Snow Job Too Small

"X marks the spot."

"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"

Guess it'll be starting to become warm again by the time this post goes online. I actually read this book during one of the hottest summers in Japan...

Six men and women nearing their thirties each make their way to the mountains near Otaru City in Hokkaidou to arrive at the Deep Snow House, the private residence of Tachihara Shigeru, retired teacher, photographer and self-proclaimed inventor. This group of six used to be in Shigeru's class in high school and have been invited to a small gathering at his home. Almost a year ago, they had a class-wide reunion, but Shigeru had an accident then, falling off the stairs at the restaurant they were eating/drinking at, which left him unable to walk. His former pupils received an invitation to visit him at his home and stay for a few days for skiing, but as they arrive, they do find it odd they are only six of them here, especially as some of them weren't even that close with Shigeru. When they arrive at the house, they are shocked to see Shigeru after the accident: he wears a mask, sits in a wheelchair and can't talk, having to use a computer-generated voice coming out of a robot to speak. As they talk things over, Shigeru explains he didn't send all these letters and that he never had any plans to have any parties at his home. While everyone wonders who then sent these letters, Shigeru says his former pupils might as well stay. However, strange events occur and when they look into some of Shigeru's private files, they find clues indicating a plot: for over a year now, a "pusher" has been active in Sapporo City, pushing people from stairs and elevations out on the streets, in malls and everywhere, injuring people severely. Notes on Shigeru's computer seem to suggest Shigeru suspect his fall wasn't an accident, but also engineered by the pusher, and that this pusher is one of his students, more precisely, one of the six students now present at his house. What is going to happen at this house, especially as a snow storm prevents anyone from leaving in Nikaidou Reito and Kuroda Kenji's Killer X (2001).

Killer X is the first novel in a trilogy, but also the second novel in a tetralogy. That might sound confusing... and it kinda is. So to explain: in 2000 publisher Kobunsha published the novel Hakuginsou no Satsujinki ("The Killer of the Silver House") by the author "Psycho Jun", an pseudonym to signify two collaborating authors. A quiz was set-up, and participants had to guess who these two writers were. 233 people made a guess, with only 8 getting it right. It was eventually revealed that the writers were Nikaidou Reito and Aikawa Akira. The next year, Killer X was published, this time a book written by a duo operating under the name "The Queen Brothers" (the name that Nikaidou and Aikawa were planning to use originally). It was later revealed this pen name belonged to Nikaidou Reito and Kuroda Kenji. Nikaidou Reito and Kuroda Kenji would pen two more novels in this series. So the first novel was by the duo of Nikaidou and Aikawa, and the remaining three novels by Nikaidou and Kuroda. The four books also all share the same theme of being closed circle mysteries set in ski resorts, so are often referred to as the Ski Mystery Tetralogy. So far so good. 

The confusing thing however is that there's also a binding factor only present in the three novels by Nikaidou Reito and Kuroda Kenji. Killer X is not only the title of the first book, it is also the name of an in-universe character. Killer X is a (fictional) mascotte figure created by a stationery maker and hugely popular. The titular Killer X is a former monk, and stationery and other merchandise featuring Killer X usually feature a visual of him, accompanied by English sentences with trivia about X, like  "X Is Monk" (sic) or "X Likes Cooking". Killer X as a character appears in three of the Nikaidou/Kuroda novels, thus these three books specifically are also referred to as the Killer X Trilogy. In Killer X, one of the characters is a huge of Killer X, and as it is the title, you can also guess the Killer X character is in fact connected to the mystery.

I have no idea how Nikaidou and Kuroda divided their work and planned out this novel, but I can say one thing: they were enthusiastic as hell. The book is not short, though very readable because of the simple prose, but it's crammed full with all things mystery readers like. The closed circle situation set-up of a house isolated from the outside world due to a snowstorm is of course very, very traditional, but there's plenty more of that to come, like a masked host who used a computer-generated voice to speak with his guests, who even denies he invited them, mysterious letters, a dark backstory of a person who randomly pushes people in the city, a mysterious companion to the host who seems to have secrets of her own, a group of high school comrades who aren't quite just friends anymore because of time passing but also because of personal history... There's a very detailed floor plan of the Deep Snow House too, which immediately gives the reader all kinds of ideas of how murders could occur there... The suspense parts of the book work well, and you can constantly feel something will go wrong, because somehow, not everything fits.

As a mystery novel, it's perhaps not exactly what you'd expect it to be. I at least had hoped for some bombastic locked room murder situation (and solution) from Nikaidou, which I didn't really get here. What I did get is a very complex, tangled web of narratives that is slowly unraveled. The story jumps between perspectives and times, showing us glimpses of one character in the present, but then for example jumping back to the perspective of the pusher while they are committing one of their crimes, only to jump to another character soon before arrival at the house etc. Keeping a keen eye for how everything is connected is not only necessary to solve the mystery, I'd say you also need to pay attention simply just to keep up with the plot due to all the jumping around. 

When the snow prevents anyone from leaving the house (note: nobody actually goes skiing in this book despite it being called the Ski Tetralogy!!), the mood becomes suspenseful, but also very slow, because little actually happens for a large part of the novel. It's mostly the ex-students trying to figure out who and why they have been gathered at the house of Shigeru, with a focus on the tripping accident of Shigeru some time earlier, when they were having a class reunion at a bar and Shigeru tripped down the stairs on his way back from the bathroom. So a lot of the actual criminal investigation is aimed at the past incident, while the present-day events are more about the building suspense of finding out what is happening in the first place, though slowly but surely, things are about to occur in the present-day too Ultimately, the mystery behind Shigeru's fall in the past is fairly simple, but also very adequately clewed (some of the clewing is even quite cheeky!) and I do love how it very naturally connects to the many other plotlines going on this book. Keeping all of the narratives in mind can be a challenge, but once this part of the mystery is solved, you can slowly see how a lot of the seperate narratives you have been reading come together. There's some great misdirection going too in regards to the motive, and I really liked how that was done, even if it sometimes borders on the unfair. The more memorable parts of Killer X is definitely how in the end all the disjointed fragments we saw are given their proper context,  though obviously, I can't really explain that without spoiling that/explaining too much in detail. The device of Killer X as a character was alright, though I am surprised they decided to use it as the title of the book too, as Killer X's role in the book isn't that important on its own. I am interested to see how Nikaidou and Kuroda will use Killer X in the following two books.

Oh, and there's one more thing to note: the very ending of this book does reference, and I suspect even spoils the previous book (Hakuginsou no Satsujinki by Psycho Jun = Nikaidou Reito and Aikawa Akira). I haven't read that one yet, but they discuss a certain character in a way that makes me think it's a fairly major spoiler? It might just be something revealed to the reader at the start of that book, but you might want to read them in order just to be safe.

Killer X was perhaps not the kind of mystery I had expected as a collaborative effort by both Nikaidou Reito and Kuroda Kenji, but I did enjoy the book overall. It is never revolutionary in the way it handles mystery tropes, but you can definitely feel both authors are confident in their art and used to playing with the familiar tropes of the genre to come up with something that is very recognizable as a mystery story, yet also bringing enough energy to also pack this "Definitely A Detective Story With All The Usual Twists" with a few good ideas of their own. This was a decent enough read, and it does make me interested in the other two novels, which I fortunately already have in my possession. 

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人、黒田研二『Killer X』 

The Secret of Terror Castle

The good king had died

And no one could decide

Who was rightful heir to the throne

"The Sword in the Stone" (Fred Darian) 

No cover art yet, so I'll just use the cover of the magazine with the first installment... 

As Luza wakes up, he still has vague memories of leaving home with his friends in search of the legendary Sea at the End of the World, but their trip soon ended in a disaster. The last thing he recalls is him facing certain death, which is Luza is so surprised to find him in the care of a young man called Romelia, who is very, very interested in Luza. For Luza is someone who shouldn't exist. It turns out an unconscious Luza was found by Romelia, who took him to his home in the Castle of Stone Spheres, where the last humans reside after a natural catastrophy wiped out civilization. While some of the previous society's knowledge still survives via books, technological advancements have been basically reset and the very small enclave of surviving humans now live in a walled village, which is collectively called the Castle of Stone Spheres, named after the enigmatic stone spheres that are scattered all around the castle. Romelia explains that for centuries, it has been believed that the Castle of Stone Spheres is all there is still to the world: the Castle of Stone Spheres is surrounded by total darkness and outside the castle walls is just ground that stretches into emptiness. All the food and other supplies the people consume has to be produced within the castle walls, which is why the community of the Castle of Stone Spheres is strictly regulated by the Nine Kings of the Night, who make sure the community is self-sustainable. Thirteen towers are embedded within the castle walls, each guarded by a priestess. All the towers contain a Crystal Skull, a mysterious device which can generate energy to light up the Castle of Stone Spheres. 

And that is why Luza is an impossibility: there's nothing outside the Castle of Stone Spheres, and yet Luza is not an inhabitant of the castle, meaning he is an outsider and came from beyond the castle walls. There has been no record of an outsider arriving in over two-hundred years of history. However, Luza is lucky Romelia found him, as Romelia does think there's something out there. His father, who studied the now extinct society, once ventured outside the castle walls to find what was waiting there, and while he died during his quest, Romelia still believes his father was right. Romelia decides to introduce Luza to one of the priestesses to see if they can help Luza get back, but they find her murdered inside her own tower, which they found locked from the inside. What's even more surprising is that the priestess had been decapitated! The Kings of the Night have the death of the priestess investigated, as each and every priestess is vital for keeping the castle running. Romelia however desperately tries to keep Luza's existence a secret to the Kings, as they are very swift to deal with anything that might endanger the equilibrium within the Castle. But Romelia and Luza soon realize it wasn't just one murder: one by one, the priestesses are killed in their own towers, each time found in a locked room. It's a race against the clock as Romelia and Luza try to apprehend the murderer and solve both the murders and the mystery behind the Clock of Stone Spheres in Kitayama Takekuni's 2026 novel "Sekikyuujou" Satsujin Jiken ("'The Stone Sphere Castle' Murder Case").

Wa-wait? Is this a brand-new entry in Kitayama Takekuni's Castle series? Why yes! Kitayama made his debut as a mystery writer in 2002 with  'Clock Jou' Satsujin Jiken ("The Clock Castle Murder Case"), which would be the first in a series of four novels, and with (at least) two novels that are somewhat related to this series (Alphabet-sou Jiken AKA The Case of Alphabet and Gettoukan Satsujin Jiken/The Moonlight Manor Murder Case). While the books in this series are standalone and not directly connected to each other story-wise, they all feature unique, fantasy-like worlds with some supernatural elements, with the main connecting tissue being that they all feature castles or grand manors as their main decor. There are some small references shared between the books, but nothing major. For example, a legend involving six decapitated knights and the name Geoffroy is featured in several books, though they do not per se refer to the exact same things. The major similarities between the stories are the castle settings, fantasy/science-fiction elements playing a role in the background, and perhaps the most important aspect: there is an emphasis on impossible murders (often featuring some grand mechanical trick behind them). In fact, Kitayama is known for his locked room murder situations with technical tricks because of this series and 'mechanical tricks' are basically what everyone associates him with. 

Anyway, Kitayama decided to return to his legendary series after two decades and so "Sekikyuujou" Satsujin Jiken was serialized across four installments in the magazine Mephisto between 2025-2026, with the actual book release scheduled for this June. And what a return it is! This is an immensely dense adventure, even by Kitayama standards. The reader is made aware fairly early on that there are thirteen priestesses in as many castle towers and that the murderer is killing and decapitating them one by one in locked rooms, so you start to think: "No way, he can't be serious...", but yes, the madman comes up with over a dozen of impossible crimes in this book! 

But more about that later. For first, I want to highlight the setting. The titular Castle of Stone Spheres is a very unique location, even within the series, as it's both a castle and a (walled) town: it's fairly open compared to previous castle because of that. But what still gives this book a claustrophobic atmosphere is the knowledge the Castle is all there is in the world; for some reason, the world within the castle walls is all that's been left after a catastrophe wiped out basically all of human civilization, and the community surviving in the castle has to be strictly administered to make sure it remains self-sustainable, as that's the only choice they have. Luza and the reader learn from Romelia however that there might be more to the history of the castle and the non-existing world outside, adding a grander, existential mystery on top of the more "mundane" locked room murders. There is also the mystery of the castle itself, which has existed for centuries and which for some reason, has stone spheres lying all around: the enigmatic stone balls vary in size and weight and can be found everywhere, from the town square to inside the priestesses' towers. They seem to be plazed haphazardly and nobody knows what their function is, and in fact, some even swear the spheres sometimes move about, as if they have their own will. These are all elements that tie in to the grand mystery Romelia tries to solve about the castle.

While Luza and Romelia try to save the priestesses, they find their quest hindered by the Nine Kings of the Night, who despise all those who threaten the balance within the Castle of Stone Spheres, which includes the free mind Romelia, and of course the outsider Luza. Romelia and Luza in particular find themselves targeted by Micthran, the King of Death, who seems to have an agenda of his own. He seems to know much more about the castle than anyone else, and it's this storyline that addresses the meta-mystery of the Castle of Stone Spheres. The climax of the clash between Romelia, Luza and Micthran is absolutely fantastic, with a shocking and insanely amusing truth awaiting the reader at the end. I'm not sure things work exactly as it's presented here, but the idea itself is just soooooo deliciously fun and yet simple to imagine, and I have to hand it to Kitayama, he actually had a looot of foreshadowing built into the story that points beautifully to this conclusion. It's this 'grand story' that will likely impress most readers of this book. 

Almost immediately after Luza's arrival in the castle, they realize there's a murderer on the loose who is after the priestesses and their heads, and for some reason the murderer is very, very focused on committing these crimes in locked-room situations. The victims are all discovered in their respective towers, but the exact situations are very different: in one, the impossibility comes from one of the big stone spheres being used to block the door from the inside (meaning the murderer couldn't have left the room after moving the sphere there), in another a priestess is found dead in a room even though Luza had been standing guard near the door, while another situation might involve an impossibility because the room itself couldn't be reached. With over a dozen of locked-room murders, it's no surprise the featured set-ups or solutions aren't all equally memorable or impressive, and while this is no short book, sometimes we do spend awfully little time at one crime scene before moving to the next already. That said, on the whole, Kitayama managed to come up a very entertaining novel and there are some really cool ideas going in some of the locked rooms. Some rooms for example may feature a rather simple trick when taken in isolation, but then Kitayama creates synergy with other locked rooms by cleverly transforming concepts used in one room and applying them to a different one. The use of one particular object in several locked rooms for example is quite memorable. Other locked rooms rely on very specific mechanical tricks that seem a bit gimmicky in a vacuum, though I do think it works narratively, because of something I will explain further below. The stone spheres also play a cool role in setting-up the locked rooms, like having a stone sphere blocking the door in one crime scene, or their presence being used to deny certain theories. The stone spheres are not always super present in the story, but when they pop up, they always make an impression because they end up either negating hypotheses or vice-versa, seem to be involved in the actual solution. The reason why the castle features so many of them in the first place is also addressed at some point, and it's a really clever idea too.

But what Kitayama really does well is taking the whole series of locked-room murders as... well, a series. The locked rooms are not discrete cases, but Kitayama develops them as a sequence, with the complete case taking on a surprising form when viewed in its totality. The way Kitayama does this and ties this analysis to the murderer is both original and a bit insane, in the good sense of the word. Some really clever clewing regarding the identity of the murder is conceiled within the execution of each locked room, giving functional meaning to the fact Kitayama used so many locked rooms in the story, beyond just the notion that having so many of them is fun. The Ellery Queen-like build-up of gathering the clues to identify the murderer is done in a very devious manner in this novel, and Kitayama is sure to use the unusual setting of the Castle of Stone Spheres in its fullest. Kitayama also goes absolutely nuts with diagrams in this book! Basically all the crime scenes are accompanied by a small diagram of the crime scene, so you already have seen plenty of them by the time you arrive at the the final chapter. And there the reader is treated to an absolutely epic summation of all the locked room murders that went on in this book, which of course is accompanied by again more than a dozen of diagrams! I honestly can't remember a mystery novel ever featuring so many diagrams.

So yes, I enjoyed "Sekikyuujou" Satsujin Jiken a lot. It's a very worthy entry to the series. I do think the previous books each had a more memorable major "key" moment that was absolutely insane, from the reason why people were getting decapitated in Clock House to the reveal of the identity of the killer in Alice Castle or simply the presentation of certain locked room murders: in "Sekikyuujou" Satsujin Jiken however does something what I haven't seen Kitayama do before, by utilizing the idea of a series of locked room murders with actual meaning in a novel, and I think the book does show Kitayama's growth as a writer across two decades because it's a very consistent mystery novel throughout, with no real lows and it's entertaining from start to finish. Definitely one of the must-reads of this year!

Original Japanese title(s):  北山猛邦『「石球城」殺人事件』

The Witch's Curse

Fire burn and caldron bubble

"Macbeth"  

Now I think about it, it was probably the cover art that put me on the wrong foot... 

After his lover was burnt on the stakes as a witch, Rosen quit his job as a lecturer in law at Ernst University and started travelling with his companion Lili, the younger sister of his lover. During their travels, they witness a few more witch burnings, but each time, Rosen is to late to prevent another tragedy from happening. Things are different however when they arrive in a small isolated village in the Schwarzwald, where they learn a witch trial is about to start. Rosen introduces himself as someone who has been involved in witch trials before, and he is introduced to the village elder, as well as to Landsen Einstein, the lord of the region. The people of the village believe strongly in Saint Menininumus, who championed for those with disabilities and thus many people who live in the village have one, as no other village would accept such people. Rosen learns the the defendant in the upcoming witch trial is Anne, the local medicine woman and extremely attractive too. Her mother had been a medicine woman too, but she had been burnt on the stake a few years ago as a witch. People had been suspicious of Anne too all this time, but now suspicious deaths have occured in the village, which prompted direct accussations of witchcraft. The first victims were the elderly judicial officer and his wife, who suddenly died with no obvious cause, even though both were healthy people. A few days later, Galgad, a servant of the Einstein family, passed away too, and he was found with a strange burn on his chest: the mark of the witch. These three deaths in quick succession led to Anne being held captive and her death seems inevitable. Rosen however insists the matter must be investigated thorougly according to the witch laws, and Landsen Einstein seems amused by the idea, and welcomes Rosen's suggestion. While the people in the village are all convinced Anne is a witch, Rosen slowly uncovers clues that not only point at Anne's innocence, they even seem to suggest she's being scapegoated. Can Rosen however convince a whole village of witch-believers that not all is as it seems in Kimono Arata's Majo Saiban no Bengonin (2025), which also bears the English title Witch Trial Defense Attorney on the cover? 

Alright, let me start of with admitting I honestly and without any doubts at all thought this was a light novel-esque fantasy book, with a vaguely European high-fantasy setting. Turns out I was wrong. Of course, the book starts with a person called Rosen who travels with a young girl, so at first, I had no reason to assume otherwise. Perhaps I should've started doubting myself already when the book first started mentioning real country names, but it was only by the time the book started naming laws and stuff about witch trials, I realized that this book *was* indeed about witch trials in Europe in the middle ages. The book also features a bibliography list at the end, so the author definitely did his homework on the matter. The tone of the book is not gritty-realism by the way and reads easily enough, but the way it depicts how a witch trial would work, is realistic enough.

I also vaguely assumed this would be something like Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney, similiar to how Konno Tenryuu's Cinderella-jou no Satsujin ("The Cinderella Castle Murder" 2021) wore its inspiration on its sleeves. And here too I was proven wrong, and very much so. In fact, at first it bothered me quite a lot the story seemed to develop so slowly: the first third of the book is dedicated to introducing us to a time period when witch trials existed and were a real part of everyday life, showing us the village and its villagers, and showing how the villagers, with all their preconceived ideas about people, ended up accusing Anne of witchcraft (and of course, all the evidence they provide is fairly flimsy). This part is well-developed, and also introduces us to the villagers' strong belief in Saint Menininumus, which leads to a kind of "special setting" mystery. For example, Landsen Einstein and his men do not hail from the village and do not strongly believe in Saint Menininumus, unlike the local people. Landsen Einsten at least follows the traditions surrounding Saint Menininumus, but the third victim, Galgad, did not place an anti-witch protection charm at his door, like all other people in the village did. This, according to the villagers, is proof a witch (Anne) killed him: it was the only house in the village not under the protection of Saint Menininumus. It is this belief in the traditions surrounding Saint Menininumus that also forms an obstable to Rosen's investigations at first. He is so convinced of his right and of the power of logic and reasoning, he completely neglects the human psychology that forms the foundation to the accusation towards Anne and his efforts to prove he is right, only end up hurting his own case with the villagers as they sense he's dismissive of their ideas and their saint. This belief in Saint Menininumus works effective as a "special setting", because while there are not many specific rules, the reader can easily understand what limitations this strong belief provides to Rosen's investigations and the willingness of villagers to help him.

This is also why the book is not like Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney in terms of story structure. The trial doesn't happen until the very end in fact and is relatively short. Yet it is hard to say much of the book is truly dedicated to a thorough investigation of the deaths. Mood-setting is definitely more important at first: important clues only come into Rosen's possession relatively late, and that's only because it's only then he finally gets a true chance to investigate vital pieces of evidence. Most of the story is more focused on seeing Rosen finding opportunities to actually conduct a true investigation, which actually makes sense as everyone in the village is already convinced Anne's a witch, and while Landsen would find it interesting to see Rosen turn everything around, it's not like he cares whether Anne's convicted or not, as long as peace is restored in his village. Any efforts by Rosen to investigate the case have to be considered carefully, as he himself might be accused of being a witch, or at least an ally of the witch, too. The book is good at portraying this sense of dread, where anyone might be accused of witchcraft or being in cahoots with a witch with one wrong move.

As a mystery, the plot is less built around physical evidence and interpretation of them, and more about the logic derived from the pyschology of the involved characters. If Anne were a witch, would she have done X (as shown by the crime scene) even though she knew condition Y? If Galgad wasn't killed by a witch, what motive would a murderer have to kill him? The mystery crafted by Kimono makes great use of the unique "witches are real and have to burnt on the stake!" psychology portrayed in this book, with good logical deductions based on the actions of characters, considering their beliefs and fears. It is a mystery built with elements that only work in this world and that is always when a mystery novel makes the most impression on me, when it's a mystery that works in, and unique to the world depicted (i.e. in Ellery Queen mystery novels everything has to be rational and actors always act logical for their own causes, so the longer deduction chains work perfectly for that world). Majo Saiban no Bengonin works as a mystery because it is set in a remote village in Medieval Europe when people believed in witches.

The epilogue addresses a few more matters not discussed in the actual witch trial, which adds a completely new angle to the matter too. I think some people might not like the added information: I myself think that while mystery-wise, the epilogue adds cool bits and pieces, I think the overall message of the epilogue falls a bit flat, with the overall message of the book being stronger and more consistent up until the epilogue. I do like the little clues and odd passages being addressed properly in the epilogue though. 

I enjoyed Majo Saiban no Bengonin a lot on the whole though. Whereas there is mystery fiction out there that utilize the theme of witch trials, they are usually fantasy-inclined, so it's interesting to have a book that's actually based on European history. Because of the structure of the book, I am a bit reluctant to call it a true courtroom drama, as most of the relevant plot developments don't even take place in the actual witch trial, but nonetheless, I enjoyed the book a lot due to its good take on the theme and I look forward to future works by author Kimino, as this was actually their debut novel!

The Problem of the Red Rose

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

"A Study in Scarlet" 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Borrowed Shield

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

"Saint Seiya" 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Dawn's Early Light

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

"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Case Of Spirits

"Tell me, Leonard," he said. "Has it ever occurred to you that one day wars will be fought with brains?"

Leonard picked up his coffee cup. "Oh dear. Won’t that be rather messy?" he said.

"The Fifth Elephant" 

It was only after buying today's book I realized I basically own no other books by the same publisher (Gentosha)...

The handsome Hamon Kyousuke is a medium who's been attracting a lot of attention lately and the television screenwriter Kagitani Takashi has organized a small seance at the house of an art collector with Hamon. Other guests include art-related people as well as three editors working for a magazine, including Tomoe and Makabe, the latter having a crush on Tomoe, but unable to propose due to an inherited debt. During the seance, Hamon is challenged on his psychic powers, and he defiantly announces he can use his powers to remotely kill someone. He asks for anyone to name someone they want to have killed, and while initially nobody dares to utter a name, Tomoe and Makabe's superior eventually names an artist, because he stood him and Makabe up earlier this day despite having an appointment. Hamon then says he will take control of the artist's body, forcing himself to commit suicide. While they initially don't believe Hamon, doubt starts to creep in so they drive by the artist's house to check up on him, only to find all the furniture being placed outside the house. They have to move stuff around, only to find the door locked from the inside. And inside the locked house, they find the artist dead, hanging from the ceiling as announced by Hamon! Unable to believe Hamon truly has powers, murder is suspected by those involved in the seance, including the detective Senoo Yuuji, but how did Hamon commit this locked room murder, and why was everything placed outside? When later Hamon once again announces a remote murder and another body is found, people start to think Hamon really has the power to control people and make them commit suicide, but Senoo is not convinced and assisted by Makabe, he uncovers the truth in Asukabe Katsunori's Leonardo no Chinmoku ("The Silence of Leonardo", 2004).

Leonardo no Chinmoku was originally released in 2004, but only got its pocket re-release in 2025, after the amazing revival of interest in Asukabe's work, that was set in motion after the bookshops Shosen and Horindo put out limited facsimile releases of his out-of-print works: the facsimile release Datenshi Goumonkei ("Torture of the Fallen Angels" 2008) in particular was a notable event, gathering a lot of attention. Since then, publishers have been re-releasing a lot of Asukabe's books from their catalogues that had previously been out-of-print for over a decade, like Lamia Gyakusatsu ("Lamia Massacre"). Leonardo no Chinmoku is another of these "hey, it's a bit late but perhaps we should put out a pocket" release.

The story revolves around a problem often see in other psychic/seance-themed mysteries: a psychic correctly announcing something will happen, with the mystery focusing on how they could've known that: of course the psychic in question in this case has an alibi for the death, meaning they themselves couldn't have known about the murder because they committed the murder (or did they, and did they fake their alibis in some way?) In this case, we also have the added mystery of the locked room, and the question of why all the furniture was placed outside. I have to admit I wasn't completely convinced by this murder. A lot of the mechanics surrounding the solution of this mystery revolve around coincidence, with certain events and people just happen to be timing up perfectly by sheer luck. The solution behind how the locked room situation was created too was simple, while the answer to why all the furniture was outside feels underdeveloped: while it touches upon a greater theme and the book does try to present as something big, I don't feel this whydunnit was developed properly as of now: it needed more set-up to give you that "Aha!" feeling, because as it is now, you kinda get what they were going for, but it's not completely convincing and even worse, it's basically unguessable from a fair-play mystery point of view. It'a s shame, because this is when the book is supposed to be most strongly connected to the Leonardo from the title Leonardo no Chinmoku, who is of course Leonardo da Vinci. Art is an important motif throughout most, if not all of Asukabe's books (he even made original paintings for his debut novel!), but I'd say that in this book, art might be of the least importance of all the Asukabe's books I have read until now. 

Whereas the first death predicted by Hamon was found in an 'inside-out' house (furniture found outside), the second victim 'killed remotely' by Hamon is lying found 'upside-down' next to a road, continuing the topsy-turvy theme. While this murder also depends on coincidence up to some degree, I like the build-up of this murder a lot more: the clewing is better, being more connected to other plotlines of the book and with a more even distribution of the clues across the whole book, and I think the way it's connected to the first murder works well too. In hindsight, it's actually funny how much more integrated this murder is to the rest of the book compared to the first locked room murder. I think basically all of the most interesting elements of Leonardo no Chinmoku's narrative revolve around this second death, rather than the first death, even if the actual scene of the first seance is better.

Leonardo no Chinmoku is the most straightforward mystery novel I have read by Asukabe until now, and it's also perhaps my least favorite. While the plot depends a bit too much on coincidence and I don't really think the whydunnit behind the first murder works well, the overall plot is an adequately constructed mystery, with especially the plotlines pertaining to the second half being well-planned. But on the other hand, I can't deny missing some of the insaneness I have seen in other works by Asukabe and while I am not very versed, nor interested in art in general, I do feel the general lack in discussion on art here hurts the book a bit. It's great the book's easily available again now and mind you, this is not a bad mystery novel by any means, but I wouldn't pick this as my first Asukabe to read.

Original Japanese title(s):  飛鳥部勝則『レオナルドの沈黙』