The Mystery at the Crystal Palace

「おい、どこに行くつもりだよ」

「中村青司を殺しに行くんです」

『硝子の塔の殺人』

 

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"I'm off to kill Nakamura Seiji."

"The Glass Tower Murder"

I loooove the cover art of this book! Apparently, the book had an exclusive early partial release on digital storefronts, with the first half of the book being offered completely free, and those digital releases had exclusive cover art too with characters (one of them featured below in the review).

Kouzushima Tarou became a hero in the medical world with his invention of a revolutionary drug delivery system called Trident, and the patent also made him wealthy enough to indulge in his true passion: mystery fiction. Mostly retired now, Kouzushima lives with his servants in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, in a curious building that seems to come straight out of one of those detective novels Kouzushima loves so much. The high cone-shaped tower stands high on the mountain and has glass exterior walls, with each floor above the ground floor having only one single room and a big spiral staircase at the centre of the building. This is where Kouzushima also keeps his valuable mystery collection, which includes rare editions and props from series like Columbo, but also more recent productions like Sherlock and Knives Out. Having something important to announce, the eccentric recluse has invited a few guests to stay in the glass tower. While the precise contents of his announcements are not known, the fact the list of guests include people like the Nagano police detective Kagami, veteran mystery writer Kuruma Koushin, Sakyou Kousuke, editor at one of the most prominent mystery publishers, the spirit medium Yumeyomi Suishou and the great detective Aoi Tsukiyo ("great" is part of her title) is enough to tip off everyone that Kouzushima's announcement is related to his beloved fictional genre. Another name on the list is Ichijou Yuuma, Kouzushima's young physician, who however has a different reason to be here: he's here to kill his boss. In order to save a loved one, Ichijou has no other option left anymore but to kill Kouzushima, but of course in a way that will arouse no suspicion. This little party is the perfect occassion: the plan is to make Kouzushima take some poison and then create a locked room of the study. When Kouzushima doesn't appear for his announcement, they'll go up to Kouzushima's floor, break into the locked study and then Ichijou will declare the man died of a heart attack, and he'll live happily ever after.

Of course, things don't go as planned in the first chapter of Chinen Mikito's Garasu no Tou no Satsujin (2021), which also carries the English title The Glass Tower Murder on the cover, or this would be a very short book. It takes longer for the poison to kill off Kouzushima than Ichijou had expected and the dying victim manages to call downstairs to the staff for help with his dying breath, so Ichijou has to leave the study immediately, leaving him no time to tidy up the scene as he had hoped. Like planned, the rest of the people present in the tower break into the locked study and find Kouzushima's dead body, but Kouzushima had lived long enough to leave what appears to be a dying message, and the great detective Aoi Tsukiyo quickly deduces that there may be foul play at hand. While she wants to investigate the scene more closely, police detective Kagami shoes her away, saying this is a job for the police. A call to the police however tells them a snowslide has blocked the roads off, so it might take them three days to get to the tower. Forced to stay in the tower, everyone retreats for the night, but the following morning, a fire alarm brings everyone downstairs to the dining room, which they find locked from the inside and when they break inside, they find the butler murdered and the table on fire. Everyone is horrified by this second murder in their current closed circle situation, but none are as surprised as Ichijou, who knows he committed the first murder, but is also sure he didn't kill the butler! There's another murderer roaming the tower, and Ichijou realizes this is his chance: if he can find out who the other murderer is, he'll be able to use them as a scapegoat for the Kouzushima murder too. However, it's very likely the other murderer is thinking the exact same opposite, trying to frame Kouzushima's murderer for the second murder, so it's a race for Ichijou to find the real murderer, and the best way to do that is to become the great detective Tsukiyo's Watson.

A cone-shaped tower with glass walls, a closed circle in the snowy mountains, an eccentric collector of mystery-related objects, a curious party consisting of detective writers, mediums, editors and a great detective: Garasu no Tou no Satsujin is written in honor of classic puzzler-type mystery novels and in particular the novels in the shin honkaku (new orthodox) movement and it doesn't even try to hide it. In the earliest pages we are already treated to a song of praise to authors like Ayatsuji Yukito, Arisugawa Alice and Norizuki Rintarou (*disclosure: I have translated work by all three of them) through the mouths of the characters and of course, many comparisons are made between the glass tower they reside in currently and the many curious buildings that function as unique murder locations featured in shin honkaku mystery novels. Kouzushima is presented as a big shin honkaku fan, a man who had great successes in the medical world, but whose dream was to succeed in the mystery world (his own attempts to make a name for himself in the world of mystery fiction were... not really succesful). But other characters are also very genre-savvy, and this is what drives this whole novel.

While Kagami acts like the Stereotypical Police Detective in Mystery Fiction by wanting to keep Tsukiyo and everyone else out and insists on waiting for the proper authorities to arrive, Tsukiyo and Ichijou work together and try to figure out who committed the murders. Well, to be exact, Ichijou is helping Tsukiyo to find out who the other murderer is, while also trying to conceal his own involvement in the first murder. This of course easier said than done, especially as the second murderer keeps on killing people and always in locked rooms. Even measures like keeping the master key in a safe and having two different people keeping the two keys necessary to open it doesn't seem to faze the other murderer. What Tsukiyo, Ichijou and the others can do however, is theorize about the murders and they do this in the context of shin honkaku mystery novels. No work is outright spoiled of course, but they do discuss common tropes, concepts and themes seen in shin honkaku novels and see how they could apply to their current situation. Chinen obviously designed all the murders in this novel to invoke common ideas seen in shin honkaku mystery fiction, especially early shin honkaku novels with grand, over-the-top tricks that are utterly fantastical but oh-so entertaining, and thus the book provides a great vehicle to look back at how themes developed early on in the shin honkaku movement and challenge the reader to guess how these ideas apply to the murders in this book.

The (intended) result is that at times, Garasu no Tou no Satsujin will feel a bit familiar: while it doesn't 'steal' solutions from other novels, the concepts and twists will often remind of other books, but that is an inevitable result of the focus of this book, as it wants to use this to fanboy over the classic shin honkaku novels. Personally, I think people who are fairly familiar with the history of shin honkaku will find a lot more to enjoy about this novel, as a lot of the key points of this novel are written especially to appeal to those people. As a "conventional" mystery novel, there are just too many references to real-life history of shin honkaku and meta-discussions about it, and you'll probably feel like you're missing a lot of the story without that context (which is true). That said, the various locked room murders are, in concept, quite enjoyable, with ideas that make good use of the unique setting.

The secondary whodunnit plot also adds a lot of great tension: we know that the narrator Ichijou's the murderer of Kouzushima, but there's also the presence of the second murderer, who manages to pull off impossible murders in the glass tower despite the presence of the great detective Tsukiyo, and you have the added suspense of Ichijou actually being Tsukiyo's Watson, hoping to find the second murderer first so he can frame them for the first murder too. This plot-thread of Ichijou being both the murderer and detective('s assistant) adds a lot of twist and turns making Garasu no Tou no Satsujin a much more tricky and complex reading experience than the first chapter might make you think it will be. The book kinda spoils itself by the way in that regard, as at one point, the story kinda works towards a conclusion....  but you'll still have about twenty percent of the book left unread, so you know even more twists and turns are coming up. That's one advantage mystery games have over books!

Garasu no Tou no Satsujin is a very densily packed novel, featuring a lot of familiar tropes and concepts of the genre, but that's intentional and it's actually used in a very meaningful manner to present what is basically a love letter to the shin honkaku sub-genre. It presents a romantic view back at the familiar tropes from shin honkaku novels, while also telling a capable mystery itself too, though still firmly set in the context of those novels. This means that you'll be able to get a lot more out of this novel if you're familiar with the novels and authors in question and that the book is probably less fun if you lack that context, because some of the trickery utilized and the character motivations might seem a bit weird in that case, but personally, I found this to be a very entertaining puzzler that presented a surprising deep look at the genre.

Original Japanese title(s): 知念実希人『硝子の塔の殺人』

Buried Secrets

 結婚を罰ゲームみたいに言う大人達

そんなんじゃ夢さえ見れない子供だし

「カクテル」(Hysteric Blue)

Adults who see marriage as punishment game

They're like children who can't even dream anymore

"Cocktail" (Hysteric Blue)

No, I don't get the cover.

More than ten years ago, I briefly discussed Arisugawa Alice's An Illustrated Guide to the Locked Room 1891-1998, which was exactly what the title said: a book that discussed forty different locked room or otherwise impossible murder mystery stories, twenty from Japan and twenty from abroad. Each of these stories featured an introduction, but most importantly very neat illustrations of each crime scene. In the decade since, I've read most of twenty Japanese entries, sometimes inspired by the list, sometimes because they were famous stories anyway or because it was part of a series I was reading. One of the entries I honestly wouldn't have known about if not for the mention within this book however is Sasazawa Saho's Kyuukon no Misshitsu ("The Locked Room of the Suitors", 1978). Looking the book up now on the internet shows I'm not the only one, as multiple reviews/write-ups mention An Illustrated Guide to the Locked Room 1891-1998 as the source where they first heard of the book, and as the book isn't in print anymore (though available as e-book), most people will probably first find out about this book through this route. The book starts at the ceremony of the first Journalist's Award, which goes to the celebrated and much-respected freelance journalist Amachi Shoujirou. At the ceremony, he has a chat with the attractive actress Saijou Toshiko and her little sister Satsuki. Toshiko never had a major break as an actress, but has carved a niche for herself as a strong supporting actress. She invites Amachi to her father's birthday party, as Amachi has been an immense help and support for her family the last few months: Professor Saijou was one of the influential professors at the university, but an accusation of sexual harassment quickly changed his position. The professor denied all accusations and suspected it was part of the ongoing power struggle at the top of the university, and eventually the accusation was withdrawn, but by then he had already decided to retire. Toshiko had asked for Amachi to use his connections to keep things quiet in the media, which definitely prevented even worse damage to Professor Saijou's reputation, and as thanks, single father Amachi and his son (as Satsuki's play partner) are invited to her father's birthday party.

It's not a normal birthday party however, as Toshiko's future will be decided here. Her father only allowed Toshiko to become an actress on two conditions: she was not to have any affairs with men, and at the right time, her parents would decide whom she would marry. That time has come, and at the party, her father will annonce which of the two suitors of Toshiko (a medical doctor and a laywer) will marry her. To his surprise however, Amachi also learns other guests include a professor involved with the power struggle at the university, and even the student who accused Professor Saijou. The gathering at the Saijou country house is to take place over two days, and nothing has been announced at the end of the first night. The following morning, the Saijou couple is nowhere to be found. At first, everyone thinks they're out walking, but after some hours, everyone becomes worried and start looking. Eventually, the couple is found dead in an old storage cellar located on the grounds. Before the war, the four-meter deep cellar was used to store coal, but it hadn't been used since. The poisoned bottle of water explains how the two died, but not how or why, and there's also the problem of the scribbled letters "WS" on the floor. The door at the end of the stairs leading into the cellar however was locked with a padlock from the inside and the key found in a deep drain inside the cellar, while the only other exit would be the ground-level window four meters up. While Toshiko's devastated by her parents' death, the two suitors haven't given up on Toshiko and the vast fortune she'll inherit. They insist that the person who can clarify why her parents died like that can marry Toshiko, and it just so happens they all have very different theories whether this was some accident, suicide or murder. However, the two suitors perhaps seem to have forgotten all about Amachi, as he has a different theory all together...

This was an interesting locked room mystery, even though the set-up takes a long time and the core premise is a bit wack. For this novel follows a structure with multiple solutions, where both suitors and Amachi eventually propose their own take on the death of the Saijou couple, but let's be honest, nobody's going to believe this is a suicide despite the initial appearance of the crime scene, especially not if we're only halfway into the book and there's plenty of pages left including chapters which are literally titled "Hypothesis of Murder" and "The Truth". But before the reader gets to the more interesting parts, they'll have to wade to a slow start which introduces the backstory of Toshiko, her parents and their relation to Amachi, the other guests and a detailed explanation of the cellar where the dead couple is found. I wonder if this story would've worked better in a shorter format, because some parts feel too undeveloped for a full novel, while other parts feel too long for a short story. Of the thirteen guests present at the party for example, probably only about half of the characters get significant screentime while the others are basically only acting as background filler for most of the story, simply 'being there' in the scene but never saying anything. Add that to the fact that it takes about half of the book before murder is seriously considered an option and you have a novel that is taking things a bit too slow for most readers.

Also: this first half is a bit frustrating because the whole proposal of the two suitors to do the deduction battles is utterly unbelievable. Whether it was a suicide, accident, murder or something else, Toshiko's parents died a tragic death just one day earlier, and they think the way to woo her is to prove it was a suicide/murder/whatever and force her to marry whoever comes up with the best solution that explains her parents' death. Immediately. after it all happened? "And that's why your parents commited suicide. Let's marry!" I'm pretty sure that's going against etiquette!

By the time we arrive at the theories that propose actual murder, and the story develops further as it sets-up the final denouement, Kyuukon no Misshitsu becomes a much more enjoyable story. While the part surrounding the dying message isn't that memorable, the locked room mystery and the build-up towards the solution are quite good. Both the fake murder theory and the final solution are built on clever clues sprinkled throughout the first half of the book, and they don't expect the reader to just come up with the solution for the locked room murder out of nowhere, but challenge the reader to pick up on minor clues and events and combine them to first figure who could have committed the murder in terms of opportunity, and from that point, how that person could've done it (i.e. what the specific options were for that person to set-up the cellar murder). The locked room mystery itself is also quite memorable. The location itself is a bit 'boring' as it's just a cellar locked from the inside and one window several meters high up at ground level, but with the padlock, the key in the drain pipe, the poisoned bottles of water, the message WS, and no signs of ropes or other climbing tools having been used through the window, there are plenty of elements that allow the characters to come up with very different theories, all based on the same information presented early in the story. Ultimately, I can see why Arisugawa decided to include this book in An Illustrated Guide to the Locked Room 1891-1998 as in a few months, I'll have forgotten about the characters and everything of this novel, but even in a few years, I will remember how this locked room mystery was created.

I'm not sure whether I'd really consider a classic of the locked room mystery, but Kyuukon no Misshitsu is definitely worth a read if you're interested in impossible crimes. Considering most mystery novels I read nowadays are relatively recent (most of them actually post 2000), it does read as a dated novel at times in terms of set-up and characters and sometimes this book becomes very melodramatic, but I think the locked room part of the story still holds well. Worth a read if you happen to come across it!

Original Japanese title(s): 笹沢左保『求婚の密室』

How Watson Learned the Trick

"I'm lost without my Boswell."

"A Scandal in Bohemia"

Not sure if anyone reads the page, but I added Turn of the Golden Witch to the Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough memo.

I love short story collections, but it always takes so much time to write the review...

Ooyama Seiichirou has been churning out incredibly well-written puzzle plot short stories since his debut, so obviously, any news of a new short story collection immediately attracts my attention, even without me knowing what it's about. Though in this case, the premise also sounded so much fun I knew I had to read it. Wato Souji is a rookie police detective assigned to the top investigation unit of the Metropolitan Police Department, which sports an unbelievable rate of solved cases. Unlike his colleagues however, Wato himself is not exceptionally good at his job. Yet, it is absolutely thanks to Wato that his unit does so well, even if his team members don't realize that. Ever since Wato was a little, he has had a weird gift: people in his physical vicinity become better thinkers when faced with a mental problem. When Wato's around, it's as if the mist suddenly disperses and any person becomes capable of infering the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other, from just a drop of water. Wato has dubbed his unique talent the "Watson Force" as everyone around him unconsciously turns into Sherlock Holmes. Nobody knows that Wato is making people around him smarter, but his colleagues do notice things go more smoothly whenever Wato's around, so they like having him on the team. While Wato himself is not affected by his power and thus can not become a Holmes himself, he does have a trait only series detectives have: he tends to get involved in random murder cases even outside work. Luckily, the cases are always solved for him by everyone around him. But what if Wato finds himself in trouble without anyone around? Ooyama Seiichirou's  2020 short story collection Watson-ryoku  ("The Watson Force") explores Wato's ability in seven (+one) diverse stories.

In game-lingo: Wato's Watson Force is a passive ability that greatly buffs the intelligence stats of all friendly and enemy units around him.

The first time I heard of the premise of these stories, I just knew I had to read them, because the concept was just so funny. An ability that makes everyone else brilliant detectives, while the series protagonist is destined to play the Watson in each and every story? What's so interesting about these stories that you never know who in the end will end up as the detective. Everyone in the vicinity of Wato receives the temporary mental boost, but that doesn't mean that all the characters arrive at the same conclusion at the same time. Everyone is just getting a mental boost, so they all start forming theories about the murder cases they find themselves involved with, and as these characters present their theories to each other in fierce deduction battles, they slowly work together towards the true solution. All the characters always have something to add in terms of interesting theories (okay, some theories are less likely to be true than others), and the fun in these stories is seeing everyone bouncing off theories until one of them finally figures the whole thing out. But as there's no established series detective, you simply never know who will get it right. I once wrote an article about false solutions and the foil detective, but Watson-ryoku presents a brilliant method to prevent the reader from knowing a solution is fake simply because it wasn't the series detective who proposed it: by not having a series detective in the first place, and creating the possibility that every character besides Wato can be the Sherlock Holmes, you just never know what might come, which keeps the battle of wits and the whole plot exciting until the very end.

Take the opening story Akai Juujika ("The Red Crosses") for example. Wato is enjoying his Christmas holiday at a small ski pension, which has three other guests. On Christmas morning, the guests find that the owner of the pension hasn't prepared breakfast yet, nor is there any sign of the owner's sister, who also works here. The guests check the private rooms of the owner, only to find that brother and sister have been shot to death in their respective rooms. The owner however managed to leave a dying message while he was bleeding to death on the floor: five red crosses are drawn in blood in front of him. Wato reveals to the other guests that he's a police detective and notifies the local authorities, but they aren't able to come due to a blocked road and when Wato also discovers that there are no footprints in the snow whatsoever leading away from the lodge, he determines the murderer must be one of the other guests. At this point, his Watson Force kicks in, and lo, the other guests start their own investigation into the murder, arriving at a surprising answer to the question as to the meaning of the red crosses and the identity of the murderer. The story keeps both the characters and the reader on their toes by having the three guests all become brilliant detectives in their own right, allowing each of them to propose rather interesting theories about the double murder. Some of these deductions are sometimes a bit forceful: they usually turn out to be wrong, but do serve as a point for other deductions to build upon as elements turn out to be true. Having some of these "Holmeses" propose slightly farfetched theories that ultimately do help introduce the final solution works in the context of this series, as all the characters are capable of coming up with fairly original insights into the case. I like the final solution too: it's in the spirit of the Van Dine/Queen school, with a chain of reasoning based on the physical state of the crime scene ("why is this here in this form?"), giving a plausible reason why five crosses were drawn on the carpet and showing you step by step how to arrive at the identity of the murderer from there.

In Ankokushitsu no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Dark Room"), Wato has been given a ticket to the exposition of a famous sculptor. The exposition is held in one of the underground floors of a multi-tenant building. It's still early, so besides Wato, the sculptor himself and the receptionist, there are only two other visitors, but suddenly they all feel a rumble and all the lights in the room go out. It turns out a sink hole has appeared just outside and that broke the sewage pipes. Not only is the elevator disabled, water has also flooded the emergency staircase, preventing the party from opening the escape door to escape through there. Fortunately, rescue is on its way. It's still completely dark in the room as the people introduce each other using their cell phones as light source, but suddenly, they hear another thud, and they find that the sculptor himself lying dead on the floor, having been hit on the head. But why would someone decide to kill the man here and now, while they're all trapped in an unlit room and with no means of escape? Some of the theories proposed do feel like they come out of nowhere, and it's still weird when they turn out to be partially true, as a build-up for the actual solution despite being such daring deductions (guesses), but I do like the idea behind the reason for why the sculptor died: the motive relates to a very specific set of circumstances that happen to be true here and gives plausible reason for why the culprit acted so suddenly.

Kyuukonsha to Dokusatsusha ("Suitors and Poisoners") has Wato be summoned to a remote private island as a potential husband for Sasamori Tsukiko, the daughter of Sasamori Shunsuke, CEO of the renowned and influential Sasamori Electronics. Sasamori once spotted Wato being a kind person to the elderly and determined he was a good candidate as a son-in-law. Sasamori is also a personal friend of the Superintendent-General of the Metropolitan Police Department, who hopes his subordinate will be chosen by Tsukiko. Three other suitors are also summoned to the private island and the idea is that Tsukiko will spend some time with everyone there and make up her mind. The other three suitors are all in career fast tracks at various ministeries and they immediately realize that Wato isn't not a serious rival for any of them, which ironically means they can be friendly with him. The party has just arrived on the island and started on some drinking and dancing when one of the suitors falls dead on the floor: his drink had been poisoned. The trope of multiple suitors fighting for the same girl and one of them being murdered is a familiar one of course, but now the remaining suitors don't just fight it out, but actually use logic and theories to fight each other and figure out who the murderer is. It's a surprisingly complex story, with various theories that focus on questions on when the drink was poisoned and whether the victim was actually the intended target and not (and how to prove that logically). As always, you never quite know who's on the right track until the very end. This story makes very clever use of the concept of the Watson Force, showing how it can be used in a very original way to drive the plot and create a mystery that actually revolves around having all the characters come up with various solutions from different angles.

Yuki no Hi no Majutsu ("Snow Day Magic") is set during Wato's time as a patrol officer. One early morning, he notices a car parked near the construction site of a new house. He decides to check this out, and walks up to the house, when Miyagi, the owner of the halfway house, comes running out. Upon seeing Wato, Miyagi tells him he found a dead body inside. The victim was lying face down on the foundation of the semi-basement floor. The man's been shot to death just moments earlier. There are no footprints in the snow surrounding the site that could belong to the murderer, only those of the victim himself and those of Miyagi, but these footprints show that Miyagi had only just arrived at the house and as he wasn't carrying the pistol on his body when Wato ran into him, Wato determines Miyagi couldn't be the killer. What complicates matters however is the fact that the victim and Miyagi are both members of the same shooting club, and they were rivals in being picked for the Olympics. A deduction battle sparked by the Watson Force starts upon arrival of the victim's family, who are convinced that Miyagi did it. A story which reminds me of Ooyama's The Locked Room Collector, as this too is an impossible murder that is ultimately solved through Queen school logic. It's a story that could've worked as "just" an impossible murder story, without the various characters trying to outsmart each other with their theories, but it's just more entertaining this way, as you see how Ooyama slowly builds towards the final solution, which is a nice one: the method of the murder is interesting on its own, but what's most commendable is how Ooyama arrives at this method through a logical examination of the circumstances of the murder, making it not just a random guess, but a carefully built-up chain of logic leading to the realization of how the impossible murder was done.

Kumo no Ue no Shi ("Death Above the Clouds") is obviously set inside a plane, one that is going from Japan to Los Angeles. It's not a busy flight, so Wato has the three window-side seats for himself, as does the man in the row behind him. Soon after the 'lights out'' time however, the cabin assistant notices that all's not well with the man behind Wato and after calling for a doctor aboard, it's determined the man is dead and that he was likely poisoned on board. Wato reveals himself to the crew and sky marshal as a police detective and they start investigating the murder on the Japanese-American, focusing on the question why the man died on board: was it a suicide or a murder, and why during a flight? Some of the theories proposed are a bit too farfetched this time, but they are needed to set-up the final solution and I guess they work in this particular series because anyone can be as brilliant as Holmes, even if they're going in the wrong general direction. The explanations proposed by the various characters keep the reader engaged as they tackle the problem from different angles, and I like how the final solution builds clearly on an earlier idea that had been discarded first, but which becomes "valid" again due to the introduction of a new fact, changing the circumstances again.

Tantei Daihon ("Detective Script") is one have discussed in the past already, as it was included in the anthology Honkaku Ou 2019. It's written as a homage to Abiko Takemaru's Tantei Eiga and follows the same basic idea, about a playwright who barely survived a fire in his home. What also barely survived the fire is the script of his troupe's upcoming murder mystery play. The partially burned scenario only offers the start of a murder mystery that happens on a remote island, but not the solution. The actors start discussing the script and guessing who the playwright intended to be the murderer in the presence of Wato (who saved the playwright from the fire). As the discussion continues, each actor comes up with a solution that indicates their own character as the murderer. I'll just copy-paste my own words here from the previous review: "Tantei Daihon is still a surprisingly tightly-plotted story with several fake solutions. The final solution is clever: if you just follow the clues "straight", you're likely to run into a wall, but once you figure out the true meaning of a certain passage in the screenplay, everything is turned upside down, allowing you to arrive at the correct solution. I love this type of whodunnit setups, where you can cross out most of the suspects if you simply carefully follow each clue, but there's one final clue that asks for a bit more imagination in interpretation, which can turn everything around. Short, but satsifying."

The culprit isn't the only one who's unlucky in Fuun na Hannin ("The Unlucky Perpetrator"): Wato's on a late highway bus heading for Toba when the bus is suddenly hijacked by an armed man, who's just has had enough of everything and forces the driver to change destination. When one of the passengers doesn't seem to listen to the hijacker's orders, they discover that this man has been stabbed to death with a knife. Wato can't do much about controlling his Watson Force even in an emergency situation, so the passengers and the hijacker start thinking about how this man was killed on the bus while the bus is headed towards its new destination. Interesting situation! It's funny how everyone starts playing Holmes right in the middle of a hostage situation and that even the hijacker plays along. This story does a great job at foreshadowing, placing Chekhov's Guns at the right place and time and finally bringing it all together for the final solution. The base plot of this story does remind of the previous story (murder inside a moving closed circle situation), but the solution is completely different and I like this one better as the various events that occur throughout the story really come together to form a cohesive plot.

While these stories were originally published seperately, the volume Watson-ryoku also includes a overarching storyline presented through special connecting segments that act as intermezzos between the various stories. The book starts with Wato waking up in a locked room. He remembers he was abducted by an unknown figure, and Wato suspects his capture is related to his Wato Force, so he starts reflecting on the previous cases that were solved through the Watson Force, introducing the seven stories discussed above. In the conclusion, it's revealed who captured Wato and for what reason, and it's perfectly possible to deduce who the abductor is based the few theories Wato himself proposes and the details of the previous stories. Interesting to see how these originally unconnected stories manage to form one narrative in the end.

Watson-ryoku definitely didn't disappoint, and the volume turned out to be a very entertaining short story collection, that not only has an interesting premise with the Watson Force, but makes the best of that original idea too: we have battles of the wits with all kinds of theories (false solutions) in all the stories, the reader is kept on their toes as you never quite know who will propose the final solution and while the basic plots of a few of these stories do feel a bit similar, with closed circle situations and relatively 'simple' murders like poisoning or just someone bludgeoned or stabbed to death, the core mystery plots always revolve around very different concepts. Recommended material, and man, I can't wait to see a live-action drama: usually the detective is the greatest star in a series, but now you can have an all-star cast in each episode and have everyone (besides Wato) play the great detective!

Original Japanese title(s): 大山誠一郎『ワトソン力』： 「赤い十字架 」/「 暗黒室の殺人」 / 「求婚者と毒殺者」/ 「雪の日の魔術」/「 雲の上の」 /「 探偵台本」 / 「不運な犯人」

The Adventure of the Red Circle

「この世のどんな出来事であっても、それが文章になってしまった時点で、それはフィクションでしょう。小説というものは、すべてフィクション。ノンフィクション小説、というのはそれだけで自己矛盾、自家撞着してしまうのではないかしら」

『QED ベイカー街の問題』

"Everything that occurs in this world becomes fiction the moment it is written down. Novels are always fiction. Non-fiction novels are by name alone self-contradicting oxymorons."

"QED The Problem of Baker Street"

I don't consider myself a true Holmesian (Sherlockian), but I am fairly familiar with many of the major Holmesian discussions. No idea where I pick these things up.

Since a year or so, I've been reading the manga series Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou by Katou Motohiro semi-regularly. Some people might not be aware that there is also a completely unrelated mystery novel series titled QED, written by Takada Takafumi. I only read the first novel in the series a long time ago, so I am not very familiar with the series, but in general, this concept of this series is that it tackles both 'real-time' mysteries as well as historical mysteries, regarding historical events, famous persons or literature. The first novel for example had a famous Japanese poetry (waka) collection as its theme and in order to solve the 'real-time' mystery, it was also necessary to solve a mystery hidden within the ancient poems. The detective of this series is Kuwabara Takashi, nickname Tataru. He's an eccentric young pharmacist (specialized in Chinese medicine) who is quite knowledgeable about err, a lot, but especially literature. His assistant Nana is one of Tataru's very few college friends and while she too is a pharmacist, she works in a Western-style pharmacy.

The first two novels in this series were related to Japanese history, so the theme of the third novel might surprise readers, even if the title gives everything away: QED Baker Gai no Mondai ("QED The Problem of Baker Street", 2000) is of course about modern, British literature: Sherlock Holmes. One day, Nana runs into her college friend Yukiko, who turns out to be a Sherlockian. She's a member of the Baker Street Smokers, a Sherlockian club created by restaurant/club owner Hotta Soujirou. The Baker Street Smokers consists of four members and usually has small private meetings, but Yukiko explains they'll be holding a party on the sixth of January to celebrate the third anniversary of the Baker Street Smokers, as well as the hundredth anniversary since Sherlock Holmes returned to the land of the living in The Adventure of the Empty House. All members can invite people to come along, and the four regular members will even perform a little theatre play based on a Holmes story. Nana and Tataru are invited as Yukiko's guests, and Tataru even turns out to be a pretty dedicated Sherlockian, who can't wait to discuss a certain Sherlockian matter with other people. The party comes to an abrupt end when Sakimaki, one of the BSS members, is killed while getting dressed for the play. He was found lying on a table, stabbed in his stomach and holding a piece of paper with some incoherent writing on it. Given that few people at the party knew Sakimaki, suspicion naturally falls upon the remaining three BBS members, but it also appears Sakimaki's death may have to do with Tsukiji Natsuyo, a woman who was going to become a member of the BBS, but committed suicide some months earlier and who was doing research on a certain Sherlockian problem.

I am no expert on Japanese poetry, but I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes and Holmesian problems, so it was relatively easier to get into this novel than the first in the QED series. For those to whom the terms Holmesian/Sherlockian sound unfamiliar: it's a kind of game where people accept the Sherlock Holmes stories as written by Dr. Watson as having actually occured and discuss anomalies and other contradictions in the stories ('mistakes') with the premise that the events and characters mentioned in the stories are all real. For example mistakes in dates in the stories etc. are not 'mistakes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' but mistakes by Dr. Watson, or Dr. Watson had a reason to lie about the date, or there's some other in-universe reason. By the way, in Japanese, the preferred term is Sherlockian (like in the US), as opposed to Holmesian, which has my personal preference to be honest. Some might also remember the manga Sherlockian! I once discussed, which was actually quite informative.

Anyway, so QED Baker Gai no Mondai is about a murder committed among Holmesians, and meanwhile Tataru's also occupied with a Holmesian problem that bothers him: why was Sherlock Holmes acting so differently before and after the events of The Final Problem and The Adventure of the Empty House? While the novel does give brief explanations and summaries about all the relevant Holmes stories mentioned, it's clear that this novel is best enjoyed if the reader has some affinity/prior knowledge of Sherlock Holmes, or else you'll just be wondering why everyone is making such a big deal about a fictional character (blashpemy!). To be honest, the Holmesian mystery is far more interesting than the actual, real-time murder. In fact, the death count doesn't stay at one in this novel, but the other death isn't that interesting either, even if it involves a dying message with a Holmesian twist. But while the murders themselves are rather straightforward, in order to solve some parts of the mystery you need to have rather specific knowledge about medicine that isn't mentioned in the story until the denouement and basically, it's the 'anyone could've committed the murder, so let's focus on motive' type of story.

The motive behind the murders of course ties to a Holmesian problem, and I found that part far more interesting. Over the course of the novel, the reader will be presented various types of Holmesian problems of varying importance, but the most important is of course the one that's on Tataru's mind. The ground he treads with his theory is not particularly unknown, but it's fairly entertaining and well within the realms of what you'd expect of a Holmesian theory. And as you may expect from this series, aspects of Tataru's literary theory are also mirrored in the real murders, so it's necessary to solve the literary mystery in order to arrive at the motive, and even partially the modus operandi behind the actual deaths. I do like this linking idea, but in this particular case, it becomes a bit too artificial, with a lot of coincidence having to happen to create such a nicely mirrored situation in motive and actual murder.

I'm not even actually sure what to make of QED Baker Gai no Mondai. I definitely like the Holmesian background theme and it goes just deep enough to entertain me as a moderate Holmes lover, without feeling too detailed, but it's also very... vanilla-flavored in terms of the main murder mystery plot. The literary side of the mystery is far more interesting and while there are some interesting ideas like the dying message left by a Holmesian (can you guess what he did?), I thought the 'real' side of the mystery so plain and nondescript, I'm sure I'll have forgotten the details in a few months, while I am sure I will remember Tataru's Holmesian theory. QED Baker Gai no Mondai is a very safe read if you like the Holmesian theme, but on its own, it's hardly a stand-out mystery novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 高田崇史『QED　ベイカー街の問題』

The Treasure in the Royal Tower

自宅のソファーに腰掛けて、一冊の小説を開いた。表紙には『桜野美海子の最期』というタイトルが記されている。

"I sat down in my sofa at home and opened a book. The title on the cover said The End of Sakurano Mimiko.

"The End of the Great Detective Sakurano Mimiko"

Earlier this year, I reviewed two novels which were originally published on websites where (amateur) writers can post their stories for everyone to read, but which were later picked up by major publishers. Robber Rabbit Gets Dead was originally published on Kakuyomu, while Isekai no Meitantei 1 originated from Shousetsuka ni Narou. Rinno Mei's Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo ("The End of the Great Detective Sakurano Mimiko", 2015) is also published on Shousetsuka ni Narou and can be read for free there (see the link), but has not been picked up by a major publisher yet.

While she's still fairly young, Sakurano Mimiko is already a well-known detective, not in the least thanks to the literary efforts of her childhood friend, occasional assistant and chronicler Tsukaba Souta, who has turned all of their adventures into best-selling novels. Mimiko is also a great fan of mystery fiction, so she was very happy when she received an invitation by the famous mystery writer Shishitani Keizou. Many knew about the curious tower Shishitani had built in the mountains, as it was like one of the odd buildings from his novels: a gigantic cylindrical tower stood in the middle of nowhere, and oddly enough, the building featured no windows whatsoever. An elevator and spiral staircase at the exact center of the tower connected all the floors, but there was no way to even take a look at the outside world except for the front entrance. Mimiko and Tsukaba weren't the only ones to be invited to this tower, as four other detectives (and their "plus one") were also invited. The detectives are quite a colorful lot, ranging from a girl who seems barely in her teens to a bombastic man who might or might not be a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte. Everyone expects Shishitani to have a surprise for them, and he doesn't disappoint his guests. He declares he has a mystery for them to solve, and soon after, Shishitani disappears from his locked study at the top floor, even though only he and one of the maids have the key to the room. At first, everybody thinks this is just a game by Shishitani, a challenge to see whether these real detectives can figure out how he disappeared from a locked room, but the following morning, one of the maids is found dead in the main hall, and strangely enough, she seems to have fallen from a great height, even though there's no such place to fall from in this tower. When one of the detectives is later found decapitated, the group starts to suspect that the serial killer Jack the Head Cutter has found his way to the tower, but with the single entrance locked from the outside, can the detectives survive long enough to solve the mystery?

Oh, and to be precise: I haven't actually read the story. For Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo was adapted by the group Seien Bunko as an audio drama in 2018, which you can find on their Youtube channel. It's quite lengthy, clocking in at several hours, but it's quite nice to listen to, and a perfectly fine way to experience this story.

Anyway, the story starts off in a very familiar, And Then There Were None-like manner with people who don't know each other gathered at an isolated location (the curious tower). Shishitani first speaks with his guests during dinner over a video connection, which again invokes the early chapters of Christie's masterpiece. Soon after the chaos starts, and man, a lot happens. A mysterious murder (the maid who fell from an impossible height), decapitated bodies, the people being locked up in the tower from the outside in a closed circle situation, a disappearance from a locked room, a dying message and the list goes on. All the popular tropes of mystery fiction can be found within this tale, and considering we have multiple detectives on scene, you can also expect a few deduction battles between the detectives, as each of them tries to solve the case before the others can. It's an incredibly dense story, perhaps to a fault, as you are barely given any time for consideration, with events following each other in a very rapid way.

It's therefore slightly disappointing that most of the murders in this tale don't leave any impression on their own. A fair number of the murders are 'oh, multiple suspects had the opportunity to commit them' and 'we don't have enough data to point at one single person for sure.' Elements like the locked room disappearance, the decapitations and the dying message feature very familiar tropes as their solutions, so it's difficult to feel truly impressed. A lot of the happenings also seem very dependent on luck, with people acting like they do in the novel more to make the mystery more complex, rather than because it makes any sense to do so at that moment. That said, I liked the one major idea of this novel. It's a neatly hidden, but also fairly audacious trick, and Rinno smartly used this idea not only once, but multiple times with very different results. It's by realizing that two seemingly seperate events are actually connected by the one and same underlying concept that you can arrive at the solution, and this part was quite smartly planned. This idea alone would've made for a really interesting mystery story, if it had focused solely on it.

I think most people will agree that Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo is far more memorable as a mystery story about detecive fiction, as it actively addresses detective fiction as a genre from a post-modern point of view. Mimiko discusses her views on detective fiction and their limitations throughout the story, and these themes come back in a haunting way at the conclusion of the story. One literary-philosophical problem in mystery fiction in particular is of essence, one which I have mentioned a few times in other reviews but won't explicitly name here. If you're looking for a sincere/honest/pure mystery story, this one is not for you, as it really tries to show the meta-limitations of the literary detective and can leave a very nasty aftertaste. I think that the execution is not completely fair to the reader, and especially the epilogue tries to hard to throw one plot twist after another at the reader, but I think that Rinno did an interesting job writing a full mystery novel based on what is actually a philosophical approach to the detective story.

In the end, I don't think Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo is a mystery story for everyone. If you expect a Christie or Carr homage, you're at the wrong place. Queen.... you're a bit closer. Most of the individual murders won't leave much of an impression, though it definitely has a memorable main trick. What Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo makes an interesting experience, even if not perfect, is the way in which it addresses fundamental, philosophical approaches to the mystery fiction genre, and uses those ideas as the basis of a mystery plot itself. It's not completely convicing as a whole, but definitely a story that gives you food for thought.

Original Japanese title(s): 凛野冥（原）セイエン文庫『名探偵・桜野美海子の最期』

Alice’s Evidence

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

(Nursery rhyme)

I always have to think of an old college classmate, whenever I come across something related to Alice in Wonderland, which is kinda strange because I'm pretty sure we only talked about the novel once. I guess she'd like this novel too though.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, but it was no accident. Some person, or animal, had oiled up the wall upon which the great egg had been sitting, and there was still a vaguely visible hand print left on one of the cracked shell shards. A murder in Wonderland! The Mad Hatter and the March Hare investigate the murder and quickly find a witness: the White Rabbit swears that Alice, and nobody else but Alice entered the garden where Humpty Dumpty was. Alice says she is innocent, but when the Gryphon is murdered too by suffocating on literally a mouthful of shellfish and Alice once again lacks a clear alibi, the net around her seems to be closing.

Lately, college student Kurisugawa Ari has been having these weird dreams that place her in some kind of mysterious and highly nonsensical Wonderland ruled by the Queen of Hearts. But once she started thinking about it, she realizes she has never ever had dreams about anything else: she always dreams about her being in Wonderland, having adventures with characters like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. On the day after she dreamt Humpty Dumpty died, she is shocked to hear a student of her faculty died in a creepily similar manner, by falling of the roof of the faculty building. It seems it was a simple accident, but speaking with some of her fellow students, she learns that it was no coincidence: more people around her dream of Wonderland! The intelligent Imori, a study mate, turns out to be the dull-witted Bill the Lizard in Wonderland, and they realize that the deaths that happen in Wonderland are reflected in this world too, resulting in the death of their Earthly counterparts. The two work together both in the real world and in Wonderland to prove of Alice's innocence and find the real murderer in Kobayashi Yasumi's Alice Goroshi (The Murder of Alice, 2013).

I have not read the original Alice in Wonderland, nor even seen any of the (animated) movie adaptations, but man, I come across it a lot in Japanese mystery fiction. In fact, I think I can more-or-less construct the whole original story, simply by putting all the references I know one after another. It's kinda like Star Wars, which is parodied and referenced so often one can basically guess how the whole story goes just by consuming other media. A few titles I have reviewed here are for example Alice Mirror Jou Satsujin Jiken, The Land of the Wondrous Beauty in the second volume of Kaiki Tantei Sharaku Homura, and several works like the short story Jabberwocky by Arisugawa Alice, who took his pen name from Alice in Wonderland. Actually, I even praised myself a bit for picking up on the Alice in Wonderland reference when I was translating Arisugawa's The Moai Island Puzzle, exactly because I shouldn't even have noticed it as I don't have direct knowledge of the original story. Anyway, the concept of a mystery story that revolves around Alice in Wonderland wasn't special an sich, was what I was going to say.

Kobayashi Yasumi's Alice Goroshi seemed like an interesting title/topic when I first heard of the book, but I have to admit the title only really caught my attention when Kobayashi released a sequel titled Clara Goroshi ("The Murder of Clara"), with Clara being the friend of Heidi. Now things were becoming really interesting, as the premise of a whole series built around classical children's fiction seemed too good to pass. I opted to wait for the (cheaper) pocket re-release of Alice Goroshi though which was finally released in 2019.

Was it worth the wait? Yep, it sure was! As one can guess, story chapters alternate between Wonderland and the real world: in Wonderland we follow Alice and Bill the Lizard, while in the real world we follow Ari and Imori. The parts in Wonderland are fantastic. As said, I haven't read the original Alice in Wonderland, but the nonsensical dialogues and wordplay that go on in these half of the story are great and also sure to annoy you immensely (in a good way): everyone seems to get their wires crossed as they talk with each other leading to amusing, but nonsensical conversations, and that while Alice is desperate to find some way to prove her innocence. It's what you'd expect of Alice in Wonderland, and this novel really manages to capture that spirit. It's in this strange world that Alice tries to solve the murders, and it results in some really unique situations, with creatures like a Boojum also appearing as fanciful murder methods. Fantastical ways to kill off people are possible in Wonderland, and there's no scientific investigation like checking for DNA or blood of course, so the reader might be overwhelmed by all of this, figuring it's impossible to figure out who the murderer is: that is not the case. In fact, Kobayashi plays a nasty game with the reader here, as he plants some deliciously subtle clues in the nonsensical dialogues that actually allow you to identify at least some part of the mystery quite early on. If you manage to pick up on that, of course (I wasn't).

The events in the real world are of course less fantastical, but the more realistic tone here does really help the story, as 380 pages of only Wonderland would've been quite tiring. That said, the worlds do kinda seem to blend into each other as the story progresses. In the early chapters, Ari obviously has trouble accepting the truth that she's been living in Wonderland in her dreams and that she shares this dream with other people. But as events unfold, we learn of more people around her who have an avatar in Wonderland and certainly near the end, some human characters seem to resemble their Wonderland avatars a lot more than at the start of the story. The murders that are committed in Wonderland lead to death in the real world, but not in the exact same manner: the counterpart to the Gripphon for example was a professor at the university, but he died 'simply' of food poisoning (from shellfish), not by being force-fed them. That means that even though we're talking about a series of murders in Wonderland, there aren't even really murders happening in the real world, leading to a very unique situation where the human characters in the real world are investigating a series of murders in Wonderland. It's in Wonderland where they can find proof and interrogate witnesses, but due to the crazy characters in Wonderland, it's only possible for Ari and Imori to apply real logic to the problem and really think about the how and who while in the real world. There is an added thread of suspense here as Ari is also under investigation by two police detectives who suspect there's something fishy going on with all the deaths that happen at this university, and who are very eager to find out who Ari is in Wonderland.

You don't need Wonderland-logic to solve this mystery though. It's a surprisingly tricky plot, because it's split up in two distinct locales with their own narratives: for example it is possible to figure out who the murderer is in Wonderland fairly early on (or at least have founded suspicions), but that doesn't mean you know who that character is in the real world. You need to combine clues from both worlds in order to solve the mystery, which can be quite a challenge, especially as the dialogues in Wonderland can seem to be so crazy at times. The main clue to the identity of the murderer for example can be really easy to miss because the jumping between the two worlds, but once pointed out it seems so obvious. I myself only got the last big twist, but missed most of the stuff regarding the murderer. There's also a nice dying message near the end of the story that points towards the murderer in a very roundabout, but at the same time also very logical manner. It is a good example of how to do a dying message that is meaningful in the context of the story, without being too complex just for the sake to be too hard to decipher for the reader.

Oh, I do have to make a note that Alice Goroshi can become quite gory near the end. Guh. I mean, you might be thinking 'Haha, Alice in Wonderland, it's so cute,' but man, I didn't see that one scene in the house near the end coming. It's really frightening. It becomes really messy once you're past the halfway point.

So yes, I really enjoyed Alice Goroshi, as it not only had a really unique premise and setting, it also made excellent use of that to bring a tightly-plotted mystery plot that works because of the premise. The way it utilizes Alice-mythos isn't just for show, but in integral part of the plot, resulting in one of the more memorable reads of this year. I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequels to Alice: at the moment of writing this review, Clara and Dorothy (of The Wizard of Oz) have already featured in their own titles, so I hope the pocket versions are released soon.

Original Japanese title(s):  小林泰三　『アリス殺し』

The Wild Brood

One little nigger boy left all alone

He got married and then there were none

First impressions are ever-lasting, so I always imagine Kidd and Pink from these books exactly like they appeared and sounded in the PlayStation game Cat the Ripper, even though that was err... quite a bad game (though the voice-acting was okay).
 

Last year, I reviewed Yamaguchi Masaya's amusing The 13th Detective, a gamebook-turned-novel which was set in Parallel Britain, which is not a world where Brexit didn't happen, but a world that is similar to ours, but different at key points (for example, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was a comedy, not a tragedy). The most important difference however is that all the fictional detectives we know, like Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Gideon Fell or Father Brown, all exist in Parallel Britain. Their successes led to Edward's Law in Great Britain: detectives belonging to the Masters of Detective Association are allowed to lead and command any official criminal investigation for 72 hours, during which the police force must follow the detective's orders. Due to the superior position of the MDs in this world, Scotland Yard has been reduced to a lowly supporting role, and nowadays most police officers are just punk hooligans or slackers who consider policework nothing but a job like any other.

The mohawk-bearing Kidd Pistols is one of these punk police detectives of Scotland Yard. He and his girlfriend/subordinate Pink Belladonna form the National Unbelievable Troubles Section (NUTS) inside Scotland Yard, where they deal with weird incidents that normal police detectives can't handle, and therefore they often have to team up with rather eccentric MDs, like Sherlock Holmes Jr. (one of many who claim to be the son of the great detective) or Dr. Bull (a disciple of Dr. Fell). While Kidd is often mistaken for just another of those lazy, good-for-nothing punks who work at Scotland Yard, Kidd is actually often capable of out-thinking the proper MDs in the nutty cases he handles by acting exactly like a punk, not confirming to fixed views and looking at things from a completely different angle. In Yamaguchi Masaya's short story collection Kidd Pistols no Boutoku ("The Blasphemy of Kidd Pistols", 1991), we are presented with four NUTS cases patterned after Mother Goose rhymes which involve, among others, a dead hippopotamus, a plastered piece of shit and a locked room murder committed by the Jamaican spirit Duppy.

Kidd and Pink are called out to the home of the legendary actress Elizabeth Skinner, who lost her first love of her life in the war, and got dumped by her second love. After that, she remained cooped up in her own home for fifty years, never ever setting a foot outside anymore, only eating and drinking each and every day. The only people she let inside her house were her maid and her solicitor. Her pitiful life also ended in a pitiful way, because the rather corpulent Elizabeth was one morning found murdered in her home (and with corpulent, I mean they needed Kidd, Pink and two others to move her body out the house). Traces of poison are found in her dinner of the previous day, but the whole case doesn't jive: Elizabeth wouldn't have let anyone inside, the maid who prepared the food could hardly be so foolish as to poison the food she made herself and there are no traces of unlawful entry in the house. Kidd, Pink and Sherlock Holmes Jr. therefore have to figure out who murdered a poor woman who hadn't even gone outside even once in fifty years in the opening story "Mushamusha, Gokugoku" Satsujin Jiken, which also carries the English title The "Victuals and Drink" Murder Case.

The mystery revolves around how the murder could've taken place considering the rather unique and curious circumstances of the crime scene (the woman never let anyone she didn't know inside), and the exact location of the body. There are some pretty smart ideas going on here (I love the deductions revolving the location of the body). The solution does require you to deduce the actions of a certain person based on some clews which might not be completely farfetched, but do lack a bit of convincing power.

In Kaba wa Wasurenai or Hippopotamus Can Remember, Kidd, Pink and Sherlock Holmes Jr. find themselves investigating the murder on a zoo owner, and his pet hippopotamus. The victim left the dying message "H" on the floor with his own blood, but the mystery is of course why the hippopotamus was killed together with its master. As a whydunnit mystery, this story is rather simple as once you remember one early scene, you're very likely to figure out what happened exactly, but capably clewed.

Magatta Hanzai or The Crooked Crime has Kidd and Sherlock Holmes Jr. investigate a series of strange incidents: first a pet shop owner is killed followed by the murder on a businessman, who had purchased two cats from said pet shop owner. The businessman was discovered inside the junkyard/atelier of an artist with whom he had cut financial ties recently, as the "art" the man made was a bit too eccentric considering the cost. The victim's body had been covered in plaster, exactly like the artist's best known works, which obviously seem to suggest the artist had something to do with it, but Kidd manages to arrive at a completely different truth. This is the longest story in the collection, I think, and there are some good things going on here, like a very good, well-supported fake solution and some really neatly hidden clues (though it also has to be said that one early scene is very likely to attract a lot of attention because it's so obviously out of place, it has to be relevant to the solution). I think this plot might've even worked well as a full-length story.

The Punky Reggae Murder starts with the seaside live concert Sound System Live, organized by a pirate radio station. The main attraction is without a doubt Buster Solomon and his band the Little Criminals. Buster who started out as a poor boy in the slumps of Jamaica, has now become an major hit in Parallel Britain with his reggae music. He is also a devout believer of Rastafari and uses his music to help out the Labour Party in his home country, as they support Rastafari. This has earned him the treats of right-wing activists, who are likely the ones who are sending him and his band threatening letters with verses from the nursery rhyme Ten Little Niggers, signed by Duppy (a Jamaican evil spirit). Despite these threats, as well as physical fights between his two publishers who would wish the other's dead, Buster intends to play at the fund-raiser concert tomorrow. Everyone in the band, the publishers, as well as Kidd, Pink and Dr. Bull (who were invited through Pink's connectons) stay in cottages overlooking the sea that night. Kidd is called on the phone in the night by Buster, saying he thinks Duppy is hanging outside his cottage, followed by a cry for help. Kidd rushes to Buster's cottage, only to find the front door locked. The french windows on the seaside terrace however are opened, and inside they find Buster, stabbed in his chest and his dreadlocks cut. And to the party's surprise, they find (red) herrings spread around his head, like the verse "A red herring swallowed one and then there were three" from Ten Little Niggers. At first, it is assumed the murderer escaped across the terrace, but a narcotics detective, who had been sent here on a tip regarding a big heroine deal, had been watching the terrace all the time, and had seen nobody leave that way. As the front door was locked, this means this was an impossible murder, as the murderer couldn't have escaped any way from the cottage. Meanwhile, another band member is found dead in the cottage next door, and he has three horrible slashes on his back, like "a big bear hugged one".

The background setting of Rastafari and Jamaican religions is rather original and something I at least had never seen in detective fiction before. The use of Ten Little Niggers/And Then There Were None as a theme is of course a risky one, as anyone would be tempted to make a comparison with Christie's work, but this story is quite different, and manages to do very different things with the same rhyme. The fundamental idea that is played out here is not extremely original, but the clewing (with the red herrings) is fairly accomplished. The locked room situation too is not particularly awe-inspiring, though it is connected well, and naturally to the other events going on in this story, so it doesn't feel like it's just there because we needed a locked room murder (note by the way that Dr. Bull is an expert in locked room murders, which is why he's featured in this story rather than Holmes Jr.) One other major clue however is a bit harder to get: it is based on two physical clues, and while one of them is rather cunningly hidden (though to be honest, I had no idea that existed in that form, so I wasn't able to figure that out), but the other one is hardly addressed until the moment Kidd actually explains it.

My first introduction to Kidd Pistols as a character was a bit strange, as the game Cat the Ripper is really weird, and while I did like the novel adaptation The 13th Detective, Kidd wasn't really the protagonist there. Kidd Pistols no Boutoku is thus the first time I've read "proper" Kidd stories, but these Mother Goose rhyme-inspired stories are quite entertaining. The setting of Parallel Britain allows for some odd, but funny scenes (like Pink constantly stealing things even though she's a cop) and ex-drug addicts and other punks functioning as the world's narcs and coroners, and most of the stories are plotted well as mysteries, with rather crafty clues at times. And it's only now in this final paragraph that I realize that these stories all feature rather unique motives for actions, which adds to the zaniness of this world. Anyway, I'm certainly interested to see how the other adventures of Kidd and Pink will turn out!

Original Japanese title(s): 山口雅也『キッド・ピストルズの冒涜』: 「むしゃむしゃ、ごくごく殺人事件」/「カバは忘れない」/「曲がった犯罪」/「パンキー・レゲエ殺人（マーダー）」

Mystery By Moonlight

運命のルーレット廻して

アレコレ深く考えるのはMystery

「運命のルーレット廻して」（Zard)

Turn the roulette of destiny

Thinking deep about this and that is a mystery

"Turn the Roulette of Destiny" (Zard)

The Fate series is a long-running multimedia franchise, which started with the fantasy game Fate/stay night in 2004. Since then, it has seen numerous installments in various forms of media, from games, to anime, manga and novels. Some of these installments are direct sequels/prequels in the same chronology, some involve alternate universes/retellings, but in general, the series revolves around a series of events called the Holy Grail Wars, with persons called Masters fighting each other with the help of Servants, spirits/familiars based on figures from history, mythology and fiction from all across the world like King Arthur, Ramses II and Sherlock Holmes. This is in fact basically all I know about the Fate series: while I naturally knew of its existence (it's really popular), I had never consumed any part of the franchise yet. At least, not until this week.

The most popular incarnation of the Fate series these last few years has been the smartphone game Fate/Grand Order, which started in 2015 and ranks amongst the most popular mobile games in the world: in 2017 it became the sixth highest-grossing mobile game, leaving titles like Pokémon Go and Candy Crush Saga behind. I don't play the game myself, but my interest was piqued when in May 2018, a special limited quest event started, with the title Murder at the KOGETSUKAN. What first caught my eye was that the event was penned by Van Madoy, who since a few years has been chiseling out a niche for himself by writing original mystery novels for existing game franchises (like Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney). While gameplay of Fate/Grand Order generally revolves around battles (by selecting a team of Servants) coupled with dialogue events, this event was presented as a pure, fair-play mystery story, based solely on the dialogues between the various characters. Players were also challenged to actively participate with the mystery solving: the event took over a week (daily updates), and polls were held on the official website: players were rewarded with in-game currency if the correct answers managed to pull in the most number of votes.

As I don't play the game, it ended with me just thinking 'Oh boy, this sounded neat', but in May 2019 a second FGO Mystery event commenced within Fate/Grand Order and novelizations by Madoy himself of both the first and second event were published right after the conclusion of the second event. The first novel (based on 2018's event) has the insanely long title FGO Mystery - Hirugaeru Kogetsukan no Kokkai - Kogetsukan Satsujin Jiken ("FGO Mystery - The Confession of the Trembling Koketsukan - The Kogetsukan Murder Case", 2019), but it also carries the alternative, shorter English title of The Kogetsukan Murders. The story starts with a strange experience happening to Fate/Grand Order protagonist Fujimaru Ritsuka, as he loses consciousness one night, only to find himself waking up in a completely different body! He learns that he is now inhabiting the body of "Rikka" a friend of Juliet Violet, oldest daughter of the Violet clan. The Violet and Goldie clans are two gangster families in the United States with a long history of rivalry, but their wars have left them in a weakened state and easy targets for foreign gangs. Family heads Aaron Goldie and Adamska Violet both realize a fusion of both clans is their only chance on survival, and in order to silence the voices of protests in their respective gangs, they decide to have their eldest children marry to seal the deal. The Violet and Goldie families are now gathered in the mansion Kogetsukan on a remote island to confirm the engagement of Morris Goldie and Juliet Violet.

"Rikka" had been invited to come along as Juliet's friend, but even to Ritsuka inhabiting the body of Rikka, it's clear that Morris Goldie is not the kind of person you'd want a good friend to marry and the arranged, political marriage will absolutely ruin Juliet's life. Meanwhile Juliet seems to have accepted her fate, as she doesn't want her younger twin sister to become the 'sacrifice' in her stead.  It seems however there is another person who wants to prevent the engagement, as threatening letters were sent that warned the clans to stop the engagement, which is the reason the deal is being discussed on a remote island under the protection of three agents of the Marble Trading Company, an organization of highly respected "fixers" acting as both witnesses to the engagement and bodyguards. On the first day, a shady detective calling himself Sheringham makes his way to the island, claiming he knows of the threatening letters and that he can solve the case, but that very night, that same Sheringham is killed. It seems a murderer is roaming Kogetsukan, and that they first got rid of the nosy detective. But who will follow, and can Rikka/Ritsuka make it out alive from the island?

When I bought the novel, my main worry was of course whether I'd enjoy the story without knowing anything about Fate/Grand Order. I was fairly confident that Madoy could deliver on an entertaining mystery story, but how much would it rely on me knowing the Fate series. The first few pages were therefore slightly worrying, as they were clearly meant for someone who somewhat knows the characters. As a defense mechanism in Ritsuka's brain for suddenly inhabiting a different body, every person he meets in the Kogetsukan takes on the form of a Servant he knows within his brain. In reality, this is of course because the game uses existing character art to portray "new" characters (the people Goldie/Violet/Marble Trade Company). But an explanation that Juliet takes on the form of the Gorgon sister Stheno in Ritsuka's mind doesn't tell me much of course, as I don't know how Stheno looks like in Fate/Grand Order. Some others were more easy to imagine though. The Violet family doctor is called Dr. Hawthorne for example, who funnily enough takes on the form of the Servant Professor James Moriarty. Meanwhile, the shady detective Sheringham is definitely the spitting image of the Servant Sherlock Holmes. What's also funny is that Ritsuka occasionally returns to his own body, and there he discusses the case with both Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, who actually work together to figure things out.

Once you get past the character introductions of "X has the appearence of Y" though, I'd say the novel is fairly accessible even if you don't know Fate/Grand Order, and it's a pretty decent mystery novel on its own too. One can definitely tell it's written by Madoy, who was a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club when in college, as the core is a classic guess-the-criminal set-up, with a proper Challenge to the Reader. While you can arrive at the identity of the murderer by simply guessing the motive in this particular story (as it's also aimed at people who usually don't read detective stories), the 'correct' way of reading this story is of course by arriving at the murderer by the process of elimination: identify what characteristics the murderer must comply too (for example, being at a certain place at a certain time, or being left-handed or something like that), and crossing off the people who don't fit that characteristic. To be honest, the elimination part of the story is on its own somewhat straightforward and not very exciting, as it mostly revolves around one single characteristic, coupled with an interpretation of a dying message which is basically 'given' to the reader. But Madoy wouldn't be Madoy if he didn't have some other tricks up his sleeve though: one point of misdirection is particularly well thought out. The trick makes excellent use of the presentation of the story and while people who do know Fate/Grand Order might be more inclined to fall for it, it still (kinda) works for non FGO-players, I think. These traps make the route to the identity of the murderer a far more entertaining trip and are nicely done. At least, in general. I do think some of the hints stood out a bit too much: some parts of the story seemed so blatantly weirdly worded at first, I actually thought it was an editing mistake in the text, rather than a hidden clue. I wonder whether Madoy intentionally made those parts stand out a bit, because the main audience were Fate/Grand Order players, and not mystery readers in general, as I have the feeling those parts could've been hidden in more subtle ways, without losing their functions as proper clues.

Depending on how much mystery fiction you read, bits and pieces of The Kogetsukan Murders will certainly feel somewhat familiar, like the motive or some of the 'traps' in the elimination process, but the manner in which these familiar elements are combined are good, and show how how an author, even with the same bricks, can still make an original building. Overall, I think Van Madoy did a good job at presenting a very classic mystery story to an audience (Fate/Grand Order player) that doesn't necessarily consists out of readers of mystery fiction, while still offering a story that is fairly complex in terms plotting.

Taken completely on its own, FGO Mystery - Hirugaeru Kogetsukan no Kokkai - Kogetsukan Satsujin Jiken is a decent mystery novel and can be enjoyed too even if you don't know Fate/Grand Order, but it definitely earns some bonus points if you are familiar with the source material and some elements of the mystery plot too work better with some knowledge. And while this was originally written to be experienced in the game, I'd say the novelizations works quite well too. While designed for a more general audience, this novel will also please regular puzzle plot readers and it's also just funny to see the Servants Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty working together to solve the murders at the Kogetsukan. I have the novelization of the second event too, and will probably review that one soon too.

Original Japanese title(s): Type-Moon (原), 円居挽 『FGOミステリー 翻る虚月館の告解 虚月館殺人事件』

The Stolen Kiss

「アナタは私のほんのイチブしか知らない」

「イチブとゼンブ」（B'z)

"You only know a small part of me"

"Parts and the Whole" (B'z)

It ain't April unless there's a new Detective Conan theatrical release, coupled with the release of a new volume of the manga. And yep, last year was really weird because of that, as Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer was released on its own, and there was only one lonely volume released in October for the whole of 2018. But now we're in 2019, and Detective Conan: The Fist of the Blue Sapphire has been released in theaters a few days ago. The screenplay is by Ookura Takahiro, writer of the Lieutenant Fukuie series and the excellent Detective Conan movie The Crimson Love Letter, so while the premise of the movie doesn't seem really interesting to me, I'll be sure to catch the home video release later this year in the hopes it'll actually turn out to be really awesome.

But this year, the release of the new movie was also accompanied by a new volume as per tradition. Detective Conan 96 (2019) is an incredibly weird volume though, and taken on its own, it's easily one of the worst volumes of the last decade or so. This is not because of the story contents per se, but has everything to do with the way the comic is serialized. Because each volume has the same amount of chapters, but stories don't always have the same number of chapters, most volumes usually don't end in a neat matter, but often the last story in a volume will continue in the next volume (and a volume therefore usually starts with the remaining chapters of the story that started in the previous volume). In Detective Conan 96, this ends up in the worse possible manner, as it basically only contains one single complete story: a good part of The Targeted Female Police Officers is collected in volume 95, while The Deadly TV Drama Shooting will be finished in volume 97 scheduled for this fall. So if you read this volume, you'll find more incomplete stories than complete ones!

I already briefly mentioned The Targeted Female Police Officers in my review of volume 95, but as the title suggests, this story is about a series of murders on a few female co-workers of Yumi and Sanae in the Metropolitan Police Department's Traffic Section. One night, Sanae has gone out to the karaoke bar with her co-workers Yagi Shiori and Momosaki Touko. Yagi brings Sanae back home after she had a few too many drinks, but on her way back alone, Momosaki is lured by a suspicious figure to a park and brutally killed there. The only clue to her murderer is that it appears she had been trying to point at something as she died, but the message isn't clear. While the police is investigating however, Yagi too is murdered, making this a serial cop killing. The police quickly concludes the suspects are among the three men who were fined and detained by Yagi and Momosaki last week, as all three men claimed they had an emergency and greatly resented being detained by the two officers. The problem however lies in the message both Momosaki and Yagi left behind as they died.This dying message can be split in two parts, and I do like the first part: it's unclear what the dying message exactly is at first, but the clewing here is pretty good and makes use of the visual format. But then comes the matter of interpretation, and well, it's not too farfetched, but yeah, it's one of those solutions where you shrug and say 'sure, that makes sense', but it's not a really satisfying one. And yes, it's a solution that also relies on language, but even then it's rather open for interpretation (the second dying message by Yagi on the other hand is way too straightforward).

What does make this story somewhat memorable is how Aoyama also used the story to bring some new character development. The focus on Sanae naturally also means officer Chiba has a nice role to play in this story, but personally, I loved how that one scene from last year's Zero the Enforcer was now given context. In case you have seen the movie: there's a shot where a certain character has a line that is unspoken, but can only be 'lip-read'. Here we finally learn what that person actually said.

In The Man Who Wanted The Lips, Suzuki Jiroukichi has come up with another scheme to catch the phantom thief KID, this time using the precious pearl Fairy Lip. A chance meeting with Inspector Morofushi of the Nagano Prefectural Police (first introduced in volume 65) gave Jiroukichi a 'brilliant' idea: the pearl is frozen in an enormous block of ice, making it possible for the museum guests to actually see the pearl, but making it impossible for KID to steal it. Meanwhile, Conan and Hattori are also present, with Hattori's mind pre-occupied with the matter that has been worrying him for some volumes now (how to say to childhood friend Kazuha he likes her romantically?). With Conan, Hattori and Morofushi all present, KID sure has a tough night ahead, but despite all the security measures, KID first manages to lock himself inside the glass cage with the ice block and making it impossible to look inside by painting the glass walls with black ink. When they finally manage to get inside, they find that KID has left a card thanking them for the pearl, and also leaving Jiroukichi with a present: countless of pigment-colored Fairly Lips etched inside the ice block itself as ice art. Overall, I'd say this is a fairly weak KID story: it's quite easy to guess how KID managed to steal the pearl and while usually, these kind of stories revolve around who KID disguised himself as is also of importance, this time we're told right from the start who it is, and his secret identity is mostly used as a a gag from that point on.

Similar to the previous story however, this story is also used to further set-up future events for the main storyline. Like I mentioned in my review, the last volume seemed to be moving pieces around for Aoyama to work towards a story climax, or perhaps even the series finale, and this story does that too by revealing the relationship between several characters. By now, it's also kinda silly how many characters in the Detective Conan world turn out to have some relationship with another significant character, but I'm interested to see how this will work out in the future. I also believe this is the first story in the manga where both KID and Hattori appear. They have appeared in the same movies a couple of times, but even in those movies, never really met face-to-face (or at least, not without KID being in disguise). And was that a reference to The Last Wizard of the Century? Usually, the manga makes no direct references to the events that occur in the movies (while mostly seperate stories, some elements from the movies, like character backstories, are part of the Conan manga storyline), but this was a fairly direct reference...

The Deadly TV Drama Shooting starts with Ran, Conan, Sera, Sonoko and her boyfriend Kyougoku Makoto (who plays a lead role in the 2019 movie Detective Conan: The Fist of the Blue Sapphire) watching the latest hit movie Azengers (ft. Kamen Yaiba.). On their way back, Kyougoku (a karate champion) knocks a helmeted robber out, who turns out to be an actor for the TV drama Detective 48. Kyougoku is asked to take over the role (as he can do the stunts too), and actually does a very good job. During the shooting, the gang learns that Tokuzono Saiya, the lead actor of the drama, isn't really getting along with the other members of the cast and production team, especially due to his 'pranks' that actually caused an assistant-director to commit suicide some time earlier. Obviously, he's also the one to die in this story and he dies falling off the fourth floor of the abandoned school building they were shooting at, but the only other person on that floor when Tokuzono fell was none other than Kyougoku, who was preparing for his next stunt. If he wasn't the murderer, how did the real murderer then manage to cause Tokuzono to fall off the fourth floor? The answer... will have to wait until fall. At least, for those who read the collected volumes and avoid the serialized chapters.

I had to laugh out loud because of the Azengers part though, because earlier this week, a special cross-marketing campaign was revealed for Japan, featuring both Detective Conan: The Fist of the Blue Sapphire and Avengers: End Game. And yes, Detective Conan is really that big a phenomenon in Japan that it warrants for these kinds of promotions. Can you actually think of another detective franchise that made it this mainstream in modern pop culture?

But to come back to the main topic, Detective Conan 96 is on the whole a rather disappointing volume in terms of mystery plots. There is only one complete story included, which isn't really a high point anyway as a KID story, and The Targeted Female Police Officers too is at best an average story when compared to other who-of-the-three type of stories in this series. For longtime fans of the series (and I assume you are if you have read 96 volumes), we do get a few more puzzle pieces that relate to the main story, but on the whole, this volume has awfully little to offer, especially as it's been nearly half a year since the previous volume. Let's hope the next volume has something more substantial to offer.

Original Japanese title(s):  青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第96巻