Menace, Anyone?

"Submitted for the approval of The Midnight Society, I call this story..."

"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" 

I remember being really scared by a few Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes...

Disclosure: I translated Imamura's Death Among the Undead and Death Within the Evil Eye.

After his last summer break as an elementary school student, Yuusuke volunteers for a position for the class newspaper club: as a fan of the occult, he hopes to write about spooky stuff going in in the town in his last year. He is joined by class outsider Mina, who transferred late to this town and has still not managed to really mingle with the rest of her class, as well as former class representative Satsuki, who surprised everyone when she didn't offer to be the class representative this time. At first, Yuusuke is afraid Satsuki won't let him write a class newspaper on ghosts, but to his great surprise, she is actually very interested in such stories. To be exact: she is interested in the Seven Mysteries of Okusato, a collection of local ghost stories everybody in Okusato has heard about, even though it's not a set collection of stories, so there are actually more than seven. Satsuki's older cousin Mari was murdered one year ago, on the night before a great town festival. The murder was never solved, but Satsuki found files on Mari's computer indicating Mari had been investigating the Seven Mysteries of Okusato: Mari had compiled a file collecting six of the stories, like the Passenger in S Tunnel, Suicide Dam and The House with the Well. For some reason,  the seventh story is missing though that is often part of the "mystery" of the seven mysteries, but even so, the versions Mari has compiled all seem a bit different from the usual versions the locals hear. The three students decide to investigate the six stories as detailed by Mari, going to each spot in Okusato corresponding to the stories and see if they can find a clue that connects these stories to Mari's death. But as they dive into these stories and Mari's death, Yuusuke and Satsuki often find themselves on opposite sides, with Yuusuke believing in the supernatural, while Satsuki adheres to the rational. With Mina as their judge, can they decide what links these stories with Mari's death in Imamura Masahiro's 2022 novel Dispel?

Dispel is the first original full-length novel written by Imamura Masahiro that is not part of his Hiruko series (and coincidentally, by a different publisher). I adore the Hiruko novels of course, and I even translated them, so when I heard Imamura was going to write a non-related novel, I was really excited, as I knew the kind of gold he writes. The summary of Dispel also caught me at once, as I love my "seven mysteries of [locale]" trope in Japanese fiction. In terms of mystery fiction, there's of course the famous Kindaichi Shounen story that serves as the anime and live-action series' pilot, but I'm also for example a big fan of the horror game series Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi ("Scary Stories at School"), a long-running series where you get to hear about seven ghost and horror stories set at a certain school. Knowing how Imamura mixes the supernatural with tightly plotted mysteries in his Hiruko novels, I therefore was more than thrilled to start with Dispel.

The book is quite different from the Hiruko novels though. First of all, the book is definitely written with a younger audience in mind, using the elementary school students Yuusuke, Satsuki and Mina as the protagonists. While they don't always talk and act as actual children, they do cope with problems appropiate for their age/phase in life, and that coupled with the simple narration from their point of view, it's clear Dispel was written for a juvenile ~ TA audience. As said, the three don't always come across as a real children because they are a bit too clever/quick on the uptake and feel more like older teenagers at time, but the way the three all have their growth arcs as they tackle this mystery while preparing to graduate from elementary school is something some readers might find very attractive.

As for the mystery, Dispel is surprisingly very oriented on the seven mysteries of Okusato. Every two weeks or so, the members of the club travel to a different location in Okusato to investigate one of the stories left by Mari, hoping to find out why she was investigating these variants of the stories. These stories function both as a ghost story, as well as a mini-mystery episode. As horror stories, they sound just familiar enough to recognize as "classic urban legends/ghost stories", but with enough unique details to keep you interested in the story itself and fans of urban legends and Japanese ghost stories will probably find them entertaining. Each time, the trio realize something in the story as left by Mari is actually a hint to something else, something they only notice when they visit the place in question. Some of these hints are pretty clever, and thus the ghost stories work pretty ingeniously as "mystery stories", as the reader is required to compare the scary story with reality, and has to figure out 1) what is actually not the same as the story and 2) try to explain what this difference actually means. While some of these questions are a bit open-ended, so hard to explain solely from the reader's point of view, it's stil fun seeing basically folklore study methodology applied to these stories, and often, the revelation feels quite satisfying. These revelations of course chain into some bigger revelation, all tied to Mari's death.

What is interesting is that the book also follows a structure reminiscent of Hayarigami, with Yuusuke preferring a supernatural explanation, Satsuki a rational one, and Mina acting as the judge. As the story progresses, we see both Yuusuke and Satsuki proposing their own explanations to the mystery and also attacking each other's arguments, and for the longest time, the reader honestly never really knows whether there's a rational explanation, or whether there perhaps really is something supernatural (but fairly clewed) going on. Mina works well as a fair judge, not favoring either side and willing to poke holes in both Satsuki and Yuusuke's theories. The book really keeps things thrilling until the end regarding who'll be right, and while with a lot of mystery authors, you'd be inclined to believe the "rational" will automatically win at the end, it's the fact we know Imamura of all people is writing this, that makes this work: you know he's not afraid of using the supernatural, but that doesn't mean he will use it, so you honestly don't know until the end.

To be honest though, I thought the actual explanation to how it was all connected to Mari's death was less interesting than the whole journey to the revelation. Finding glimpses of what seemed to be pointing to a bigger truth with each story worked better for the 'urban legend' atmosphere, than actually revealing everything at the end, I guess, but then again, this is still a mystery novel so you can't really skip this part....

Overall, I did find Dispel an enjoyable novel though. It is certainly a very unique work, and I don't think I have really read any mystery novels that follow a similar structure, something like a hidden treasure hunt within a kind of short story collection. While I don't think Dispel was as good as Imamura's Hiruko novels, it's still a fun horror-focused mystery novel aimed at a younger audience, and I am looking forward to seeing him fan out even more in the future!

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘『でぃすぺる』

A Blast from the Past

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days

"Those Were the Days" (Mary Hopkin)

It's been a while since I wrote a very timely post (= within week of release)...

Disclosure: I translated Imamura Masahiro's Death Among the Undead and Death Within the Evil Eye. And I do hope one day, I'll get to work on the other books in the series too, regardless of which publisher decides to continue with the books...

While it were the deadly events occuring in Shijinsou no Satsujin (released in English as Death Among the Undead) that changed the lives of Akechi Kyosuke and Hamura Yuzuru forever, their exploits then were not the reason why they were known around campus: they had already built a reputation as the Holmes & Watson of Shinkou University, helping both students and staff by solving serious cases like missing cats and theft. When Akechi first entered Shinkou University as a young, mystery-loving man, he joined the university's official Mystery Club, only to learn the members of that club were not real mystery fans, but just filthy casuals, so he created his own club called the Mystery Society, with himself as the president and... the only member. Until the following year, he found a kindred spirit in Hamura Yuzuru. Hamura, a mystery buff himself, had to admit Akechi was an even bigger fan of everything related to mystery: Akechi very often sticks his nose into affairs out of sheer curiosity because he wants to play the great detective, and... he is actually reasonably good at that, even if he often won't get it right the first time around. Hamura acts as Akechi's counterbalance, trying to make sure Akechi never goes to far, but he knows: Akechi always means well, and together they make the campus of Shinkou University a better place. In Imamura Masahiro's short story collection Akechi Kyousuke no Honsou ("The Endeavors of Akechi Kyousuke", 2024), we are treated to five stories starring Akechi set before the events of Shijinsou no Satsujin.

I had been looking forward to this book for a long time! I have been a fan of the series ever since I read Shijinsou no Satsujin, which is why I was more than thrilled when I was given the opportunity to work on the English release of the book, and the sequel Death Within the Evil Eye too. Shijinsou no Satsujin was a brilliant book where Imamura showed how the supernatural could work perfectly with a pure puzzle plot mystery full of dynamic action, and he only keeps on surprising with each subsequent book in the series. Akechi Kyousuke no Honsou however is completely different from the previous three books, because it is set before the first novel. Where the books deal with supernatural murder mysteries, here we have very minor crimes and other everyday life mysteries, ranging from stolen exam tests to.... someone wondering why after a night of drinking, they are not wearing their underwear but still wearing their trousers.

The first story in this book was originally released in 2019 to coincide with the release of the live-action film of Shijinsou no Satsujin and is titled Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken ("Neither His First nor His Final Case"). It is set about four months before the first book, and deals with a case of assault: a burglar had been snooping inside a building currently only used by the Cosplay Club looking for something to steal when he was knocked out, where he was later found by a security guard. Nobody really believes him, but Akechi is asked to look into the case anyway, as the club members are afraid that if it's not properly resolved, the Cosplay Club might be closed. I discussed this story in detail when it was first released in 2019, so I refer to that review for more details. It's a well-constructed puzzle story that really shows off Imamura's plotting skills, and I do always love mysteries that are about school clubs etc. And wait, this was released in 2019!? I was expecting more stories to follow and that they'd be collected into a short story collection eventually, but I hadn't expected it to take 4.5 years...

To Aru Nichijou no Nazo ni Tsuite ("Regarding A Certain Slice-of-Life Mystery") is perhaps the most mundane of all mysteries in this book: we are introduced to Katou Hisao, an elderly man who runs a cafetaria in the somewhat aging Fujimachi Shopping Arcade. Every week, he goes out to have a drink at a local standing bar to gossip with other local shopkeepers. Soon after he arrives at his usual spot, a young student arrives there too, who listens to the gossiping tales of Hisao and the other people there. This time, they're talking about old Nurii, who used to run an lacquerware shop in the shopping arcade: Nuri owned the whole building, but after retiring, he kept on living there because he had no other choice: his wife had passed away already and he was estranged from his daughter, but because the building was so old and lacking in maintenance, he also couldn't sell it to move somewhere else, so he was stuck there. But recently, a mysterious buyer offered to buy the building from Nurii for much more than the building is worth, which of course sparked rumors and gossip among other shopkeepers in the arcade, with Katou himself thinking it'd be nice if he could finally sell the cafetaria and retire himself. Katou can't help but wonder why in heavens someone offered Nurii and he notices the young student has been asking questions too, so it seems there's really a mystery worth investigating... A nice layered slice-of-life mystery: it's interesting to see the world of this series through the eyes of someone completely different, just someone who runs a small cafeteria, which lately has seen a new clientele of children because of the retro Space Invaders table they have. Through Hisao, we learn about how the shopping arcade has changed in the last few decades, with shops coming, but mostly going, and that is why he's wondering why anyone would pay much more than Nurii's building was actually worth, with some even joking whether the buyer hadn't actually meant to buy the larger multi-tenant building next door. These kind of slice-of-life mysteries often revolve around presenting a good explanation (motive) for a seemingly strange action, and I do think the motive is good for this story, though it's a bit hard to deduce beforehand why exactly, until a rather conclusive clue suddenly appears. So in that sense, I found it a bit unfair. I do like the layered puzzle though, which builds on a pretty famous story within the Japanese mystery scene, and I like the solution presented here. This is also the type of story you'd expect the least based on what you hear about Akechi and Hamura's adventures in Shijinsou no Satsujin.

Deisui Hadagi Kirisaki Jiken ("The Case of the Torn Hangover Underwear") starts with Akechi calling Hamura to come immediately. The previous night, Akechi had been drinking with classmates after finish a project together, but when it was time to go home, Akechi seemed a bit too drunk to send back alone. As nobody knew where Akechi lived though, they called Hamura, who brought Akechi home by taxi (one of the classmates gave him taxi money). Akechi, still dead drunk, said he was okay, so Hamura said goodbye at the front entrance of the apartment building and watched Akechi enter, after which he himself went home. Akechi in turn woke up this morning in his own bed with a headache, still wearing the clothes he wore last night. Fortunately, he had remembered to lock the door with his key and the door guard before falling asleep. But when he went to the toilet, he discovered something terrifying. For after removing his belt and trousers, he realized he wasn't wearing any underwear: why would he not be wearing his underwear, but still his trousers, and with the belt on? He then found his undies on the floor, but it was full of tears and rips. Akechi thus summoned Hamura to his room. He honestly can't remember anything of last night, so together, they have to figure out what happened to his undies last night. This is probably the most memorable story of the collection, not per se because of deductive brilliance, but because of the really silly and insignificant mystery (yes, in a positive way). Akechi himself can't remember much, so the two start coming up with various theories about why Akechi would have removed his underwear, while still putting back on his trousers and belt. This is a funny story of course, as we get Imamura's usual plotting revolving around theories based on physical evidence and actions of the characters involved, but about something so silly. I think the solution hinges on something that is hard to deduce beforehand, because of the way the clues are laid out, but I do love how this prequel story actually ties back? forward? to one of the later books in terms of themes.

Shuukyougaku Shiken Mondai Roei Jiken ("The Case of the Leaked Theology Exam") is a case alluded to in Shijinsou no Satsujin and takes place in July. Akechi and Hamura are walking down the stairs of a university building when suddenly a flustered student comes running to them, saying exam questions have been stolen. They have a talk with the student, Kumori Minori, who explains she had been in the office of Professor Yanagi. Minori and another student, Teramatsu Sou, had been told to write a formal apology essays by the professor because they had been cheating with their lecture attendence records. They were told to write the essay in Yanagi's office. While they were in his office, Yanagi had put a USB stick with the questions for the upcoming theology exams in his office safe, but then he had to go out for a bit because of a phone call. During his absence, Teramatsu also finished his essay and left, leaving Minori alone. She went to the toilet, but when she returned, she found Yanagi's office ransacked, the safe opened and the USB stick gone! Akechi quickly confirms with building security that nobody actually left the building the last ten minutes or so, as Yanagi and Teramatsu had been talking at the entrance of the building, while the employees-only exit had also been watched at the time. Suspicion falls on Minori, who had been alone in the office, but if she's the thief, how could she open the safe, and where could she have hidden the USB stick, as she couldn't have left the building? A nice story with a situation that is not strictly impossible, but still allows for Akechi and Hamura to talk about Chesterton's The Invisible Man: the thief managing to search an office and guess the safe combination in just three minutes is hard enough, but then they also needed to get away from that office without being seen by anyone, and pulling off all of that seems impossible. A story with few suspects, which makes it rather easy to vaguely guess who's behind the theft and how it was done, though I think Imamura did a good job setting up the clues and the logical trail you're supposed to follow (and not just a gut feeling). Some parts of the plan of the culprit seem very sloppy, relying on the actions of people they can not be so sure of, but I guess it was a gamble worth taking.

Tegami Baramaki Heights Jiken ("The Case of The Scattered Letters at Heights") is set the furthest back in the past, when Hamura wasn't enrolled at Shinkou University yet. At the time, Akechi, dreaming of becoming a great detective, had started a part-time job at the local Tanuma Detective Agency. Because one of Tanuma's employees is injured and the others have their own cases, Tanuma is forced to take on the new part-timer (Akechi) along as they work on a new case. Someone has been spreading stalker letters to residents of Heights Tokuro, an apartment complex consisting of three buildings. Some of them have received letters and informed the owner and caretalker of Heights Tokuro, who has now hired Tanuma to investigate the case, though on a rather small budget, so they only have three days to work on it. The letters are clearly stalker letters, talking about watching when the recipient returned home, or how they saw them smoking and they are also all written on the same paper and using the same writing style, but for some reason, several residents have received these letters in their letterboxes, until it suddenly stopped. Still, this is pretty creepy, so Tanuma and Akechi first go inquire to see if other residents have received similar letters (and simply not reported them to the caretaker/police). This is probably the most complex story of the volume, with a lot more going than you'd initially suspect. The story starts a bit slow, with Tanuma and Akechi interviewing the residents of Heights Tokuro and asking them in detail about when they received letters etc. Because the letters come from the same sender and seem to be talking about the same person, the detectives first suspect it might be a stalker whose target recently moved to Heights Tokuro, but of whom the stalker does not know which flat they have exactly, but that seems not quite right, as why would the stalker then just put random letters in random letterboxes, rather than first making sure where their target lives? The solution is actually quite clever, though rather complex, and I do think it really demands of you to just roll with a certain revelation. It's a story that perhaps would have benefitted from more pages, like being treated as a novella, or perhaps worked out into a full novel (with of course more body to the story), as I think the core ideas of this story regarding the letters are really cool, with honestly a very cool twist regarding the true meaning behind all those people receiving these letters, but some moments feel a bit too abrupt. Still, one of the cleverest "poison pen/stalker letters" mysteries I ever read and I am generally not too a big a fan of them.

Fans of Shijinsou no Satsujin might be surprised by what Akechi Kyousuke no Honsou has to offer: it is definitely not at all similar to the previous novels: gone are the murders, no supernatural elements that are cleverly integrated in the mystery, none of that. Instead, we have the slightly arrogant, but very passionate Akechi, occasionally supported by Hamura, as he deals with a lot of more mundane, and minor cases. But while I think this book is certainly not as strong as the supernatural efforts of Imamura in the previous books, you still see Imamura coming up with cleverly plotted short mysteries with surprise twists, which are nonetheless well-clewed and of course, always with a comedic tone in which he shows a lot of love for the character of Akechi. My favorite is probably still the first story in the collection, as I do think the "real" crimes (like theft/stolen exams) in this collection allow for the best and most rewarding plots (and I love the school/university setting). As a palate cleanser, Akechi Kyousuke no Honsou is amusing and it did precisely what I already expected it'd do based on the first story I read in 2019, but I do have to say it makes me yearn for the next proper novel in the series!

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘『明智恭介の奔走』:「最初でも最後でもない事件」/「ある日常の謎について」/「泥酔肌着引き裂き事件」/「宗教学試験問題漏洩事件」/「手紙ばら撒きハイツ事件」

Choosing Sides

A place for everything and everything in its place.

(Saying)

Time for my single anthology review of the year... And yes, it's a bit late this year...

Disclosure: I am a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. However, I didn't vote for the stories this year.

Every summer, the Honkaku-Ou ("The King of Honkaku") anthology is published, collecting the best honkaku short stories published the previous year, as selected by the members of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. The selection of short stories basically acts as a counterpart to the Honkaku Mystery Award, which is awarded to the best published book each year. Short stories are usually published in different magazines or online, which can make them difficult to obtain at a later stage, so having all the chosen short stories collected in one book is quite convenient. The Honkaku-Ou format was started in 2019, as the previous format also included the year's best mystery-related essays chosen by the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club, but while not every year was as strong as others, I do think the last two years had really strong contenders, some of them I'd even consider candidates for my own best-read mysteries of those years. So I had been looking forward to the 2023 edition too. 

Honkaku-Ou 2023 (2023) opens with Imamura Masahiro's Aru Heya Nite ("In A Certain Room"), and apparently, this is the first short story Imamura wrote that is not part of a series. Oh, and another disclosure message: I translated Imamura's Death Among the Undead and Death Within the Evil Eye. This is, interestingly, considering his other works, an inverted mystery and opens with a scene where Kengo tries to talk things over with Yuuka his... girlfriend? ex? and things go horribly wrong, ending with her death. Because he snuck in the apartment building, he figures he might get away with it if he can spirit her body away for a while, and he's just done stuffing her body in a suitcase and about to leave the place, when an attorney appears at the door, who says he has an appointment with Yuuka, as she wanted to discuss something with him regarding a rather pesky stalker. Kengo pretends he's Yuuka's brother, hoping to fool the attorney long enough to get out of here, but the attorney seems to notice a lot of little things that add up to a big truth while he's in the room... This is a rather short story, and it's one I like better for the turnabout climax at the end of the inverted mystery, when things inevitably go wrong for Kengo, than for the build-up. While I like the big "twist" you often have in inverted mysteries that is presented here (when you realize the murderer made a truly fatal mistake), the minor mistakes and faults the attorney notices in the build-up feel less strong, and don't really give that satisfying feeling you often have even with smaller points like in Columbo. Not a bad story by any means, just a bit underwhelming on the whole.

Yuuki Shinichirou was featured in the 2020 edition of this anthology, and returns with the oddly-titled Koronde mo Tada de ha Okinai Fuwadama Toumyou Soup Jiken ("The 'If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade' Fluffy Egg Pea Sprout Soup Incident"). This time we follow a kind of Uber Eats driver, but one of the shops he works for is rather special: the restaurants is also actually a detective agency. By making very specific orders via the app, clients can engage the detective/cook's services, who uses a select number of trusted Uber drivers to visits to the clients to gather the necessary information to solve the case. This time they are working on a case of a dead woman found in an apartment building that went up in flames. While people were watching the smoke outside, a woman saw another woman who mumbled "Good for him!" and then ran into the building. Later this woman was found dead in one of the apartments, which was occupied by her ex, who escaped from the fire in the building in time. Because of his connection to the victim, police are of course investigating him, but as the woman was seen going into the building herself, it doesn't seem it was his fault she died, but why did she go inside in the first place? At first sight, I thought the idea of an Uber-detective-service sounded fun, but I didn't think it was really used meaningful here. I assume this story is part of a series, but the way the story was told with bits of the driver returning to the cook to discuss the case didn't help the pacing of the story. The fire incident itself is not super complex and I think many will guess early why the woman went to the building herself, but I liked it enough, so I thought it was a shame the story read a bit awkward.

Shiotani Ken's 20XX-nen no Shuki ("Accounts Dated 20XX") consists of a series of reports written by different people, portraying a unique dictatorship led by the Great Leader X, who guides the strictly-led nation. The first account is from A, the director of Camp 33 in the Kanto region, a training camp where men are trained in several skill fields. His account to his superiors says nothing is wrong at the camp, but the next report already introduces to B, the replacement of A, as A was caught lying in his reports. B reports on the death of K, an injured man who had been sent to the camp to recover, but who accidentally died during his stay at the camp, a fact A tried to cover up. More letters follow, which slowly delve into the secret behind K's death. This was a short, but fun story, with each letter changing your views on what was said in the previous letter. It's not really fair play puzzle in that sense, as the writer of each new account always knows much more than the reader, but it's cool to see how the case changes and events described in earlier accounts can suddenly take a completely different meaning. The world described in these letters give this story both a very large, and small scale: apparently this is a North Korea-esque society, but at the other hand, all we see of this world is through these letters, which are all about events occuring inside a special training camp, so ultimately you don't see that much of this unique society. This would be cool to see in a full series.

According to Yagi Jun's own introduction, Chikusare ("Fatal Blood") was written as a horror story, so he was surprised it got picked for this anthology. It's about a sister, who joins her younger brother and his two children on a camp, as his sister-in-law is too busy with work to go with them. During their time outdoors, the sister remembers how there's a shrine in the forest here, with a cursed stone which can cut ties between people if you put the blood of the one you want to cut ties with on the stone. But as time passes by, she starts to see her younger brother act suspiciously with a cloth with some blood on it... This is indeed more of a horror story than a straight puzzler, revolving around the sister's suspicions about her brother's actions. Not bad per se, but also not really what I expect to read in an anthology like this. Had it been written more as a straight mystery story, I think I would have liked it better, because the last revelation is good, but the hinting/foreshadowing is a bit weirdly paced because it's more a horror story.

Araki Akane's Doukou no SHE ("Fellow Traveller SHE") is about Yuuko, who is going to kill somebody. She boards the night bus with just a kitchen knife inside her coat pocket, ready to strike when she arrives in Tokyo. The woman next to her however almost immediately notices the knife, and says she'll tell the driver, but Yuuko places the knife against the woman, Ruri, and tells her to stay quiet. The bus makes its way towards Tokyo, occasionally stopping at rest areas. During one of these stops, the passenger in front of Yuuko and Ruri says his phone and wallet was stolen from his bag in the overhead rack, and when they look around, the wallet is found inside Yuuko's bag! Yuuko knows she didn't steal the wallet, and immediately suspects Ruri pulled the stunt off to get out of her predicament, but how did she manage that while being kept at knife-point? A very thrilling story, though mystery-wise it is a bit... convenient? Like, I know people doze off in a night bus, but would nobody have noticed what was going in with that bag considering what was done with it in order for the wallet to end up in Yuuko's bag? The mystery of the smartphone is better, and I like the final turn of events regarding Yuuko's intended murder overall very much too though.

Shirai Tomoyuki's Moterean no Tekubi ("The Hand of the Moterean") starts with a group of three looking for crystallized fossils on the island of Posta, the realm of Gods. Once upon a time, an alien species called Moterans lived on the island, but they are now all extinct, and having been in the ground for so long, the three think they might find fossils turned into gemstones here. They eventually do find a cut-off hand, which is a bit weird, so they dig even further and far deeper in the ground, they stumble upon an arm. When they dig dozens of meters further, they find a body with a missing arm, and also signs they were naked when they died. This however leads to a very puzzling question: how did this Moterean's body end up like this on Posta Island, naked, and with their hand and arm at completely different depths in the ground? The one Shirai story I ever read was pretty gross and I hear that's his thing, but that was fortunately not the case here. This was an interesting archeological mystery. While I think the 'big' twist in the middle wasn't as surprising as it was probably intended, I liked the theories posed as to how parts of the fossil ended up seperated so far. The scale of the story encompasses thousands of years, so it's a weird "murder mystery" in that sense, but I really liked how this was used to come up with a very surprising explanation for the fossil being like that, as the misdirection really takes advantage of the unique setting.

Michio Shuusuke's Hariganemushi ("Horsehair Worm") is part of a series where each story includes a QR-code to a Youtube audio file, where you get to hear a specific scene/moment from the story. I think this is a pretty cool idea, but on the other hand, it's not really used in a meaningful manner in this specific story. I guess that's because the prose story has to work on its own, so you can not really have the audio track be the actual solution or a vital hint, but still, it's little more than a gimmick now. In this story, we follow a cram school teacher who is stalking one of his students: he has given her an USB charger, but in fact it's a listening device, and the last few days, he's been following her to her home, and listening from his car to the sounds from her bedroom. While doing this, he learns more about her home situation, which is quite grave with an abusive step-father. Things eventually explode in the household, but there's nothing the teacher can do. But what did really happen in the house, and what was it he was actually listening to? I think the problem with this tale is there's no real surprise? It's more a thriller than a detective story, as even at the end, when a detective-like figure explains everything, it doesn't feel like an explanation, because the teacher heard all of this himself and... there was no mystery or anything. The audio track you get to listen at the end, is also just part of a scene the teacher was listening to, with the exact same phrases, so all the audio track offers is just... hearing the scene acted out.

Overall, I think Honkaku-Ou 2023 was not as strong as previous entries. The last three years, there was always at least one story I really, really liked, making the whole collection worth reading, but while there were stories I simply liked in this year's edition, I don't think any of them were really must-reads. I think my favorites are Shiotani's story for having a unique premise and a good build-up to the solution, as well as Imamura and Shirai's entries for their more focused story-telling, but even then, it's not like I think these alone make this really a worthwile read. Oh well, I guess there's always next year!

Original Japanese title(s): 『本格王2023』: 今村昌弘「ある部屋にて」/ 結城真一郎「転んでもただでは起きないふわ玉豆苗スープ事件」/ 潮谷験「二〇XX年の手記」/ 矢樹純「血腐れ」/ 荒木あかね「同好のSHE」/ 白井智之「モーティリアンの手首」/ 道尾秀介 「ハリガネムシ」

番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye Released

Okay, I know I make the same mistake every single time, but I really should start thinking more about what to write in my announcements of upcoming announcements, for there's always little left to write in the actual release announcement, because I already wrote most of what I should write in the announcement of the announcement only a few weeks ago...

In 2021 Locked Room International published my English translation of IMAMURA Masahiro's 2017 novel Death Among the Undead, which was a huge hit in its home country, leading to film and manga adaptations. And yes, I am happy to announce that I got to work on its 2019 sequel too. And with the product page up on the site of Locked Room International, it appears my English translation has now been published (or will be made available the coming days). Death Within The Evil Eye has the members of the Mystery Society travel all the way to to a remote village deep in the mountains as they trace a lead connected to the events of the first book. They and a group of other people who happen to be stranded there end up visiting an old woman of whom it is said she possesses powers of clairvoyance, capable of telling the future. But when the bridge collapses back to the main roads collapse, everyone ends up trapped on one side of a river and it's then they learn that being foretold the future is certainly not always a good thing, for what if the future that awaits you is certain death?

At least among the commentators of this blog, Death Among the Undead had been by far the title most people wanted to see a translation of, so I was really glad I was able to work on the translation and get an English version published last year. I personally liked its sequel Death Within The Evil Eye a lot too, so while I wasn't expecting it, I did hope I'd get to work on that book too in the future, but even I hadn't expected to work on Death Within The Evil Eye so soon! Like the previous book, it combines a classic closed circle situation mystery plot with a very non-classic, supernatural theme, resulting in a very unique tale of mystery, but it's a fair-play puzzle plot mystery that challenges the reader to solve the mystery themselves.

My review of the Japanese version can be found here, but you could also wait until you've read the book yourself to compare notes later. Publishers Weekly also has had their early review up already.

Anyway, I hope people enjoy Death Within The Evil Eye! The holiday season is coming up, so if you're still wondering about suitable gifts, or just want something for yourself to read in the darker months, why not go for Death Within The Evil Eye? And by the time you're done, perhaps consider my other upcoming translation in February...

番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye

I'd better say this right away: don't expect another announcement next Friday. This post following my recent announcement of the upcoming release of The Mill House Murders is more-or-less just a coincidence... Let's not make this a habit!

2021 was a weird year, as two mystery novels I translated were published, but not only that, on the surface, they had rather similar, but unique themes. Publisher Ammo's YAMAGUCHI Masaya's Death of the Living Dead was about well, the living dead. The lengthy tale follows Francis "Grin" Barleycorn who has returned to the family home, the famous Smile Cemetery in New England, as his grandfather Smiley Barleycorn is terminally ill. Meanwhile, a strange phenomenom has been plaguing the world: the dead have started to rise. The scientists haven't figure out why yet, there have been several cases across the world where people simply "wake up" from their death and are still able to think, speak and act basically as if they were alive. It's amidst these circumstances that mysterious deaths occur at the Smile Cemetery, and it's up to young Grin to solve these deaths, which is easier said than done when the dead don't stay dead. The book was originally released in 1989 and is one of earliest and definitely one of the best Japanese mystery stories that utilized a supernatural setting to present a fair play puzzle plot detective. The other book I translated last year was also about mixing the supernatural with the classic puzzle plot mystery: Locked Room International published IMAMURA Masahiro's Death Among the Undead, an absolute hit 2017 mystery novel in its home country. It told the story of Akechi and Hamura, two students who make up the Mystery Society. The two of them are invited by Hiruko, a fellow student and accomplished amateur detective, to join a short trip organized by the Film Club of the university. Staying at a mountain-side pension overlooking Lake Sabea, the idea is that the members will film a short film as a club project. But on the first evening, the students are suddenly attacked by a mob of something very unlikely and very unnatural. They barricade themselves inside the pension with no hope of escape from this closed circle situation as the beings try to get inside, but then one of the students is killed inside his locked room during the night: at first they suspect one of the beings killed the poor man, but they soon realize that isn't possible and that a human, ergo, one of them must've done it. But how did the murderer manage to get in and out the locked room of the victm, and more importantly, why now, while they're being attacked by those things and don't even know whether they'll survive this? The book is an excellent example of how a mystery story can still utilize very irrational and supernatural elements, and yet be a completely fair, puzzle plot tale.

And for those who enjoyed Death Among the Undead, I have good news, for Locked Room International will be releasing its sequel too! Death Within the Evil Eye was originally released in Japan in 2019 as Magan no Hako no Satsujin and is the direct sequel to Death Among the Undead. Once again, I was fortunate enough to be able to work on this translation: I originally read the Japanese version of Death Among the Undead late 2018, so I was thrilled when I learned the sequel would be published just a few months later, and I loved the book, just like the first novel. While the book is a direct sequel, it does not directly spoil any big details of the plot of Death Among the Undead, so you could start with this book if you want to, though obviously, it is much more rewarding if you do read these two books in order. Death Within the Evil Eye brings the members of the Mystery Society to a remote community deep in the mountains as they trace a lead connected to the events of the first book. Some other people happen to arrive at that place too, and the party eventually arrives at a curious, block-like building where an old woman lives who is said to have powers of clairvoyance, capable of telling the future. But the bridge collapses, trapping everybody in the building, and it's then they learn that knowing the future is certainly not always a good thing, as what if it is foretold you will die?

Readers might be surprised on one hand to see how different the theme is this time compared to Death Among the Undead, on the other hand, Imamura does here what he did so well in the first book too: Death Within the Evil Eye uses a supernatural premise, in this case prophecies, to bring an incredibly original mystery novel. I'll be lazy today and simply quote myself from my review of the Japanese version: "In a way, the concept behind the prophecies isn't very different from what was done in the first novel: Imamura locks his whole cast up in a closed circle situation, and then has a supernatural/unnatural phenomenon threaten our cast. What makes his novels different from most other closed circle mysteries is that the threat isn't simply a force of nature, like a snow storm or the raging sea or something like that, but something out of the ordinary. What's more, Imamura is sure to make use of these unique special circumstances to come up with situations that can only exist because he's utilizing these unique ideas, resulting in mystery stories that are in the core recognizable, but also like something you have never seen before." For those who are curious now, my review of the Japanese version is here, but you could also wait until you've read the book yourself and compare notes later.

Oh, and what prompted me to write this post in the first place: Publishers Weekly has their early review up already, and they seem quite enthusiastic too with a starred review! 

And the big question is of course, when is the book out? ... I don't know exactly myself actually! At least, I can't give you an exact date, though I believe we'll still have wait a few weeks at the least as there are still some i's that need dotting in regards to the final release. So consider this just an advance announcement, and I'll be sure to make another announcement once you can actually purchase the book.

In the meantime, you could always read Death Among the Undead if you hadn't already!

番外編：Death Among the Undead Released

Doing announcements of announcements is like shooting myself in the foot, because I'm always left with nothing to say in the actual announcement... It's common practice to make an announcement of an upcoming major announcement, or at least it's like that in the game industry, but I guess you're not supposed to give away everything during the pre-announcement.

So now that Locked Room International has today published my newest translation of Masahiro IMAMURA's 2017 debut novel Death Among the Undead (original title: Shijinsou no Satsujin), do I have anything to add to my original announcement post not even two weeks ago? No, not really.  Pointing out that Death Among the Undead was an unprecedented monster hit that became the first title in history to conquer the first place in all the major Japanese annual rankings of mystery novels, and that it has since become a multimedia franchise, with a manga adaptation and an excellent live action adaptation would just be repeating myself. Raving about how it introduces a completely original take on the closed circle situation and locked room murder mystery is all I have been doing here ever since I read the book back in 2018. It is the book you need to read if you want to know in what (amazing) state the Japanese mystery novel is now currently, but yes, it's all been said here before.

Though I am really excited the book is out now! I assume most people reading this are regular readers of this blog, so they'll be aware that probably about 85% of the books I discuss here are not available in translation (English or any other language) and it's not uncommon to see comments on articles here where people voice their wishes for a translation. And I can safely say that at least on this blog, Death Among the Undead was by far the most wished-for title. Heck, when I reviewed the third novel in the series released only a few weeks back in Japan, the comment section once again had people wishing for a translation of Death Among the Undead. As it hadn't been formally announced yet by Locked Room International, there wasn't much I could say then though. Anyway, it's awesome that the book is now indeed available in English translation now, and that I got to work on it myself!

Edit: Publishers Weekly's starred review is also up!

For those who have read previous translations of Japanese mystery novels published by Locked Room International, this might be a slightly surprising work. Like Lending the Key to the Locked Room released last year, Death Among the Undead is a fairly recent work, as opposed to the early shin honkaku novels from the eighties Locked Room International did before (not to mention the even older The Ginza Ghost and The Red Locked Room). Death Among the Undead follows the classic tropes of the murder mystery, but at the same time it's unmistakenly a contemporary work, a murder mystery written within the current zeitgeist and presenting familiar-looking ideas in a brand new context. I myself love this book, as it really shows the potential the puzzler mystery story has and that there's stll a gold mine of ideas to be explored for the genre. This Locked Room International version features a special introduction by Soji SHIMADA by the way!

Anyway, I can only hope you'll enjoy the book as much as I did back in 2018! It's such an important work in the context of contemporary Japanese mystery fiction, I really recommend you read it even if the premise of the book sounds a bit... uncanny, because Death Among the Undead is an excellent example of how far the Japanese mystery novel dares to go, and how at the same time it still manages to hold onto our beloved classic tropes and structure firmly. And I'm really repeating myself now, so that's it for today! Enjoy Death Among the Undead!

番外編：Death Among the Undead

After the annual releases of The Decagon House Murders (2015), The Moai Island Puzzle (2016), The Ginza Ghost (2017) and The 8 Mansion Murders (2018),  Locked Room International didn't have a full-length Japanese release in 2019, but last year, two of them were released: Ayukawa's classic locked room & perfect alibi story collection The Red Locked Room and Higashigawa's comedic locked room mystery Lending the Key to the Locked Room. And people who have been following these releases will probably have noticed that the summer is a time to pay attention to, so...

I'm happy to announce that Locked Room International will be releasing Masahiro IMAMURA's debut novel Death Among the Undead very soon and I am even more thrilled that I was the one to translate the work to English. Oh, and to be clear: this is the Japanese cover, the Locked Room International release will have a different cover. Originally published in 2017 as the winner of the 27th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award with the title Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead"), it was an absolute monster hit in Japan. It became the first title in history to conquer the first place in all the major annual rankings of mystery novels organized by various publishers and has since become a multimedia franchise, with a manga adaptation and an excellent live action adaptation. Honestly, no other mystery novel in recent years managed to make such enormous waves in Japan as this novel. It became the first novel in an on-going series, with the third novel being released just a month ago in Japan. Imamura's debut work is a novel I was absolutely sure was going to be available in English sooner or later, but I couldn't have guessed I'd be the one who'd get to translate the book!

Having heard about a curious threatening note to the university's Film Club, self-proclaimed detective and notorious campus troublemaker Kyosuke Akechi and his assistant Yuzuru Hamura manages to tag along with the Film Club's summer outing, together with the mysterious Hiruko Kenzaki, who is apparently also known in some circles as a gifted detective. The trip brings them to a mountain-side pension overlooking Lake Sabea and the idea is that the members will film a short film in this nature-rich area. During their stay here, the three student-detectives try to learn more about the threats while they help the members of the Film Club with their project, but in the evening, the students are suddenly attacked by a mob of something very unlikely. The group are forced to barricade themselves inside the pension with no hope of escape from this closed circle situation as the beings try to get inside, but then one of the students is killed inside his locked room during the night: at first they suspect one of the beings killed the poor man, but they soon realize that isn't possible and that a human, ergo, one of them must've done it. But how did the murderer manage to get in and out the locked room of the victm, and more importantly, why now, while they're being attacked by those things and don't even know whether they'll survive this!?

I was late to the party myself and read Death among the Undead in 2018, but I absolutely loved it, and the series has become one of my favorite ones in recent years. Imamura managed to create an absolutely unique closed circle situation for a mystery novel and makes excellent use of the concept to present one of the most original mystery you'll read. While initially you might think the concept is more focused on suspense or perhaps even gore, and that it doesn't fit the mystery genre, you'll be surprised at how brilliantly Imamura uses non-conventional elements to create a fantastic locked room murder mystery that is still all about the fair-play, originality and logical reasoning we love about detective fiction. It's a novel you have to read, and I would have said that even if I wasn't involved with the translation (in fact, I've been fanboying about this novel on this blog ever since I first read it).

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy Death Among the Undead as much as I originally did, or more! As mentioned on the Locked Room International website, due to circumstances there's a product page online already, but the book isn't actually available yet at this moment: I believe it's scheduled to released very soon though so keep an eye on the Locked Room International website to see when it's available for purchase. People who liked previous Japanese releases by Locked Room International will definitely love this one, but the book has a lot of appeal beyond that I think, so I hope the book will also act as a gateway work for a new reading audience to get into Japanese mystery novels! And that's it for today's service announcement. Enjoy Death Among the Undead when it's out!

Dungeon of Doom

Deep into that darkness peering, 

long I stood there, wondering, fearing

"The Raven"

Unless they're pocket re-releases, I seldom get new books right away on release, but today's book was of course an exception!

Life for members of Shinkou University's Mystery Society changed drastically ever since their encounter  with Kenzaki Hiruko, a second-year student who, unknown to the public, has solved many criminal cases over the course of her life and who has the tendency to get involved in dangerous murder incidents. Earlier this year, they got involved in a murder case happening in a pension near Lake Sabea during very unusual circumstances and a few months later, they got involved in a murder case in a remote, mountain settlement involving a woman who could predict the future. The connection between these cases was not only the involvement of the Mystery Society, but more importantly, the unique circumstances surrounding these incidents were the direct result of research conducted by a suspicious organization that was dismantled many years ago, but much of the organization's research data has disappeared together with members of the organization. Hiruko has been on the trail of this research data ever since the incident at Lake Sabea and now she's been approached by Narushima Touji, director of the medical firm Narushima IMS West Japan. He reveals to her that Narushima IMS was actually a financial sponsor of the organization some generations ago, but having learned what horrors they have produced, he hopes he can retrieve the stolen research data to prevent more harm, while at the same time keeping his company's involvement a secret. Narushima has discovered where one former researcher of the organization is hiding with his research data: inside a theme park. Umagoe Dream City is a small, regional theme park that is old, worn down and hopelessly outdated, but that's actually why it's become popular lately, as it's presented as "a living ruins" theme park. The park is run by Akishima Industries, owned by a Saitou Gensuke, but in reality he's Fugi Gensuke, one of the missing researchers. Fugi actually lives inside the theme park, in what once used to be the haunted house attraction, and he never leaves this place, staying cooped up inside his spacious manor all day. Narushima also explains that there are creepy rumors surrounding Fugi's house: apparently, once in a while, employees who are staying illegally in Japan, or otherwise have a dubious past, are summoned to the owner's home in the middle of the night, only to never return. Narushima's plan depends on this: he has secured the help of an illegal immigrant working in the park who is told to present himself tonight at Fugi's home. Narushima has hired a team of mercenaries and together with Hiruko (who has the tendecy to attract trouble, meaning they're likely to stumble upon *something*) and narrator Hamura, he wants to break into the haunted house and force Fugi to give up his research data. 

The operation goes as planned initially: with the help of the employee, the team breaks into the house and they quickly subdue Fugi and his two servants. The haunted house only has one entrance, operated by one single, specially made key which also operates a few strangely placed gates in the house.  Fugi is told to show them his research data and Fugi leads them deep into the underground floor of the haunted house... when they are attacked by *a certain threat*. Even the mercenaries, with all their weapons and experience on the battlefield, are hopeless against *it* and some of them are killed and decapitated on the spot. In the chaos, everyone flees in different directions and they all hide in different places during the night, hoping *it* will not find them. Realizing they are no match for *it*, they want to leave the haunted house, but this is impossible: the person who was keeping the key operating the single door and the gates which were keeping *it* locked inside its part of the haunted house, was killed deep within *its* territory, in the annex of the haunted house. His remains, and the key are lying there, but it'd be pure suicide to enter the annex part of the house. They also realize they can't just break out of the house, because that would release *it* into the theme park, and would lead to many more victims. As they try to figure out a way to escape, more of the survivors are found killed and decapitated in the haunted house, but slowly the suspicion arises that some of these deaths weren't caused by *it*, but by someone trying to pin the murders on *the threat.* But how could any one of the survivors commit these murders despite *it* roaming around the haunted house? And more importantly: why should the survivors worry about a few murders when there's an unstoppable force roaming around intent on killing you in Imamura Masahiro's 2021 novel Kyoujintei no Satsujin ("The Murders in the House of Maleficence")?

Imamura Masahiro's 2017 debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead") was absolutely fantastic, the sequel Magan no Hako no Satsujin ("The Murders In the Box of The Devil Eye", 2019) also made brilliant use of a supernatural setting to present a very original mystery story, so as you can guess, I was really looking forward to the third novel in this series, which was released last week (July 2021). Kyoujintei no Satsujin follows the same formula we've grown used to by now: the book combines a classic, closed circle murder mystery story with unique circumstances: a supernatural/unnatural phenomenon that threatens our cast, used cleverly to present an original, and more importantly entertaining, detective novel. The closed circle situation is thus not *just* a storm that has cut an island off from the mainland, or a snowstorm raging outside, but something much more threatening because it's basically supernatural, while at the same time, a classic puzzle plot murder mystery is also at play and the core mystery plot makes cleverly use of the supernatural elements to create a story that really couldn't exist without those abnormal elements: it sets clear rules about what the *supernatural element* does and does not do, giving you both possibilities and limitations as you try to deduce who committed the murders.

Kyoujintei no Satsujin's core premise feels similar to the first novel, as the *threat* in the haunted hause poses once again a very physical kind of danger to the cast of members within a closed circle situation, and they literally have to run for their lives and find safe places in the haunted house to stay alive, while at the meantime one of the group is also killing some of the survivors amidst this chaos. As I was reading this book however, I had to think especially of video games. Perhaps it's because of the floorplan of the haunted house presented at the start of the book, shown at a slight angle, reminding me of a map in a videogame. The *threat* that is endangering the lives of the people locked up in the haunted house also reminds of a certain, famous game and the setting of the haunted house itself already feels very much like a video game, especially as the map is "updated" a few times with new discoveries made and the design of some spots of the map feel like they come from video game design grammar, with choke points and a maze-like design. You'll be checking the floorplan a lot while you read this book, which some people may not like, but I quite enjoyed slowly learning the various points of interest of the map.

I'd perhaps say that Kyoujintei no Satsujin as a thrilling experience, is perhaps the best of the three novels. While the idea of a physical threat is similar to the first novel, the mystery aspect of the plot of Kyoujintei no Satsujin is not as end-loaded as that novel, meaning the thrills of the book don't only come from the physical threat, but also from seeing the mystery develop over time. With that, I don't just mean that more murders mean more mystery. Kyoujintei no Satsujin actually shows more puzzle pieces and puzzle solving throughout the story, whereas in Shijinsou no Satsujin, they did talk a lot about solving the mystery throughout the novel, but the actual solving of parts of the mystery mostly happened at the end, with the earlier parts being discussions on possibilities which were then discarded. In Kyoujintei no Satsujin, Hiruko wil solve some parts of the mystery early in the novel, which will make think of certain characters/circumstances in a certain way, which again shine a different light on future murders etc. Because the mystery solving doesn't only happen at the end, but throughout the story, the reader who's looking for a good detective story doesn't have to wait all the time until the end. The closed circle situation is also very interesting this time, as part of the problem is that while the survivors could technically force their way out of the haunted house by breaking down the draw bridge of the haunted house (which is now drawn), it'd mean setting *the threat* loose in a theme park, so they hesitate leaving the closed circle situation in that manner. There are also a few intermezzo's which put the unfolding events in a different context, so with the current predicement inside the haunted house, the frequent mystery solving and the intermezzo's, the reader is always being presented something to keep them hooked. Personally, I don't mind having to wait until the very end to read a long explanation of the whole case, but I think that in general, this novel is better at juggling the various elements in a balanced manner compared to the previous two novels, and the dramatic subplot these novels always had, is perhaps done best in this one too.

I wonder if there'll be plans for a live-action film based on this novel? It'd actually make for a better film than the second novel and I liked the first movie adaptation a lot, so I'd love to see a sequel to that...

Looking at just the core mystery, I do think Kyoujintei no Satsujin won't appeal to everyone right away. There is little doubt about who committed some of the murders, as *it* decapitated the poor saps right in front of the others. But there are a few decapitation murders which seem clearly to be committed by someone else and not *the threat*, but under seemingly impossible circumstances: at the suspected time the body was decapitated in the underground floor, *it* was roaming there around looking for targets and in order to bring the knife used to decapitate the victim to the location where the body was found, one would have to somehow pass by *it* unseen (despite the choke point on the floorplan) and unheard (the survivors had placed glass fragments everywhere to make sure they could hear where *it* exactly was whenever it moved, meaning nobody could've walked there unheard). It's a very technical impossible situation, where you have to keep it clear for yourself where everybody was at what time, where *it* was and everyone's exact movements across the map, which might not appeal to everyone. The solution for this murder does make clever use of the unique circumstances of the story and the particular characteristics of *it*, but unlike the previous two novels, one could argue that the precise workings of these particulars (what works, and what doesn't) isn't as clearly described this time, so it's hard to tell how fair this feels. I really like the idea of how the impossible situation was pulled off though, and it's definitely a solution to an impossible situation that could only work on this novel due to its unique story. In puzzle plot mysteries with a supernatural theme, it's important to make clear to the reader what the "rules" are, but as mentioned before, the rules surrounding *the presence* in Kyoujintei no Satsujin aren't immediately clear to the reader, because *it* does follow a specific archetype directly, so it's harder for the reader to imagine right away what's possible and what's not. That was slightly disappointing, because in the previous novels, Imamura really succesfully managed to incorporate the supernatural in a way the reader could instinctively understand and guess what was possible and what's not. Here the reader must be much more careful to make sure they understand what is possible exactly. There's not one truly grand situation or some revelation that turns everything around in terms of the mystery plot in this novel, but as I said before, there are a lot of minor mysteries solved throughout the story and together they form a satisfying novel (I like the solution Hiruko thought off to retrieve the key for example). Overall, Kyoujintei no Satsujin is perhaps plotted not as tightly as the previous novels and there are a few times where the hand of coincidence and contriveness feels rather obvious (the reason why there's an impossible murder in the first place...), but there's still more than enough to entertain the genre fan.

I would not recommend you read this book without reading the first two novels first though. The book builds on the events of the previous novels and while it does not outright spoil them, the three novels do form one chronological narrative together and references are made to previous events and some of the events that unfold here, even shine a different light on what happened in the first two books. And there's a cameo at the very end of the book that won't make any sense at all unless you have read the first book, so you'll definitely want to read this in order.

Kyoujintei no Satsujin is another solid entry in the series. It does not stray from the formula, so it might lack the oomph the first novel had, but it's still a very good, entertaining detective novel that uses its absolutely unique setting to present a tale of mystery that you won't find anywhere else. I think that in terms of solely the mystery, it's not as tightly written as the previous novels, but as a thrilling experience, I think this one may be the best balanced one yet. It's also clear that Imamura is really expanding on the universe, so it will be very interesting to see what will happen in a future entry. I hope we may see a fourth novel in two years again. 

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘『兇人邸の殺人』

Track of the Zombie

最大限界行きたいわ 

宇宙全体が手品いやい

「再生」（Perfume)

I want to go all out

The whole universe is just a sleight of hand

"Rebirth" (Perfume)

Now I think about, with Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet being postponed to 2021, I guess today's topic is the only new mystery movie I really planned to watch this year. I'll probably watch some more, but this was the only recent release (not older than a year) I absolutely wanted to see.

By sticking their noses in all kinds of incidents and occasionally even actually solving them, the duo of Akechi Kyousuke and Hamura Yuzuru have earned themselves the reputation of the Holmes and Watson of Shinkou University. One day, the two young men are approached by fellow student Kenzaki Hiruko, who too has assisted the police in criminal cases in the past. She tells about how the university's Music Festival Club has received a threatening note with the message "Who will be sacrified next?", and how it's likely related to the annual club trip to the Sabea Rock Festival. Many female members of the Music Festival Club were afraid to go because of the trip, so Hiruko was invited to come along to make up for the numbers even though she isn't a Music Festival club member. Hiruko wants Akechi and Hamura to join her to investigate into the meaning behind the note.  The trio joins the rest of the Music Festival Club at the Violet Villa, a pension owned by Nanamiya, one of the graduated members of the club. Each year, Nanamiya allows the club members to stay here, but Hamura quickly realizes Nanamiya's main goal is to get lucky with the female members. During the club's nightly visit to the Sabea Rock Festival however, they notice some visitors start to behave weird and before they know it, they're surrounded by a horde of zombies! Once a person's bitten, they turn into a zombie themselves, and it doesn't take long for the Rock Festival to change into a Fest of the Dead.

Not everyone makes it back alive to the Violet Villa, and the group of survivors barricade themselves against the waves of zombies still roaming outside. The group can only wait for outside help to arrive and they all retreat to their own rooms in the hotel, everyone making sure to lock their doors. The following morning, the Music Festival Club's president is found dead in his room and the horrible biting marks on his face leaves little doubt that his death came by the hands of a zombie, but there are also several problems to this conclusion: while only a zombie could've committed the murder in such a horrible way, only a human could've performed feats like somehow opening the victim's locked hotel room and leaving mysterious handwritten threatening notes in and outside the room! Was this the work of a zombie, a human, or both? Time is of the essence as more and more impossible murders occur while the zombies start to break down barricade after barricade in the 2019 film Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead").

It's no secret that Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead", 2017) immediately become one of my favorite mystery novels after I read it, and I also enjoyed the 2019 sequel novel and the prequel short story a lot. The brilliantly original manner in which the novel combined classic mystery tropes like the closed circle and the locked room murder with the style of zombie panic movie resulted in a true gem of the genre: it was a well-plotted fair play mystery story that incorporated a 'supernatural' element like the zombie to create unique mysteries to solve and Imamura didn't just use zombies as window dressing: these beings were absolutely essential to how the mystery plot worked. The novel was received extremely well in Japan, so it didn't really surprise me when the film adaptation was announced and I've been looking forward to it since. The movie was released in December 2019, while the home video release followed earlier this week.

One thing that made me really enthusiastic for the movie was the tone of the trailer: the distinct comedic tone with fast-paced dialogue and rapid shots reminded me of the classic comedy-mystery drama Trick, one of my favorite mystery television franchises of all time. Turns out that I wasn't imagining things: director Kimura Hisashi was the assistant-director on many projects directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko, including Trick, and it's obvious Kimura took inspiration from that franchise. I only learned recently Kimura also acted as chief director on a lot of mystery drama I enjoyed in the past, like 99.9, IQ246 and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo NEO, so I was sure his film adaptation of Shijinsou no Satsujin would be fun to watch. Actress Hamabe Minami, who plays Hiruko in the movie, has also been in a lot of mystery-related productions lately and I loved her in everything I saw of her work. I first saw here in the mystery drama Pure (also produced by people who worked on Trick by the way) where she played a hilarious lead as an idol who acts all cute in front of others but who's actually a connniving vixen, but she also starred as the main character Tokino in the excellent Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu and has a guest role in Detective Conan: The Scarlet Alibi (which has been postponed to 2021). Add in Kamiki Ryuunosuke (who played Kyuu in the drama of Tantei Gakuen Q) as Hamura and Nakamura Rinya (who plays the lead in Bishoku Tantei, based on the manga by Higashimura Akiko) and you have a whole trio of leads who get casted as detectives. At any rate, given the source material and the people working on the movie, my expectations for Shijinsou no Satsujin were pretty high.

And I am happy to say that Shijinsou no Satsujin is indeed a highly entertaining mystery film that any fan of the genre must watch. The story features some minor differences with the novel to smooth the narrative out (for example, some characters' backgrounds have been changed and the novel went slightly more in detail about the background of the zombies), but in general, Shijinsou no Satsujin is a fairly faithful adaptation of the original work, but with more visual impact (duh). That means you're in for a two-hour movie where you're treated to no less than three different types of locked room murders in a pension that is under attack by zombies, which is a pretty high number of impossible crimes for a single modern, blockbuster-type of movie. These incidents all have seemingly contradictory elements, as both a human and zombie hand can be felt, for example, a locked hotel room which was obviously unlocked by a normal human, while all the biting could only have been done by a zombie. The mysteries are cleverly written to make you wonder if a human could in any way direct a zombie to commit a murder, without putting themselves in harm's way. The brilliance of these murders is that they are only possible in this specific setting, with the zombies. You couldn't replace the hordes of zombies outside with a flood or anything, the whole story is built around the concept of the living dead roaming outside. The movie is pretty tight at two hours, and I feel that ten more minutes of runtime to flesh a few scenes out may have helped, but on the whole I'd say the screenplay does a great job at presenting what is in essence a fairly complex mystery story with multiple murders with impossible elements and the zombie panic side of the story, all within the limits of a two-hour movie. While a mystery genre movie can often feel quite static, Shijinsou no Satsujin is wonderfully dynamic because the zombies keep coming closer and closer.

A few of the focused shots and changes in this movie do make it a bit easier to guess who the culprit is compared to the novel, I have the feeling. In that sense, the film is definitely being very fair and even if you know who the criminal is, there's still some interesting mysteries for the viewer to solve (I love the reason why the culprit went all that trouble for the second murder!). The movie also focuses less on the architecture of the pension (you only see the layout a few times and it's pretty hard to grasp where everyone's room is just by watching the movie), though I have to say the screenplay does a great job at using the visual medium to convey a certain piece of key information to the viewer, which was presented in a different way in the original novel. The method they choose fits better with the medium as it's easier to process, and a good example of how a film adaptation can change things around in a mystery movie to make the best of the medium's specific qualities.

I wouldn't be surprised if Shijinsou no Satsujin will also turn out to be the best mystery movie I'll see this year. It helps that the source material is good, naturally, but it is genuinely a well-produced mystery movie with at one hand a very classic approach with a closed circle situation, impossible crimes and a cast of suspicious characters and on the other hand the more visceral and fast-paced format of the horror movie. The comedic tone with minor parody elements may not be for everyone (Hah, creepy old lady in the bus is definitely a Yokomizo reference), but I absolutely love it and people who liked drama series like Trick will definitely like this film. Most of the changes do make sense as they fit the medium of the two-hour film better, so on the whole, I'm more than satisfied with Shijinsou no Satsujin: it's a fantastic detective movie that can stand on its own and which truly uses its original approach to the mystery genre to its fullest.

Original Japanese title(s): 『屍人荘の殺人』

Danger in Disguise

The clouds are heavy.

- Yes, a storm is approaching.

"The Valley of Fear"

It was late last year when I finally read Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead", 2017) and like the legends said, it was a highly entertaining, and cleverly written mystery novel that utilized a completely unique, supernatural background setting to not only create a closed circle situation, but also allow for lines of reasoning otherwise not possible. I also reviewed the sequel released early this year (which was great too), but in terms of popularity, it's (obviously) still the first novel that attracts most attention. Its success was not confined to the novel form: Shijinsou no Satsujin has not only seen a manga adaptation, as earlier this week (to be exact, two days ago) the live-action movie was also released in Japanese theatres. I'm dying to see this movie, as on top of the killer source material, both the director and the screenplay writer turn out to be people who have worked extensively on the drama TRICK (a personal favorite), and that distinct rapid-fire comedic tone of that series is also very noticable in the trailer for the movie.

A special prequel/prologue story to Shijinsou no Satsujin was released on the same day as the live-action film premiere, available in either issue 98 of the magazine Mysteries! or as e-book. As a fan, I obviously had to read this as soon as possible. Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead Episode 0- Akechi Kyousuke: Neither His First nor His Final Case" 2019) is set about four months before the events of Shijinsou no Satsujin, in late April. It's been only a few weeks since Hamura Yuzuru started his life at Shinkou University and has become a member of the Shinkou University Mystery Society (not to be confused with the Mystery Club). The club only has two members: Hamura, and the club president Akechi Kyousuke, a great admirer of detectives who has also solved a few cases himself on campus, earning him the reputation of "the Holmes of Shinkou". Akechi is hired by the university's Cosplay Club to investigate a certain incident. In a corner of the campus stands the old "box" building, which currently houses the Cosplay Club, a newly established university club officially affiliated with the university's design faculty. A few nights earlier, the campus guard noticed a suspicious light inside, and when he went inside to check, he found an unconscious burglar lying on the floor. The man was of course arrested, but he claims he was busy looking for something to steal, when someone else entered the building, who assaulted him and knocked him out. While nobody believes the burglar, the Cosplay Club still wants Akechi to investigate the case thoroughly, as the supervising teacher of the club is really fussy and might even close the club if the whole thing doesn't get sorted out.

For the situation is somewhat baffling. In the end, nothing was stolen from the building, as it was mostly used as a spot to hang out by the members of the Cosplay Club (the actual costumes are usually kept at the design faculty) and the money box was even left untouched. But there are indications the burglar may have been telling the truth about another intruder: not only were his gloves missing, some person had also wiped the handles of the doors upstairs clean for some reason, but not those on the ground floor. What reason could the second intruder have to go inside the building if not to steal anything? As the investigation continues, Hamura learns in his very first case that playing detective isn't as easy as the books make it out.

Obviously, this story is a bit different from the two full-length novels in this series (which, vexingly, doesn't really have an official series title yet), as this story does not feature any supernatural elements in any way. It is therefore a fairly normal, orthodox puzzle plot mystery in terms of setting. And while it's a pretty short story, it's also a very well-constructed mystery, one that follows the same type of logical reasoning you also see in the novels. There are enough indications that show a second intruder was there that night, so the problem revolves around the questions what the motive was of this second intruder, as while they did attack the other burglar, nothing was stolen. Guessing exactly what the intruder wanted to do might be a bit difficult just based on those clues, though I have read a different short mystery story, also in a school setting, that basically had the same idea (though executed very differently), and that made it easier to guess what was going on. What's a lot more fun is the subsequent process of guessing who this second intruder was: the elimination process is very simply, but elegant, and completely fair. Once you realize why it was done, all the set-up until then make it brilliantly clear who must've done it, and I like how Imamura also built in an extra little step to show how the culprit could be caught.

I also liked the story a lot as an academic mystery/campus-set story.  Clubs and circles are a pretty important element of university culture in Japan, and there are many mystery stories too that involve them (you may remember I have translated a few that also featured them), but I don't think I've ever seen a cosplay club mentioned/used extensively as a setting in a mystery story before (you do often seen anime/manga/cosplay clubs in err, anime and manga about university clubs). And one moment in particular makes brilliant use of the fact that this is indeed a mystery plot set at a university, and while in hindsight, it's oh-so obvious and nothing remarkable at all, the realization work really well because it's very likely you'll not think of it yourself until it's mentioned and then you see how even the most mundane and trivial specifics of a university campus can be used in a mystery plot.

Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken is a very short tale that perhaps doesn't show off what made the two novels so unique and exciting, but on its own, it's without a doubt also an entertaining piece. It's a cleverly structured puzzle considering the page count, and its competence in mystery combined with the actual character interaction (the fairly light tone of the narration) do give you an idea of what to expect of the novels featuring the Shinkou University Mystery Club.

Original Japanese title(s): 「〈屍人荘の殺人〉エピソード０　明智恭介　最初でも最後でもない事件」