Requiem for a Falling Star

What if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
"Wind's Nocturne" (Lunar: Silver Story)

The more I think about it, the more I think this series would be great for an anime adaptation...

It was only a few decades ago when everybody in Japan knew the name Yashiki Keijirou, the great detective. It were his real-life exploits, where he outsmarted the police and solved numerous locked room murders, serial killings and other mysterious incidents, that sparked an interest in all things detective-related. His own memoirs, The Proof of the Detective, where he chronicled his own rise as a detective, not only writing about his accomplishments, but also the hardships and his failures on the way, was a huge bestselling book and was also the instigator of the shin honkaku movement in Japan, leading to a return of the puzzle plot-focused detective novel. But that is all of the past now. While people initially praised Yashiki, slowly on people started to blame him for the uprise in curious killings: weren't murders resorting to fantastical murders like locked room murders exactly because of Yashiki, as a way to challenge him? Wasn't he the trigger for the more insane murderers to act on their urges? After Yashiki narrowingly escaped an attempt on his life, he decided to not take any jobs anymore, as he not only started to fear for his family's safety, he also started to become afraid he was both physically, but also mentally, not capable anymore of being the great detective. While technically his agency was still open, he declined all requests and with time, he was forgotten.

Many years later, and Yashiki is still having the exact same daily routine of showing his face at the office, only to go napping, and occasionally he's visited by Taketomi Tatsuhito: Taketomi was Yashiki's partner and assistant as the "inside man" in the police force and while he has retired, he still hopes Yashiki will return as the great detective he once was. One day, the two catch a television program featuring Mikan Hanako, an idol artist who is also a great detective: ever since she was young, she has solved many cases and nowadays, she still solves cases between her idol gigs in. Mikan is a huge presence on social media with over a million followers, and it's she people think of whenever the word "detective" is mentioned nowadays. Seeing such a young detective working hard, jogs something in Yashiki, and he finally decides to try the detective profession one last time: if he can successfully solve a case, he'll fully reopen his agency again, and otherwise, he'll properly close it. Tatsuhito happens to know nobody who is in need of the help of the great Yashiki Keijirou... and Mikan Hanako: the wealthy couple Masukura Toshio and Chika have received a threatening letter, which orders them to summon Mikan to their second home on the twenty-ninth of December, or else something bad will happen. The Masukuras own a small villa in the middle of nowhere, which is only accessible via a bridge (the house basically stands on an island with cliffs around it). The Masukuras of course do as told, but they also want Yashiki at the scene, as they are of the generation that know Yashiki best. Their son Souta, and his girlfriend (whom he met via a Mikan fansite) are also present. Tatsuhito is clearly antagonistic against Mikan, eyeing her as a rival to Yashiki, but Yashiki soon realizes Mikan is truly a capable detective and sees in her a comrade. The two scope out the land and set security cameras around the bridge, but when they return, they hear people banging on the door of Souta's bedroom: for some reason he won't answer at all and the door is locked. They break the door open, only to find Souta stabbed in his neck, dead. The knife is also stabbed through a note that laughs at Mikan, challenging her to solve this locked room. But Mikan and Yashiki soon learn nobody left the "island" via the bridge, so that means the murderer has to be one of them. But who, and how? Can Yashiki get his groove back in Ichikawa Tetsuya's debut novel Meitantei no Shoumei ("Proof of the Great Detective", 2013)?

The inner work also features an alternate English title, which is just The Detective, which seems like not a very... tactical title to give to a detective novel, as nobody's going to be able to find that via a search engine...

Ichikawa Tetsuya made his debut by winning the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award with this novel (which nets you a publishing contract). And in case you wondered: that is his real name, not a pen name he based on Ayukawa Tetsuya. A few years ago, I already read the second novel in the Proof of the Great Detective/Mikan Hanako series, which was an interesting locked room + closed circle mystery that at the same time, very much explored the theme of the detective, with Mikan being seen as "the origin of evil" by the narrator, claiming crazy murderers were only enabled by "great detectives" like Mikan making a name for themselves. I found having the narrator constantly complain about Mikan all the time a bit tiring though, and at the time, I wondered whether she'd be more of a focal character in the other novels, so I was a bit surprised to learn that in the first novel, she too wasn't really the main detective. This novel is narrated by Yashiki himself, a detective who has seen much better days, but now seems to have found that spark again after seeing Mikan in action.

I do have to say that I think this novel is best read exactly for that reason: Ichikawa does a great job at exploring the fictional device of the Great Detective and the implications of their existence. Yes, Ichikawa basically works with Late Queen Problems (i.e. the effect the Great Detective has on the actions of the people around him in a mystery story), but he presents it in a very accessible and understandable manner, yet really manages to address the friction that can arise due a Great Detective. We see Yashiki have doubts about his work, because he knows people have called him out in the past about how him gloriously playing the great detective in the media has only enabled murderers to commit showy murders too, craving the same attention and in a way, Yashiki knows that this "Batman creates his villains"-effect is true up to some degree too. But he also knows he has done a lot of good, and him watching Mikan, who is in a way very similar to him, but in a completely different stage in her career, alllows for some interesting and poignant musings about what it means to be a detective. Mikan, while being more decisivive than Yashiki, is shown to have very realistic doubts about her work too, and I think that Ichikawa does a good job at exploring these themes.

On the other hand, the specific mysteries Yashiki has to solve in this book aren't really that impressive, and you really wonder whether you really needed the two best detectives Japan has ever known working on this. The locked room murder mystery with Souta is incredibly simple, even if it contains a minor false solution. There is a more interesting set-up later in the novel, when Yashiki enters an elevator with someone else, and a stalker wielding a bat suddenly forces his way in, smashing the lights and stopping the elevator. However, after some crying, the stalker is found dead on the floor, his throat being slit, and both Yashiki and the stalker victim swear they didn't do it. While I like the set-up a lot, this solution is also very simple and that kinda undermines the way the book tries to paint Yashiki and Mikan. The second novel, while still not being super technical when it comes to the mysteries, was definitely more interesting mystery-wise, so I was really surprised how simpler the mysteries were in this book. I do very much like the motive for the first murder though; it ties perfectly with the theme and the set-up for the reveal is great and is really a motive you could only pull off by having a character like Yashiki. It's kinda a shame Ichikawa started with this, just imagine he really did first write a long series of books building Yashiki up as this legendary detective, all just to set-up the motive found in this book!

So on the whole, I am a bit torn on the book. Meitantei no Shoumei is thematically quite memorable, and addresses post-modernist themes regarding The Great Detective in a very accessible manner, tying it perfectly with the motive. On the other hand, the actual mysteries encountered in this novel are fairly simple, and that does clash a bit with the image we are supposed to have of both Yashiki and Mikan, who are the country's best detective... and yet are working on crimes of this... level. I did like the second novel better. The third novel is the last, so it is likely I will read that too in time.

Original Japanese title(s): 市川哲也『名探偵の証明』

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

“No, no! The adventures first,” said the Gryphon in an impatient tone: “explanations take such a dreadful time.” 

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Always interesting to compare the cover of the pocket edition of a book with the original release. Sometimes, it's the same, sometimes they go for a completely different style and sometimes, you have something like today's book: obviously designed by the same artist, but still a different illustration for whatever reason.

The shin honkaku movement brought forth a renaissance of the puzzle-focused mystery novel, but it was one non-fiction book that really helped revitalize interest in such novels. Proof of the Great Detective was an account by the real-life great detective Yashiki Keijirou, who wrote about his own cases and adventures. While the real-life murders he wrote about in his memoirs were never as fantastical as the fictional ones created within the shin honkaku movement, his exploits did spark interest in all things mystery related. On the other side of the spectrum was the author Haijima Tomie, one of the leading figures in the early periods of shin honkaku and therefore highly respected by mystery readers everywhere. Her success led to her building her own house named after one of her books: the Locked Room Manor. 

It is in a guest room inside the Locked Room Manor where college student Hinoto Ryou wakes up. At first, he's confused about his current situation, but then remembers he had been invited into the house by Hajima, but then knocked out somehow. A video message appearing on a monitor addressing him, and other people, tells him to leave the room and go up to a central room on the third floor. Eight people arrive in the great hall there, all obviously confused about what they are doing here. They find Haijima standing high up on a balcony overlooking the spacious room, far beyond their reach. Haijima explains all eight of them are her prisoner and there is no way out of her house now. In the coming four days, locked room murders will occur inside the Locked Room Manor and she challenges her eight prisoners to solve them. Each day, they are given one collective chance to come to this room again and explain their deductions about how the locked room murder(s) are committed: if they get it right they are released at once. After four days, she'll stop this insane game and even go to the police herself to surrender herself, but perhaps everyone will be dead by then. To prove she's serious, she kills another woman right in front of her prisoners, dumping the body from the balcony. Fortunately for them, one of the prisoners is Mikan Hanako: a former super-popular tv-personality who is also a talented detective. One year ago, she stopped all her media activity and deleted her Twitter account with over a million followers to concentrate on her detective work. However, there's one problem: Hinoto Ryou absolutely hates Hanako and all detectives. Previously, Ryou's family had been murdered and even though the murderer had sent a challenge letter to Hanako, she was not able to prevent the tragedy from happening and only managed to solve the case when it was too late. Since that moment, Ryou has harbored an intense hatred towards Hanako, whom he sees as a blight on this world: a person who doesn't recognize the tragedy behind murders and only sees them as puzzles to be solved, and it's detectives like her that in fact attract insane murderers like Haijima to come up with these insane crimes that involve innocent people. But even Ryou has to admit that Hanako is their best way to get out of this mess, and while not all eight prisoners are all too keen to work together because obviously, these are all people who don't know each other, they are united in their struggle against Haijima. After the first night however, one of them is found murdered in his locked room, but how was the murder commited and save Hanako get the rest of them out of Haijima's trap in Ichikawa Tetsuya's 2014 novel Meitantei no Shoumei - Misshitsukan Satsujin Jiken ("Proof of the Great Detective - The Murders in the Locked Room Manor")?

Ichikawa Tetsuya made his debut in 2013 with the first Meitantei no Shoumei ("Proof of the Great Detective") by winning the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award. And nope, I haven't read that book. I'm not really fixated on reading things on order, assuming (hoping) later books don't explicitly spoil previous ones, so for some reason I decided to start with the second novel (and as far as I know, it didn't spoil anything from the first). Anyway, I went in mostly blind, and basically all I had was the subtitle, so I figured it would be safe to least assume it'd be about locked room murders.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that wasn't really correct.

Despite the subtitle, the place of the murders being called the Locked Room Manor and yes, the murders happening in this story being locked room murders, the main focus of the story isn't on the locked room murders. The focus is much more on their closed circle situation. At the start of the story, Haijima even refers to games like Danganronpa, saying how they are now trapped inside the house and how her prisonors will be killed off one by one in impossible crimes. She even adds a rule that during the night, her prisonors will have to stay in their own rooms and not leave until the following morning (or else...). That coupled with the rule they only get one collective chance a day to guess how the murders have been committed results in a very game-like set-up similar to Werewolf, and makes you really aware they are in a closed circle situation. While Hanako and the rest do spend time trying to figure out how the murders are committed, some of them coming up with their own theories, you'd be surprised how much of the book isn't directly about the locked rooms, but for example about the distrust that usually exists in closed circle mystery stories, how everybody feels like they can't really trust the other even though Haijima's shadow is looming over them. 

This is of course personified by narrator Ryou, who hates Hanako despite knowing she's their best chance to get out of there, but Ryou is also used to address some post-modern interpretations of the detective-character like you might know from Late Queen Period problems: in Ryou's view, detectives like Hanako are just cruel people who see murders and crimes as nothing more but intellectual games and entertainment, and the victims and their loved ones are just a by-product. Criminal masterminds like Haijima or others who go for locked room murders or other impossible crimes only exist because such "great detectives" exist, as if to challenge these criminals to try their best. This Batman-Joker problem can be felt throughout the novel via Ryou's narration and at times admittedly, this can be tiring because I assume most readers of a puzzle plot mystery novel are... not against the great detective archetype, though it's also not a very long book so it's not like you have to cope with it for ages.

If you're looking for an original take on the actual mechanics behind the locked room murders, I don't think this will be the book for you, The truth behind how the individual locked room murders are committed is fairly simple in the end, though to prove that, Hanako has to go pretty far, and that in itself is pretty interesting. For the rule is that not only do they have one chance per day, the solution has to be logical and based on clues and facts found at the scenes and can't be just a 'guess.' To prove how the locked room murders were committed however, Hanako looks less at the actual physical evidence found at the scene, but more at the whole situation: why is Haijima holding them hostage, why is she holding this sick game of locked rooms and more, and that eventually brings Hanako to a solution that is more than just a series of locked room murders. I actually do like the truth that Hanako ultimately arrives at and it fits the themes of this book perfectly, but yeah, don't expect too much of the locked rooms as mysteries on their own, it's more about what lies beyond them.

So with people often confusing closed circles with locked room murders, it's ironic that this book, that has locked room in its title and does feature locked room murders, is actually more interesting in the way it handles its closed circle situation. Though that may be intentional. It is a fun book when looked at it as such, and the way it plays with the post-modern themes while incorporating 'real' detective fiction history (there are a lot of references to real books and writers) make it a worthwile read for those who are into modern Japanese mystery.

I wonder if you see Hanako more from a less biased view in the other novels though. Ryou is obviously looking at Hanako with a certain mindset which really colors the whole book in a certain way, but I hope other books show Hanako a bit more, because here Ryou often intentionally avoided the series detective. She's an interesting enough character though, with just enough of an air of mystery, so I'd like to read more about her adventures.

Oh, and as one last note. Tokyo Sogen Suiri's books usually all feature an extra English title inside or on the cover to accompany the Japanese title. Sometimes it's a direct translation, sometimes not. This book's English title however is just "The Detective 2" which is a biiiiiit too generic I think.

So Meitantei no Shoumei - Misshitsukan Satsujin Jiken wasn't at all what I first expected it would be, focusing more on the closed circle situation rather than the locked rooms from the title, but I still ended up liking it for tackling the themes it focused on. It might be a bit too meta for some readers, though I think it's still perfectly readable without much 'meta-knowledge' and I'm certainly interested to read more of this series.

Original Japanese title(s): 市川哲也『名探偵の証明　密室館殺人事件』