research Monzen poured into this book, and it results in a book that is really educative about how a building is built, knowledge which of course comes in handy in a genre with a lot of quirky buildings with weird gimmicks. But on the other hand, Kenchiku Shizai's main mysteries are all resolved with rather plain solutions because of Monzen is bound by this realism. It's when he dares to go a bit beyond those limits, when the book feels the most memorable. I wouldn't call this book a complete disappointment though. I am aware there are more books with Kumote as the detective (and architecture/building construction as the theme), and I am curious to see what else Monzen can do with his knowledge, so I will probably try more of his books, so I will likely return to him in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 門前典之『建築屍材』