Murder A La Mode

Paris in the fall, the last months of the year, at the end of the millenium. The city holds many memories for me, of cafes, of music, of love, and of death.

"Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars"

This review was originally scheduled to be published in August last year, but another review took its place so I pushed to the far end of the waiting queue...

Art dealer Akatsuki Hiroyuki is the brain behind an explosion in the popularity of the artists of the École de Paris (the School of Paris) with an extensive book on its major players, but one evening, the man is found dead in his study in his manor, which also functions as a private art gallery. After hearing a loud noise, his butler hopes to check up on his master, but he finds the door locked. When he unlocks the door, his master lies dead on the floor with an army knife in him, there's a smear of blood on the window's lock, and below in the garden, footprints are found in the sand. Outside, the watch dog is also found dead, having been poisoned, making this a double murder, but how could the murderer have escaped the locked study with the door and window locked from the inside? Inspector Unno soon realizes the impossibility of the situation, but unfortunately for him, his direct superior Oobeshimi is rather eccentric, and more interested in accusing the first people that come to mind or commenting on how beautiful the widow is. Unno is also surprised by his cousin Shinsenji Shunichirou, who had been traveling the world for a few years, but had just returned to Japan to visit Akatsuki's gallery. Shunichirou, as a gifted artist himself, is desperate to see the gallery, so plans to give tips to his uncle so the case can be solved quickly. It seems likely Akatsuki was murdered because of his work as an art dealer, so Shunichirou recommends his uncle to read Akatsuki's book on the École de Paris, and of course, we as the reader know this book will be important as Fukami Reiichirou's 2008 novel is called École de Paris Satsujin Jiken ("The École de Paris Murder Case"). 

École de Paris Satsujin Jiken is the first in Fukami's art-themed series of mystery novels, and when it released, it managed to rank in at a respectable ninth place in that year's Honkaku Mystery Best 10 ranking. Earlier, I read Fukami's Mystery Arena and I loved that book, but that's basically all I've read by Fukami, so I figured it was about time I'd read more by him. I do think this book was the first time I ever heard of Fukami, having seen this book reviewed on the (now defunct) On the Threshold of Chaos blog. I don't really have any affinity with art, but as this was one of Fukami's better known works, I felt this was probably a good work to return to Fukami with.

I do have to say, as something not particularly interested in art, getting into the book was a bit difficult, as each chapter starts with sections taken from the in-universe book by Akatsuki on the artists of École de Paris. You'll get to read "scholarly" writings on artists like Soutine and Kisling, on their personal history as well as on their art style and more, and while these sections are relevant to the plot, they do really read as excerpts from a completely different book, and depending on your interests, reading about the life of Soutine might not be very exciting. But again, these sections are relevant to the case (which is not only made clear by these excerpts, but also by Shunchirou saying that out loud), and I have to admit: the way the École de Paris ties in back to the mystery plot is honestly quite good, with real history being used for the murderous plot in a very clever way. This is by far the best, and most memorable part of the book. Fukami made his debut by winning the Mephisto Prize, and while this is his second book and not the actual prize winner, you can recognize a bit of the tropes you see in a lot of Mephisto Prize winners, with a focus on specialist fields of knowledge and flaunting said knowledge. In this book, it however stays firmly connected with the mystery plot and isn't just there for entertainment purposes, and I'd say this is an example of the "trivia mystery novel" done well.

As for the rest of the book though, I found it a bit too light-weight, I guess? The main mystery is the locked room mystery, but while the École de Paris does tie back to parts of this mystery in a satisfying way, the actual physical dynamics behind the mystery were rather simple, and you could only barely call it an actual variant to a rather often seen solution to the locked room mystery. While I think it's pretty guessable, the actual clewing to this solution was also a bit lacking, meaning it doesn't feel nearly as satisfying as the reveal regarding the connection to the École de Paris. 

Despite the "serious" excerpts from the art history book, the book has a slightly comedic tone overall, mainly personified by Inspector Oobeshimi, who is constantly saying everything he thinks out loud, always immediately going for the easy explanations, offending and showing no regard for other people, and Unno having to cope with such a boss. I didn't really find Oobeshimi funny though, and while this series stars Shunuchirou as the detective and it's clear right away when he first appears it's he, and not Oobeshimi is our hero, the book is mainly told through Unno's eyes, and he (naturally) mostly narrates his investigation as led by Oobeshimi, so you are constantly confronted with Oobeshimi. For me, this also meant the investigation felt incredibly slow as Oobeshimi was always barking up the wrong tree. Your mileage may vary here, but after a while, I found Oobeshimi more tedious than the art history lessons at the start of each chapter. Shunichirou is also portrayed as a slightly eccentric figure, roaming the world as a freeter and having more than a few things to say about Japan's rigid, stagnate culture and society, and he's infinitely more interesting to follow, but unfortunately, he appears far less in the book compared to the police characters.

So overall, I thought École de Paris Satsujin Jiken was a bit of an uneven novel. I really liked how the actual history of the École de Paris was used for the mystery plot of the book, but the two other major elements, being the locked room and the tone of the book, couldn't really convince me. That's why I don't think I'll be reading the other books in this series soon, though never say never.

Original Japanese title(s): 深水黎一郎『エコール・ド・パリ殺人事件』

Mystery Solvers Club State Finals

「いえいえ、僕のようなプロのミステリー読みにかかれば、たとえが事件が起きる前であっても、犯人がわかるのです」

「プ、プロのミステリー読み！そ、それはすごい。恥ずかしながらわたくし、プロのミステリー読みを自称する人に、生まれ初めて会いました！」

『ミステリー・アリーナ』

"No no, if you're a professional reader of mysteries like me, you'll just know who the murderer is, even before the crime has been committed."

"A--A professional reader of mysteries! A--amazing! I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first time in my whole life I've met a person who dares to call themselves a professional reader of mysteries!"

"Mystery Arena" 

I always write my reviews months in advance and just schedule them one after another once a week, and initially, this review was supposed to be the first post of 2021, and interestingly enough, it also happened that this book was set on New Year's Eve, so it was perfect as the first post of January. But then I decided to put Kotou no Raihousha in the fast-track. So it's a bit 'dated' now. Gorgeous cover today by the way, inspired by the Tower of Babel!

While they all went their own ways after graduating college, the former members of the inter-college mystery club still meet once a year at Mariko's splendid country house on a peninsula. Mariko usually spends most of the year at her parents' second home and each year, the former mystery club members all get to spend one or two nights here together. This year is no different, though the weather is far from usual. While most of the group managed to make it safely in the house before the heavy rain started, the sudden storm certainly didn't make it easy for the late arrivals and Marumo, the last one to arrive, even had to bring the news that the bridge that connects the peninsula to the mainland was damaged by the river and that they're all stuck here on this side until the storm is over and the bridge is repaired. Meanwhile, one of them decides to see their host Mariko, who hasn't come down yet even though all the guests arrived, but when the door to the bedroom is opened, they discover that Mariko is lying dead on the floor with a dagger in her back. But who could've gone to Mariko's bedroom without being seen by the people in the lounge in front of the spiral staircase?

And another light goes on! The host of the popular end-of-year television program "Mystery Arena" makes his way to the contestant who pushed the buzzer. Does the contestant already know who the murderer is? The tenth iteration of Mystery Arena follows the same formula that has made it a household name and the program that people watch with the family on New Year's Eve. The contestants in the studio are presented with a written mystery story and the challenge is to guess who the murderer is, and why, to win a fortune! While participants in the studio and the viewers at home can read the story at their own pace, there's also a 'pacemaker' who reads the story out loud and the story isn't revealed at once to all, but given out in parts, all to ensure that everyone, even slower readers, has a fair chance at winning the money. The first one to guess correctly, goes home with all the prize money, so it's important to hit the buzzer the moment you think your theories are correct, but participants also have to be careful: you only get one single chance to make your accusations and you can't change them afterwards. Fukami Reiichirou's Mystery Arena (2015) is a game of wits and audacity: do you stake it all on an early answer, hoping that the parts revealed later on won't contradict your theory, or do you bide your time?

You know, I honestly had forgotten that the premise of this book was about a detective competition! I'm sure I at least glanced through the summary before I bought the book, but by the time I started on it, all memories of the story had been erased. So I first started reading, with the first few chapters being rather familiar with a group of former Mystery Club members gathering in a closed circle situation... when suddenly this narrative is interrupted by the television program Mystery Arena. Which is of course based on Kouhaku Uta Gassen, the extremely popular New Year's Eve program that is a national institution in Japan, with two teams of music artists competiting as the clock approaches midnight. It was a pleasant surprise though, because I have a weakness for this kind of mystery format, with people reading/watching a mystery story in realtime and trying to be the first to guess who did it. It's kinda similar to how the whodunnit sessions of the Kyoto University Mystery Club are done, where everyone is handed the first part of a story, and you are challenged to guess whodunnit before the end of the session. It's not really a competition there, and after a while some of the members usually start exchanging theories with each other, but the real-time element is similar to Mystery Arena. I have also reviewed a few episodes of Nazotoki Live, a live mystery show which is perhaps a bit more similar to Mystery Arena, where studio guests and viewers at home are shown a mystery drama, which is occassionally interrupted by studio segments where the studio guests can gather their thoughts, voice some of their theories and are given hints by the 'butler' of the show. The big difference here is that in Mystery Arena, participants are reading a written story, but like in Nazotoki Live, the show is often interrupted by 'checkpoints', periods in which participants are allowed to try and guess who the murderer is.

In my review of the videogame AI: The Somnium Files, I wrote that I thought information management is an important aspect of a good mystery story, something I also touched upon in my article on the Challenge to the Reader. It's important to know what information (clues) is available at any time to the characters in the story, but also to the reader, because that dictates what kind of theories they can make. Anyone can guess, but you need information (clues, hints) to actually make a logical case, so it's imperative that a story has a good grasp on what information has been revealed to the reader (or the characters) at any stage of the tale. Mystery Arena is an excellent showcase for what I mean. The novel alternates between the fictional story about the murder(s) with the Mystery Club members and segments set in the live studio of the television show, but every time we switch back to the show, we see another contestant trying to become the first to arrive at the correct answer. The show works with checkpoints to make sure nobody can read to the end in one go and a contestant only has one opportunity to give an answer, so that means that a contestant's answer has to be based on the information presented in the chapters they have read, and they never know what's coming next. So the risk lies in whether to wait (and risk someone else giving the same answer you had in mind, only earlier), or to answer as soon as possible, which is dangerous because you don't know what information will come in the following chapters and perhaps something that disproves your theory will come.

But that doesn't stop the contestants here, and what you get is a festival of logical reasoning! Each time a chapter ends, we have another contestant who is absolutely sure they've got the right answer and are satisfied they don't have to read the rest of the story anymore. These theories/solutions are quite varied, with everyone pointing the finger at another suspect, with different underlying theories and evidence. The beautiful thing about Mystery Arena is that these solutions all do make perfect sense at that point in the story. Based on the cumulative information known to the reader, each of these solutions do not only work logically, they are also quite original and shocking, perfect as a true solution of any mystery story. This is even true for the solution of the first contestant, who had a theory ready even before the first murder occured in the story! Yet the theory is based on all kinds of hints you find in the text and it genuinely sounds convincing... until the next chapter, when you are given more information, and you start to alter theories to incorporate the new facts. Sometimes previous theories are outright contradicted by the new information found in the following chapters, sometimes the option is still left open, while also opening up new options, so as you continue in this novel, you really see how a solution in a mystery novel is dependent on the information known at what time. Some readers might find Mystery Arena to be a tiresome read, but I had a lot of fun with the book and you get over ten different solutions, which all make sense at the time they are presented. And it's funny to see how sometimes a brilliant theory points at a character as the killer, only to see that character killed the next chapter.

While mystery novels revolving around multiple solutions aren't rare, Mystery Arena definitely manages to set itself apart from the works of for example Anthony Berkeley and Christianna Brand, who also often used the plot device of multiple solutions. The most important difference is that the participants in Mystery Arena are naturally aware they are reading a fictional mystery story, which changes how to view the murder mystery. Many of the solutions focus on some kind of narrative trickery aimed at the reader, from an early theory revolving around an unreliable narrator to other well-known variants of tricks meant to deceive the reader, but which are all well supported by the evidence found in the story (until they are contradicted again in subsequent chapters). In a 'normal' story with multiple solutions, you aren't likely to have characters who will propose a 'unreliable narrator' theory because that's usually not viable in terms of narration: in Mystery Arena, the characters can actually talk in-depth about it from the point of view of a mystery fan. In a way, Mystery Arena feels like an unedited Let's Play of a mystery story by various 'players,' where you get to see the live theories/reactions of each and every contestant in 'real time.' And it's interesting to see how contestants who waited will sometimes incorparate elements from previous theories into their answers, while going a completely a different general direction.

I do have to say the ending is less impressive than the overall concept. With so many false, yet interesting and properly clewed solutions, it's of course neigh impossible to arrive at one single final solution that will satisfy everyone, but this is definitely an example of the journey over the destination. There's also a secundary plotline that is not set in the fictional story, but inside the studio, but that's less of a mystery plotline than just a set-up for the conclusion.

Despite an ending that lacked spirit though, I find Mystery Arena to be a very entertaining work, a great example of how the addition of one single piece of information can change the whole board, resulting in a complete different solution to the game. The various solutions presented in Mystery Arena may be familiar, but are really well set-up within the story-within-the-story narrative and would've worked as genuine solutions in actual mystery stories, but they really shine as parts in an eloborate experiment in deduction, that make you realize how important the fun in deducing and logical reasoning is in mystery fiction.

Original Japanese title(s): 深水黎一郎『ミステリー・アリーナ』