By Dawn's Early Light

"Well, I'll be tougher than the toughies, and sharper than the sharpies -- And I'll make my money square!"

"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" 

Visited Sapporo recently actually. All the dairy products (soft serves!!!) were amazing.

Golden Kamuy is a highly succesful manga series created by Noda Satoru, set in Hokkaido, soon after the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. It follows Sugimoto, a war veteran and the Ainu girl Asirpa on their quest to find a fortune of gold of the Ainu people, with other parties also after the enormous treasure. The manga is well-known for its historical setting, incorporating real historical events into the plot. It also focuses a lot on Hokkaido and the Ainu culture, exploring the Ainu people in that period in time. The manga has been adapted into a succesful anime series, and there's also a live-action film series. 

And of course, there's a mystery spin-off book! Or else I wouldn't be writing about it here.

I have in fact not read the manga nor seen the anime. And I only caught like the only first 15 minutes of the first Golden Kamuy film. So I know next to nothing about the series. But when it was announced last year that not only the very first Golden Kamuy spin-off novel would be a mystery story, but that it was also written by none other than Ibuki Amon, I knew instantly I wanted to read it, even without knowledge of the series. It would not be the first time I have read a mystery book based on a Shonen Jump franchise I'm not super familiar with (which reminds me I also need to read the second Kinnikuman mystery short story collection), and more importantly: Ibuki Amon is basically the person you want to be writing mystery short stories with a historical setting, with plots that utilize the time period to their fullest, ranging from objects and historical events to culture. Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan ("Golden Kamuy: The Aspirations of Tsurumi Tokushirou") is a prequel short story collection set during the Russo-Japanese War and it follows Tsurumi Tokushirou, First Lieutenant of the 7th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Tsurumi is in fact the antagonist of the main series, but his popularity have thus earned him the honor of being the protagonist of the book. Tsurumi is a highly strategic, calculating officer who nonetheless cares about the men serving beneath and besides him. The 7th Division is sent deep into Russian grounds as they move from one battlefield to another to support other divisions and Tsurumi, in his position of First Lieutenant, acts as the platoon leader, being the link between command and the men on the ground. In Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan, we see how the 7th Division moves deeper into Russia as the war wages on, but during their deployment, the members of the 7th Division come across several mysterious incidents, including sightings of the ghost of a fallen comrade patrolling at night, the disappearance of a war prisoner from a guarded tent and a series of murders on Japanese soldiers right in the middle of their own camp, without the enemy ever being detected. While these cases baffle his soldiers, it's always Tsurumi who holds the answers to the questions.

I have to admit that while I bought this book without much worries about my non-existing familiarity with the series, I was taken aback by the first few pages of the book, which featured 15(!) named characters of the 7th Division, all with profile pictures and character introduction, and then more pages that explain the military ranks of the people in the 7th Division, and a chart of the battles the 7th Division were involved with during the war. Once you get reading, you'll realize you'll get explained all of this within the stories themselves too, but the front-loaded info-dump pages were a bit intimidating. The book features five stories, which all follow different members of the 7th Division as they encounter weird cases and see how Tsurumi handles all of them. Each of the stories show how these men become devoted followers of Tsurumi, recognizing not only the aspirations of the man, but also the heart he has for the mission and for the men who fight along him, which earns him the respect and loyalty of the men that see his actions in person. While the stories are all completely original creations by Ibuki Amon, the book does feature several original illustrations made for this book by the original series creator Noda Satoru. 

The book opens with Yuurei Hoshou ("The Ghostly Sentry"), which follows Tanigaki Genjirou, Private First Class. The story follows Tanigaki who is put on night guard. He stands on top of a hill, when he hears a bell, and then he briefly spots someone else standing on an opposite hill: for a moment he fears an enemy, but he soon recognizes the face of his fellow soldier Yoshino. He calls out to Yoshino, but the figure disappears, followed by Tsurumi appearing next to Tanigaki. Tanigaki mentions seeing Yoshino suddenly appear, when Tsurumi informs him that Yoshino already died two days ago on the battlefield. So who did Tanigaki see patrolling in the night? This is a story that is less about the how of how the ghost of Yoshino appeared in front of Tanigaki, but more about the why: which is absolutely fantastic. The reason is firmly grounded in the historical and cultural context of the story, being incredibly convincing. It is hard to even hint at the explanation, because I have the feeling a simple nudge in the right direction might give it all away because it's ultimately a surprisingly simple matter, but Ibuki does a great job at not pointing too much at it until the reveal.

Shiroi Nipponjinhei ("The White Japanese Soldier"), told from the perspective of Warrant Officer Kikuta Mokutarou, starts with Mokutarou on the verge of being shot by a Russian soldier who surprised him, but for some reason the Russian soldier hesitates for a second before he cried out "the White Japanese!" in Russia, giving Mokutarou's comrades the time to save him. Everyone is puzzled by the Russian soldier's cry, because Mokutarou, and all the other Japanese soldiers, were wearing their black uniform. After interrogating the soldier, Mokutarou learns that the soldier had previously had encountered a Japanese soldier in a white uniform, whom he shot at point-blank range, but the soldier was unharmed by his bullet. The Japanese soldiers doubt the accuracy of the story, suggesting the Russian soldier just missed his mark, though they have no idea why the soldier would have mistaken their uniform for black. When later Mokutarou visits a comrade, he's shocked when that comrade asks Mokutarou why he's wearing a white uniform instead of his usual black... This is a mystery story that has a cool idea in regards to the solution, but the way it works as a mystery story is a bit uneven: it's not really structured as a fair clue-to-solution style of story, making the reveal not as satisfying as it could've been. Again, it's less the how that is memorable, but more the why, with this why being a lot more ambitious than the previous one, but at the same time, because of that wider range, a little bit harder to swallow, because it immediately raises questions about the feasibility, something that the first story did much better.

Habutae Tent to Misshitsu ("The Sealed Field Tent") follows Usami Tokishige, Superior Private of the 7th Division. The division has been hastily moving across the battlefield as they are needed to support an important attack. On their way, they manage to capture a group of Russian soldiers and Tsurumi is ordered to interrogate the leading officer, as they need information on the Russian platoons stationed at their destination. While everyone, from Tsurumi's superiors to the men beneath him, suggest beating the information out of the officer, Tsurumi alone suggests treating their prisoner of war with the respect his rank deserves, and the man is kept in a private tent. Usami is one of the two guards placed at the exit of the tent, while Tsurumi goes out for a bit. Tsurumi returns later with some food for the officer, but apparently can't get anything out of the man, so Tsurumi leaves again. Another prisoner however manages to escape and attacks Usami's fellow guard, but eventually Tsurumi and Usami manage to take out the escapee. They suspect the escapee was trying to rescue his commanding officer, but when they look inside the tent, they find the Russian officer is gone! But this is impossible, as there's only one exit out of the tent, and while Usami had been distracted by the attacker for a while, he swears nobody escaped from the tent during his fight in front of the tent. So how did the Russian officer escape? This is the best story of the collection, as it manages to best combine both a good how and why. The way the Russian officer disappeared from the tent is perhaps a bit simple, but it makes great use of the historical/cultural setting and Amon also manages to introduce enough depth to also delve into false solutions a bit. The why is absolutely stunning, and really only works in a war-setting and with certain characters, but it works so insanely well in this story. It is an insane motive and while not as intuitive as what you'd see in the Father Brown stories, there's an essential core to it that does feel like it could've been in a Father Brown story: it hinges on a very instinctivee, emotional concept that doesn't sound logical at all, and yet it is very convincing.

Toki ni wa Yasashiku Minai Furi ("Sometimes Gently Pretending Not to Notice") is told from the perspective of Superior Private Ogata Hyakunosuke. The soldiers in the 7th Division are slowly becoming restless, when they learn there's been a second murder on one of their fellow soldiers. While soldiers dying on the battlefield is not a surprise at all, there's something special about two specific murders: these soldiers were killed in the middle of their own camp. As one would expect, the Japanese camp is set-up far away from the Russian enemy, with night sentries making sure that the camp itself is safe, but twice already an enemy has managed to strike at fellow Japanese soldiers, who assumed they were safe within the confines of their camp. While at first, they assumed some lone Russian soldier might have made his way into their camp and killed one of them before escaping, this theory quickly loses credibility by the second murder, as it's rather unbelievable an enemy could sneak inside the camp twice. Suspicion therefore turns to someone within the camp, so who is this traitor? This story is basicallly all about the why, as the story basically soon points out all the victims were basically just surprised by whom they thought was a comrade. The why is, as is basically the norm for this collection, a memorable matter that only makes any sense in the specific historical/cultural context of the story, being a war-time story of soldiers being gone for months from home, fighting daily deep within enemy grounds. This may even be the shortest story of them all, but the motive definitely ranks among the strongest of the collection in terms of memorability. In practice, you'd think some of the actions of the murderer are a bit contradictionary, but again, this being a story set right in the middle of an on-going war basically makes the motive not only viable, but even believable. 

The final story, Tsurumi Tokushirou wa Madowanai ("Tsurumi Tokushirou Does Not Waver") is about Sergeant Tsukishima Hajime, a very loyal subordinate to Tsurumi, who will follow his orders no matter what. The 7th Division is visited for an inspection by a commander who has been wavering in his leadership of the army as the war continues: while the soldiers fighting the battles on the ground have a feeling they'll get through, the commander is having second thoughts, which might endanger their opportunity at defeating their enemy. Tsukishima is handed a suspicious package by Tsurumi and is ordered to plant alongside the route the commander will be taking during his inspection. The very precise Tsurumi gives about where to place the package make it clear it's not a safe package, and Tsukishima understands Tsurumi is trying to take matters into his own hands to push the Japanese army forward, but Tsukishima apparently mistimed or misplaced the package, as the explosion does result in multiple casualties, but the commander goes unharmed. Will this botched-up attempt at the commander's life mean the end of Tsurumi and his aspirations? Well, now, because otherwise the main series wouldn't have an antagonist.  This one feels more like a thriller than a conventional mystery story, with Tsukishima being ordered to do something that obviously is illegal, and we see him have to deal with the aftermath of his mistakenly planted bomb. Because of this, it's also not a really a well-clewed story, as the emphasis lies more on the emotional turmoil within Tsukishima as he realizes his mistake will have consequences not for him alone, but also for Tsurumi, whom he sees as vital to the division. Of course, as the title says, Tsurumi does not waver and he manages to deal with the matter nonetheless, but the "solution" to what he does is not really set-up with clues or anything. While the solution does recontextualize a few things Tsurumi did or said throughout the story, the twist doesn't feel as strong as some of the surprises we saw in earlier stories in terms of character motivations/actions. It does portray a strong Tsurumi, in a way I suspect that ties deeply to the main series, and in that respect, I can't really fault this story, because I assume most people who read this book are interested in the character of Tsurumi, rather than the mystery set-ups, but I did find it disappointing I found the previous four stories stronger than the finale as mystery stories.

As I haven't read the original series, I can't say whether Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan contains anything that makes this instant recommendation to Golden Kamuy fans: perhaps just knowing it's about Tsurumi's time in the Russo-Japanese War is enough, or knowing which people of the 7th Division are featured in this book. As a fan of mystery fiction however, and as someone who has constantly been admiring Ibuki Amon's historical short story mysteries, I think Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan is overall a very solid book. Ultimately, I don't think my unfamiliarity with the source material really hurt my experience, as Ibuki always manages to write solid mysteries based on well-researched historical and cultural settings and presenting them well to the reader. The stories here are no expection, so it didn't take long for me to be all familiar with the setting, and at the same time, be amazed with the plots Ibuki comes up with based on the setting of the early 1900s setting and the Russo-Japanese War background. So I can safely recommend this book if you're just into cool historical mystery fiction!

Original Japanese title(s): 野田サトル（原作・イラスト）, 伊吹亜門（小説）『ゴールデンカムイ 鶴見篤四郎の宿願』: 「幽霊歩哨 《谷垣源次郎》」/「白い日本兵 《菊田杢太郎》」/「羽二重天幕の密室 《宇佐美時重》」/「時にはやさしく見ないふり 《尾形百之助》」/「鶴見篤四郎は惑わない 《月島 基》」

A Case Of Spirits

"Tell me, Leonard," he said. "Has it ever occurred to you that one day wars will be fought with brains?"

Leonard picked up his coffee cup. "Oh dear. Won’t that be rather messy?" he said.

"The Fifth Elephant" 

It was only after buying today's book I realized I basically own no other books by the same publisher (Gentosha)...

The handsome Hamon Kyousuke is a medium who's been attracting a lot of attention lately and the television screenwriter Kagitani Takashi has organized a small seance at the house of an art collector with Hamon. Other guests include art-related people as well as three editors working for a magazine, including Tomoe and Makabe, the latter having a crush on Tomoe, but unable to propose due to an inherited debt. During the seance, Hamon is challenged on his psychic powers, and he defiantly announces he can use his powers to remotely kill someone. He asks for anyone to name someone they want to have killed, and while initially nobody dares to utter a name, Tomoe and Makabe's superior eventually names an artist, because he stood him and Makabe up earlier this day despite having an appointment. Hamon then says he will take control of the artist's body, forcing himself to commit suicide. While they initially don't believe Hamon, doubt starts to creep in so they drive by the artist's house to check up on him, only to find all the furniture being placed outside the house. They have to move stuff around, only to find the door locked from the inside. And inside the locked house, they find the artist dead, hanging from the ceiling as announced by Hamon! Unable to believe Hamon truly has powers, murder is suspected by those involved in the seance, including the detective Senoo Yuuji, but how did Hamon commit this locked room murder, and why was everything placed outside? When later Hamon once again announces a remote murder and another body is found, people start to think Hamon really has the power to control people and make them commit suicide, but Senoo is not convinced and assisted by Makabe, he uncovers the truth in Asukabe Katsunori's Leonardo no Chinmoku ("The Silence of Leonardo", 2004).

Leonardo no Chinmoku was originally released in 2004, but only got its pocket re-release in 2025, after the amazing revival of interest in Asukabe's work, that was set in motion after the bookshops Shosen and Horindo put out limited facsimile releases of his out-of-print works: the facsimile release Datenshi Goumonkei ("Torture of the Fallen Angels" 2008) in particular was a notable event, gathering a lot of attention. Since then, publishers have been re-releasing a lot of Asukabe's books from their catalogues that had previously been out-of-print for over a decade, like Lamia Gyakusatsu ("Lamia Massacre"). Leonardo no Chinmoku is another of these "hey, it's a bit late but perhaps we should put out a pocket" release.

The story revolves around a problem often see in other psychic/seance-themed mysteries: a psychic correctly announcing something will happen, with the mystery focusing on how they could've known that: of course the psychic in question in this case has an alibi for the death, meaning they themselves couldn't have known about the murder because they committed the murder (or did they, and did they fake their alibis in some way?) In this case, we also have the added mystery of the locked room, and the question of why all the furniture was placed outside. I have to admit I wasn't completely convinced by this murder. A lot of the mechanics surrounding the solution of this mystery revolve around coincidence, with certain events and people just happen to be timing up perfectly by sheer luck. The solution behind how the locked room situation was created too was simple, while the answer to why all the furniture was outside feels underdeveloped: while it touches upon a greater theme and the book does try to present as something big, I don't feel this whydunnit was developed properly as of now: it needed more set-up to give you that "Aha!" feeling, because as it is now, you kinda get what they were going for, but it's not completely convincing and even worse, it's basically unguessable from a fair-play mystery point of view. It'a s shame, because this is when the book is supposed to be most strongly connected to the Leonardo from the title Leonardo no Chinmoku, who is of course Leonardo da Vinci. Art is an important motif throughout most, if not all of Asukabe's books (he even made original paintings for his debut novel!), but I'd say that in this book, art might be of the least importance of all the Asukabe's books I have read until now. 

Whereas the first death predicted by Hamon was found in an 'inside-out' house (furniture found outside), the second victim 'killed remotely' by Hamon is lying found 'upside-down' next to a road, continuing the topsy-turvy theme. While this murder also depends on coincidence up to some degree, I like the build-up of this murder a lot more: the clewing is better, being more connected to other plotlines of the book and with a more even distribution of the clues across the whole book, and I think the way it's connected to the first murder works well too. In hindsight, it's actually funny how much more integrated this murder is to the rest of the book compared to the first locked room murder. I think basically all of the most interesting elements of Leonardo no Chinmoku's narrative revolve around this second death, rather than the first death, even if the actual scene of the first seance is better.

Leonardo no Chinmoku is the most straightforward mystery novel I have read by Asukabe until now, and it's also perhaps my least favorite. While the plot depends a bit too much on coincidence and I don't really think the whydunnit behind the first murder works well, the overall plot is an adequately constructed mystery, with especially the plotlines pertaining to the second half being well-planned. But on the other hand, I can't deny missing some of the insaneness I have seen in other works by Asukabe and while I am not very versed, nor interested in art in general, I do feel the general lack in discussion on art here hurts the book a bit. It's great the book's easily available again now and mind you, this is not a bad mystery novel by any means, but I wouldn't pick this as my first Asukabe to read.

Original Japanese title(s):  飛鳥部勝則『レオナルドの沈黙』

The Mystery of the Pyramid

Mon ami, Bouc! Why would you fly a kite on the pyramids?"

"Death on the Nile" (2022 film adaptation) 

We should have more murder mysteries set in pyramids... 

Kyuujou City is a small rural town, which is effectively run by the Ooki family. The wealthy family owns several enterprises located in the city, thus providing work for a large share of the population, but they are best known for the Ooki General Hospital, a large medical complex specializing in psychiatry. Its symbol is the Pyramid, a eight-storey high building that functions as the main hospital building, housing the psychiatric ward. The building consists of seven floors that form a stepped pyramid, with an open ceiling section at the center of the building. On top of the seventh floor stands a steel pyramid construction, from a smaller pyramid is suspended above the open ceiling of the floors below: this "eighth" floor is the private residence of Ooki Kimihiro, doctor at the hospital and the only son of Ooki Youta, the current director of the hospital, and his wife Ooki Nagi, who researches anti-aging technology at the hospital. This eighth floor is not built directly on top of the floor below, but being suspended as an anti-earthquake measure and was designed by Kimihiro's mother Nagi, who also has a degree in architecture and it was she who created the base design of the pyramid. The ground floor of the Pyramid has a two-meter high Pyramid model in a glass case, right at the center of the Pyramid: Ooki Youta believes in so-called Pyramid Power and once in a while, he prays to the model to enhance himself with Pyramid Power. Regardless of whether the pyramid truly provides him with power or not,  the pyramid has managed to stand in Kyuujou City for nearly four decades, a sign of the Ooki's hold on the city.

While the Pyramid still stands strong, some of the other buildings on the complex are growing too old, so they will be demolished and replaced. Ooki Nagi has made designs for the new building, but she needs more dedicated architects to fill in the details and overlook the construction, and through a mutual acquaintance, Kumode and Miyamura of the Kumode & Miyamura Architecture and Detective Bureau end up with this assignment. They work together with Tobuta Constructions, the construction company that has built all of the Ooki-related buildings. There is a joint meeting between the hospital people, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions and Kumoda and Miyamura at the Pyramid to discuss the upcoming plans. Kumoda sends a drone out to scope the land, and can't help but take a look at the top-floor of the Pyramid, where he sees Ooki Kimihiro having a row with his mother Nagi, after which he retreats to his private quarters (the suspended pyramid above the main pyramid), locking the door behind him. Some time later, Kumode and Miyamura are ready to get started on their work while the others too prepare to leave the pyramid, when suddenly... the suspended pyramid comes falling down the open ceiling, landing with a crash on the pyramid model on the ground floor. The private quarters of Kimihiro are completely destroyed and among the rubble, Kumode discovers Kimihiro, who is not only heavily injured from the fall down and being crushed by the building... he's also been stabbed with a knife! A sickly slender elderly man is also found among the rubble, who appears to be the man who stabbed Kimihiro, but how did he get in Kimihiro's (locked) room to stab him, and why did the pyramid room come falling down? That is only one of the many riddles Kumode faces in Monzen Noriyuki's latest novel Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid ("The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe", 2025).

Monzen's latest book opens with crazy diagrams for the Pyramid, a building which in a way symbolizes this story perfectly. On one hand, in real-life, nobody is going to build a gigantic stepped pyramid as the main building of a hospital, nor is anyone going to design that building so the top floor/pyramid is suspended from a metal construction above the rest of the pyramid. It's fantastical and only created like that to act as the setting for a mystery story, and that's great! But not realistic at all of course. But Monzen studied architecture, and realism in that regards is an important aspect of this books, so we have this unrealistic, fanciful, over-the-top building, which at the same time is designed realistically, with Monzen giving exact dimensions and the reader being given explanations of how the weight-baring is done and other things that need to be considered like patient safety, window regulations and how for example what the measures are to prevent rain/other downfall from entering the hospital via the open ceiling. The Pyramid of the Mouse and the Giraffe is honkaku mystery featuring a strange building at its most bizarre, but also its most realistic.

The book opens with the top pyramid come crashing down and the discovery of the stabbed Kimihiro and the unknown elderly man among the rubble, which Kumode soon declares a locked room mystery, because he saw Kimihiro enter and lock his private quarters via his drone, and the elderly man was definitely not inside those quarters at that moment. The book then jumps a few days back in time, where we follow Hotta, the foreman of Tobuta Constructions, as he meets a homeless elderly man living on grounds owned by the hospital. Hotta needs the man to move as they will be using this part as a supply road, but as the two men talk, Hotta becomes interested in this man he calls Mori. Mori turns out to have lived for thirty years at the Ooki General Hospital. He had been held as a mental patient, but Mori swears there was nothing wrong with him: he was just kept captured in the hospital, with his brother (who needed him out of the way) only paying the hospital to keep him there. After twenty years, Mori was 'basically' released, but as he had no money, skills or connections, all he could do was remain at the hospital doing odd jobs. Eventually though, he was completely released, leaving him no choice but to live as a homeless near the hospital. Mori reveals more of the dark history of the Ooki General Hospital to Hotta, how they often put patients in "isolation chambers" in one of the old buildings that is slated to be demolished now. Patients were tied down to concrete slabs and had to go without food for a whole day to "calm them strangle yourself/hang yourself, but the room itself was of course also locked from the outside. Hotta himself also knows of another incident that occured at the hospital that happened prior to this locked room mystery, when someone broke the glass case of the pyramid model: nurses came checking out what had happened as soon as they heard the glass break, but they found the pyramid model gone. But how could someone steal a two-meter high pyramid in mere seconds and leave without leaving a trace? The front door was found open, but the only footprints found outside in the snow belonged to a cat, and it surely wasn't a cat who did it, right?

While Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid thus starts right off with presenting the main mystery, the flashback to the days before the crash introduce more mysteries that occured several decades ago at the hospital: a locked room murder of a patient in an isolation chamber, and the incredible theft of the pyramid model. There are more mysteries beyond these, like Kumode being intrigued by the strange family sigils found on Nagi's clothes, the mystery of Mori's true identity and whether he's telling Hotta the truth or not, letters supposedly from patients who are being kept in the hospital against their will and more of that. Again, we have here parts that feel part fantasy, and part very realistic. The parts about people being held in the psychiatric ward for decades and eventually losing any reason for wanting to leave (because there's no way to survive on their own after being isolated from the outside world for so long) are creepily realistic, while at the same time, we get an ending where Kumode suggests some of the stories we were told might have been fictional creations by people who are indeed suffering from a mental disease. Because a lot of the mysteries in this story took place several decades ago, Kumode admits it's impossible to find evidence for some of the theories he proposes, but those theories are incredibly weird at times and in a way, honkaku mystery at their best and worst (fantastical solution that is in no way feasible or remotely realistic), so there's always this clash between the fantastical and the realistic throughout the book. This is the most apparent in the mystery of the locked room murder in the isolation chamber about three decades ago: the description of the isolation chamber is horrific and also eerily real, with people being basically tortured there to lose all hope and to basically force them into becoming mentally unstable, while the solution suggested by Kumode is just crazy in terms of how unrealistic it would be. And at the same time, it has some brilliant moments, for example as to how the murder weapon would be disposed of. Kumode later on suggests a different solution that might be as viable as his 'main' one, which is more realistic perhaps, but also just less fun. 

 

The mystery of the stolen model of the pyramid is also a good example of the realism clashing with the fanciful: the idea of how and why the model was stolen is good and just what you want to see in a mystery novel, but Monzen presents its very realistically, showing calculation of certain objects to show how it could actually work, when in most mystery novels you'd just get an explanation and you'd nod, instead of going through all the numbers to make sure it actually works. The way how one hint connects to the isolation chamber murder later on is great though.

And then we come to the main mystery, of Kimihiro being found dead and stabbed in the remnants of the suspended pyramid after it came crashing down seven floors. The locked room aspect of this mystery is surprisingly simple and to be honest, not very impressive: it's basically a variant on one of the oldest tricks, only with a 'grand' presentation due to the pyramid setting. The how behind the crashing pyramid and especially the why though, are fantastic. The whole motive behind the murder is absolutely stunning and genuinely insane. I think the motive could've been worked out better by doing a more robust set-up for the reveal, but the idea itself is one of those motives you'll keep in mind for a loooong time after reading the book. The way it ties back to the fantastical setting of the Pyramid hospital building is impressive too, and on the whole, you do feel this is something perhaps only Monzen could pull off due to his focus on actual buildings. This is definitely the part that makes the book worth reading.

I do think the book could've been longer to flesh out some of the better aspects of the book.As it is now, I feel some important moments just lack the proper build-up and at times, the book borders on the unfair when it comes to it being a mystery novel: more pages would have definitely helped making feel the overall picture more consistent and connected. As it is now, some of the important elements feel like they just suddenly appear to take the main spotlight and it makes the book feel uneven. The book features a recommendation by Nikaidou Reito, and it almost makes me wonder how this story would've been if the two authors had worked together, as a lot of elements in Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid I can also see working in Nikaidou's style for the earlier Ranko novels. The story is wrapped in a way I have also seen in Nikaidou novels, with a hint of fantasy, which at one hand feels like it should clash with Monzen's style, but I guess having a setting like a mental hospital helps out a bit. 

 Overall though, I think Nezumi to Kirin no Pyramid was a worthwile read, even if there are definitely elements I feel are underdeveloped or not connected well enough to the main narrative yet. At the same time, I enjoy the core mystery plot and the ideas shown there, and the main motive that drives this mystery is just amazing and probably one that I will remember for a long time.

Original Japanese title(s): 門前典之『ネズミとキリンの金字塔（ピラミッド）』

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』

The Lying Detective

"Lies — and again lies. It amazes me, the amount of lies we had told to us this morning"

"Murder on the Orient Express" 

Huh, I always saw this book in the shops, with the obi (strip of paper with accolades etc on them) around the cover, so I never realized there was a third (upside-down) character beneath the obi! I did buy the book digitally, so I guess I should have seen the obi-less cover, but I honestly didn't realize there was someone there until I just looked for the cover image to accompany this reivew... 

What would you do if you came into a fortune? Well, buy a private island, build a strange house on it and commit a series of murders, of course! That's the thinking process of Sairi, a young woman who is a huge fan of mystery fiction. While her paternal grandparents were wealthy, her father eloped to marry the woman he loved (Sairi's mother), an act her grandfather never forgave his father. Her grandmother occasionally checked in on her child in secret. Recently, her grandfather died, soon followed by her grandmother, who left everything to her grandchild, making Sairi a very rich heiresss indeed. But, as mentioned earlier, she is also an enormous mystery buff, so she decides to use her money to enact a real murder mystery, one she will orchestrate. The idea is to create a closed circle situation on an island she inherited, in a curious house (she only needed to renovate the manor on the island) and then the rest is simple: invite a few people on the island, kill a few of them, create a scapegoat and "solve" the series of murders. Sairi has the house renovated to create a secret passageway that leads from the master bedroom to three of the guest rooms: the idea is to create a "locked room mystery" by killing one of the guests. She'll eventually also kill another guest, dress the scene as a suicide and make it seem they are the killer. The targets are two people she knows from the online mystery community and who ridiculed her attempt at writing a mystery novel when she was younger. They don't know the girl they mocked some years ago, is the same person as the rich heir who just happened to become mystery-community-friends with them on the internet recently and who oh-so-kindly invited them to her own private island to talk about mystery fiction and watch a rare mystery film together. Sairi has also invited a few other people, like a medical student and a police detective to "fill out the cast" of her very own murder mystery, all under the pretense she's just a mystery fan who has invited a few guests to indulge in their fandom. Sairi dubs her manor the Raia (Liar) House, an omen of what is to come. 

Sairi's only accomplice is Aoi, a former employee of her grandmother who is close in age to Sairi and who is quite sharp and willing to do anything as long as the pay is good, and the plan good enough to escape suspicion from the police. She is to act as Sairi's head maid and will help Sairi obtain an alibi for the murder. They also hire an extra maid, who will be an unknowing accomplice: this maid thinks they're playing a very realistic murder mystery role-playing game and will assist Sairi and Aoi. Under Aoi's guidance, Sairi plans out exactly what they all are going to do during this game of murder, with exact timings for when they'll cut off the island's Wi-Fi so they can't contact the mainland and have to wait for the scheduled boat to return to pick them up, to what everyone's story will be when they'll be interviewed by the police. The guests arrrive and all seems to go mostly as planned, though of course not all movements and actions by all guests can be predicted accurately. Things however go wrong when Sairi is all ready to commit the first murder: her victim doesn't appear at the time he was supposed to appear in a room, and she misses her opportunity to kill him while having an alibi. She falls asleep, but when she wakes up the following morning, her intended target is indeed found dead in his room, even though Sairi didn't commit the murder. Sairi doesn't understand what has happened, but she has no time to consider as her accomplice Aoi seems to proceed to the next step of their plan and thus Sairi sees how her plans seems to slip away from between her fingers and develop into a completely different game of murder in Origami Kyouya's Liar House no Satsujin (2025), or as the cover also says: The Liar House Murders. 

First time I read a novel by Origami and as I'm looking up her profile to write this review, I'm surprised to learn she's actually older than me: I met her and spoke briefly with her at the 2025 Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony and I honesly assumed she was younger or around the same age. Anyway, Liar House no Satsujin starts out as a hilarious novel, with a pleasantly insane protagonist who, having come into money, decides to use her wealth to create a real-life murder mystery, complete with actually killing people. The funny thing is, she isn't using her money in order to kill the people who once mocked her online: her main goal is to create a genuine "closed circle murder mystery in a bizarre house on an isolated island", and it just so happens there are a few people she could use as a victims for her plans. So yeah, she's funnily insane, and it shows in her conversations with Aoi, a cool-headed, capable assistant who makes sure Sairi doesn't make silly mistakes and is also quick to note she'll pretend she's completetely innocent and knows nothing about Sairi's plans if she were to mess up and the police would go after her. The eager would-be murdereress and her "I don't really care" assistant have some funny banter as they plan the murders, which are a mix of the practical and extravagant: Sairi has a secret passageway installed so she can commit a "locked room mystery", the idea being she'll have a perfect alibi if she retreats to her master bedroom with people watching her door and then use the secret passageway to commit a murder in a guest room further down the corridor. The banter between the two is genuinely hilarious, with Sairi making numerous references to mystery fiction (The Decagon House Murders is of course mentioned), but they also talk about how they'll make it a practical murder (yes, secret passageways are a bit of a cheat, but hey, it works!) and through their conversations, we learn the basic premise of their plans.

Sairi has invited "the perfect cast" for her murder mystery, which includes fellow mystery fans she got to know via the internet (including those who mocked her novel in the past, which she posted under a different nickname), and also a police detective and a so-called psychic, both acquaintances of her grandmother, under the pretense she wanted to talk with them to learn more about her grandmother, but in reality just invited because you need such characters in a murder mystery. So all is set for Sairi's plan to be set in motion, only for things to go not as planned straight on, with the first victim ending up dead, even though Sairi didn't do anything: a great premise for an intriguing mystery.

In fact, the initial moments of the book as Sairi and Aoi talk about mystery fiction and low-key bicker about the murder plans and them slowly setting things in motion (with Sairi sometimes making clumsy mistakes) are so much fun, it's a bit of a disappointment when the book moves away from that. For while we do follow Sairin as she slowly realizes her plans are not going as scheduled and having to figure out what to do next with her murder plans, the book also starts following the police detective and psychic characters, who actually know each other. They start investigating the first murder together and slowly start to suspect not everything is what they appear to be in the house. These two characters are just not nearly as fun to follow as Sairi and Aoi, and while their narrative/point of view is necessary to tell the type of mystery story Origami is telling here, the difference between the sheer joy of these two narratives is rather great, and I could feel myself getting disappointed again each time we moved away from Sairi's story back to the real detectives.

Sairi soon realizes someone on the island is a real murderer (let's forget she was also planning to kill people too) and she's quite confused about what to do: she can hardly confess she was planning to commit murder herself, but would it be wise to still continue with the rest of the plan? Would she be a prospective victim for the other killer? If the police would come, would they stumble upon the secret passageway and start viewing Sairi as the killer? Things are made more complicated because Sairi can't find a way to communicate with Aoi in private, meaning Sairi isn't quite sure whether her accomplice is or is not involved with the real murders herself or not. The suspense of realizing someone has somehow taken over her plot is pretty good, and again a reason why her segments are so much more fun than of the police detective and psychic, who are basically the 'reluctant police detective who works with a genius who also happens to be a womanizer' archetypes. 

Because we know what Sairi had originally planned to do to commit her murders (and we know she's crazy enough to convert the manor and island she inherited to act as the setting for her own murder mystery), it shouldn't come as a surprise the actual murders that are committed are a bit mundane in comparison. A lot of it is just the murderer making use of happy coincidences/turns of events, which are then made bigger because Sairi's becoming more and more confused as things develop in ways she hadn't expected. Origami does a good job with the clewing however, with even a cool twist near the end of the story that was very well set-up indeed, but one can't help but feel like Sairi's original plan still would've resulted in a more interesting detective story than the one that occured because someone sidelined Sairi's plans for their own series of murders. The book is fairly short, and things develop at quite a speedy pace, so there's barely any downtime, but that does mean there's little room for super deep deductions regarding each crime scene (yes, more than one). While Sairi is a mystery buff and she manages to come up with a few interesting theories/guesses regarding what's really going on in the house, it seldom becomes as complex as the complicated story set-up would suggest it could get. 

Still, I did enjoy reading Liar House no Satsujin: it's often a very funny book, obviously written by a fan of murder mysteries set in weird houses, written for fans of such stories. There are definitely times where I had hoped the mystery would become a bit deeper than it actually was, and the book is definitely at its best when you're following Sairi, and not the other two detectives, but overall, it's fairly enjoyable book that is also very easily to read, so perfect to read between heftier books.

Original title(s):  織守きょうや 『ライアーハウスの殺人』

The Curse of the Golden Cross

Wake Up! The Hero

燃え上れ！

「仮面ライダーBlack RX」(宮内タカユキ) 

 

Wake Up! The Hero

Turn into a blaze!

"Kamen Rider Black RX" (Miyauchi Takayuki) 

As I usually have quite a lot posts written and waiting to be published, I generally just add a review to the queue if it's not a particularly timely post, while I do usually push posts on recent releases forward. I didn't watch today's topic immediately upon release like most people did, but still rather soon after it started streaming... and then forgot about actually writing the post. All well, it's still kinda timely, I guess...

After a troublesome career in boxing followed by a period of penitence and search for salvation, young Jud Duplenticy has become a Catholic priest, who is sent to become an assistant pastor in a church in a small New York town. Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is a small church led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks. Jefferson Wicks is charismatic in his ways, but his flammatory preaching style have basically driven everyone away but a handful of the most loyal and miserable of his parishioners, effectively resulting in a cult revolving around the vengeful Monsignor Wicks. The moment Jud arrives Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, he feels he is not welcome as an outsider, and while he recognizes how Monsignor Wicks is in fact doing not the work of God, he is not able to convince the believers of Wicks that they are all walking down the wrong path. When Wicks finds out about Jud's attempts in undermining his authority, he soon turns his believers against Jud. Despite the trial, Jud remains in the parish.

Wicks holds another fiery service on Good Friday for his cult, and then moves into a closet off the side of the chancel for a short break, while Jud takes over. When an audible thud is heard coming from the closet, Jud approaches the alcove, followed by the other people in the church and to their great surprise, they find Monsignor Wicks collapsed on the floor. A quick examination shows the man is in fact dead, and very likely because there's a knife sticking in his back. His clashings with Monsignor Wicks give Jud a motive, but everyone in the church had his eyes on him between the time Wicks entered the closet alive and the victim collapsing on the floor, making it impossible for him to have committed the murder: likewise, Jud too knows none of the church-goers approached the closet on his side during his part of the service, and everyone is such a big believer of Wicks, so would any of them even have a motive for killing him...? The police struggles with pinning the crime on any specific person with actual proof, and thus enter Benoit Blanc, private investigator who may not strongly believe in the Church, but he does seem to strongly believe Jud is in fact not the murderer in the 2025 film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

I liked the first Knives Out film (2019), but for some reason I just never got started on Glass Onion, the second film and the first after Knives Out moved on to Netflix. Hype from the mystery community on Wake Up Dead Man seemed much bigger though, which may also be because of the overt John Dickson Carr-inspired plot, with not only a locked room mystery (well, technically the closet is not locked, but the entrance is being observed) and a seemingly supernatural event in the second half of the story, Carr's masterpiece The Hollow Man/The Third Coffin is directly referenced in the film, as a "guidebook" on solving locked room mysteries (though to be honest, the film only goes through the most basic forms from the famous Locked-Room Lecture, and the sequence is not even nearly as impressive as how they presented the Locked-Room Lecture in Detective Chinatown 3). So when I learnt I could safely skip Glass Onion for now, I did so, and I have no regrets!

For Wake Up Dead Man is indeed a fun classically-styled locked room murder mystery film. It brings the tropes and set dressing we know from a Golden Age novel and move it... well, to the modern world, to a degree, as the church-setting itself feels like it would've been the same whether it had been used in a 2025 film or one from 1930. Which is a good thing I guess for those looking for something that obviously tries to go for that vibe. Whereas the first Knives Out film gave us the oh-so-familiar set-up of a murder on a wealthy family patriarch and his whole family as the suspects, this one focuses on the churchgoers as the main suspect (if we believe Jud to be innocent), resulting in a slightly more disjointed cast (as you get a group of random cult members), though most do fall in familiar mystery "suspect" roles (a doctor, a loyal help, etc.). Jud as a leading man is a joy to follow though, a man who went through a dark place in his life, found a new path in life only to be thrust into a basically hopeless situation by becoming the assistant-pastor in the most impossible parish ever. He forms a nice contrast with the far more cynical Benoit, especially when Jud is confronted with situations that could practically mean choosing between either his own beliefs, or his own freedom. Thematically, Wake Up Dead Man is far stronger than the first Knives Out film I think, and the highlight of the film as a mystery, as the themes of religion and personal beliefs pervades throughout the plot and motivate the actors to play their role in this mystery. The cinematography in general is pretty strong, especially in the scenes set within the church, and it really helps strengthen the religious themes, literally constantly casting new light on the setting.

The main locked room murder mystery itself is not very surprising on a technical level though. If you have come across a few of them in your life, it's very likely you will have seen some variation of the basic fundamentals already, so, in that sense, I was a bit disappointed in what was supposed to the main attraction. Fortunately, the second half of the story adds a few more developments that also intertwine with the locked room murder, and that adds some well-needed complexity to the mystery. I also like there's some synergy between all these elements, i.e. elements of the main locked room mystery are intertwined with the why or how events of the second half, and they're not just distinct, seperate events that happened to occur one after another. The film plays the game fair and does some of the crucial clues are shown on screen with some audicity, though very briefly. It kinda reminded me of some of the sneakier moments in Anraku Isu Tantei (a show written by Ayatsuji and Arisugawa where viewers could win money if they guessed the culprit), where the clues were like on the screen in a small corner for a brief moment, but Wake Up Dead Man is fortunately never as vexingly mean as Anraku Isu Tantei (like having to see how shadows in the backgrounddiffered slightly depending on the scene... in a show that was shot in standard definition and broadcast in a time when lots of people still probably had a CTR at home). There is also a secondary plotline revolving the hidden legacy of Reverend Prentice Wicks, grandfather of Jefferson, which could be a motive for the murder. This plotline also ties neatly into the whole mystery as well as the underlying theme of the film, making one nice neat package.

I do have to say I think Wake Up Dead Man was rather long and I certainly wouldn't have minded a shorter experience, but still, Wake Up Dead Man is an entertaining and highly competently-created mystery film. Its themes are its strongest points, as they tie in meaningfully with not only the characters and the overall story, they also interact on a crucial level with the main mysteries plot-wise, offering strong synergy overall. It definitely elevates the technical aspects of the mystery, which may come across as a bit too familiar to some viewers. Between Wake Up Dead Man and the original Knives Out, I think Wake Up Dead Man is the stronger story and cinematic experience, though as a viewer, I do have to admit the slightly shorter runtime and the more overt story dynamics of "detective vs a criminal trying to hide her crimes" of the original Knives Out offered me a much more easier film to just watch and enjoy.

As for Glass Onion. Errr, perhaps in the future? Should I? 

Double Jeopardy

"Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions."

"And Then There Were None" 

The first time I saw the cover of this book, it was a small thumbnail and I could barely make out the garbage truck on the cover, so I thought it'd be like some weird Drifting Classroom-esque Umezu Kazuo story. Things don't get that crazy. 

Hitou travels with six friends to a small private island off the coast in Kumamoto Prefecture. The island used to be inhabitated by a few people, but has now become the private property of the aunt of Urai, one of Hitou's friends. Urai's aunt had cottages built on the island so it can be opened as a resort island. There's no established means of transportation yet though, so the group is brought over to the island by a chartered fisherman's boat and the fisherman is to pick them up in about a week, while the caretaker hired by Urai's aunt also there to entertain the group during their stay. However, Hitou has other plans. He's planning to kill all other six people on the trip. For Hitou was never really their friend. Several years ago, while the six targets were still in high school, they tried out drugs and while under the influence, were about to start a fire. A boy from another school spotted them, but he was caught by them and assaulted, with the victim biting off the tip of his own tongue during an attempt to escape. One of the friends took all the blame. Hitou was a friend of the victim and he swore revenge: after graduating high school, he intentionally picked a university where the six were living and found a part-time job where one of them was working. He became friends with him and was thus slowly introduced in their circle. And now they were going on a trip together: the perfect chance to just kill all of them. Hitou's plan is simple and self-destructive: he's going to poison all of them and then commit suicide, because he realizes this would be a severe crime. He even has a full confession that will be posted online automatically in a few days, where he explains why he decided to kill these people. After they arrive on the island, where they also find the caretaker waiting for them, Hitou makes sure to sabotage the one public pay-phone on the island: the only way to communicate with the mainland.

And thus, imagine the surprise when late on the first evening, one of the friends won't respond to any calls at his cottage. They break the door down and inside find... no living friend, but a corpse,  whose face has been bashed in horribly and with the tip of his tongue cut off. Hitou however did not commit this murder. Realizing there's a murderer on the island and that they can't call for help, the would-be murderer acknowledges it'd be too dangerous to continue his plans and even tries to swim back to cancel his scheduled online confession, but the sea has become too wild for him, and he is barely saved from the raging water. The next morning, they find another corpse: this was the friend who first discovered the previous body and he too has the tip of his tongue removed. And the following day, the same thing happens again... While Hitou was planning to kill them anyway it's not like he's really sad they're gone, he knows he isn't committing all these murders, so he needs to find out who the real murderer is in order to escape the carnage.

Three years later, a young woman working at a garbage disposal facility in Osaka is out on her rounds collecting garbage, when she finds the body of an old lady among the garbage. She reports it to the police, but she is immediately put in their custody: there is a serial killer on the loose in Osaka, who each time, has been killing the person who discovered the previous body. The victims are connected by the fact they all have part of their tongues removed. This immediately reminds everyone of the horrible series of murders that occured three years ago on an island in Kumamoto, where a Hitou Kiyotsugu had killed everyone on the island and made a full confession online....

Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi ("Broken Chains and a Sliver of Light", 2023) is Araki Akane's second novel after making her debut the previous year by winning the Edogawa Rampo Award. The book's main feature is probably the fact it is divided in two distinct parts, the first half set in 2020 on an island, while the second half is set in 2023 and starts off in the bustling city of Osaka. The two narratives are also clearly inspired by two Agatha Christie novels, a thing that is made very apparent when the characters themselves make references to Christie in the second half.  

The first half is of course inspired by And Then There Were None, as we have a closed circle situation set on an island, where everybody is being killed one by one. In this book however, we have the added tension of knowing Hitou was planning to kill everyone himself too, only someone else managed to get to them first. But who? The murders are also all connected through two mysterious facts: the murderer cuts off the tip of the tongues of all his victims, and for some reason, the next victim is always the person who discovered the previous body. Even though this is only "half" of the book, Araki somehow manages to really pack it full to the brim. There's the locked room situation of the first body for example, but there are more mysteries like one victim having been cut, even though they threw away all the knives and other potentially dangerous objects in the sea after the first murders. Araki manages to craft a great mystery in this book: the many props allow the characters to come up with various theories, and the grand denouement scene in particular has some great Queenian theories being posed based on the evidence we've all seen and been exposed to, which are then debunked as easily again with other evidence we also saw, but simply overlooked. 

The second part is set three years later and we learn about a serial killer in Osaka who for some reason has been committing murders similar to what by now has become known as the Hitou murders: when the police arrived on the island, they found that everybody on the island was dead and Hitou missing, but he had conveniently posted a full confession online. Maria, the young woman who found the most recent victim, is put under police custody and she soon becomes friends with one of her guardians. Maria also happens to be living with a young man (not her boyfriend), who happens to have bitten off the tip of his tongue some years ago... This part of the book is more inspired by The ABC Murders, as the one of the characters comments, as they are not sure why the serial killer is linking these murders in this way, and of course, the whole connection to the Hitou murders is enigmatic. As you can guess, these events are very strongly connected to the first part of the book, and they work very well as a "continuation" of the first half, while also going in a completely different way. This is not just 'part 2 by doing the same things again", this is a "part 2 that tries different things, but by building on part 1". And it's all in one book!

While I will be the first to admit I don't care about characterization that much in my mystery novels, even I have to make a special note about how strong the characterizations are in this novel. Hitou is a great protagonist and anti-hero, who is so full of hatred towards his "friends" for what they did in the past, but at the same time, you see glimpses of him struggling with the aftermath of each murder because... perhaps he did really become friends with them while he had infiltrated their circle. Maria too has a chip on her shoulder and has finally been getting her life on rails and is enjoying her work as a garbagewoman, when the whole serial killer thing confuses things once more. The strong-minded Maria is very fun to follow, as she does struggle in life, but still tries to make the best out of everything and she isn't kind to people who look down on her for doing so (cue: the veteran policeman who will regret looking down on her just because she's a woman collecting garbage).

The strong characterization does elevate Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi a lot, as some of the actions taken by the characters in this book do demand for those characters to have a lot of motivation/determination to do so, so Araki's strong character writing is in fact an essential part of the mystery, much more than I had ever expected.

I had read two short stories by Araki before (here and here), but this is the first time I read a full novel by her and Chigereta Kusari to Hikari no Kirehashi. It's quite long and ambitious, providing two fully worked out narratives inspired by Christie's work all in one book, but Araki pulls it off, and does that with both competence in the mystery writing as well as characterization. Recommended material!

Original Japanese title(s):  荒木あかね『ちぎれた鎖と光の切れ端』

The Problem of the Ghost Woman

It is indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow,plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke　from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense　chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming,　boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream　onward over its jagged lip.

"The Final Problem" 

Now I think about it, having a waterfall right behind your school is probably not that safe. Sure, high school students aren't stupid, but still, something is bound to happen sooner or later...

Shiotani Ken's Meitantei Futabi (2025) also has the English title The Return of The Great Detective (well, technically it's The Return of Great Detective) and indeed, the book is about the legend of a great detective is given new life again. The Raihen Academy for Girls offers free schooling and accomodations for the family members of those who have contributed to the school's long history, and nobody has contributed more to the safety and reputation of Raihen than the legendary great detective Tokiya Yuu: she was a student at the school in the early 1990s, who solved many incidents that occured at Raihen. While they started out as minor incidents, things soon escalated to even murder. Yuu eventually figured out there was a mastermind behind all these crimes: Yuu confronted the mastermind at the waterfall behind the school and in the subsequent struggle, both fell down, with Yuu's remains never recovered. Tokiya Shou had never heard specific stories about her great-aunt, which is why she's surprised to learn she gets to study at the prestigious Raihen Academy for free. When she arrives at the school, she's welcomed as if she were a princess, as for Raihen, Yuu was indeed a queen. In fact, the dorm director was a student at Raihen herself in the early 1990s and assisted Yuu. Shou becomes classmates with Mima Shizuka, president of the newspaper club with a knack for making up stories. Shou is first shown around the school, which has memorial plates for Yuu all over the place, commemorating the various incidents she solved, like the mystery of the unconcious student in the communal bathroom or the murder of a student in the art room. 

The rumors of Shou, a relative of Yuu, soon spreads across the school, and it doesn't take long for a student to ask Shou for help. She recently got a polaroid camera, and while playing around with it, she and her friends took risqué pictures of each other in the bathroom while getting undressed. However, after they had their bath, they found the pictures missing, and now she got a blackmail letter with one of the stolen pictures, demanding for money. The victim rather not have the police involved, which is why she wants Shou to help. The problem: Shou isn't any good as a detective. Of course, just because your great-aunt happens to be a great detective, doesn't you are, but Shou can't say no, and ends up accepting the request. Out of her wits, Shou strolls to the waterfall where her great-aunt met her end and to her great surprise.... a ghost appears! The ghost agrees to help Shou and act as an armchair detective for her, if Shou helps gather her remains and properly bury her, so her spirit can finally pass on to the life beyond. The case is soon solved, earning Shou a reputation as a great detective herself, but then more incidents start to happen at Raihen, and another figure who saw Yuu's ghost, starts plotting against Shou...

It's of course no coincidence the school's called Raihen (Reichenbach) and that the great detective and her nemesis both died falling down a waterfall. The book's not designed as a Sherlock Holmes pastische though, nor are there really meaningful references to Holmes canon beyond these ones, so you don't need any knowledge of Holmes to enjoy this book. The book is structured as a connected short story collection, where Shou is confronted with ever-escalating cases during her time studying at Raihen, culminating in a grand finale involving both her great-aunt and her nemesis. One thing I have to mention first is how different this book is than Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi ("The Count and the Three Coffins"), the only other book by Shiotani Ken I have read at this point. That book was a historical epic with drama and tragedy like a Dumas novel, while this is a fairly light-hearted, comedic short story collection set at a girls' high school. Shiotani Ken does like using unusual settings/ideas though, and that's what we do have here too: Shou being helped by an armchair detective ghost each time, all just to maintain her reputation as a great detective herself (or as her excuse goes to keep the family name high). This device has some parallels to how Conan feeds Mouri his answers to maintain the Sleeping Kogorou's reputation high, only in this case, Shou herself wants to be fed all the answers, as she genuinely isn't smart enough to solve the crimes herself (though she does get "educated" as a great detective herself slowly but surely over the course of the book).

While I do describe this book as a short story collection, the individual mysteries are not titled as "stories", but as "chapters" in a novel, so I guess they do want to present this as a novel rather than a story collection. Anyway, the first story involves the stolen polaroids, with the mystery revolving around who could have stolen the polaroids and how: the only persons to know about the pictures are the group of four who took the pictures in the first place, but the pictures had been put in a locker while they were in the bathroom, and nobody had the pictures on them when they left, so the theft was impossible. This is a fairly short mystery, as it is also used to explain how Shou first went to the waterfall and stumbled upon the ghost, but it is a fairly well-constructed, if simple mystery, doing what you usually expect of an impossible heist story (offering multiple false solutions, offering a true solution that builds cleverly on the discarded false ones). The banter between Shou and all the other school girls is really fun though: not only with her roommate Shizuka (who's a bit insane when it comes to wanting to find a scoop and has no qualms about making things a bit more spicier in her articles), but also with her ghostly mentor, as she too is basically just a high school student who likes to chat about ordinary life (or at least, the ordinary life she saw pass by ever since she became a ghost). The second story is about an assault on an art student that occured in a classroom that could only be accessed via another classroom, that was occupied by the art club at the moment. Again, a seemingly impossible crime, and while I didn't like this mystery on its own that much, I loved how it really built on the previous story, as it showed the previous story had real consequences for the student life at Raihen Academy, making people act and think differently. 

The third story in turn has the first murder: members of the newspaper clubs of several school are invited to the house of an alumnus of one of the clubs. It's supposed to be a kind of training camp to hone the journalistic skills of the members, but Mima Shizuka, who had attended last year too, knows the organizer just uses this occassion to vent his frustrations on the current club members by completely roasting their writings. During the snowy evening, the girls sleep together in the storehouse of the manor, which can only be locked from the outside (as it's not meant to be lived in). During the night however, the organizer is found dead in the courtyard, his head bashed in. The only footprints left in the snow in the courtyard however belong to the victim, with no footprints of the murderer. The victim was furthermore found near the window of a room of the annex, where the guests were sleeping, but the windows on that side can't be opened, so the occupant of that room couldn't have hit the man either. Shou is asked to look into the case, not only because of her roommates involvement, but her uncle, a police inspector, is also on the case and has heard of the exploits of his niece. This is quite an elaborate story, that is great at using the various moving parts of the story (characters) to create a seemingly impossible mystery. The reason why the murderer ended up dead in the courtyard is a bit silly, but well-clewed and the way the culprit created the footprint mystery isn't per se that impressive method-wise, but very convincing motive-wise.

Up until this point, the stories also saw short intermezzos told from the POV of a character, who has also seen Tokiya Yuu's ghost herself, and has deduced that Shou is actually getting assistance from Yuu in solving the mysteries. This person however absolutely hates what Shou's doing, so they set a trap for Shou.

Shou, her uncle, the dorm director and some of Shou's allies have gathered, because they have realized the incidents Shou has been involved with, mirror those Tokiya Yuu solved during her time at Raihen. Yuu at the time deduced a mastermind "M" had been orchestrating all these crimes, and she died during her confrontation with M. It is now suspected a new mastermind has also been behind all the crimes Shou has been involved with. During their meeting however, Shizuka keels over after drinking her tea. A message is then delivered to the room: the tea cups have been poisoned and the door has been locked, with no way to call for help. The only way to open the door and get help for Shizuka, is if Shou drinks one of the cups: only one will not kill her. With no way to go to the waterfall to get help, can Shou manage to solve this mystery herself? The story feels a bit like a Liar Game game, where Shou has to deduce which of the cups is safe to drink (with a lot "if they think I think they think..." type of thoughts). The solution is simple yet elegant, and the story moves right to the finale, where Shou is confronted with the mastermind behind all the crimes and the truth behind the death of her great-aunt. This part of the mystery is elegantly clewed, with great foreshadowing planted throughout the various adventures to build up to this Reichenbach Falls-esque finale. Unfortunately, I already knew a bit how this finale would end up, because I happened to have met the editor of the book who kinda spoiled it to me, but despite my prior knowledge, I did think the mystery was constructed very neatly.

So while Meitantei Futatabi is not at all like the historical epic drama that was Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi, I did greatly enjoy the book: it's a fun, light-hearted school mystery (the sometimes venomous banter between Shou and her ghostly mentor is especially a highlight) with a clear, overarching story that manages to achieve exactly what it sets out to do. The individual mysteries are often fairly short, but competently constructed and the overall storyline, with Shou slowly growing into a detective herself, is satisfying. This is a great book to read between heavier stuff.

Original Japanese title(s): 塩谷験『名探偵再び』 

Picture of Death

But if this ever changing world in which we live in

Makes you give in and cry,

Say live and let die!

"Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney & Wings) 

So I didn't know anything about the actual story of this book when I got it, so simply based on the title and the cover, I was expecting this to be something set in the Middle Ages/Renaissance exploring the theme of death. It was nothing like that.

Several months ago, I discussed Kenchiku Shizai (2001), a book which also carried the English title The Builded Dead and which is considered officially Monzen Noriyuki's debut work: it was the winner of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, which is aimed at writers who haven't made a professional debut yet. However, Kenchiku Shizai  was not really Monzen's first work. Several years earlier, Monzen had already sent it a different manuscript for the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award and it was in fact deemed the best entry of that year by Ayukawa Tetsuya himself, but the other people on the committee did not agree, and the work didn't win.Monzen therefore decided to self-publish the book in 1997, with the title Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death"). After Monzen made his professional debut in 2001, he wrote a few other novels, and then publisher Harashobo decided to revisit Shi no Meidai again: Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death") was re-edited and given a new title (the shi in the title in the 2010 differs from the 1997 version), giving the book a new opportunity to reach the audience.

The book starts with the arrival of Shinohara Tsunajirou, Monoda Yoshihara and Mashime Kyouka at the Mishima residence, located in the forest surrounding Lake Ensui in the mountains near Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture. The two-storey building belongs to Professor Mishima Souichirou, or to be exact, his widow: the professor had started construction on his home, but he died in an accident on the lake. His widow, Otono, however had the project continued, with a large part of the house dedicated to her husband's accomplishments and his hobbies. Some time has passed since the professor's funeral,  and Otono has invited a few old friends of her husband to stay a few nights at the lake, including the aforementioned trio, who were students of the professor. Tsunajirou and Kyouoka often visited the professor and his wife and knew them privately, so they are a bit surprised Yoshihara was also invited, and it's also a bit awkward: Yoshihara was never close to the professor nor his wife, and Yoshihara and Kyouka also used to date when in university. They broke up and now Tsunajirou and Kyouka are now an engaged couple. When they arrive at the house, they learn their host is not present. The physician Miyabi Daisuke, a Mishima family friend who knows Tsunajirou and Kyouka as well, arrived earlier, and explains he found a package hanging from the door knob, which included the keys to the house, as well as a letter signed by Otono, who explains she had an accident herself and can't freely move. Because it happened only a few days ago and she knew all her guests had already made arrangements, she asks their guests to entertain themselves despite her absence: food supplies have been prepared, so they can enjoy a few days off at the lake. Everybody finds this a bit weird, including Annosawa Ikuo, a budding mystery novelist who's a patient of the doctor (he was brought for some social contact).  A late arrival is Takao Hiroshi, a salesman for a medical company who was also invited. 

As they discuss their current situation, they note that the note doesn't actually sound like it was written by Otono, and Kyouka seems eager to leave, saying they should pay the widow a visit in the hospital, but they decide to stay for at least one night, especially as it starts to snow heavily. They explore the house a bit to admire not only the late professor's collection of insect specimens, but also his collection of torture devices, including the giant guillotine standing outside the entrance of the house. The following day however, a horrible discovery is made: Kyouka is found dead in the garden, with her face having been hit with immense force. It's obvious not an accident, as the object that inflicted the damage is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile,Monoda Yoshihara can also not be found, so the others start looking for him: they find his body floating in the lake, having first been strangled and then thrown into the lake for him to drown. The police is informed, but the road conditions due to the weather prevent them from coming at once. As the survivors await the police however, more deaths occur: a poisoning, a man being split in half with the guillotine... And when the police finally arrive... they find all six guests in the house have died, with the last one apparently having committed suicide.

 It's the sister of the last person to live who visits Kumode, who runs a construction consultancy agency which double-acts as a detective agency, after earlier success in detection by Kumode. The sister naturally can't stand her brother being painted as a cold-blooded killer who killed five people and then himself, so she wants Kumode to investigate the case, which is done by an investigation of the crime scene itself (the Mishima residence), as well as the inspection of two diaries: one by the mystery author Annosawa and the other by the supposed killer: these were the last two men surviving and both men claim they were not the horrible serial killer in their respective notes. Can Kumode figure out what really happened at the lake?

Kenchiku Shizai/The Builded Dead was an interesting book as it showcased author Monzen's knowledge of architecture (which he studied): it was a very realistic book when it came to the presentation of how a building is actually constructed, and at times, the realism did hurt the presentation of the mystery a bit, but it was still a memorable experience. Shi no Meidai is surprisingly enough not at all like Kenchiku Shizai, being a far more unrealistic book, as it embraces the familar tropes of mystery fiction. The premise of the book is a classic And Then There Were None set-up: all people in the isolated house end up murdered, but by whom? Like And Then There Were None, there's a second part that follows the initial closed circle narrative, focusing on the investigation conducted by an outside party after the murders (in this case, Kumode's investigation). 

Shi no Meidai follows the familiar tropes fairly faithfully, and some characters even point out how everything feels a bit fishy, from their host not appearing herself and the selection of guests being weird. Which is why it does feel a bit strange the characters don't decide to leave at once: they're apparently somewhat savvy enough to realize not all is right, but they still stay, and that's a thing that continues throughout this book: the characters really feeling like characters in a detective novel, doing the exact things needed to get the plot going, but not really fully explaining why those characters would ever want to do that. 

The same holds for the core mystery plot: there are some cool ideas that are at play here, some honestly really memorable (and gruesome!), but many of the ideas used here are quite forced, especially if you consider them having all happened in the same story! Like, the murder of Kyouka is actually pretty interesting as an idea: it's actually an impossible crime, as the garden was covered in snow and yet only Kyouka's own footprints could be found in the snow, despite being hit from nearby with an object. I can easily imagine this part being a short story on its own as it has a memorable trick, but then you also remember the murders on the doctor and Annosawa also happened in their specific manners, and you start rolling your eyes as that's a bit too much luck/coincidence that is happening in one sequence. The murders on the doctor and Annosawa again would have been great core ideas in their own story (it's actually really good while being incredibly silly at the same time, and I love it for that), but it loses its impact here because it just becomes one small cog in a much larger machine. A far more fantastical machine than the realistic mechanism we saw in Kenchiku Shizai too. The way the murderer planned for all of this is almost farcical, as it relies on one coincidence or lucky turn after another, so taking this story in as.... one story feels a bit difficult. There are really good individual ideas, but they didn't need to be taken all together, especially as it works towards a conclusion that only strengthens this sense of forced coindence. I think if the book had been written differently, this theme could easily have worked, but the book is still told in a fairly straightforward manner that doesn't really dwell on the thematic consequences of its events, so you are never sure whether the author actually realized his book borders on a parody.

The book actually opens with a Challenge to the Reader, containing 5 'pointers' that act as a kind of tease of things to come. I think the book's fair enough to warrant a Challenge, though I'm not sure whether it works best in this position of the book (why not just before the soluton?).

 Shi no Meidai is a book I think some of the parts are better than their sum, with some good mystery ideas and tricks, that however become a bit deluded when taken all together, because all of that happening in the span of like two days feels a bit too much, especially as part of a plan by the killer. It's also completely different in terms of atmosphere from Kenchiku Shizai, despite being the same series, which might be a good or bad thing depending on what your thoughts on that book was, or vice-versa. I think that the individual elements of Shi no Meidai are far more memorable to me than Kenchiku Shizai, but I found the latter a better novel overall.

 Original Japanese title(s):  門前典之『屍の命題』