Dead Man's Cavern

"Ragnarok, the end of the Viking world with a terrible winter that covered the Earth in ice, when vile crimes were rampant and all humanity lost."

"Max Payne"

I wonder if at those detective fiction courses at university they actually have locked room murder lectures...

During a holiday, Narumi, the self-proclaimed great detective of the Sealed Door club, invites his fellow member Kakeru (who was recently made his debut as a mystery writer), to go on an adventure together. While Narumi hesitates to tell Kakeru exactly why, they are travelling to a small village deep in the mountains of Gifu called Kagerou Village. When they arrive, they notice a strange church-like building in the middle of the village. They chat a little with the local people there, when they hear a cry coming from the nearby cliff: one of the Jizou statues has toppled on top of her, trapping her legs. Narumi and Kakeru quickly help her, but she then tells them her friend Yasoshima Daisaku fell off the cliff down in the swamp below. There's a dangerous path along the cliff that climbs down to the swamp, so Narumi and Kakeru carefully make their way down to look for Daisaku, who fortunately is safe: he is a firefighter and has experience with this. A tremendous storm starts as they climb up the path however, and it's becoming too dangerous to walk up this way. Daisuku instructs Narumi and Kakeru to find shelter in a cave halfway up the cliff path, while he goes further up to secure a way for them. Narumi and Kakeru are just inside the cave when the ground shakes, causing a cave-in that blocks off the entrance. To their surprise, they find there were more people inside the cave, and as they talk with these people, they learn this cave runs beeneath Kagerou Village and that in recent years, it has actually been converted to a cave hotel: the "church" Narumi and Kakeru had seen above is a wedding venue, and an elevator there goes down to the main part of the cave, which is surrounded by several rooms. The hotel is a somewhat eccentric attempt to attract tourists to the region. They also learn that Daisaku is a local who is to be married soon to Tsugumi, who is one of the people in the cave, as she was being shown around.

The group makes their way back to the main "lobby cave" to take the elevator back up, but when the elevator doors open, they find the nearly deceased Nanako, a local high school student: she's been shot in the cage. When she's asked who did this to her, Nanako points her finger at... Kakeru before she dies. While Narumi can quickly prove it couldn't have been Kakeru who shot her considering they just arrived there, the local people are still a bit suspicious about these two outsiders. They learn the elevator doesn't work anymore and for some reason, there's also no answer when they try the intercom connecting to the wedding venue above, even though there should be people there, and Daisaku should also know they're there. While afraid the murderer might have attacked the people above too, the people below in the cave can only wait, so they stay in the hotel rooms for the night, with Narumi warning everyone to keep their doors locked in case the murderer is still down in the cave, but his warning is not enough to prevent another murder the next morning. When one guest doesn't respond to calls from outside, Narumi and Kakeru try to open the steel door, but are only able to bend it slightly to create a gap, but the gap is enough for them to see the inhabitant is lying dead on the floor. But she has also written something in blood on the floor that seems to point to Kakeru again! Who is the murderer in the cave, and can Kakeru prove this time he really isn't the murderer in Kirisha Takumi's Ragnarok Dou - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Kagerou Numa he ("The Cave of Ragnarok: The Sealed Door Goes to Kagerou Swamp", 2000)?

Ragnarok Dou is the third entry in Takumi Kirisha's Sealed Door series, about the colorful members of a college club specializing in opening sealed doors. Last year, I read the first book in this series, Doppelgänger-kyuu - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Ryuuhyoukan he ("The Doppelgänger Palace - The Sealed Door Club Goes to the Ryuuhou House", 1999), which was also Kirisha's debut work. You might wonder why I skipped the second book and went straight for the third book in the series. Well, like with Summer Apocalypse a few weeks ago, I didn't actually choose this book because it was a book in this series. I was looking for books with dying messages as the theme, so when I learned this book had a dying message lecture, it found a place in the to-be-read pile, despite it meaning I would be reading a series out of order. Again. As always.

So yeah, the theme of the book is dying messages and it might be surprising to learn Narumi, the self-proclaimed great detective, comes up with a dying message lecture fairly early on in the book. While he namedrops Doctor Fell, Nikaido Ranko, Mercator Ayu and Sorachi Masaya as eminent predecessors when it comes to presenting a lecture on a specific trope in mystery fiction (locked rooms, no footprints in the snow, motives for creating locked rooms and alibis, respectively), I do have to say I find Narumi's alibi lecture really original. While I have seen dying message lectures before (disclosure: I translated Arisugawa Alice's The Moai Island Puzzle), the one in this book is quite original in that because it is about a message: being there's a sender and receiver, this lecture actually consists of two seperate sections (chapters). In the first Narumi presents a categorization of the type of dying messages a victim may leave behind to denounce the murderer (writing, oral, etc.), so the medium of the message, while in the second part, the lecture goes in detail about why said message might be misinterpreted/not understood (so the signife of the message). But what I liked especially about this lecture, is that it is in fact not just a fourth wall-breaking moment, or just two chapters where Kirisha shows he has done his homework and to provide the reader with context to understand how his twist on the dying message in this book will work. While I can't give details because it spoils one of the cleverest elements of this book, Narumi actually has a fantastic reason to actually be holding a lecture about dying messages, and it's precisely because he does this, they're in the end able to solve the case. Narumi might be a self-proclaimed detective, but.... he's actually truly a very clever detective, who in every other series would have been the protagonist. Narumi's just not lucky here, as the club president Godou is just a little bit smarter than Narumi (though less active). At any rate, I have seldom seen a lecture in a mystery story used in such a clever way in-universe, and that alone makes this worth a read, I think.

As the proper cave entrance is blocked and the elevator broken, the people in the cave hotel find themselves in a closed circle situation, but an odd one, as at first, there's no reason to believe the murderer is still in the cave, and it in fact seems more likely the murderer is on the surface, having shot Nanako and then sending the elevator down. The pistol used to kill Nanako is believed to be the one that should have been enshrined in the shrine in the cave: it used to belong to a World War II pilot who crashed in the swamp. But if the murderer did go up, how come a second murder occured in one of the hotel rooms? The door was locked from the inside, and because it's a steel door with a very sturdy, submarine-esque turn-dial lock, Narumi and Kakeru can't even force the door open with a steel bar, only able to open a minor gap through which they could confirm the victim died. As the story progresses, more people are of course killed in the cave. Meanwhile, everyone is also worried about the people above, for Daisaku and other people should know people are trapped in the cave hotel (especially Daisaku, as his soon-to-be-wife Tsugumi is one of the people there!) and Daisaku's a firefighter who told Narumi and Kakeru he'd inform the rescue unit, but why is nobody coming to their rescue? This leads to a lot of speculation on Narumi's part, and it's here where the book kinda repeats some of the... I wouldn't call them faults per se, but it's definitely something that stood out when I read the first book.

For like the first book, this book does feature a large cast of characters like many closed circle murder mysteries... but the narrative is mainly focused on the recurring characters, in this case Narumi and Kakeru, and later other club members after everyone is rescued and they go over the case again to try and solve it. Most of the book revolves mainly around discussions between just the recurring cast as they go over theories and discuss what they could do next, and the side characters that only appear in this book barely get anything to say before they die. The worst example of this is Nanako, who appears as a dead person right away, and we hear some characters lament her death, but we don't actually hear about how they know Nanako, who she is, and why she was in the elevator or anything. She's just there, dead. Only much later you hear a throwaway line about how one character knew Nanako exactly. This happens with other parts of the story too, where you don't really understand what their role is and how character X knows character Y, because the story is focused on Narumi and Kakeru chatting among themselves, instead of with others. It does allow the story to focus on a lot of the detective plot, as Kakeru and Narumi obviously talk about the ongoing case, but some of the puzzle pieces remain vague because you don't hear the other characters speak up too often. And while I do think the members of the Sealed Door club are fun and their banter does mean we get intelligent, genre-savvy discussions regarding the mystery, like the first book, you do feel some of the other characters should have given more speaking lines to flesh out the mystery more.

As for the mystery itself.... it's really dense! You have multiple dying messages (in the broad sense of the meaning, so writing, gestures, in-actions etc.), a locked room murder, long deduction chains about how the murderer must have been moving both on the surface and in the cave, and while I do think sometimes feel a bit chaotic, ultimately, I think it worked out pretty well. The solution to the locked room isn't that interesting to be honest, and the closed circle situation is resolved in a rather easy manner, but the deductions regarding the dying messages and the reasoning chains that point to the murderer are more memorable, and they work really well in conjuction with the aforementioned dying message lecture. Parts of the backstory of the shrine in the cave, which ties directly to the motive, are interesting ideas, though it's debatable about how "fair" it was presented and at times, this backstory goes pretty weird ways: I wouldn't have found the revelations here in any way weird had this been for example a Nikaidou Reito novel, but this being my second book in the series, I hadn't quite expected Kirisha to tell us this kind of backstory. This is an element I think could have been worked out in more detail to feel both more shocking, but also less... coming out of nowhere. 

The book also provides some more insight into the history of the Sealed Door club and why club president Godou started the club, which likely will tie to the final, fourth book in the series, I assume. These books are easy and fun enough to read, so I will eventually get there, not sure whether I will read the second book first, or the last one though.

Ragnarok Dou - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Kagerou Numa he is a fun mystery novel that does some original things via its dying message lecture, and for that alone, I think this is worth a read. Like the first book, it's a story that focuses a lot on the recurring characters and often has a comedic tone to it, so like many character-focused mysteries, it's pretty easy to get into, and while because of that focus, I do feel the mystery isn't presented as strongly as it could be, overall, I do always end up enjoying these books. Solid entry, and I'll be sure to read the other two books in the series too.

Original Japanese title(s): 霧舎巧『ラグナロク洞 《あかずの扉》研究会影郎沼へ』

Remember to Ring Twice

"I'm going slap happy"

"South Park"

I always think of white and blue when I think of the covers for the Koigakubo Academy books, even those are not even the primary colors for every cover...

Disclosure: I translated Higashigawa Tokuya's Lending the Key to the Locked Room. If you haven't read it yet... read it! 

Higashigawa Tokuya first introduced his readers to the fictional school of Koigakubo Academy, located in Kokubunji, Tokyo, in 2002 with Manabanai Tantei-tachi no Gakuen. In that book, we followed the members of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club as they tackled a murder case that happened at school. After the first book about the Detective Club, we have seen other books featuring the Detective Club too, but interestingly enough, Higashigawa also started to feature the high school in other books that weren't about the Detective Club exclusively. First we had the Kirigamine Ryou series, which featured the vice-president of the Detective Club who for some reason very seldomly met the characters of the main series, but still often came across mysteries herself. Four years ago, Higashigawa wrote Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda, a wonderful short story collection about the Second Literature Club of Koigakubo Academy. And 2024, the twentieth anniversary since the first book with the Koigakubo Academy, brought us another new series about the school where so many odd happenings happen, both criminal and not. The binding element between all these series is the school itself, with some characters like the teachers or a delinquent student appearing in several series, while usually the main characters of each series remains in their own 'part' of the world.

Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou ("Miss Asahina and the Secret Buddy", 2024) is a short story collection which presents us with another detective character in the school: Asahina Reika is the daughter of the school's chairman, which basically gives her a lot of informal authority. That is why some students sometimes go directly to her to ask for help when nobody else can help them: Asahina is actually quite involved with the school's reputation and how it's run, and basically acts as a 'shadow chairman' under the auspices of her father. That is why Ishibashi Mamoru comes to her when he's accused of theft by his fellow Mystery Club members: one morning, Ishibashi was the first to retrieve the padlock key from the teacher to open the club room. When he noticed one locker door was open and approached it, the harm had been done: the user of that locker saw Mamoru standing in front of it, and it turned out a manuscript for a detective story he was writing, had disappeared from the locker. He had put it in the locker the day before, and other members were present when they all left the club room together, put the padlock on the door and returned the key to the teacher. This means nobody could've gained entry into the club room and stolen the manuscript from the locker, until Ishibashi asked for the club room key this morning. Mamoru swears he's innocent, and wants Asahina's help, who's secretly more than thrilled, because she's a huge mystery buff and realizes she might be dealing with a genuine locked room mystery. Her guesses however are shot down very swiftly, and it seems Mamoru won't be able to escape the shadow of suspicion, until Asahina accidentally slaps Mamoru in the face, and he.... turns into his deceased brother Wataru!  For some reason, Wataru's personality takes over each time Mamoru's slapped in the face. Wataru's a lot sharper than Mamoru and Asahina, and he quickly solves the case of the theft, even though Mamoru seems not to be aware of Wataru taking over his body and has no recollection of solving the case (he thinks Asahina did it). Asahina and Mamoru/Wataru's paths cross more often, and their encounters only make Asahina more interested in Mamoru and Wataru's odd relationship.

The first tale, Meitantei, Misshitsu ni Arawaru  ("The Great Detective Appears in the Locked Room"), introduces us to the main characters of Asahina, Mamory and Wataru, and also shows a bit of Koigakubo Academy's Mystery Club, which we have seen previously in the second Kirigamine Ryou short story collection. The problem involves a theft from a club room: the club members all saw how the manuscript was left in a locker in the room and they left the room together, saw how the padlock was put on the door and one of them returned the key to the teacher in charge. The key is specially made and can't be copied, and the teachers keep club room keys in a room with camera surveillance, so it appears only Mamoru, who took the key the following day, could've stolen the manuscript in the morning. Asahina presents a few fairly simple theories which are discarded fairly easily, which is perhaps also why the actual solution to the conundrum is also fairly simply: this solution is basically of the same level Asahina could and should have presented herself, and should've been shot down too. So to have the mysterious Wataru appear only to point out a simple solution.... 

Satsujin ga Misui Datta Hanashi ("A Story About an Attempt at Murder") starts with Asahina hearing the shocking news a student of Koigakubo Academy had been assaulted the previous night. The girl had been to a concert of Tamaranzaka 24 and had been on her way home, crossing a grove near the station, when she was attacked and stabbed in her stomach. She was found by a classmate who quickly called the emergency line. Because the girl's a classmate of Mamoru, Asahina decides to use him as her Watson to learn more about the case. They visit the mother of the victim, and learn the daughter didn't quite get along with the mother's boyfriend, but he has an alibi for when the girl was assaulted. While the actual truth behind why the girl was attacked is not very surprising or original on its own, I love the deduction chain Higashigawa laid out for the reader. The clue that leads to the revelation of how it was done is really good, and expertly hidden, and easily one of my favorite clues of the whole book. 

Asahina Reika is the honorary student council president, which means she supervises the board meetings once in a while (when she feels like it), and the other members just have to dance to her tune. the day after another meeting, Asahina visits the board office to use her locker there, when she notices a window was left open. She then realizes someone has moved some of her books in her locker, so she summons Mamoru (and Wataru) to help her find the insolent person who dares go through her stuff in Seitokaiyakuinshitsu no Koubou ("Offence and Defence in the Student Board Office"). After a good slap, we see Wataru's observations of a few clues that ultimately lead Asahina and Wataru to a rather surprising discovery, which shows there was something far more sinister going on in the student board office than just a theft. Not a huge fan of the story to be honest: the first half the mystery-solving is more focused on reverse-engineering Wataru's deductions about the intruder's actions, rather than doing that ourselves and in the second half, we investigate a mysterious message that... probably would have been more interesting in a visual medium, but not in a prose form.

Tenshi wa Poolside ni Ukabu ("Angels Floating at the Poolside") is set during a summer evening: students are still around at school because of two events: geography teacher Ikegami is supervising a group to watch the stars (she herself is actually a huge believer of UFOs), while another group of students are playing night baseball on the school grounds. A guard meanwhile is making his rounds, when he senses something's wrong with the school's pool. While the fence is properly locked and barbed wire ensures nobody can climb inside (or as some swimming club members say, it's to prevent members from fleeing training), the guard still can't shake the feeling someone is inside, so he unlocks the pool gate and has a look around. His attention is drawn to one of the diving boards, so he climbs the ladder. He's nearly at the top when he suddenly feels something hard hit his head, and he falls of the ladder, hits his head on the ground and is knocked out. But just before he passes out, he's sure he saw a winged angel flying in the sky above him... The guard is later found by students passing by. Asahina of course can't help herself and decides to investigate herself (with Mamoru/Wataru as her Watson). This is another story where I think it would've been better had it been created in a visual medium. While I think the solution on its own is okay, I think asking the reader to deduce it based on the hints is a bit too much, while it would've been much more natural if the story had been told in a visual format. The attack on the guard (which is kinda impossible because he was hit on the head while climbing up the ladder and he didn't see anyone on the diving board before he was knocked out) is connected well to the guard seeing floating angels, but it's still a story that has trouble feeling really satisfying. 

The final story, Chashitsu ni Kieta Shoujo ("The Girl Who Disappeared In the Tea-Ceremony Room"), has Asahina wondering whether he should tell Mamoru about Wataru taking his body over each time he's hit on the head, but before she can make a decision, she and Mamoru stumble upon a new case, and a very personal one too: Asahina sees a brown-haired girl rummaging through her desk in the classroom! Asahina and Mamoru give chase, and they eventually find the girl running into a remote part of the campus, which is walled off and ends in a cul-de-sac where the tea-ceremony room is, a small building used by the tea ceremony club. Mamoru is sent inside the room by Asahina, but it appears there's only a tea ceremony club member inside, who is far too tall to be the girl Asahina saw. A swift look across the room also shows there's no place for the brown-haired girl to hide inside. Asahina then decides to check behind the tea-ceremony room too (she makes sure Mamoru goes the other way around the building), but they only find a delinquent student trying to smoke in secret. But as this part of the campus is completely walled-off, how did the girl escape if she's not in the tea-ceremony room nor behind it? Impossible disappearances are pretty much a staple of the mysteries set at Koigakubo Academy, as other books also feature them (especially the Kirigamine Ryou series), and even with that in mind, I'd say this is a pretty good story. The solution is very simple, but also quite clever: it would have been pretty interesting on its own as it makes good use of the unusual setting, but Higashigawa manages to tie a very unique clue to it too, giving it another level of depth. Just don't come here expecting some real resolution regarding the Mamoru/Wataru plotline.

Overall though, I'll need to be honest and say that Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou is probably my least favorite short story collection set at Koigakubo Academy until now. I love the Kirigamine Ryou stories with the overly-enthusiastic Kirigamine and the weird disappearances and other impossible crimes(?) she encounters, and I was really surprised by how fantastically Kimi ni Yomasetai Mystery ga Arunda was set-up with multiple meta-level stories, but in comparison, the plots of Asahina-san to Himitsu no Aibou seemed a lot simpler, with less finesse going on in regards to how the mysteries were planned. And I guess I never got really invested in the Ranma 1/2 / Touch-esque subplot of Mamoru and Wataru (hmm, now I think about it, it does have a Shonen Sunday vibe to it), so that wasn't really something that kept me interested. I'm always in for more stories set at Koigakubo Academy, and it was fun seeing familiar faces pop up in the background, but I guess I did expect something more 'grand' for the twentieth anniversary of the setting. Let's hope the next one is more memorable.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『朝比奈さんと秘密の相棒』：「名探偵、密室に現る」/「殺人が未遂だった話」/「生徒会役員室の攻防」/「天使はプールサイドに浮かぶ」/「茶室に消えた少女」

8 1 3

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

"One" (Filter)

This is not the cover of the edition I read, but this is a great cover, so I'm going to cheat!

The Harrigans are a religious, and wealthy clan, though the three siblings carry their faith in different manners. Oldest brother Wolfe has dedicated his life to exposing religious confidence tricksters, second brother R. Joseph is a laywer with influence across town and sister Ellen is deeply religious and has remained single all her life, Recently unemployed Matt Duncan happens to become acquainted with Wolfe when he visits the Harrigan house: initially there to see Concha, Wolfe's daughter and the fiancee of his university friend Gregory (at least, Gregory claims she's his fiancee), Duncan happens to catch one of those swindlers who was exposed by Wolfe trying to kill the man. Wolfe is very grateful to Duncan and offers him a job as his assistant and writer, hoping Duncan can sift through all the data Wolfe has on religious fraudsters and write a book based on his research. The current target of Wolfe is the Temple of Light and its leader, who claims to be Ahasver, the Wandering Jew. Wolfe and Duncan attend a meeting of the Children of Light, where they hear Ahasver, clad in a yellow robe, set "Nine Times Nine" (nine prophets and the nine that serve those nine) upon their mortal enemy Wolfe Harrigan: his death will follow within a month. Only they didn't have to wait that long, for the following day at dusk, Duncan and R. Joseph are in the garden when they see a figure dressed in a yellow robe standing in Wolfe's study through the French windows. They rush inside the house to enter the room, but find one door locked from the inside, and the other door to the chapel turns out to have been under observation for quite some time now, and the witness didn't see anyone leave through this door either. Duncan makes it back to the French windows again, where he sees Wolfe lying dead on the floor, having been shot, but no trace of the figure in the yellow robe! The police of course also confirm later the study, save for some mouse holes, was indeed completely sealed from inside, from the doors to the French windows. Did Ahasver use his mystical powers to kill Wolfe and leave the study even though it was locked from the inside? Duncan is quite eager to help the police solve the murder on his new boss, but he's not alone, as Sister Ursula, of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany who have a close tie with the Harrigans, too seems interested in solving the mystery in Anthony Boucher's Nine Times Nine (1940).

Nine Times Nine, originally published by Boucher under the name of H.H. Holmes, is the first book featuring the character of Sister Ursula, and while I have radio plays by Boucher, this is the first time I read a novel by him. The book certainly reads very pleasantly: while not much really happens, the story feels like it's always moving about, and there are even some minor hardboiled-esque segments where Duncan has fisticuffs with people. While those segments aren't really necessary puzzle plot-wise, I found the story as told at least pleasant enough, and it didn't feel like it had been padded too much, nor did it really ever drag. 

Overall, I also did very much like the plot about the Temple of Light, the cult and of course the Wandering Jew Ahasver. Makes you wonder why someone who's been wandering the Earth for almost two thousand years would just resort to murder, you'd think they'd have created a better network of dealing with things if you've been around for so long already! I do wish the book had explored the cult in more detail, as the book ultimately focuses much more on the Harrigan family in general, and to a somewhat lesser extent Ahasver alone, rather than the whole organization around him. The other cult-related element is the person Swami Virasenanda whose attempt on killing Wolfe was foiled by Duncan the first night he visited, but you don't really hear much about how he worked as a religious fraudster, he's just used as the character who already tried to kill Wolfe once before.

The main problem of the book is certainly the locked room, which is probably also signalled by the fact the book is dedicated to John Dickson Carr. In fact, a whole chapter of the book is basically also dedicated to the infamous Locked Room Lecture of Carr, as at a certain point, the characters actually start quoting from the lecture in an attempt to solve the locked room murder of Wolfe Harrigan. The problem itself is technically not a true locked room by the way: why almost all windows and doors were indeed locked from the inside, there was one door that had been under observation by one single witness. So the situation only becomes a true locked room mystery if we choose to believe this character. I think Boucher did consider this point, and tried to sell to the reader we could absolutely believe this character regarding this point, but I do think it didn't work too well. The thing Boucher tries to pull off regarding the credibility of this witness testimony definitely has interesting elements, and I can also see it working in specific situations, but here it kinda falls flat, for ultimately, it's still basically just "let's believe the witness for the sake of the story". You either need to explore that specific character a lot more, or have a very specific kind of situation or world, where you can really sell the idea that witness would not lie regarding what they saw, for this to work, but in Nine Times Nine, the attempt to guarantee to the reader the witness told the truth, still feels like Boucher is just imploring you to believe him for the plot to work. It also kinda falls flat, for the same argument for some reason doesn't work for the actual culprit, whom is portrayed somewhat similarly to the witness, but for some reason, it doesn't hold for them? The two clues I refer to are the kind I actually really like, and they can work really well in specific settings (not explaining in more detail here as it would spoil the book), but here they just don't work the way the story pretends they are doing. There is also a kind of dying message. If you're better educated than me, it might have been very useful. It's somewhat Ellery Queen-esque clue, not just because it's a dying clue, but also the meaning behind it. Though one does wonder how trustworthy the dying message would be in practical terms, as to pull that off while a person is dying...But if this had not been a Anthony Boucher, but Berkeley book, the dying message would certainly have been fake and been used to manipulate Sheringham into arriving at a false conclusion!

The actual how behind the locked room is... alright? Practically speaking, it seems like a bit of a risky trick to pull off, especially with only one single attempt and also it having been impossible for the culprit to control all possible witnesses roaming around the house at the same time: if even one person had been standing at the wrong place at the wrong time, they'd have been found out. It's not my favorite type of trick to create a locked room, but it's alright, though what I actually liked better, was the simple set-up by Sister Ursula to guide the other characters (and the reader) at arriving at the same conclusion as she did. The simple questions she asks at the start of the denouement are so obvious, but they very firmly guide you to the right answer. Sister Ursula is also quite a fun character; though religious, she's not quite as religious as say Father Brown, with an almost cheeky, mischievous side to her.

Nine Times Nine supposedly ranks among Edward D. Hoch's favorite locked room mysteries. It comes nowhere close my absolute favorites, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. I do think it shows a lot of potential elements that could have been worked out even better, but as a mystery novel written by someone who obviously really looked up to Carr (and while not reflected as strongly here, Queen), Nine Times Nine is certainly a book I can safely recommend for a few hours of fun mystery.

Seven Days A Week

Seven days a week now
Seven days a week
You've even got me talking in my sleep
Seven days a week

"Seven Days A Week" (George A. Robertson Jr.)

I usually have a lot of posts scheduled months ahead, so whenever I read a newly released book and decide to push a review early to keep it timely, it messes up the whole schedule...

It is a late July day when Kuroba Uyuu wakes up in a hospital room, looking down at a somewhat familiar person lying in a bed in the ICU. He recognizes the face.... as his own, and when he sees he's floating and he himself is in a semi-transparent state, he starts to realize that he is in fact a ghost. He realizes the nurse can't see him either, and follows her as she reports to the doctor that her patient (Kuroba) has stabilized after a cardiac arrest earlier this morning, but that he's still in a coma. It's then that Kuroba slowly remembers what happened to him. Four months ago, on White Day (March 14), he was out on the roof of his apartment building, when someone pushed him from behind. Kuroba ended shish-kebabed on the statue of a dog holding a toothbrush high up in the sky beneath the building. It is then he recalls he had an appointment for that evening to meet a prospective client and the realization he never made it there annoys him a bit, as trust is an important factor in his line of work. For Kuroba was going to meet his client as The Perfect Crime Contractor: Kuroba has been active in the underworld for almost a decade as someone whom people can turn to if the justice system fails them. He exacts revenge for his clients, usually in a manner that mirrors the way the criminals hurt their victims, like swindling swindlers or putting the police on the trail of the serial Topsy-Turvey Killer and cornering him into a certain death. The Perfect Crime Contractor of course executes his revenge in a way that safeguards both himself and his clients, hence his nickname, and while the police knows of him, they never have been able to prove for example his involvement in certain suspicious deadly "accidents" that happened to some murderers.

Having nothing to do as a ghost, Kuroba floats to the place where he was supposed to meet his clients four months ago: an abandoned house in the outskirts of the city. When he arrives there, he is suddenly attacked by a young girl, or at least, she attempts to, but she walks right through him. It turns out the girl can actually see ghosts and has seen a few before in her life. The girl is Otoha, and she is the daughter of the clients Kuroba was supposed to meet on the fourteenth of March. However, they were found killed in gruesome manners in this abandoned house the following morning: both her father and mother had been poisoned, and her father was then hanged upside-down from the ceiling. However, it was a snowy day, and there were only the footprints of her parents leading into the house, and none out (of the killer), meaning it was a double locked room murder: this is why Otoha has been coming every night to the house, as she learned her parents were going to meet the Perfect Crime Contractor here that night and she believes he killed them with a perfect crime. After Kuroba explains he's the Perfect Crime Contractor, Otoha realizes he can't be the killer of her parents: Kuroba being stabbed on the statue had of course been all over the news, and his fall occured hours before her parent's deaths. Kuroba's fall has been filed as an accident by the police, but Kuroba can't believe his fall, and the murders on Otoha's parents are disconnected as they happened just within hours of each other. Otoha pleads with Kuroba to help her exact revenge on the murderer of her parents, as that's probably also the person who pushed Kuroba off the roof. As a ghost, Kuroba can't directly interact with the physical world, and he also learns from Otoha ghosts can only roam for a maximum of seven days before they fade away completely and reluctantly, Kuroba agrees to help Otoha in tracking the killer and mentoring her so she can take her revenge, but in a way that will keep herself out of harm's way. Can this unlikely duo accomplish their revenge before Kuroba's ghost will disappear in seven days in Houjou Kie's 2024 novel Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai ("An Unsuitable Perfect Crime for a Girl").

Yes, as a Houjou Kie fan since her debut, I of course read her latest book the moment this was released (it was released last week). After debuting via, and writing three excellent novels for publisher Tokyo Sogensha, writing the exciting short story collection Amulet Hotel at Koubunsha, we now have Houjou Kie's first novel via publisher Kodansha (you may remember a few weeks ago I did review a short story she did via Kodansha's Mephisto Readers Club). So a different publisher, but as always, we see Houjou do what she's best at: presenting densily plotted mystery novels featuring a special background setting, in this case, we have the existence of ghosts. Which is funny, because I only read one story by Houjou from when she was still a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club, which also featured a ghost. Also interesting to note is that the editor of the book was also a former editor-in-chief of the club.

As I am writing this, I have to admit I find it difficult to sort my thoughts on this book. Not because it's a chaotic book, but I think I can best explain it by first pointing out that based on her social media, it does appear Houjou very much likes television drama and films and in a way, Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai feels very much like a full season of a mystery drama series. A lot happens in this book, and basically each chapter turns things around or focuses on a different main problem, even if everything is surprisingly neatly connected. We start out with an impossible crime: the murder on Otoha's parents in a house with no footprints in the snow leading to the entrance, but Kuroba and Otoha's investigation lead them to more mysterious crime scenes and events: some might be "classic" crime scenes like the one mentioned above, or a more open crime scene like the rooftop from which Kuroba was pushed, while others focus on other mysteries like an impossible situation where a person manages to conjure a weapon out of nowhere despite security precautions, or "impossible situations" where the young Otoha needs to escape a trap without being detected. The book is crammed full with mysteries upon mysteries, but they all flow into each other in a very natural manner, as part of the duo's investigation, and because of that, it really feels like a complete series, rather than a single novel.

This is also because of the insanely densily-clewed plot. While the story has you following many different situations one after another, Houjou somehow manages to hide all her clues and foreshadowing across the whole novel, rather than compartmentalizing all the clues together with the stiuation they correspond too (as in [part 1 + clues of part 1] -> [part 2 + clues of part 2] etc.). The result is a very satisfying mystery novel, where everything you read can turn out to be a clue that might be relevant to a situation you have already read about.... or about that might still come, and those situations themselves might be completely different mysteries. I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been to keep track of all the clues during the writing process, keeping an eye on when and where each clue was employed or when foreshadowing would be necessary. Houjou has always been a very dense writer when it comes to clues, but due to the set-up of Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai, with a series of mysteries set in motion by different actors occuring across city, rather than a series of murders by the hand of one murderer happening in an isolated setting like in the Ryuuzen series, you become even more aware what an amazing plotter she is, as clewing all of these situations and intertwining all these threads must be hell as a writer.

At this point, I haven't even really mentioned what makes this book truly amazing. So by now, we basically have a television drama season's worth of mysteries, all with intertwined threads of clues and foreshadowing as we follow the unlikely duo of a primary school child and a criminal ghost trying to find a killer and take revenge on them, but... this is also a book that focuses on multiple solutions, in the tradition of Christianna Brand, Ellery Queen and Anthony Berkeley. Otoha, as a young child, is being mentored by Kuroba's ghost and being taught the ropes of how to deduce, a skill extremely important when it comes to planning out perfect revenge plans and soon the two find themselves bouncing off deductions off each other about the various mysteries they encounter during their investigation. In some rare occcassions, we even have other character offer false solutions too, and what makes this so memorable is of course due to the fact I mentioned earlier about how insanely many clues are found throughout the book: all of the false solutions presented in the book, as well as the real solutions, are of course all properly clewed (and the false solutions of course feature clues that will ultimately prove them false). The realization Houjou had to keep track of all of this is honestly just stunning, and the result is an incredily fun mystery novel, as it always keep you guessing, by constantly shifting the mystery you're thinking about and by challenging the reader into finding the real solution among the many false solutions she planted. Some of the major mysteries, like the initial locked room mystery, even have like three or four different false solutions presented, so it's an extremely tricky story.

With so many mysteries going on, it's understandable that some mysteries are less memorable when taken on their own: there's a minor no-footprints-in-the-mud situation halfway through the book for example that has a rather basic solution, and while I like the concept behind the weapon appearing out of nowhere, I feel it needed one more clue to feel truly fair, but that's nitpicking, as the way all of these are put together is impressive enough, and I do really like the solution to the first no-footprints-in-the-snow situation, as well as the great way in which Kuroba and Otoha initially figure out a logical connection between Otoha's parents' murderer and Kuroba's assailant. I also think readers will appreciate the time Houjou allows the reader to spend with both Otoha and Kuroba: they are explored more deeply than any other character in Houjou's earlier work and that is probably also a reason why this book feels so much like a full season of stories, rather than a single installment. I do think personally that the ghost aspect of the story feels less intertwined with the mystery in this book, compared to how Houjou's earlier work utilized their supernatural/unusual elements: Kuroba can't interact with the physical world, so he mostly mentors Otoha and can act as an extra pair of eyes and ears, as well as provide information Otoha can't have, but there's less of the "make super clever use of the rules of this specific supernatural element" we have seen in her previous novels. Oh well, you can't have everything.

Because even with that minor point, I do think Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai is one of the best mystery novels I have read this year, and easily so. It's a very satisfying read as it covers so much ground and throws Otoha, a young, indepedent cheeky girl, and Kuroba, a ghost with a chip on his shoulder, in so many mysterious situations and allows both of them to show both their best and their worst as they try to find the killer and formulate a way to exact revenge on them. A must-read of this year!

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵『少女には向かない完全犯罪』

No Thanks, Masked Manx

"I haff tvelve metchsteek."

"Fuck you!"

"Professor Layton And The Perpetual Torment" (Penny Arcade)

Man, these Sugimoto Ichibun covers remain gorgeous. And creepy.

Ootori Chiyoko was not only a silver screen actress famed for her beauty, she was perhaps even better kwown for her many, many husbands. By 1960, she had already married four times, and gotten divorced four times. While she and her first husband Fuenokouji Yasuhisa had one daughter together, Misa was mostly raised by her grandmother Fuenokouji Atsuko. This meant Chiyoko was quite free to pursue new men, and in 1960, she had already set her eyes on her next husband: businessman Asuka Tadahiro, who in turn is also quite in love with Chiyoko. In 1960, Chiyoko and Asuka are both in Karuizawa, the popular resort town, but they are not alone. Not only are Misa and Atsuko also staying in Karuizawa, but also Chiyoko's third and fourth husbands: Maki Kyougo and Tsumura Shinji. Last year, the same faces were also gathered in Karuizawa, but with the extra inclusion of Fuenokouji Yasuhisa. He however passed away then, as he had drowned in a pool after a night of drinking. It happens however Chiyoko's second husband Akutsu Genzou has also passed away the year before that in a traffic accident, which leads to some speculation about whether the deaths of Chiyoko's exes are really just accidents. These suspicions explode when this year, her third husband Maki Kyougo is found dead in his atelier in Karuizawa, having taken cyanide. Asuka decides to hire private detective Kindaichi, who happens to be staying in Karuizawa with a friend, to investigate the case, because the police are suspecting Chiyoko has something to do with the deaths of all her husbands. Kindaichi quickly points out it is very likely Maki's body might have been moved in the atelier, meaning he was murdered somewhere else, and the biggest clue they have are a bunch of matches of which about half are broken and the other half not, but what do these matches indicate? Is there some murderer who wants to kill off all of Chiyoko's husbands, or is there some other connection between these mysterious deaths in Yokomizo Seishi's Kamen Butoukai ("Masquerade", 1974)?

Kamen Butoukai is one of the later Kindaichi novels by Yokomizo Seishi, only followed by Byouinzaka no Kubikukuri no Ie and Akuryoutou. Its birth was also quite troublesome. It had originally been planned and announced as a direct-to-novel release with the slightly different title Kasou Butoukai, but it was never actually released. Then it became a serialized novel in Houseki starting in 1962, but the following year, Yokomizo had to pause the serialization due to health problems. By then however, the Japanese mystery scene was already focusing more on the social school mysteries like those of Matsumoto Seichou, and Yokomizo seemingly lost interest in writing the Kindaichi Kousuke novels, which were basically the anti-thesis to the social school novels, being gothic, fantastical mysteries with a lot of theatrics and drama. But after the success of the manga adaptation of Yatsu Haka Mura, the re-releases of his Kindaichi novels as mass market paperbacks which ignited a genuine "Yokomizo Boom", he got interested again, and in 1974, Kamen Butoukai was finally finished via a direct-to-novel release. Twelve years is quite a long time to finish a book!

But as the book was started in 1962 and the social school boom had already been on-going, you can definitely feel some of that must have influenced Yokomizo, and this book (like the previous novel Shiro to Kuro) feel surprisingly "modern" compared to the more famous Kindaichi novels, which are all set soon after World War II, instead of 15 years later. While the war does still play a role in the book (the Fuenokouji clan is former nobility, the war had affected not only Chiyoko's career but also her bond with Misa, as Misa and her grandmother had to evacuate Tokyo during the bombings, meaning they lived apart for a long time), the world does feel less weighed down directly by the war, and while this story doesn't take place in the city, Karuizawa is still a very popular resort town for more rich people, again quite different from the isolated mountain village or island you'd be familiar with from the more famous Kindaichi novels. Especially for those who have read many of those, this book will feel strangely refreshing.

That said, the book does still follow the usual tropes of a Kindaichi novel, being very focused on digging into complicated family relationships with hidden histories, and these relations being strongly connected to the motive behind the deaths. Very "obvious" tropes like the dying message are used far less often usually. The meaning behind the matches is actually pretty ingenious, but completely impossible to guess before Kindaichi explains what it means. Even if you know what the clue is actually indicating, you can't possibly ever tie that piece of information to the matches, even if in hindsight, it makes sense. In fact, the piece of information it refers to, is something I have seen in quite a few mystery stories, and I think it is used pretty clever here. There is another clue indicating the same thing in this book that on a creative level has much better potential, but it used in a very weird manner, basically showing you the clue, and immediately telling you what it is, which takes away so much of the surprise, as it would have been much better if we had been first shown this scene, and only later been told what it actually meant. Now you get a very vital clue about 70% in the book, while the solving doesn't actually occur until the 90% point. The thing it indicates is used cleverly though: while it used in conjunction with something else that seems a bit obvious and tropey, these two elements work together well to create some misdirection, and I do like it as a clue on its own. It just could have been presented to the reader in a somewhat different manner to make the revelation feel a bit more surprising, and also earned.

Yokomizo does a good job at weaving a complex web of people moving about in Karuizawa around the time of the Maki death and how people's actions will influence other people's actions, though some parts feel a bit odd. The book actually opens with two people committing a love suicide together, but Kindaichi stumbles upon them and calls for help, though he sadly only managed to save one of them. The way this prologue becomes connected to the deaths of Chiyoko's exes is quite forced, and some might even think it feels cheap, as it basically forces one character to behave in a certain way because... the book needed them to do that, but also give them some kind of motivation for doing so, but it doesn't really work.

There are some nice Christie-esque twists in the plot, that worked really well here. In a way, the book feels very much like a Kindaichi novel, but at the same time, it also subverses a lot of the tropes, like via the more modern setting as mentioned, but also the role of Chiyoko in the book. Even the final confrontation with Kindaichi will feel somewhat familiar, though I think this is one of the better times in the series, as the actions of this culprit were really horrible and created a huge tragedy, but in a very different way than in other Kindaichi novels, while still very rooted in reasons that, in a roundabout way, seem to make sense from their point of view. I don't think this one is an absolutely must read (Yokomizo himself did rank it no. 7 out of his personal top 10 Kindaichi novels he wrote), but it is quite fun to read especially if you are already familiar with the better-known books (that follow the classic tropes).

So I wouldn't recommend Kamen Butoukai as anyone's first meeting with Kindaichi, but if you have read a few already, you might find this book very refreshing, set in a very different time period like Shiro to Kuro, and with some elements that feel almost subversive for the series. Not A-tier material, but a solid B. Despite me saying it feels subversive at times, this is still however very clearly a Kindaichi Kousuke novel, and there's plenty to recognize here (the complex human relationships!) and if you like that part of the series, you'll be satisfied with this book too.

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史『仮面舞踏会』

Phantom of the Knight

"Only you can put the king in check, vigilante. Move according to the rules, or it's the end of the day."

"Batman: The Animated Series"

I wish we could return to the schedule of having three or four new Detective Conan volumes a year instead of the barely two we get now...

It's been about six months since we last saw a new Detective Conan volume so here we have volume 104. I am not really sure why they didn't time the home video release of this year's theatrical release, Kurogane no Submarine, with this volume, as there's a gap of over a month now even though they are usually quite good at timing these kinds of releases, but this is the way things go, and what do we have this time? A very, very disappointing volume indeed, that is only kinda saved by one story, but also not really. The volume opens with The Knight Was Witness, where we learn Inspector Shiratori is participating in an amateur chess competition. His girlfriend Kobayashi is there to cheer him on, as is fellow teacher Wakasa, and their pupils the Detective Boys. They also run into Kuroda, the Managing Officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police (so Shiratori's superior), who also turns out to be quite the mean chess player. During the first round, someone plays Amazing Grace, which seems to unsettle a few of the players, who say something similar happened last year too. During the down-time between rounds, a few players who finished their games early chat and have some drinks, but then one person in the room suddenly has his drink shot into fragments by an crossbow arrow! Kuroda and Conan run into the hallway in the hopes of finding the assailant, but they onyl find a second victim in the men's bathroom, who not only has an arrow shot in his stomach, but next to him lies his belongings.... and a keychain figure of a Knight's piece, which Kobayashi had gifted Shiratori earlier.  He claims he lost the figure and that he had been making a call at the stairs. Security footage confirms nobody took the elevators after the victim arrived at the floor, limiting the number of suspects to three, plus Shiratori, who seems to be the main suspect considering his keychain was found next to the victim. But what are those blood smears in that magazine of the victim?

A dying message of course, and not a very interesting one either. Wordplay dying messages are seldom my favorite, and one major clue that serves as a kinda twist is telegraphed with such enormous lights, it's hard to miss. The story also seems only to be an excuse to serve as a prologue to the next story: Kuroda sees Conan solving the riddle of the Knight so fast, he decides to confide to Conan about an incident he got involved with 17 years ago in the United States, involving a bloody knight's piece...

And fans who have been reading Conan this whole time of course know what Kuroda's finally going to tell Conan about, as we have been getting hints about a murder case involving a wealthy person that occured 17 years ago for a long time ago, and we know the incident also involved Rum, the second-in-rank in the Black Organization that created the drug that shrunk Kudo Shinichi to his current child-form, forcing himself to play the role of Conan. We also know other suspicious figures were involved one way or another with this case, but not exactly how, so in The Truth of 17 Years Ago, we finally get the story told completely, via flashbacks of both Kuroda and Rum themselves, who has plans to assassinate a certain person involved with this incident. The case involves the death of the wealthy Amanda Hughes, an elderly lady with both financial and political powers, who is also an amateur chess player who recently became friends with a young, but very talented shogi player. She has caught the attention of a certain crime organization however, who plan to assasinate her at her hotel, where the shogi player is also staying. She indeed ends up dead, and others fall victim too to the organization, but Amanda left one curious message as she died, leaving lipstick on her watch and smearing her blood on a knight's piece on her chess board. Kuroda now hopes Conan can solve this message for him.

While this incident taking place 17 years ago is important in Conan-lore as it connects several characters to each other, and also clarifies the actions and motives of a lot of the characters finally (we only got hints and fragments telling us about that before), The Truth of 17 Years Ago is not a very interesting story mystery-wise. Not at all. The fact we got another dying message involving a knight's piece one after another doesn't really help, but the message as Conan solves it doesn't even really tell either Kuroda much, nor the reader: because the reader is also shown flashbacks of Rum (who was involved in the murder 17 years ago), we know exactly what occured when Amanda died, and while Kuroda and Conan didn't know, the message that is decyphered doesn't tell them much in the first place, and it tells us the reader absolutely nothing noteworthy, as we already know the contents of that message via Rum's own flashbacks! So as a mystery, the story isn't interesting at all. There's a secondary plot, where in the current day, we see Rum bossing his sniper assassins Chianti and Korn around to assassinate a certain person, but this plot point also didn't really work for me, because for some reason Conan, after hearing about Kuroda's story, somehow guesses an attempt at this person's life might be made this very moment, and while that is, miraculously, really the case, there is no way Conan could've known that Rum would attempt such a thing on that day at that time, and not on any other day. The created tension thus feels very fake, and ultimately, this story offers nothing mystery-solving-wise. It is just a gigantic lore dump. Which makes this story a must-read for people who want to follow the story, but that is the only reason why you'd be reading this story.

The Ghost Tale of the Man-Eating Classroom is set at Teitan Elementary, where a new transfer student in the class next door has been telling the kids the tale of a ghost who roams classrooms, demanding for food or else it will cause fires or destroy pots and things. Some kids believe him, though Conan is of course sceptical. But then, during lunchtime, the flower bed just outside the classroom catches fire! While Haibara manages to quickly stop the fire with water from a vase with flowers, Conan suspects it's certainly not a ghost who set fire to the flower bed and he even has an idea of what people in the class might have a reason for causing an incident, but on the other hand, nobody saw anybody near the flower bed before the fire started, and besides some burned chips, he also can't find evidence somebody set up some time-mechanism to set fire to the flowers (so the culprit wouldn't need to be there at the time the fire started). The story is... okay? I don't think the fire incident meshes that well with the ghost story (which is more about a ghost demanding food or else it gets hangry) and there's no way you're going to figure out howdunnit based on the hints given, but I think that as a whodunnit, it worked surprisingly well, because the howdunnit feels very natural in relation to the culprit (i.e. the actual means available to that person to create this incident), as well as the whydunnit. As in, the way the incident was started fitted well with the classmates of Conan as we know them from previous stories and also with their characters, so it didn't come out of nowhere. But still, the actual howdunnit is a bit lacking in clues, and there's just no way you'd arrive at that conclusion based on those hints.

Volume 104 ends with the first chapter focusing on Heiji and Kazuha taking the train with... Momiji (Kazuha's rival in love) and her butler, who seems to get involved in a rather mysterious incident while on the train. I am actually curious to how this story will develop further, but we'll have to wait for next year, when the next volume is released...

Anyway, Detective Conan 104 was not one of my favorite volumes of this series. The main story is important lore-wise, but not interesting at all as a standalone mystery tale, and the other two stories which are fully included in the volume are not very memorable either, either because it's another far-fetched dying message, or simply because it was a story that is intentionally not very big: you usually have such "smaller" stories after bigger event stories, which The Truth of 17 Years Ago technically is, and while I understand not all can be as good in bringing a lore-important, action-packed story while also providing a good mystery as volume 100's The FBI Serial Murder Case, this is the other end of the extreme, where it focuses so much on finally conveying some context to an event that had been hinted at over the course of many years, to the extent it forgets to be interesting as a standalone mystery too. Let's hope volume 105, scheduled for next year (probably when the new film releases in April), is better!

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌 『名探偵コナン』第104巻 

A Double for Detection

Wishing on a dream that seems far off, hoping it will come today

"Wind's Nocturne"

Hmm, discussions on non-Japanese comics are rather rare on this blog, which is why I use the manga tag for all comics...

Stanislas-André Steeman was a French-speaking, Belgian illustrator and novelist, who wrote mystery novels (in French) from the 1930s until the late 1950s. I have to admit, I had never ever heard of his name until I started to see references to him in Japanese literature: while he is apparently fairly well-known in the Franco-language sphere of mystery fiction, just two of his novels have been translated to English, and they sell for quite the price. Apparently his work is also available in Flemish (Dutch) translation, I have never seen them going around in the used market, so they are not that common either. As my French isn't that good, I never really thought about looking deeper into this (I do believe there are multiple film adaptations of his books). But earlier this year, I learned a few of this books had been adapted as comics in the late 1980s, and the Flemish translations of these comics are still very cheap in the used market. The imprint which published these comics did several detective and thriller adaptations, ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Rouletabille. Interestingly, some of these adaptations inserted detectives in stories they were not originally part of, like having Rouletabille appear in The Phantom of the Opera.

These four books were all adapted from Steeman's novels by André-Paul Duchateau: the first three featured art by Xavier Musquera, the last one by Didier Desmit. The art obviously follows the French Ligne claire style, and the comics are also all the same lenght at around fifty pages. This does mean some of these stories feel rather rushed, though I can't say whether that's only because of the limited page count, or whether the original books also felt like that. Still, I feel that for some stories, an extra ten pages would have changed a lot. The page layout is, as often is with these comics, rather static, so it's a bit boring to look at at times, but that's also partially because I read much more manga, where page layouts are often more dynamic. That said, for those who are not as familar with manga, these comics might be easier to read exactly because they are so static in layout.

Zes dode mannen ("Six Dead Men") is based on 1930-1931's Six hommes mort (a book which is also available in English), and concerns a pact by six men down on their luck, who want to change their fate. They will split up and try to make something out of themselves and in five years, they will reconvene and share all their wealth with each other. Every mystery fan recognizes this has a tontine-esque element (if someone dies, the share of the remaining people grows). Five years later, most of them have indeed crawled up the financial ladder and are making their way back home to share their fortune with their friends, but one of them dies on the boat back. Another man has tattoed the secret to his fortune on his chest, but he has been followed by a mysterious figure, and just as he explains about this, he is shot and later his body (with the tattoo) is even spirited away. The men are offed one by one, and not even Inspector Wenceslas Vorobeitchick, also known as Wens, seems to be able to do anything. But will this really continue until one is left alive?

This story is absolutely fine to read as a tontine-based thriller, but as a proper mystery story, it's quite outdated. I am going to guess many readers will guess what is going here, as you will probably have seen the criminal's big gambit in a similar form one way or another in mystery fiction before, and... it's just not surprising anymore to the modern reader. There is a minor locked room-esque situation when one of the men is found dead in an elevator cage even though he was seen stepping inside the cage alive, but it is solved rather swiftly and it's not really a major problem in the book, just a short mystery to temporarily halt M. Wens' actions, even though he solves it rather quickly. Some parts of the plan of the murderer also seem a bit weird (the endgame for killing everyone in the tontine can't really work... right?), which is probably why as a contemporary reader, this is more fun to read as a thriller.

De vijand zonder gezicht ("The Enemy Without a Face") based on 1934's L'Ennemi sans visage (also released as M. Wens et l'automate) starts off really creepy: the death row inmate Jund is given a chance on a new life, as he is given the chance to become a guinea pig for professor Arthus, who is researching a way to transfer a human brain to the body of an automaton.  So yes, Jund's brain is going to be put in an automaton, and if he's lucky, he'll have a second life as he was supposed to be executed anyway. A prison detective is assigned to watch over Jund as they go to the professor's home, where his daughter and two sons also live. M. Wens is also present in the creepy house that is full of automatons that can move on their own once activated. During the brain operation however, something happens and they find the professor killed in the operation room, and the automaton with Jund's brain has gone missing. Has the automaton become a killing machine? Again one that is best read as a pulpy thriller. There are some scenes where Wens 'fights' the automaton, but the explanations for the powerful automaton are disappointing and as a whodunnit, it's not really remarkable.

De moordenaar woont op Nr 21 ("The Murderer Lives At Number 21") is based on 1939's L'assassin habite au 21, which I believe isn't originally a Wens novel, but he's in this adaptation as well. A murderer roaming the misty streets of London has been leaving calling cards signed "Mr. Smith" at his crime scenes, but one day, a drunk guy tells a police constable he actually saw Mr. Smith after his latest murder, and saw him enter Russel Square 21. The problem? It's a guest house, so which of the people staying there is Mr. Smith?  The police try to ask the French professor Julie, who is slated to stay at the house during his stay in London, to act as their spy, but he becomes scared, but before he is even able to flee the house, he's murdered by Mr. Smith, which seems to confirm the police's suspicions Mr. Smith lives there. But who is the murderer? What follows is a story that is actually pretty funny, because the guests have rather strong personalities and bicker a lot with each other. But the comic ends in a rather abrupt manner, and I have no idea whether the original book is like this too, or it's just because the comic has a rather limited page count. No motive is given for Mr. Smith's murder's before that of M. Julie. The murder of M. Julie does include an interesting dying message idea, which I think works on paper better than on... comic page paper. As in, I think the idea is good, but I don't think the comic itself really sold the idea really well, though I can't say whether the book did it any better. I think the atmosphere of the story is good though and of the four, I liked this volume the best.

Kaarsen voor de duivel ("Candles for the Devil") is based on Des cierges au diable from 1932 (also known as Les Atouts de M. Wens) and deals with the twins Frédéric Dolo and Martin Dolo: Freddy is a notorious swindler who has always been able to stay out of the police's hands, while Martin is a hardworking salesman who as of late has been making fewer sales due to his infamous brother. After a poker night at Georges D'Aoust's home, Georges is found shot in the head the following morning. At first it appears to be a suicide, but as Freddy Dolo was one of the poker players, the police start to suspect this was no self-inflicted death and start looking for Dolo, while some figures in the underworld also want to "pay back" Dolo for "services rendered" in the past. Martin Dolo too also gets involved in everything, as the brothers' resemblance leads to more than a few mix-ups, while more and more people with a connection to Freddy get attacked or killed. At this point, I was of course not surprised I enjoyed this better as a suspense thriller with mild mystery elements, rather than full-blown fair-play mystery. The story's big surprise won't really surprise now, I think, and I also have my doubts about how surprising it really would have been back when this was first released, but it wasn't boring at least!

Overall, I can't say these comics really made me a Steeman fan, though I am glad to have finally read something of his work (even if it's an adaptation). While I don't think I have seen anything that's really impressive in these stories, they were okay thrillers that build on familiar mystery tropes. Perhaps I would have been more enthusiastic about them if I had read the originals in the 1930s, and of course, the comic format and the limited page count might have changed the feeling of the novels too, but for now, I think I have gotten some idea of Steeman's work in terms of plotting, and I don't feel the immediate need to search for more, though I am happy to have read these four. 

Death of an Author

Gimme Love Gimme Love 君は doubt

 酷くチャチなこのトリック

「真っ赤なlip」 (Wands)

 

Gimme love / Gimme love / Doubt about you

What a horribly shoddy trick

"Brightly Red Lips" (Wands)

Back in September, when I discussed volume 102 of Detective Conan and while waiting for the home video release of The Bride of Halloween, I mentioned perhaps discussing a few anime originals again, but for some reasons this took months...

Detective Conan anime original episodes
Scenario by Ochi Hirohito:
21: TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of The Television Drama Filmed on Location
88-89: Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken ("The Villa Dracula Murder Case")
184: Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly")
379-380: Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness")
596: Tenraku no Alibi ("The Alibi of the Fall")
603-605: Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room")
905-906: Nananengo no Mokugekishougen ("Eyewitness Testimony, Seven Years Later")

Scenario by Hashiba Chiaki
203-204: Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa ("The Black Wings of Icarus")
208: Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden")

Scenario by Mochizuki Takeshi
210-211: Gosai Densetsu no Mizugoten ("The Water Palace of the Legend of the Five Colors"
214: Retro Room no Nazo Jiken ("The Mysterious Case in the Retro Room")

Scenario by Saitou Kenji
159-160: Kaiki Gojuutou Densetsu (The Legend of the Mysterious Five-Storied Pagoda)

Scenario by Mikami Koushirou
730: Kanpekisugita Figure ("The Figure That Was Too Perfect")
753: Share House no Shikaku ("The Blind Spot in the Share House")
859: Kurayami no Sangaku Route ("The Mountain Route in the Darkness")

Scenario by Yamatoya Akatsuki
971: Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident")
1050-1051: Morikawa Goten no Inbou ("Intrigue at the Morikawa Manor")

The previous time I discussed episodes that were originally written for the anime adaptation of Detective Conan (so not based on the original comic by Aoyama Goushou), I think I found a format that worked for me: focusing on specific scenario writers and picking a few episodes out that stood out to me for one reason or another. Most of the single episode anime originals are usually a bit too lean on the meat in terms of mystery, simply because they are quite short with about only twenty minutes of runtime. Sometimes they have interesting ideas here and there, but it's just difficult really developing those ideas fully in the runtime, so often I end up watching an anime original thinking it wasn't really all that bad and that there were parts here and there that were promising, but it's only a select few that I think are truly worth a recommendation as a must-see, and most of them I have already discussed here in previous posts. So now I just pick a few of the shorter episodes that might not be really must-sees, but might have interesting points here and there, and worth watching if you've already seen the truly major anime original episodes.

Episode 21 TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case of The Television Drama Filmed on Location") is one of the earliest anime original episodes of the series and originally aired on June 24th, 1996. On its own, it's not a particularly memorable anime original to be very honest, save for the anime of the script writer: Ochi Hirohito, or Ochi Koujin as he is currently called, was already credited in earlier episodes as episode director and storyboarder, but this was the very first episode he wrote a story for. He would move on to write a few of the best anime original episodes for Detective Conan, most notably Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room"), and while episode 21 is nowhere as good as those classics, I thought it'd still be interesting to take a look at his first original Conan story.

The episode opens at Beika Temple, where a television crew is busy filming the mystery drama The Threat Laughing in the Darkness, starring none other than Okino Youko. Mouri Kogorou, Ran and Conan are also present, because Kogorou has been hired as a consultant for the mystery parts of the story, and as a big fan of Youko, he of course wouldn't refuse the job. Some of the crew members include the scripter Taeko, whose family runs Beika Temple, her fiance and assistant director Yuuji and a sleazy camera operator called Anzai. Once the day of filming has ended, Kogorou and the kids are invited to come along to the inn the crew is staying at for dinner, though one of the actors, Nachi Shingo, who is very keen to repeat to you he plays the handsome roles, refuses to stay at the "shabby-looking" inn. Early in the night, Anzai is seen leaving the inn, and after a while Ran, Conan and Youko also go out to visit the convenience store, but as they pass by Beika Temple they see a suspicious figure, and when they enter the temple grounds, they find Anzai lying dead on the ground. There is however one big clue: a dying message left by the victim. But what does the message "komainu" (the lion-dog statues seen at temples) mean?

Funny trivia: this is the first time the character of Takagi Wataru appears in the series. He's still unnamed, but he has the same design and he is voiced by voice actor Takagi Wataru, after whom the character is named because in one of the later episodes, the voice actor had to ad-lib one time as the 'unnamed recurring police detective' and said his own name.

I can almost hear readers lose interest now because I mention it's a dying message... and to be honest, it's not like this episode has a super original angle to the trope of the dying message. While it's almost painfully obvious who the killer is and what has been done in order to evade suspicion, I will give the episode credit for trying to fill the relatively short run time of approximately 20 minutes with a few twists, even if they are telegraphed too clearly. It is not just one single thing that is done here, but it's clear Ochi tried to fit in a few more surprises here and there to flesh out the mystery, and while ultimately, the result is fairly average for an early Detective Conan anime original, it might be worth watching it after viewing the other Ochi episodes, just to see how truly great he can be.

Episodes 203-204 form a two-parter titled Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa ("The Black Wings of Icarus") penned by Hashiba Chiaki, who also wrote episode 208 Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden"). To be honest, I thought I had already written about this episode on the blog because I have the feeling it's one of the better known anime originals, but I guess I never got around to it. The story, originally broadcast on August 14th and 21st, 2000, starts with Kogorou, Ran and Conan arriving at a hotel located in the mountains near a lake, as Kogorou was lured by the local beers. Arriving at Hotel Arimori, they are pleasantly surprised to see the twins Minaho and Honami there, whom they previously met in the anime original Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly"): the two are now working at this hotel.  A fellow guest at the hotel is the haughty actress Bizen Chizuru, a demanding woman who is especially good at aiming her inherent anger at the employees of the hotel, while her husband tries to soothe things and apologizes for his wife's behavior. Her husband, Shiromoto Hidehide, is a nice enough businessman, though he has plans to develop the land in this area, despite a nearby mountain plateau being the home to many rare butterflies and plants, so the plans for land development naturally worries the people of the hotel. The list of guests becomes one person longer when the president of a production company begs Chizuru to give up an upcoming major role promised to her and allow a younger (bigger) actress to take the role instead, a plea which doesn't help Chizuru's temper. The following day, the president and Shiromoto go for fishing, while the hotel manager and the cook join Ran and Conan to visit the mountain plateau, while Mouri remains at the hotel watching television, and the twins attend to the hotel. Chizuru herself also stays cooped up in her room as she's still furious about having to let go of the role. Everyone goes around minding their own business that day, but at the end of the day, when everybody returns to the hotel, Shiromoto realizes Chizuru doesn't react at all to him knocking on her room's door. They unlock the door with the master key, but the door-guard blocks the door, so they are forced to break it down, only to find Chizuru dead, hanging from the ceiling. At first this seems to be a suicide, something Chizuru had threatened to do earlier, but a close examination of the scene quickly tells Conan, and the police that this wasn't a suicide, but a murder, committed in a locked room. But while some of the suspects have fairly solid alibis, like being on the mountain plateau the whole day, some others have less clear alibis, so which of them is the murderer?

You know what's funny about these episodes? This story not only references Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") through its reappearance of Honami and Minaho, it also contains a reference to TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken! In one scene, Kogorou is watching a re-run of a television drama special starring Okino Youko, and it's indeed the one they were filming in TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken. Ochi Hirohito in fact storyboarded the story and directed the first episode of the two-parter, so it's funny how he managed to stuff this episode full with references to his own stories.

Anyway, the fake suicide in a locked room is solved rather quickly, and the trick is rather rudimentary, so that's obviously not the big focus of the episode. It's also painfully easy to guess who the murderer is because there's basically only one person with a really strong alibi at first sight, which of course going by mystery meta logic means they did it. The basic idea of the trick the murderer used is telegraphed too obviously too (like... a major hint is basically spelled out with giant letters in front of you at two seperate times in this two-parter...), but you know, the dynamics and all of that of the trick are actually quite good. In a way, the story slightly reminds of two Agatha Christie stories: the main one is Evil Under the Sun, with the actress being killed, people in a hotel all loafing around somewhere else during the day and the matter of alibis being a focal point of the story, while the main trick of this two-parter vaguely reminds of the main trick of another, less major Christie work, only... better? They're not similar enough to be really 1:1 parallels, but the underlying concepts are fairly similar, though transformed into a different "mode" as it were to suit this particular story, but this story builds more on the same premise, adding more elements to make it a more complex, deceptive mystery and making the whole alibi trick a much stronger one. Small touches like having Kogorou, Ran and Conan pass by a road construction site in the very first scene of the first episode, and having those construction workers also function as witnesses to some of the alibis is also nicely done. Some of the clues that lead Conan to the truth are quite good, like the one regarding the state of the hotel room, though the truly decisive clue pointing to the murderer is of the type I personally don't really like because this type of clue often feels a bit... too much like they are planted by the writer of the story to have a decisive clue. While I don't think this two-parter is as strong as Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") and Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room"), it sits comfortably in the category immediately below those masterpieces and is definitely the best anime original to be discussed in today's post.

Going back to an Ochi-written episode brings us to episode 596, Tenraku no Alibi ("The Alibi of the Fall"), originally airing on November 20th, 2010. One evening, Kogorou, Ran and Conan are visiting Orion Planning, a production company specializing in planning and producing television programs, commercials and other events, as the company wants to work with Kogorou on a mystery puzzle book. As arranged, Kogorou calls his contact Higashiyama on his extension upon arrival, as he's located in the annex behind the main Orion Planning building. While Kogorou is on the phone with Higashiyama however and he gazes outside the window towards the annex, he sees a body fall in front of the window. The victim is Takahata, an event planner at Orion, who seemingly committed suicide from the main building, jumping down the window (and passing in front of Kogorou on his way down). A suicide note seems to confirm this was no accident, but a few clues uncovered early on lead to the conclusion this might actually be murder. Suspicion falls on the two Orion employees in the building, but both seem to have iron-clad alibis: Higashiyama was on the phone with Kogorou in his office in the annex building during the fall, and was crossing from the annex to the main building by the planning employee Sunagawa, while Sunagawa herself welcomed Kogorou and the others in the office only moments before the fall, and couldn't have made it up and down the fourth floor from where the victim fell without being seen by the people who were repairing the broken elevator in the main building, and back to be seen by Higashiyama as he crossed the skyway to the main building. But as the episode title suggest: one of them must've have used some kind of alibi trick.

For a single episode, this story is fairly packed, which is perhaps why it starts off fairly quickly. We have the first part of the police and Conan figuring out why it wasn't a suicide, and how the murderer could've rigged things to create a false alibi, but then there's a second part where Conan, and the viewer, has to determine how the culprit actually secured a solid alibi for the moment the fall occured, as the trick Conan figured out still requires the murderer to be relatively close to the victim at the time of the fall. The way the episode seems to focus a lot on a certain prop quickly gives you an idea what was used to accomplish that feat, but I think the trick itself is pretty clever, and has a nice visual clue to it too. The episode has a few smaller details that on their own don't say much, but are clearly also included to facilitate the mystery, so I think it's a pretty solid mystery considering the short run-time, and if you compare it to TV Dorama Roke Satsujin Jiken, you can definitely tell Ochi's plotting developed a lot, even within the single episode format. Note by the way that in the episode itself, Ochi is credited with the name Uonji Chiko. (O-Chi Ko-Ji-N = Ochi Koujin).

The two episodes above where picked because of the writer of the script, but that was not the case when I decided to watch episodes 1050 and 1051, Morikawa Goten no Inbou ("Intrigue at the Morikawa Manor"), originally airing on July 17 and 23, 2022. Kogorou, Ran and Conan are brought to the private island of Morikawa Yuuzan, a man built an empire on soft ice. The island actually has some of its hills shaped like soft ice, and in the private rooms in the manor all have their own soft ice serving machines. Soft ice emperor Morikawa is dying however, and he hopes the famous detective Mouri Kogorou's insights can tell him which of his three sons is best fitted to inherit the company and his fortune, as all of them have some obvious flaws: the oldest son having interest in soft ice and research, but not in actually running a company, while the two younger sons seems a bit too eager to want to become the big boss after their father's death. The three siblings obviously don't get along, to the despair of the head manager of the house, Yuka, who as the daughter of the previous head manager, actually spent most of her childhood growing up with the Morikawa brothers. At dinner, one of the brothers doesn't appear however, and the following day, another one is not seen at the breakfast table, which worries the others. They go to the rooms of the two missing brothers, using the master key to open the door, but they find the youngest brother lying dead inside his own room: his own room key is lying inside the room, and as the master key was kept secured in a special box, it appears this was a locked room murder. Kogorou wants to alert the police immediately, but the family lawyer reminds Kogorou he signed a contract that his duties to his client take priority and that he needs to determine the best heir. Kogorou intends to do that job, but also decides to investigate this curious death, but it doesn't take long for more murders to occur in the Morikawa manor...

This was a surprise in two ways. First of all, the title seemed interesting on its own, combined with the fact it was a two-parter, but I hadn't really expected a Yokomizo Seishi-inspired story. But yeah, a wealthy elderly man on the verge of dying and his will leading to a series of murders happening are obviously taken from Inugamike no Ichizoku (The Inugami Clan), and the way the second murder is discovered is directly inspired by Akuma no Temariuta, but in a slightly more... comical way. And that ties in to the second surprise: after the episode ended, I took a look at the credits to see who penned this episode and it was... Yamatoya Akatsuki. The man (who also works on Gintama) who wrote an excellent Tantei Gakuen Q anime original with a locked room set in a sunken ship... but who also wrote Detective Conan episode 961 Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident"), which may be the most insane Conan episode ever. In fact, in retrospect, Yamatoya's hand explained a lot, as the third murder has a rather ridiculous clue which allowed Conan to identify the killer which I initially just let slide, but knowing this was written by Yamatoya now, it suddenly clicked: yes, this was the kind of insane logic that Glamping Kaijiken also had. And the whole focus on soft ice is in hindsight a bit silly too. But I think the episode was pretty interesting as a Yokomizo Seishi-inspired episode, especially as the unique setting is used in a clever way for the first and second murder. Well, in the case of the second murder, it's just that it works really well to sell the discovery of the murder (I'm not talking about a clever murder trick here), but the first murder definitely has interesting ideas to it, even if it's not really realistic. I also think it needed one extra hint to be completely fair, but overall, I think the concept behind how that locked room murder was created was quite interesting, especially as it blended well with the whole design of the Morikawa manor. I wouldn't say this two-parter is a must-see, not even in the insane manner Glamping Kaijiken was, but still, if you have seen most of the must-sees already, this two-parter sits right halfway the utterly crazy Glamping Kaijiken and the very conventional puzzle plot Tantei Gakuen Q episode Suishin 30m - Kaitei Misshitsu Satsujin Jiken.

Anyway, these were another six anime original episodes of Detective Conan. Save for clear exception Kuroi Ikaros no Tsubasa, I wouldn't place them near the must-see category, but as I am now focusing more on specific scenario writers I think these episodes did have their share of interesting elements, which is why I decided to write a bit about them. Any anime originals you want to recommend? There are plenty I have seen, but not discussed here, but obviously, there are many, many more I simply have not seen yet and if there's an anime original you think really deserves watching, please leave a comment!

Original Japanese titles: 『名探偵コナン』21話「TVドラマロケ殺人事件』,203-204話「黒いイカロスの翼」, 596話「転落のアリバイ」, 1050-1051話「森川御殿の陰謀」