Dungeons & Detectives

"I'm Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of Dungeons and Dragons."

"Dungeons and Dragons"

I do like playing JRPGs, but they tend to take so long I usually only end up playing one or two of them a year....

Several years ago, the existence of ESP was proven beyond any doubt. However, the research field of ESP is still very young, partially because few people actually possess the innate skill to harness these special powers, which can manifest in various forms, ranging from psychokinesis and levitation to healing powers, foresight and more. What is apparent however is that younger people are more likely to show signs of being an esper, which is why the government-backed ESP Laboratory, headed by the very young, but undeniable top-class esper Tokino Imawa, does school tours to educate teenagers about ESP and to see if they can find new espers among these children. Imawa and her entourage visit the high school of Kenzaki, once a gifted practioner of kendo, but who gave up the sword after failing to save a friend. After the initial speech to all the students in the gymnasium, Imawa and her party are supposed to do smaller class demonstrations, but Imawa excuses herself for a moment. The next time people see her however, she's dead: her body's found lying on the school's baseball field, but strangely enough there are no foot tracks left on the wet field. They have no time to consider this strange murder scene however, for suddenly the whole school is completely enveloped by black walls, seperating it from the rest of the world and horrible monsters appear in and outside the school. 

One monster instantly kills one of the people who discovered Imawa's body and the rest barely make it back inside the school. Classes have barricaded themselves inside their classrooms when a voice suddenly resonates throughout the school. The voice identifies himself as the Demon King and says that the school is now under his control, placed it its own pocket dimension where nobody from outside can reach it. The monsters are of course his doing and he challenges the students at the school, saying that the only way to escape from the school is defeat him. However, in order to find his hiding place inside the school, the students have to gather map pieces, which lie scattered across the school or held by the roaming monsters. But the students aren't helpless: during this challenge, the powers of every person in the school is heightened and everyone can use their own field of expertise or hobby in highly-powered offensive and defensive manners to defeat the monsters. Kenzaki for example can pick up any stick-like object which changes it into an actual sword, making him a master swordsman, a classmate who pitches for the baseball team can throw energy baseballs at the monsters, while others with some ESP affinity can now use their powers in more concrete manners. Like a Japanese RPG, students can level up and become stronger by defeating the monsters and learn new skills. Thus the students are forced to explore the school and fight the monsters, but Kenzaki teams up with Mira, one of the espers in Imawa's party, to investigate Imawa's death and find it out what that has to do with the current situation in Hayasaka Yabusaka's 2015 novel RPG School.

I've been quite open about my love for mystery fiction with supernatural settings, and RPG School is just a splendid example of how both silly and utterly exciting these books can be! Last year, I reviewed the Nintendo DS game Sigma Harmonics, a Japanese RPG which told a murder mystery story. RPG School is the opposite basically, being a murder mystery novel (with a YA theme) which takes on the form and structure of  classic Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. It doesn't take long for the story to introduce the RPG plot, which turns a normal high school into a giant quest map for the students, with very high leveled monsters roaming outside, while 'beginner level' monsters are making the corridors and classrooms unsafe. There are also little neat moments like all smartphones having been modified to act as a Pokédex/Monster Encylopedia, which allows the user to read up on the power levels and skills of any enemy they defeated (it only registers the name if you encounter an enemy, but not defeat it). Students also become stronger with every monster they defeat, allowing them to learn new skills to combat the foes. Any gamer will soon recognize the tropes and it's pretty funny to see a familiar setting like a school turned into the world of an RPG.

Last year, I happened to review Kadono Kouhei's Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer, which I described as "a fantasy novel, where the heroes happen to be dealing with a seemingly impossible murder case, rather than mystery story that happens to involve fantasy elements." I would say however that RPG School manages to stay more firmly within the realms of the mystery genre and despite the fantasy game-like background of the story, it's ultimately a cleverly-plotted tale of mystery, even if about three-quarters of the book initially only seems to be about the students exploring the school, fighting monsters and trying to locate the Demon King. The quest for the map pieces seems to take center position at first, with scenes detailing how Kenzaki, Mira and their allies fight the monsters, but there are also 'typical' sidequests and other intriques that spice up the narrative with some mysterious flavor, like an unknown masked figure popping up now and then who seems to have a completely other agenda than just finding map pieces or Kenzaki having to backtrack through the school to find certain witnesses while he's investigating Imawa's murder. This investigation is made difficult by the fact that Imawa's body lies outside on the baseball field of course, with high-level monsters wandering around who can't be defeated just yet by Kenzaki and Mira at first (so they have to level up first), so the reader might find this a weird detective novel to read, as a lot of what's normal in a mystery story can't be done here due to fantasy monsters roaming around.

Nonetheless, RPG School makes sure you remember that you're reading a detective novel at all times and that it's actually about an impossible crime, of some sorts. For while Imawa's body was found on a wet field without any footsteps around (the no-footsteps-in-the-snow pattern), the fact that there are espers around the school who can use psychokinesis to move objects and also a genuine Demon King and fantastical monsters in the school changes the kind of deductions you usually make in such detective stories. For why would you move Imawa's body there, leaving no footprints on the field? Who could give Imawa a lethal blow in the first place, as she's the most powerful esper in the country? While offensive ESP like combustion and psychokinesis do exist in this world, they have fairly well defined limits and it's unlikely anyone could've used that to attack Imawa, so while at first sight, you'd think that the existence of ESP and monsters would simplify the problem, it actually adds another dimension to a very familiar trope of the genre, making RPG School a fun read. 

It's during the endgame that you really realize that this story did really tell a proper puzzle plot mystery through the form of a JRPG, and that you were not just reading a fantasy adventure story, which also happened to include a murder investigation subplot. In the finale, it's shown that a lot of the adventures Kenzaki and Mira experienced in the school, also act as viable clues to figure out who the murderer of Imawa is and how the crime was committed. The RPG-touches like battles with monsters, Pokédex entries and the exploration of the school all turn out to be very important information in order to logically solve the murder, and it's a great feat of Hayasaka. Sigma Harmonics had some nice ideas to link up the murder mystery plot to the mechanics of the RPG: RPG School does a great job at using RPG tropes and mechanics to present a puzzle plot murder mystery.

If there's one 'gripe' I have with the book is that ultimately, the reason for why the school suddenly turned into an RPG is a bit handwavey. It's just an excuse to actually introduce the RPG element into the story, and while it does work well with the underlying YA theme of this novel, you really shouldn't consider the 'why are they now suddenly in an RPG setting?" as part of the main mystery to be solved. 

But overall, I enjoyed RPG School greatly, as a mystery story that cleverly utilizes the JRPG game genre to tell a very unique, but also satisfying impossible crime detective story. I'd love to see an anime series based on this though! It has the isekai-themery going on of course, and some other themes would've worked better if the story had more time to provide depth (it's a fairly short novel) to the characters and the RPG-structure of the tale of course lends it well for a series that slowly works towards a big confrontation with the Demon King. Anyway, definitely worth a read if you're into detective stories and RPGs, or just into original mystery stories.

Original Japanese title(s): 早坂吝『RPGスクール』

The E-mail Mystery

「一週間後、お前は死ぬ。メーラーデーモン」

『メーラーデーモンの戦慄』

"You will die after one week. Mailer Daemon"

"The Terror of the Mailer Daemon"

 
Design-wise, I still like those old clamshell flip-phones, and I'd actually prefer them over smartphones if only they could match smartphones in some way in terms of functionality.

Kamiki Raichi series
Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken ("The ???????? Murder Case", 2014)
Niji no Ha Brush - Kamiki Raichi Hassan ("Rainbow Toothbrush - Kamiki Raichi On the Loose", 2015
Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai ("Nobody Can Pass Judgement On Me", 2016)
Souja Misshitsu ("The Locked Rooms of the Twin Snakes", 2017)
Mailer Daemon no Senritsu ("The Terror of the Mailer Daemon", 2018)

The attractive red-haired Kamiki Raichi is one of the more unlikely detective characters you'll come across. Of course, the fact she's a senior high school student who loves playing amateur detective isn't that strange on its own: we have enough examples of that. But her main source of income might be reason for some raised eyebrows, as she practices enjou kousai, or "compensated dating". In theory, this means that older men are paying younger, attractive women for their companionship and in practice, and also in Raichi's case, it means she's prostituting herself and she's good at her job. She has a few "regular clients" who visit her at regular intervals in her own luxurious apartment, one of them being the student Jin. One day, he shows Raichi a strange e-mail he received on his phone with the message "You will die after one week," sent by the "Mailer Daemon". It was sent one week ago, meaning that Jin's supposed to die that very day, but they don't think much of it, and after their usual private time, Jin leaves Raichi's apartment. He is killed on his way home however, and Raichi vowes to find out who this Mailer Daemon is and to avenge her client. She learns from the police that the Mailer Daemon had struck once earlier: a female office worker had been killed in her own apartment, and she too had received the same e-mail. The one link between the victims is that they both still used old feature flip-phones (garakei) from the service provider X-Phone instead of smartphones. While Raichi's investigating the case, she also learns that Inspector Aikawa, one of her "regular clients", wants to resign from his job after previous events (see: Souja Misshitsu) and has now gone off somewhere, so she now also needs to help her old friend in Hayasaka Yabusaka's Mailer Daemon no Senritsu ("The Terror of the Mailer Daemon", 2018).

It's been four years already since Hayasaka Yabusaka's debut with the first adventure featuring his self-prostituting Raichi, and this series has remained quite unique within the wide mystery genre due to its use of sex as vital part of the mystery. In most mystery fiction, sex is only used to spice things up if it appears, but in the Kamiki Raichi stories, sex is an integral part of the core mystery plot. The descriptions of Raichi's sexual adventures might seem a bit graphic at times, but they are always there for a cause: they contain vital hints to solving the crime or link up to the mystery in rather ingenious ways and the mystery wouldn't work without those scenes. Mailer Daemon no Senritsu is graphically quite tame compared to the first two entries in the series by the way, but you definitely need to think a bit dirty if you want to have a chance at solving the mystery of Mailer Daemon.

Each of the previous three novels were obviously written around their respective, major twist solutions. I can easily summarize each of the previous novels with "oh, that's the one where XXX", and you'd instantly understand what I'm talking about. What Hayasaka did well for each of these entries was working these single ideas out to full-fledged novels. Mailer Daemon no Senritsu feels quite different as a mystery novel, because this time, there's not really one major twist that explains most of the happenings. Instead, this novel is packed with a lot of smaller ideas and mysteries to be solved. What I found disappointing was that the various ideas didn't seem to connect well, and at times Mailer Daemon no Senritsu felt quite disjointed, even if it had a few good ideas. The first half of the novel has some short, but pretty interesting situations. The locked room murder in the prologue is excellent: it is only a locked room murder in the eyes of the victim, as she's suddenly attacked in her apartment room even though she made sure there was nobody in the room save for her dog. The police swiftly figures out what happened, as does Raichi, but the simple locked room mystery is both smart and really quite what you'd expect from the Raichi series, as it preys on the reader (and the victim) to make a certain assumption. Near the half-way point, there is another death that is first assumed to be a suicide, but soon proved to be a murder: this one is fairly simple, partly due to the good clewing in the novel, but it's also a highly original concept to use in mystery fiction. The circumstances are slightly unique to Japan perhaps, but it's a good example how to use modern technology in puzzle plot mysteries set in this age.

The second half of the book revolves around Inspector Aikawa, who's staying in a strange pension in a small fisherman's village. He learns that Raichi's involved with the Mailer Daemon case and that she tweeted extensively on a certain day, when she was observing the four main suspects of the case while they were viewing a certain theatre play together. The other guests in the pension turn out to be acquaintances of Raichi too, and spurred on by the Challenge to the Reader tweet Raichi wrote, the group decides to try to find out who the Mailer Daemon is, based on the tweets of Raichi made during that theater visit. This part really feels disjointed from the first half of the book, as the pension guests focus solely on the tweets from the theater now. It is an interesting part, with each guest adding a bit of their own to the solution, but once again, the mysteries here are more like a series of minor, not directly connected ideas rather than a well-structured whole. There are some ingenious parts though: one idea makes brilliant use of the way Twitter works for example and it is quite amazing how this part was written. As always, the solution also depends on some erotic aspect of the story, and while the initial reveal was pretty good, I thought the actual explanation of the how and why this came to be was a bit underwhelming. The motive for the murders too is at one hand understandable in a real-world manner, but would anyone go as far as murder to accomplish this? In the end, I felt that Mailer Daemon no Senritsu had its share of good ideas for mystery plots, but they didn't always worked well together to form one consistent novel, and perhaps they would've done better as single ideas in short stories, rather than thrown together.

By the way, while Mailer Daemon no Senritsu can be read without any knowledge of this series, I'd strongly recommend you reading this one as last. I don't know if Hayasaka has concrete plans for Raichi's future at this moment, but for now, it seems Mailer Daemon no Senritsu is written to be the final part of this first "chapter" of the Raichi series, spanning four novels and one short story collection. Mailer Daemon no Senritsu is brimming with references to the earlier stories, and there are also quite a few guest appearances from the other novels/short stories, who all help out a bit in solving this mystery. Heck, even Hayasaka himself makes a guest appearance (in a television show)! The whole novel is filled with fanservice, so it's really best to read the previous stories first and the ending of this novel seems to suggest that we are at least not likely to see the secondary cast from the last few novels (like Inspector Aikawa and his subordinate Komatsunagi) any time soon again. Speaking of the cast, the names of the characters this time are pretty awful in a fun manner (everyone basically has a Very Literal Name, like Raichi's client having the character for "customer" in his name).

I have to admit I find it hard to make up my mind on Mailer Daemon no Senritsu. It doesn't work nearly as well as previous novels as one consistent, well-plotted mystery story, but it has some really good small ideas in it (I love the locked room murder in the prologue) and it also makes fantastic use of original fields in mystery fiction, especially modern technology like smartphones, Twitter and the garakei flip-phones. The many guest appearances and the packed plot make for a rather hasty story that feels a bit light, but it's certainly an entertaining read for those who have followed Raichi's adventures until now, with lots of fanservice. The ending seems to be saying Raichi will be taking some time off to find new clients, but I do hope that Raichi will return in a future novel, because I certainly still haven't had enough of her!

Original Japanese title(s):  早坂吝　『メーラーデーモンの戦慄』

Strong Poison

I'm still in a dream, Snake Eater 

"Snake Eater" (Cynthia Harell)

Never seen a snake I think (except for in the zoo) and I sure am not planning to see one any time soon...

Kamiki Raichi is a very attractive senior high school student who practices enjou kousai, or "compensated dating". In theory, this means that older men are paying younger, attractive women for their companionship, but as a social issue, and especially in the case of Raichi, it means she's prostituting herself, as the services she renders are most definitely of the sexual kind. One of her regular clients is the police detective Aikawa Hiroshige, whom she first met during a murder investigation, which was also when Aikawa discovered that Raichi is a brilliant amateur detective. One morning, Aikawa decides to tell Raichi about a recurring dream he has since he was a baby, where he is attacked by two snakes inside a dark room. Aikawa's parents had told him that when he was a child, snakes had indeed snuck into his bedroom once, which would explain the dream, but Raichi points out a fatal contradicton in the explanation of Aikawa's parents, which prompts him to ask them what really happened. The truth however is much stranger than he could have imagined, as he is told he was involved with two utterly impossible incidents involving snakes when he was very young. One incident in which a venomous snake managed to assault Aikawa's mother (who was still carrying him inside of her at the time), kill another man, and leave a cabin without leaving any traces, and one in which a snake managed to find its way into the baby bedroom... on the twenty-seventh floor of an apartment building. It's this double mystery that Raichi decides to solve for her paying sex customer in Hayasaka Yabusaka's Souja Misshitsu ("The Locked Rooms of the Twin Snakes", 2017).

The fourth book already in Hayasaka's series starring the self-prostituting Kamiki Raichi. The series has been quite unique in its use of sex as a genuine part of the mystery plot. Usually mystery fiction only features sex to spice things up, but in the Kamiki Raichi series, sex is an integral element of the mystery. The erotic scenes can seem a bit graphic at times (though that actually softens a lot with each new book), but it's always with a cause. Occassionally, Raichi simply uses her sex appeal to get things done or to get information from suspects, but more often than not, these scenes contain subtle clues or link up in surprising manner to the mystery, and are thus always a vital jigsaw piece of the puzzle. The mystery plots of this series wouldn't work without the sex, and that is quite different from how sex is usually handled in mystery fiction. That said though, the eroticism is actually toned down a lot in this novel. Partly because most of the story consists of a flashback starring police detective Aikawa's parents, rather than Raichi herself and to be honest, the erotic adventures Raichi has this time feel less 'necessary' for the plot in Souja Misshitsu compared to previous books.

Souja Misshitsu revolves around two different impossible situations, both involving snakes. The one involving a snake finding its way to a baby room in an apartment on the twenty-seventh floor is titled The Locked Room In The Sky. The window of the baby room was open, but it faces a river, and the veranda was unreachable from either the roof and the room directly below, so how did the snake fly up there? The solution is... troublesome, in the sense that it hinges entirely on some trivia you simply might happen to know. Or not. The whole plot revolves around this piece of trivia, and there's little more to it than that. The use of this concept shows almost no originality, as it's basically used as-is, which means that it is a very simple locked room, solely dependent on something that is probably not common knowledge and without any innovative repackaging of the idea. Sure, the idea of using this concept is original (in a way), but it definitely could've been polished up a bit to give it more of an unique taste.

The Locked Room On Earth is more interesting. The cry of both victims led to the discovery of a man poisoned to death, and a woman carrying a baby inside of her still suffering from a venom attack, both inside a cabin, soon after the rain stopped. Both victims have signs of having been bitten, but no snake can be found inside the cabin, nor around it (the ground around the cabin is still wet from the rain). The theory that a snake didn't do it, but that the woman used a poisonous needle to kill the man to make it seem a snake did it, and then pretended to be bitten herself too is proposed, but this leads to the same problem, as no needles can be found in or around the cabin, and the wounds show that the two victims were discovered very soon after their attack. So how did the murder weapon, be it a snake or a needle or something else leave the cabin without leaving any traces?

The solution to this conundrum has to be one of the most original tricks I've ever seen, and also one of the silliest. It's an ingenous way to poison someone, and I have to admit, unlike the solution to The Locked Room In The Sky, this problem was more than adequately clewed and brimming with its own unique take, but even so, I doubt many people will figure this one out in time, as it's simply so unexpected, so daring that I dare claim that this is one of the most original tricks I have ever seen to poison someone under impossible circumstances. It's also a trick I can only imagine happening in this series: someone like Carr could never have pulled this off. In a very vague way, it kinda reminds of Mori Hiroshi's Subete ga F ni Naru, but only in one specific point. The biggest problem with this trick however is... that while it's absolutely original, it's not practical at all. The circumstances that led to this impossible poisoning are extremely unique, so you're tempted to cry out that this is absolutely absurd, as this could never have happened normally. And you're right.

But then again, that has always been the modus operandi of this series. Hayasaka made his debut with Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken, which was the first book in the Kamiki Raichi series, and that too featured a trick so singularly unique and yet also downright silly, people felt quite divisive about it. Other stories in the series too featured surprising and almost comedic ways to use sex as a viable element in mystery fiction. In Japan, there's the term baka-mys, or "silly mystery fiction", that refers to mystery fiction that feature such silly (yet possible) solutions that can make you laugh at its brilliance and throw the book against the wall at the same time. The Kamaki Raichi series is often also considered baka-mys, and it shows especially in this novel and Hayasaka's debut novel.

Overall though, I thought that Souja Misshitsu was the weakest of the four Kamiki Raichi books. The Locked Room In The Sky is overall rather disappointing, while The Locked Room On Earth is highly original, but the execution is not as polished as in previous novels, leaving much room for the reader to ask questions starting with "but....". Also, because most of the book is actually told through flashbacks, we see very little of Raichi in this book, which is a shame, because she's the most interesting character to watch.While she was not in the spotlight all the time in the previous books either, her absence this time is especially felt, making this book perhaps feel a bit tedious and longer than it actually is, as it's in truth a very short novel.

So one fairly weak locked room mystery, and a highly original, but not completely convincing locked room mystery in Souja Misshitsu. It's clearly the weakest of the four Kamiki Raichi books, and even the link with the eroticism is a bit weaker than usual this time. But at least the main mystery felt perfectly fit for this series, resulting in a book that is not likely to end up in the best-book-of-all-time lists, but that will remain in reader's memories as "oh yeah, that's the one where the victim was poisoned by......". And that's a feat on its own, perhaps.

Original Japanese title(s):  早坂吝　『双蛇密室』

Double Purpose

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

"Gospel of Matthew 7:1" (King James tr.)

I don't really keep tabs on writers and new releases actually, not even of writers I do like. I just make random searches once in a while. Of course, this means I actually have to remember to make those searches. And that's why I only noticed today's book more than six months after its release (and it's also about six months between me writing this review and it being published online...)

Kamiki Raichi is an attractive senior high school student who practices enjou kousai ("compensated dating") as a part-time job: in theory, compensated dating does not need to mean more than that older men are paying attractive women for their companionship, but in the case of Raichi, she is definitely prostituting herself. That is the reason why Raichi wasn't that surprised when she got a letter from the owner of Sakai Machinery together with a maid costume. While the letter states that Sakai Touzou wants to hire her as a maid for a week, she suspects it's just some man who wants to hire her for her sexual services for a week, with her pretending to be a maid so the people around him won't notice her true identity. But when she arrives at the Sakai mansion in the outskirts of Tokyo, she realizes from the reactions from everyone there that Sakai Touzou did not send that letter at all, and that for some reason, everyone in the house is playing along with the fake letter. Raichi knows something is up, but even she couldn't have guessed that one of the persons in the house would be strangled to death in his room. At the same time, we're also introduced to senior high student Todai Kouhei who lives in Saitama. Having finally found the love of his life in Misaki, he manages to sneak inside the house of his girlfriend and have sex with her for the first time, but is then caught by the father, who has him arrested: Kouhei had mistakenly assumed that Misaki was older than him. And that means he had sex with a minor. Kouhei is taken away by the police in total disbelief to what has happened, but he could never have guessed at the curious link between his crime and the murders at the Sakai mansion in Hayasaka Yabusaka's Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai ("Nobody Can Pass Judgement On Me", 2016).

Hayasaka Yabusaka made his debut as a mystery writer in 2014 with Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken ("The ???????? Murder Case"), which first introduced us to Kamiki Raichi: a high school student prostitute who likes to solve crime as a hobby. That novel, as well as the short story collection about Raichi released afterwards, were quite unique for their focus on sex as a genuine part of the mystery. Sex sells, the saying goes, so often sex is only used in mystery fiction to 'spice things up'. This practice is especially often seen in screen adaptations of mystery fiction. In those stories, sex often has no function in terms of the mystery plot. Sex however is an integral part of the mystery plot in Hayasaka's Kamiki Raichi series. At times, the descriptions of Raichi's sexual adventures might appear surprisingly graphic, but it's always with a cause. From subtle hints to ingenious ways in which they link up with the mystery: the erotic touch to this series is never there just to be erotic, but always a vital part of it as a form of mystery fiction. As puzzle plot mysteries, the books in the Kamiki Raichi series are definitely well-plotted and much, much more than just sex (Sexual descriptions are also a bit toned down in this novel compared to the previous two volumes).

In this third novel in the Kamiki Raichi series however, Hayasaka tries his hands at something new. Traditionally, the puzzle plot mystery has been juxtaposed against shakaiha mysteries, or the social school. The social school of mystery fiction places emphasis on natural realism, and on exposing the problems of actual society. The Stereotypical Shakaiha Mystery would start with the discovery of a woman strangled in her apartment room and a hardworking police detective eventually discovering that she was murdered by her lover, who is also a director of a company, because she figured out he was buying off government officials. This is of course quite different from the romantic image of an excentric detective who solves a series of locked room murders set at a creepy mansion that is isolated from the outside world featuring a Challenge to the Reader. As you may have guessed, I am more a fan of the puzzle plot mystery than shakai-ha mysteries, though I do occasionally enjoy them (Matsumoto Seichou's Points and Lines and Jikan no Shuuzoku are great puzzle plot mysteries with social commentary, and the TV series Aibou does some great takes on the theme too). In essence though, these two schools are at odds with each other, but Hayasaka daringly attempts to fuse the two schools in Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai.

As mentioned in the summary, Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai is divided in two narratives, split up in Raichi chapters and Kouhei chapters. The Raichi chapters obviously follow Raichi inside the Sakai mansion as she tries to solve the murder and figure out why she was lured here as a maid in the first place. Her story is obviously a traditional puzzle plot mystery, involving a murder among a rich, but disfunctional family living in an oddly designed mansion. People familiar with Japanese mystery fiction are probably trained to be highly suspicious of oddly designed buildings, as nine out ten times there's a secret hallway, or some moving part, or a deathtrap built inside and the characters in this novel are apparently meta-concious enough to comment on that early on in the story. Indeed, near the end it is revealed there is something interesting going with the house, but this was telegraphed rather obviously, so it is not really a spoiler (basically, the characters first suggest the house might XXX, and then even mention a story by a different author that does the same thing, basically confirming what it is). The fact that the house is XXX is therefore not the main problem or reveal, but the mystery is solved by figuring out how that was used and how this will eventually lead to the identity of the murderer. This is classic puzzle plot territory, and the logical chain here is entertaining, as you suddenly arrive at the one and only murderer if you can follow the implications of each and every clue to their logical conclusion. What I did find a bit disappointing was atmosphere: the narrative here moves at breakneck speed, and more murders follow after the first, with little time to contemplate events.

The chapters starring Kouhei on the other hand are definitely social school material. After being baffled by the fact that it is illegal for him, even as someone who has only just turned 18, to have sex with someone one year younger than him (whom he even thought was much older), he learns more about the oddities of the law concerning having relations with minors during his stay at the detention center. Age of consent is 18, even though people can marry at 16. The will of the persons involved doesn't seem to matter at times, and there are even cases where a married person of 32 had relations with a girl of 17, but was found no guilty because they were "truly in love", while in another similar case, the man of 32 was found guilty of rape. Raichi herself (who is over 18, by the way) too makes use of the seemingly arbitrary laws and regulations as the act of prostitution might illegal, but the prostitute herself can't be punished by law. These examinations of the workings of the law, as well as the procedures after a sex offender is arrested are pure social school, far removed from Raichi's adventures at the strange mansion.

Eventually, the two narratives obviously link up in a...well, not really surprising manner. From the start, it is obvious the two narratives that start out so far apart will eventually come together. I think calling it a fusion of a puzzle plot mystery and the social school mystery might not be the best description of what happens in this novel. In Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai, the puzzle plot mystery and shakai-ha mystery cross paths. In a good way though. At the point in the story where these two storylines intersect, Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai does manage to impress a lot, as this crosspoint fullfills a surprising number of plot-related tasks for both the puzzle plot and the social commentary storyline. Plotwise, it is one of the most efficient scenes I've ever seen, I think. But besides that, the two storylines feel detached, and because the novel is particularly long, both storylines barely have the space to settle (as mentioned above when I said the Raichi chapters feel a bit rushed).

The conclusion of the novel feels a bit... talkative though. It is supposed to be like an account of the events from the POV of the murderer, but it reads more like the actual writer explaining things. I remember Yabusaka's first novel had something similar, with some of the narrative feeling too much like the author was directly telling the reader, rather than through an external point (in this case, a neutral third person narrator talking about the murders).

As a character, I still like Raichi a lot. She is an energetic female amateur detective who knows she is sexy and uses it. But she is not just simply a femme fetale, or seducer. Not at all, actually. She simply enjoys her erotic adventures, and uses it to her advantage by making money out of it, but her sexuality is not her main weapon in solving mysteries (she'd never get a confession from the culprit during pillow talk, for example). While erotic escapades are part of the mysteries, it is always clear that she doesn't solve them by using her gender characteristics to gain an advantage: Raichi is simply a highly intelligent woman, who manages to solve the most complex crimes because of her great set of brains. She just also happens to be a prostitute. She is also always shown to be a quick thinker and very much in charge (many foolish men have fallen victim to her taser and other means of self-defense), making her a surprisingly strong female character.

Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai is thus an entertaining novel which mixes the classic puzzle plot mystery with the social school based on natural realism. Often, it feels like you're simpy reading two seperate stories, but when the two storylines do cross, this novel does manage to make a very good impression. Juxtaposing the two styles within one story does make the murders-in-the-mansion part feel even more detached from real life, and the many laws, regulations and trial cases mentioned in the Kouhei storyline even more strangely real, which makes this a fairly unique reading experience. Overall, I'd say Dare mo Boku wo Sabakenai was a great third entry in a series that has always managed to satisfy.

Original Japanese title(s): 早坂吝　『誰も僕を裁けない』

Violet Cocktail

たった一度だけでも抱いてしまった希望

君の手の中で踊るのは未完成な音色

『未完成な音色』 （Garnet Crow）

A glimpse of hope I had dared embraced only once

But what's left dancing inside your hands is an imperfect tone of color

"An Imperfect Tone" (Garnet Crow)

This is one of the books I'm really interested to see in an English translation. And you really have to read the last chapter of this book to understand that.

Kamiki Raichi is a seventeen-year young beauty, whose appearance is enough to rouse the most primal and sexual urges of every man who places his eyes on her. Raichi is very aware of that and thus earns quite a lot of money with the practice of enjo kousai, or 'compensated dating'. Which theoretically does not always mean sexual services, but in the case of Raichi, she is definitely performing a lot of sexual favours for her clients. She has a flat fee of fifty thousand yen a time for any client, but she chooses her clients carefully. She also has five special regular clients, for whom Raichi has reserved one day of the week for all of them (she is off in the weekends). These regular clients all have their own toothbrush in Raichi's apartment, all in a different color. What most of her clients don't know is that Raichi is also quite intelligent and while her work occasionally causes her to get in dangerous situations, she always manages to think her way out and solve a crime or two on the way out. In Hayasaka Yabusaka's short story collection Niji no Ha Brush - Kamiki Raichi Hassan  ("Rainbow Toothbrush - Kamiki Raichi On the Loose", 2015), we are given a glimpse in the lives of Raichi and her clients.

Hayasaka Yabusaka's debut novel, Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken ("The ???????? Murder Case", 2014), was quite a surprise last year. The main trick was shocking and I will probably remember it until the end of days, but I was also quite surprised at the erotic scenes in the book. The sexy Raichi had quite a few erotic adventures over the course of the novel, but the shocker was that those scenes were actually integral part of the detective plot. Vital clues, important hints, all kinds of important points of the plot were skillfully and carefully hidden within the descriptions of Raichi's bed-activities and the sex scenes were thus not simply there 'for the sex'. Niji no Ha Brush is the second book in the series, released just a half year after Hayasaka's debut and continues with Raichi's adventures.

The opening story, Murasaki wa Utsuroiyuku Mono no Iro ("Purple Is The Color That Changes"), starts off right away with a murder that reminds you this is a Hayasaka book. A secretary is found murdered in the office, her upper-body in undressed state and leaning over a copier. It almost appears like a scene from a porn film. The strange thing about the crime scene however is that the copier has made twelve photographs of the breasts of the victim, all about one hour after another. The murderer must have made those boob-copies him (or her)self, as the copy machine has no timer function and the blood spots made by livor mortis on the copies show they are really made of the victim herself. But why do such a crazy thing? One of the suspects is the victim's boss, but he has an alibi as he spent some fun time with his mistress. Who to the surprise to the police officer in charge is Kamiki Raichi. And he is surprised because he too is one of Raichi's regulars. The reason behind the breast copies is actually a neat variation of one of the old patterns of detective fiction, but it is actually 'camouflaged' pretty well, I think. The trick itself too is a good modern update to an old trick and works quite well in this story. A fairly solid beginning of the volume. Also: there's some great hinting spread throughout the story to a certain reveal that is quite original.

Ai wa Sekaijuu no Jeans wo Someteiru Iro ("Indigo is the Color Dying Jeans All Over the World") details the first encounter between Raichi and the police officer who also appeared in the previous story. Raichi happened to be in a love hotel where a murder had happened. While the police did find video material of the murderer and the victim entering the building, and of the murderer leaving the building, the face of the murderer was sadly enough not visible. Bored with waiting, Raichi points out a fatal flaw in the police's thinking and quickly helps the investigation towards the right direction. Quite a short story and rather simple actually. It tries to play with social conventions, but I think that in this time and age a lot of people would have thought of this solution. Not nearly as shocking as that of Hayasaka's debut work.

Ao wa Umi to Manicure no Iro ("Blue is the Color of the Sea and Manicure") on the other does manage to come close to the shock-effect Hayasaka's debut novel had. Raichi is on the look for a girl who was also into enjo kousai, but who lately appears to have disappeared. Raichi traces her to a mansion in a remote fishing village, where the girl has joined a sexual cult, centered around a massively-shapen leader. Raichi stays one night, but the leader is murdered in a locked room that night and suspicion falls on her as the only new face around.

And it's fairly brilliant, if a tad silly. I doubt anyone would guess the main twist at the end of the story in advance, yet there are actually quite a lot of hints pointing towards it. It also fits with the erotic, at times slightly vulgar and shocking tone of the book: I doubt this trick would work in any other series, and I don't think I would have been able to accept it so easily if it had been any other series. This is a story, a trick that only can be done with Kamiki Raichi and that's a good thing.

Both Midori wa Suirishousetsu Goyoutatsu no Iro ("Green is the Color of the Purveyor of Detective Novels") and Ki wa Okane no Nioi no Iro ("Yellow is the Color of the Smell of Money") are very short stories (10 pages?), that deal with simple problems: in Green, Raichi thinks someone has hidden a camera in her apartment, while in Yellow, she tells about why she once ripped up the money she had received from a classmate who wanted to have a turn with her. Green is a fairly well-clued story that once again works towards a shocking truth, but Yellow is not as strong: one particular hint is good, but the conclusion is not really rewarding, nor does the story feel as tightly plotted as others in the book.

Daidai wa ??? no Iro ("Orange is the Color of ???") and Aka wa Kamiki Raichi Jishin no Iro ("Red is the Color of Kamiki Raichi Herself") form a set, with Orange first apparently being an episode from Raichi's past, and Red a story that asks the question: who exactly is Kamiki Raichi? What follows is a strange story I really can't write too much about, but let's say it's a neat meta-ending to the volume. Twists after twists are presented to the reader, all properly hinted across the book and the story works as a showcase for the kind of logic Hayasaka utilizes throughout this volume. It's a fairly fun and interesting experiment in deduction, but ultimately feels a bit lacking because there just obviously is no real conclusion to it all. Fun to see how to hide hints and to do deductions, but as a standalone story, a bit lacking.

Niji no Ha Brush - Kamiki Raichi Hassan was all in all a fairly solid continuation of the Kamiki Raichi series. The type of logic employed in these stories follow the reasonings we know of writers like Ellery Queen, but the erotic touch to the stories manage to set the series apart from other detective series, as well as the sometimes crazy ideas Hayasaka comes with (crazy in a good sense of the word). It manages to shock, but always never just for that purpose: beneath Raichi's sexy appearance, there is really a well-plotted detective story, and definitely worth reading, even if it misses the oomph of the first novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 早坂吝　『虹の歯ブラシ　上木らいち発散』: 「紫は移ろいゆくものの色」 / 「藍は世界中のジーンズを染めている色」 / 「青は海とマニキュアの色」 / 「緑は推理小説御用達の色」 / 「黄はお金の匂いの色」 / 「橙は？？？の色」 / 「赤は上木らいち自身の色」

Unknown

Don't judge a book by its cover

- English idiom

Those with an interest in contemporary Japanese mystery fiction have probably heard of the Mephisto Prize (which derives its name from the mystery/science fiction magazine Mephisto). It is an unconventional prize, because there are no entry periods (you can send in your manuscript any time) and while there are no direct monetary rewards connected to the Mephisto Prize, the winner does get his/her novel published by Kodansha. The jury is 'in search of the ultimate entertainment novel', which has resulted in a very varied list of prize winners, and people are often divided on their opinion of the winners, as there are so few winners that are really alike. The winning novels vary incredibly in style, and even the winners' ages go from as young as twenty to someone of the respectable age of fifty-six!

To give you an idea of the variety, a couple of Mephisto winners I've reviewed in the past: Mori Hiroshi (with Subete ga F ni Naru - The Perfect Insider, 1996), Inui Kurumi (1998), Takada Takafumi (with QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu, 1998), Kuroda Kenji (2000) NiSiOiSiN (with Kubikiri Cycle, 2002), Kitayama Takekuni (with Clock Jou Satsujin Jiken, 2002) and Amane Ryou (2010). So you have something like a hard science-fiction mystery (Subete ga F ni Naru), to a historic-literary mystery (QED Hyakunin Isshu no Shu) to a light novel (Kubikiri Cycle) to a fantasy-like mystery (Clock Jou Satsujin Jiken). One could say that a lot of these novels have very distinctive worlds and characters, that the writing and setting of many of these novels share a lot of parallels with manga and light novels (emphasis on over the top characters, easy readability and aimed at a young adult ~ adolescent public) and by the time you have read several of the Mephisto Prize winners, you'll start to get a feeling for what feels 'like' a Mephisto novel. but still, it is hard to guess what kind of novel the next Mephisto Prize winner will be.

The fiftieth Mephisto Prize was given last month to Hayasaka Yabusaka's Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken ("The ???????? Murder Case"). The foreword-cum-Challenge-to-the-Reader explains the rather strange title: we have whodunits, howdunits and whydunits, but what about a detective novel where you need to find out what the title is? This novel is probably the very first whatsthetitle and the reader has until the very last line to figure out what the title is. And of course, there's a 'normal' mystery hidden within the two-hunderd pages of the novel too. A group of fans of the free outdoor life, who got to know each other through a blog, have an offline meeting each summer on Second-Cousin Island, a private island and part of the Ogasawara islands. Members include the owner of the island (who wears a mask because of an accident years ago), a college student, an attorney, a doctor and a public servant called Oka Kentarou who serves as the narrator. This year, the red-haired Raichi joins as the party as the young squeeze of one of the members and while it takes some time, the group learns to accepts her in the end. And thus a Tropical Island Fantasy starts! That is, until people start to disappear, the phones don't work anymore and one of the members is found murdered in a cave. Who brought death into paradise and also important, what's the title of the book?!

Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken is in both positive and negative sense, a Mephisto Prize winner. It is a unique book in the sense that it does things I hadn't seen before and I'll remember the book for it, but it also has its share of flaws. To start off: the whatsthetitle concept is fun in theory, but is very little more than a gimmick. Sure, the 'true' title does relate to the contents of the story in an admittedly amusing manner, but you can only guess the title if you have uncovered most of the mystery, so it doesn't really add to the experience. Wouldn't it have been more fun if you could guess the title beforehand and use that as a hint to solve the whole case? Now it's bit like I'd give you The ????? ?????? Mystery by Ellery Queen and after some shenanigans with coffins with dead Greeks in them, you'd come up with The Greek Coffin Mystery. Just gimmicky. Also: it's almost impossible to search for this title on the internet because search engines think you're using the ? (○ in Japanese) as a replacement sign.

The writing can also be a bit tiring. Writer Hayasaka Yabusaka tries a bit too hard at being meta and edgy, and often ruins his own scenes. Whenever anything happens that can be related to mystery fiction and its tropes, the writer is sure to remind you of that. "Oh, an island. Perfect for a closed circle situation!". "Just to be fair, I am not an unreliable narrator". "And so the reader knows, all the doors close quietly and the staircase makes no noise". "You were probably thinking of the old ???????? trick, right?". I probably should mention that this book (for a certain purpose) indeed uses a lot of familiar tropes, from a mansion on a faraway island to weather conditions cutting all the lifelines of said island to even more specific tropes like a man in a mask. And then imagine Hayasaka commenting on that every single time. Yes, we get it. You know mystery fiction. This is meta. So move on! I have no problem with meta: in fact, I am someone who quite enjoys a meta-discussion on the genre within detective novels. But it has to fit neatly in the narrative and it need not be thrown at you every other page. But placing a spotlight on that fact constantly, pulls the reader out of the experience. Given the nature of the Mephisto Prize, it can't be helped that some winners feel a bit unpolished, but of the few I've read, I get the 'newcomer' feeling the most with Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken. The writing is very close to what you'd expect in light novels, and while I can quite enjoy them (Zaregoto series, Kino no Tabi), I didn't really like it here. The pacing of the story is also a bit odd, with very little happening in the first hundred pages of the story, only to throw development upon development in the couple of pages before the conclusion.

The mystery plot is... also Mephisto Prize-like. Even given the simple choice of yay or nay, I'd go with the non-committed nyay. I think the fundamental idea of the mystery plot is okay, but the presentation is not completely fair. Not to say it's unfair, but even though Hayasaka did leave clues in the text, I don't think it's enough to lead to the solution. As it is now, a lot of the clues seem too open for interpretation and not doing enough to fulfill their meaning of life as a hint. I didn't solve the case before the conclusion, but I did like that I instantly understood everything the moment one single sentence was spoken. I love these mysteries where one utterance, one sentence can instantly clear all fog. There were also some instances where certain actions performed admittedly had a reason and made sense with in-universe logic, but from a reader's point of view, it seemed just like an effort of the author to be all sexy and edgy. But of course, it's part of a mystery writer's job to mask the importance of each scene and Hayasaka succeeded there in my case. Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken definitely has a memorable mystery plot, even if the road to the solution isn't without bumps and other imperfections. I can totally imagine the writer coming up with this trick one day and fueled with enthusiasm writing his novel in one go, forgetting to polish the plot a bit.

On the whole, Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken is an okay mystery novel. The whatsthetitle gimmick might not be used to its full extent, nor is the mystery and writing without faults, but I had fun reading the book and in the end, that's what's the most important, right? The core trick, the core mystery has its memorable moments, even if the presentation is a bit rough at times. But like a lot of its fellow awardees, I think opinions on this one will be varied. I think that people who often read Mephisto Prize winners might feel more positive about the book than I do, while more 'conventional' / 'old-fashioned' readers of the genre in turn might not appreciate the book in the way I do. But I guess that's what makes it a Mephisto novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 早坂吝 『○○○○○○○○殺人事件』