Dread Journey

８時ちょうどのあずさ２号で

私は　私は　あなたから旅たちます

「あずさ２号」（狩人）

At eight exactly, taking the Azusa 2

I will, I will, depart away from you 

"Azusa 2" (Karyuudo)

Yes, I know, reading a random Nishimura Kyoutarou novel is always just like doing a gatcha game. The chance on getting an SSSR is really small, and most of the time you'll just get a C. As he wrote over 650 novels during his lifetime, most of them focusing on the so-called "travel mystery" subgenre, it's not surprising most of his output is very formalistic, with very fast-paced and light stories, featuring elements of the Croftian school, with alibi tricks using trains, airplanes and other means of transport, with stories set across various locations and areas in Japan. That was in fact the reason why I picked today's book. 

I came across Nishimura Kyoutarou's Tokkyuu Azusa [Alibi Train] Satsujin Jiken ("The Alibi Train Azusa Express Murder Case", 1986) while I was looking for a mystery novel involving the Azusa Express and the city of Matsumoto, and not surprisingly, Nishimura had written a book about it because I am going to guess he wrote a book about every limited express in Japan that ran during his lifetime. The book opens with Inspector Totsugawa's subordinate Kusaka Junichi receiving a call from someone he had never expected to hear from again: once upon a time, he was all ready to marry Keiko, but she disappeared (with his money and an engagement ring) and with that, Kusaka learned a lesson. He's stunned when he hears her voice again at work, but it's what she says that puzzles him. She asks him to lie for her if he is asked what he was doing on a certain day, and he's to say he took the Azusa Express 7 with her to visit Matsumoto. As a police detective however, Kusaka can't promise her he'll lie, even though she says her life depends on it. When later Kusaka is called by a mysterious person who asks him about the day, Kusaka is indeed unable to lie for Keiko. Soon after, the dead body of Keiko is found in a park in Tokyo and she was seemingly tortured before her death. Realizing his refusal to lie led to her death, Kusaka confides in Totsugawa, and they soon realize Keiko had wanted Kusaka to provide her with an alibi for that day by saying she had been on the Azusa 7. They identify two major robberies that occured on that day in Tokyo for which the Azusa Express would have served as an alibi, but for which of these was Keiko trying to gain an alibi, and why was she killed?

Okay, so reading random Nishimura is a gatcha, and this one is definitely just a C pull.

Totsugawa's investigation rather swiftly allows them to identify which incident Keiko was involved with: a bank robbery. If Kusaka had lied about having gone to Matsumoto in the Azusa with Keiko, she'd have a perfect alibi for that time, but Kusaka didn't, and now his former fiancée is dead. But then another suspect in that robbery ends up dead, making it clear someone is killing off the people in the gang. Is it someone in the gang trying to make their own share larger, or is something else going on. Another mystery is the fact the other victim actually had been investigated by the police before, and he could provide an alibi... as he had been riding the Azusa Express during the robbery. So why do all these clues point at the Azusa?

Well, for no other reason but that it's in the title. I picked the book hoping it'd at least give me a glimpse of the Azusa Express and the city of Matsumoto, but I was rather surprised by how irrelevant they are for the story. For some reason, we have like seven or eight different times we see characters board the Azusa, but you don't get many scenes inside the Azusa, and you see even less of Matsumoto itself, even though they are all heading to that city! So if you were ever considering to read this book because of the title, I'd recommend find something else.

Ultimately, the idea of having multiple people pick the Azusa as an alibi is an interesting concept to get the mystery going, but the reason provided for why specifically Azusa is so meaningless and simple, it really feels as nothing but an excuse so Nishimura could use the Azusa in the title. The story then shifts to the question of who is killing the gang members, and the thing evolves into a surprisingly large conspiracy-level plot that goes far beyond just the bank robbery, but that's also a reason why the titular Azusa Express feels so underutilized in the book, as the train is basically only relevant in the very first chapters of the book, and afterwards, the investigation is about something else. And... I didn't really like, as you may have guessed. The book reads more like a suspense thriller, with especially the latter half having Totsugawa directly facing a diabolical enemy whom he tries to outsmart while the lives of people are at stake, and at that point, it's just so far removed from what I expected this book to be. I mean, the Azusa train isn't even used for an alibi trick, Keiko wanted to use the train for one, and the "trick" was just by having her former fiance lie! The big plot Totsugawa stumbles upon is interesting in concept, but it isn't an idea that is a good facilitator for a mystery story per se.

So yeah, Tokkyuu Azusa [Alibi Train] Satsujin Jiken is quite disappointing overall. It's barely a mystery story, and I think I could've even forgiven than somewhat if the book had actually focused on the Azusa and Matsumoto more because I wanted to read the book for that reason, but even that it couldn't provide. So definitely not one of Nishimura's highlights. He's definitely written better novels than this one, ones that are true puzzle plot mysteries, so you can ignore this easily.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎『特急「あずさ」(アリバイ・トレイン)殺人事件』

Secret Cargo

War, huh, yeah 

What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, uhh

"War" (Edwin Starr)

Just pointing back to the Honkaku Discord server, in case you missed it. Also: I should've planned these posts better, because now I mention the author of today's book twice in a row.... I recently played the second Nintendo DS game supervised by Nishimura, but I should probably not plan that post as my next...

Nishimura Kyoutarou was one of the most prolific mystery writers in Japan and a household name there, even known to people not interested in mystery fiction simply due to the enormous media output that used his name, from television films to video games. When he passed away earlier this year, he had nearly 650 books on his bibliography list. I have probably not even read three percent of that total list, and not surprisingly, most of the books I have read are the better-known ones, like Koroshi no Soukyokusen ("Hyperbola of Murder", 1971), Shichinin no Shounin ("The Seven Witnesses", 1977) and of course several entries in his Inspector Totsugawa series, like Akai Cruiser ("The Red Cruiser", 1973) and Terminal Satsujin Jiken ("The Terminal Murder Case", 1980). Nishimura will forever be associated with the "travel mystery" subgenre, which focuses on traveling (tourism) and means of transport. As you may guess, the subgenre does have have elements of the Croftian school, as it often involves alibi tricks using trains, airplanes and other means of transport, but more importantly they focus on "the country": stories are often set across various locations and areas in Japan (not just Tokyo) and so they also include a touristic element, often delving into specific local train lines, famous tourist spots or places with historical importance (which is one reason why there are so many adaptations of Nishimura's work on television).  

The first Nishimura Kyoutarou novel, and the first novel featuring Inspector Totsugawa, I ever read was, probably not surprisingly, the English release of The Mystery Train Disappears. The first one I read in Japanese however might be surprising, because it's not a very well-known book. I have seen on the internet a few people mentioning it's one of their favorites, but those mentions are rare, as with over 650 books, a story really has to stand out in order to attract the attention of many. So why did I end up reading Choutokkyuu Tsubame-gou [Event Train] Satsujin Jiken ("The Event Train Super Express Tsubame Murder Case", 1987) as my first Nishimura in Japanese? The simple answer: the book was free. There used to be a table in front of the library of all the East-Asian studies at my university, and they'd put books and magazines there they didn't need anymore, and sometimes you'd find a pile of fiction pockets too. So one day, I happened to stumble upon this book and took it with me and it was actually one of the very first books I read in Japanese. And that of course meant that I was reading this book with a dictionary next to it, as I had to look up (simple!) words every two sentences and all of that. Ultimately, I did finish the book, but never thought it was anything special, and most of it was already forgotten by the following week. But a while back, when I was cleaning up books, I came across this pocket again and decided to read it again: my first time was simply not optimal as I was still learning the language, so I thought a second read would result in a fairer experience.

The book starts in the late eighties, when Inspector Totsugawa receives an anynomous letter at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which seems to warn the police about death coming to the Super Express Tsubame. Totsugawa and his subordinate Kamei, as people who grew up as children in post-war Japan instantly recognize the name: the Super Express Tsubame was the fastest train in Japan before World War II, and when it started running in the 1930s, it shortened the trip between Tokyo and Kobe by an hour, making it "just" nine hours. The train was seen as a symbol of luxury and admiration for all children before and after the war. Eventually, the Shinkansen bullet trains would of course become the fastest trains in Japan, but the romantic image of the Tsubame remains strong among people who grew up in that period. But of course, the Tsubame hasn't run for decades now,  so initially Totsugawa thinks this is just a weird letter, but he asks Kamei to see if he can find the sender, but when Kamei succeeds in that task, he finds the sender murdered. They also learn that in two days, the Super Express Tsubame will actually ride again, as an anniversary Event Train: in 1940 there had been a special event celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Tsubame, and a special, super luxurious observation car had been created to host a number of special guests. The new 1987 event train has a replica of that observation car and while ride along the same time schedule as in 1940, and the guest are either the same guests as in 1940 or their children/relatives in case they had already passed away. Inspector Totsugawa suspects something must have happened in the train in 1940, which is why the murder victim sent a letter to the police warning them, so he decides to board the train himself too, as he is also convinced the murderer is among the guests. Meanwhile, he also comes in the possession of an unpublished manuscript of a reporter who was one of the guests in the 1940 event, and through that manuscript, Totsugawa learns the story of a young Japanese army official who boarded the Tsubame heading for the ship heading to the China war frontlines, but who seemed to have disappeared on his way...

As I was reading this book again, I realized I really had forgotten most of this book, and while some segments seemed familiar, it was clear that reading a book when you're just starting to learn a language is probably going to result in you not remembering a book down to the details, simply because you "lose" a lot of time and focus as you try to struggle with the book at a linguistic level, having to look up words and grammar. Anyway, re-reading this book didn't reveal to me this was some kind of hidden gem, but I have to say I did appreciate the book better upon my second read, even if I wouldn't call this a must-read Nishimura work.

You might expect this book to be one of those stories where they jump between the present and past between chapters as I mentioned the old manuscript Totsugawa was reading, but in actuality the past narrative only takes up about one-third of the book, even though mystery-wise, it forms the core of the novel. Totsugawa (correctly) guesses *something* must have happened in 1940 to lead to a series of murders among the guests of the event train in the present, and indeed, in the old journalist's report he learns about a curious event, at least, from the reporter's point of view. In 1940, the Japanese army was already waging war in China and nationalistic sentiments were at a high in the country: many people were clamoring to fight Western powers like the United States to "liberate" Asia to be put under Japanese rule. This ultranationalistic, suppressing atmosphere comes alive in all aspects of the past narrative and definitely one of the more memorable points of this novel. The special guests who have been invited to the event train all have different thoughts about the war, some are absolutely against the war, while others seemingly welcome it and see everyone who dares to even pause to think about it a traitor to the country. Even the luxurious observation car of the Tsubame is seen as too decadent by some, as "luxury" was seen as a national enemy in times of war. It is under these circumstances that a young Japanese army officer forces his way into the observation car of the Tsubame during the celebration event in 1940: while the car is reserved for the train company's guests, the officer declares that he is heading to Kobe's harbor as he has been assigned to the frontlines and that as someone willing he give his life to the glorious homeland, he has at least as much right, nay, even more right to occupy the observation deck than any other person here. Considering the ultranationalistic, ultramilitaristic atmosphere at the time, nobody is able to shoo him away, so he stays in the train, though obviously as an outsider to the invited guests. The officer stays inside a private compartment during the trip, while the train stops at Kyoto and finally at Kobe, but there the reporter is surprised to see the officer has disappeared. He wanted to have a short interview with him at the end of the trip and had been extra watchful to catch the officer at the platform, but the reporter swears the officer never left the train at Kobe, or Kyoto and yet he wasn't in the compartment either. While one could just assume that the officer just managed to leave the station at Kobe without the journalist noticing, as according to the files the officer did reach China, where he died on the battlefield, the reporter still thought it was very strange. It's this seemingly impossible disappearance that Totsugawa sees as the motive for the murders in the present, and he is soon proven right, as he notices that all the guests in 1987 who also attended in 1940 initially lie about the officer being in the train and seem very evasive about his presence even after admitting he was there.

As said, the past narrative only makes up for about one-third of the book, so this disappearance isn't a really complex case: most of what happened can be guessed pretty easily as there are a few scenes that are telegraphing a bit took much, but I have to say: the reasons explaining what exactly happened in the past are really well grounded in the war sentiments of that time, and a lot of it makes only sense in that ultranationalistic atmosphere. It really builds on the idea of a society in war, where some are too afraid to open their mouths in fear of being accused of being a traitor, while others are seeing a higher cause in the war and think their actions are absolutely right. It results in a rather unique setting and this is definitely an aspect of the book I appreciated a lot more on this second read. And I am not sure if this was the intention, but for some reason this book also feels like it subverses/plays with the solution to one of Agatha Christie's better known stories (okay, *most* of her stories are well-known), and while it's not a *brilliant* play, I do find it funny how it could play with your expectations if you already knew the Christie story.

The present chapters in comparison aren't as interesting: more murders happen here and Totsugawa sees the officer's disappearance (?) in 1940 as the motive, but the murders that occur here aren't "mysterious" in the sense of how, as anyone could've committed them and it just comes down to Totsugawa having to figure out who could have some connection to the missing officer. The ending also feels a bit too convenient, with people having exact knowledge of what happened just turning up to explain things. Again, the motive here is really well-connected to the past and the circumstances there, but don't expect impossible disappearances or crafty time schedule-based alibi tricks here. The deaths here are straightforward, and mostly serve as a vehicle to tell the story of the past.

Choutokkyuu Tsubame-gou [Event Train] Satsujin Jiken isn't some kind of hidden masterpiece by Nishimura Kyoutarou, but I am happy to have given it a second chance. Of course, part of the fun for me was reading this book in just a few hours now rather than weeks with a dictionary, but I could appreciate some aspects of the book better this time now I didn't have to look up things all the time and could just focus on the narrative. The war-time atmosphere and the focus on the Tsubame are definitely the highlights of this book, resulting for some memorable moments, and while I don't think this is a book I would especially recommend to someone looking to read a Nishimura, it's definitely I can see as a Rank B book that I might suggest if you have already read the truly famous ones.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎『超特急「つばめ号」（イベントトレイン）殺人事件』

Cross Purposes

「本当のことを言わねぇのが人間だ」

『羅生門』

 

"It's human to lie."

"Rashomon"

Finished the console original arc Kageboushi (the Answer chapter to Someutsushi) of Higurashi: When They Cry, so added my thoughts on how it involves the main mystery to the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. The chapters are only getting longer and longer now and I've been reading Higurashi for over a month now, so I'll probably slow down a bit now, because it does take up a lot of time... I do hope I'll be done with the main story by the time Haru Yukite Retrotica (The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story) releases in May...

There are prolific writers, and then there was Nishimura Kyoutarou. He is a household name in Japan when it comes to mystery fiction, which isn't strange onsidering the massive media output that is associated with his name. His Wikipedia page records nearly 650 books (!!!) And that includes short story collections, so that's even more stories, and anyone who's been in a Japanese bookstore, especially the used bookshops, will probably recall those long, long rows of Nishimura books you'll always find there. But that is not all: there have been countless of adaptations of his work for television, ranging from series to television films and there was a time where you'd find his name every week in the television schedule, as there'd always be a rerun of an old Nishimura Kyoutarou television film somewhere in the early afternoon. Even gamers will know the name, as there have been several games based on his work, especially in the Famicom (NES) era. It's simply impossible to not have heard of Nishimura Kyoutarou if you've been into Japanese mystery fiction somewhere in the last 40, 50 years, and even people with no interest in mystery fiction will know the name: so much has his name become part of "normal" Japanese popular culture. 

The unbelievable quantity of his output of course also influenced the quality of his work:  a lot of those nearly 650 books feel very samey and uninspired. There's a reason why everyone associated Nishimura with Stereotypical Nishimura Kyoutarou Story: a story starring Inspector Totsugawa and his team of detectives like Kame investigating a murder which will require Totsugawa's men to travel by train to a faraway destination and/or the victim/culprit used the train and the detectives have to figure out how the use trains is connected to the murder (alibi tricks etc.). If you do the association game with "Nishimura Kyoutarou", nine out of ten times you'll get "Trains" as the response. But while the bulk of Nishimura Kyoutarou's output is often assumed to be uninspired, by-the-numbers stories that just retell the same ideas in a slightly different way, his earlier output can be quite interesting. Koroshi no Soukyokusen was genuinely fun as an And Then There Were None-inspired novel and the crossover series with Ellery Queen, Maigret, Poirot and Akechi Kogorou is always entertaining.

Nishimura Kyoutarou sadly enough passed away earlier this month at age 91, so I decided to pick up one of his earlier, and better received puzzlers: Shichinin no Shounin ("The Seven Witnesses", 1977) is an Inspector Totsugawa novel, though it feels nothing like a Totsugawa story in terms of set-up. The book opens with Totsugawa waking up with an enormous headache, and he finds himself... in a recreation of a street, built in the middle of a small island. The intersection of two streets has been meticulously recreated here, complete with all the stores (with store inventory), parked cars and apartments. Totsugawa finds seven people who had also been knocked out the previous night and brought here: some of the people actually live or work along this intersection and can even show Totsugawa their rooms or shops, while others don't live here, but they do remember this place: one year ago, a murder took place around midnight at this intersection, and all seven people (besides Totsugawa) were witnesses in that case. Their testimonies eventually put young hoodlum Sasaki Nobuo behind bars: some of the witnesses had seen him have a fight with a fellow customer in a bar, others saw him stab the victim outside on the street with his own knife and yet others saw him flee the scene with the knife and the victim's wallet. It is at that point that an elderly man reveals himself to the eight persons on the island: Sasaki Yuuzou is the father of Nobuo. He had left Nobuo and his mother when Nobuo was young and had been working in Brazil, where he had been succesful, but upon return to Japan last year, he learned his son had died in prison, but that Nobuo had always maintained that he did not commit the murder, despite the testimonies of the seven witnesses. That is why Sasaki used his fortune to meticulously recreate the entire intersection on this small island and abducted the seven witnesses: he truly believes his son had been innocent, so there must be a mistake in the testimonies and he wants the witnesses to go over their own testimonies once again, with Totsugawa acting as a referee. The rifle held by Sasaki leaves the seven witnesses little choice, even though each of them swears their testimonies at the trial were accurate, but Sasaki's done his homework and little by little, he manages to point out little contradictions in each testimony. But while the party is going over the old testimonies, one of them is killed, and because they're all alone on this small island, it is clear that the murderer has to be one of them. 

Someone not content with the original verdict abducting witnesses to do a non-official reexamination/retrial? Yep, that reminded me of Settled Out of Court. Which reminds me I should really read more by Henry Cecil...

Shichinin no Shounin feels nothing like what I would expect from a Totsugawa novel: no trains, instead of an urban setting we have a closed circle situation on a small island and ultimately, Totsugawa can't even do much but look on while Sasaki's forcing everyone go over their testimonies again and pointing out contradictions in their stories. In fact, it wouldn't really take that much of an effort to rewrite this story to leave out Totsugawa's presence. It's definitely not the book I'd tell you to read if you wanted to read a Totsugawa novel, but I'd definitely recommend you to read Shichinin no Shounin if you were interested in Nishimura's more interesting mystery novels, as this one defnitely is one.

With Sasaki and his rifle cross-examining each witness' testimony and slowly poking small holes in each of them, I was of course reminded of Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney games while I was reading this book, and I think that is also why I feel the execution of this book doesn't quite match the potential of the premise. The book is set-up in "testimonies", with Sasaki going over each of the seven testionies in turn. So he starts in the bar, where the owner of the bar and another customer saw how Nobuo had been arguing with the later victim and how after the victim left the bar, Nobuo went out too. As Sasaki listens to them, he reveals he had used this year to investigate the witnesses and the exact circumstances of that fateful night, so he then slowly reveals information that contradicts the witnesses' testimonies at specific points, usually not very important on its own, but having consequences for later testimonies. So then he moves on to the next witness (for example, those who saw him leave the bar and go after the victim), rinse and repeat. And the way Sasaki does this is fairly entertaining, pouncing like Columbo on very small points to pull out a bigger revelation. But the problem is: Sasaki is at an advantage here. The reader doesn't learn the new information Sasaki has uncovered, until he reveals it to everyone and confronts the witness with his findings/his suspicions, and Totsugawa too can only listen to whatever theories Sasaki has. Ultimately, Sasaki is proven correct on all his small points, slowly changing the testimonies of each witness, and while seeing this happen is fun, it's a bit frustrating the reader is never allowed to take on the puzzle themselves. You never get a chance to figure out the contradictions yourself because the relevant information isn't given to you beforehand, so all you do is watch Sasaki do all the heavy lifting. The contradictions ultimately are pretty solvable for readers if the relevant information had been presented beforehand in some manner, so it's a shame we never get a chance to solve the thing ourselves, especially as it's quite satisfying to see how all the smaller contradictions add up to something bigger. The type of contradictions and the "difficulty level" is about what you'd expect from one of the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney games, which is exactly why I felt this was a missed opportunity: even with the exact same story and contradictions, the book could have been written in a more interactive way, rather the rather passive mode it now has. This extends to Totsugawa's role in this book, who most of the time is just standing there and listening to Sasaki's theories just like us.

Sasaki is focused on slowly poking holes in the testimonies and trying to find a way to prove his deceased son's innocence, but the witnesses also get a few breaks in between, and it is during one of this breaks, when everybody is somewhere else on the island, one of the witnesses is killed. Obviously, everyone suspects Sasaki did it to get revenge on the witnesses for putting his son behind bars and ultimately "killing" him, but Sasaki denies the crime, and Totsugawa too at least feels there's not nearly enough evidence to implciate Sasaki alone. But they are alone on this island, meaning the murderer must be one of the witnesses then, but why would any of them want to kill another of the witnesses, as the seven people basically don't know each other and only saw each other once, at the trial. It's here Totsugawa finally gets something to do, as he tries to protect Sasaki from the other witnesses, and the other way around. There are some interesting deductions regarding the "current" murderer near the end of the book, like about the motive and the murder weapon used, but there's also a large part of the story that is basically just Totsugawa making wild guesses and the only reason the current murderer is caught in the end is because they decided to react to Totsugawa's baseless accussations rather than just ignoring him, so the ending feels a bit weak/forced, There are some moments where the current murder ties in to the murder one year ago in interesting ways, but the focus is definitely on the past case.

Overall though, I think Shichinin no Shounin is an amusing courtroom drama-style mystery novel in the same vein as 12 Angry Men, Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney or something like Columbo, even if the book is not actually set in the courtroom. Seeing how a lot of smaller contradictions add up to one bigger reveal is always satisfying, and this book is no exception. It's just that I think this book could have been even more fun if the plot had been presented in a more interactive way, allowing the reader some time to contemplate the evidence and figure out the contradictions themselves too, instead of just listening to Sasaki playing the great detective. But still, this was a good early Nishimura novel and one I'd recommend if you'd want to read a detective novel by Nishimura that doesn't feel like just a standard formula.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎『七人の証人』

Sailing In The Sunset

 どこか未だに知らない場所へ迷い込みたくない？　

君といたらもっといいのにな

痛みさえも老いてゆくよう

「涙のイエスタデー」（Garnet Crow）

Don't you feel like getting lost in some unknown place?

It'd be more fun if I'd be with you

Even my pain would eventually go away

"A Yesterday Made Of Tears" (Garnet Crow)

I think the only time I set foot on a sail boat was when I was a kid, at a birthday party of a friend... Now I think about it, I haven't set foot on that many boats in general.

After an eleven-month trip across the seas, Uchida Youichi returned to Japan as a hero, as the first Japanese person to succeed in sailing around the world non-stop on his own. The feat earned him fame, a beautiful wife and a very lucratrive contract to promote a series of consumer yachts. So when the news was reported that Uchida had died in a car accident, people thought of James Dean: here they had a man in the prime of his life, lost in a tragic accident. The discovery by the police that the victim had consumed cyanide before his death though suggests that murder is much more likely than an accident and young police lieutenant Totsugawa is ordered to investigate. Digging into Uchida's life quickly shows that all's not well: he cheated on his wife, he cheated with his sailing record and there were more than a few "fellow" sailors who were very jealous of Uchida. But as Totsugawa dives deeper in the case, he finds that his most likely suspect is also the least likely one, as this man was participating in a sailing contest from Japan to Tahiti during the time the poison was planted on Uchida. Can Totsugawa find out the truth behind this perfect alibi in Nishimura Kyoutarou's Akai Cruiser ("The Red Cruiser", 1973)?

The last Nishimura novel I discussed (Tokkyuu Fuji Ni Notteita Onna), I decribed as precisely what you'd expect from a mass-produced novel. The book, originally published in 1989, showed exactly why Nishimura's able to churn out three, four books a month and have almost 600 books to his name as I'm writing this. It wasn't fun to read at all. It was an uninspired, by-the-numbers tale of "mystery" that really wasn't about anything engaging. I noted that Nishimura's earlier novels were, even if not perfect, at least much more entertaining than that novel. So I decided to go back in the past, to read one of Nishimura's earlier novels, before he became the king of the Japanese travel mystery subgenre, and before his books were nothing more than The Stereotypical Two-Hour Suspense Drama.

This is actually the first book featuring Totsugawa, Nishimura's long-running series about a Tokyo police inspector (and his team) whose cases often involve ingenous faked alibis using train schedules. In Akai Cruiser though, Totsugawa is still just a lieutenant, and the first case through which the readers got to know him wasn't about trains, but about boats! Well, that's almost as surprising as reading the first Perry Mason and discovering he doesn't really do much in the courtroom in that novel either!

The main problem of this book is that it's way too long. I mean, the whole first half could've been condensed in a few pages, and I think the story still would've worked. After the prologue that details how Uchida was found after his car accident, the story decides to spend a lot of time looking at the backstory of the victim and of the various suspicious characters who may or may not have a motive to kill Uchida off. This part takes ages. And is written a bit boring. But okay, all of this is of course perfectly fine if this was a conventional whodunnit. But it isn't. Around the halfway point, you'll realize that the one person who got a lot of attention in the first half, but was ignored because he had a perfect alibi is in fact the most likely candidate for murder. So why devote all that time at pretending like the other people were viable suspects? Sure, there's such a thing like fleshing out characters and backstories, but no way did it need that many pages to do that. It feels like a fake-out, and a bad one too, as when a story decides to devote a lot of attention to a suspect only to pretend he can't possibly be the murderer because his alibi is that he was out at sea competing in a race to Tahiti, of course I'm going to guess that he'll turn out to be the murderer. Had the story right from the start pointed at him as the murder, emphasizing the impossibility of the situation, that'd have made a much more enjoyable story.

You don't even have to go all Crofts by making it an inversed story, but do it like Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen and Jikan no Shuuzoku, by making it clear something fishy is going on, but not revealing what did happen. That'd have been more interesting that a large part of the story turning out to be fairly obsolete.

For the impossible crime angle is, at the core, quite interesting. How was the suspect capable in murdering the victim while also sailing (with two other crew members) to Tahiti? The solution to that conundrum is... workable. It's not mindblowingly brilliant, but fairly engaging (even if based on a story by Matsumoto Seichou, as the murderer confess at the end of the tale). Though I have to say, the murderer had to do an awful lot to succeed with his crime. What he did to commit his murder was ironically overkill.

So Akai Cruiser was not a perfect novel either, but at least I felt Nishimura poured effort in this book. The plot is fleshed out (too much so, at times), the impossible crime is alluring and original and the whole setting of the yachting world is actually quite interesting. Akai Cruiser may not be the best Inspector Totsugawa novel I've read, but it's far from the worst either, luckily enough.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎　『赤い帆船(クルーザー)』

Instead of Evidence

オレンジ色した極楽特急に乗り込んで彼に行くよ

「恋の極楽特急」（小島麻由美）

I'll get on that orange paradise express to go meet with him

"The Paradise Express of Love" (Kojima Mayumi)

I do want to climb the Fuji one day...

Inspector Totsugawa wasn't that surprised when he got a phone call from a private detective asking him about his subordinate Houjou. Considering her looks and age, marriage was probably something not too far off in the future, so the Inspector figured it was probably the parents or some other concerned family member of the partner who wanted to know more about Houjou. It is only after the arrest of Houjou on suspicion of murder of one Yamanobe Hiroshi on the Fuji Express to Kyushu that the Inspector learns she never had any marriage plans: heck, she wasn't even dating. Apparently, somebody had been dating the victim Yamanobe posing as Houjou, and the real Houjou had tried to find her imposter by boarding the Fuji Express, but with Yamanobe murdered and evidence piling up that "Houjou"' is the murderer, the Fukuoka Police has no choice but to detain their collegue. Inspector Totsugawa however believes his subordinate to be innocent, and starts an investigation into the murder in Nishimura Kyoutarou's Tokkyuu Fuji ni Notteita Onna ("The Woman Who Took The Fuji Express", 1989).

Another novel by Nishimura Kyoutarou, and another in the Inspector Totsugawa series. Yep, this one is about trains too, at least, it features a train at the start of the story. The titular Fuji was a sleeper train that ran between Tokyo and Oita, Kyushu, running (in one form or another) between 1929 until 2009. Unlike many other books in the Inspector Totsugawa series though, the Fuji's appearance is pretty much limited to the first couple of chapters: it is nothing more than the crime scene, and there are no clever time schedule tricks, nor do we see the Inspector and his team traveling across the country in order to find the imposter.

I have mentioned in earlier reviews that Nishimura Kyoutarou is an extremely prolific writer, who has close to 600 novels to his name as I write this review. And yes, that takes an enormous toll on the quality. He sometimes publishes several books per month, and most, if not all of them will feature Totsugawa and trains, so you can guess how samey and uninspired they can become. I have reviewed some earlier novels in the series for this blog, like Terminal Satsujin Jiken and Blue Train Satsujin Jiken, which may not have been perfect, but they were still entertaining as mystery novels with a focus on trains, with murderers making clever use of time schedules and the unique setting of trains as a murder scene. Tokkyuu Fuji ni Notteita Onna on the other hand is a perfect example of a mass-produced product, with little originality and few signs of actual plotting. It really feels like it was simply written because another book needed to get finished that month.

The premise itself (a female police officer being framed by an imposter) was okay, I think, but the book turns into the most predictable, and boring tale once we leave the Fuji Express. The "deductions" Inspector Totsugawa makes about the murder and the imposter are all nothing but guesses, and what's worse, each of them is proven to be correct! The Inspector sometimes comes up with the most fanciful creations of the mind by inventing unfounded connections between the various points of his investigation, which are always validated as correct a chapter later by some witness who just very luckily exists. Rince and repeat several times, and that's Tokkyuu Fuji ni Notteita Onna. Each single clue the Inspector finds happens to be intricately connected to the murderer's plot, and anything that would require actual inspiration to resolve in an adequate manner is shoved away in the hopes nobody notices it (seriously; the handling of the imposter at the end of the novel is horrible).

Also add in the fact that the Inspector does some really awful things during this investigations. Sure, he's busy trying to save his subordinate, but to orchestrate things in the hopes of upsetting a suspect so they'll strike again to clean up some loose ends, leading to more murders is probably something a police officer should avoid. The way the Inspector tries to get a suspected accomplice to talk near the end of the novel is also ridiculous, and should've got him fired no matter his intentions and the results he got.

So yeah, there is pretty much nothing redeeming about Tokkyuu Fuji ni Notteita Onna. Sure, it is a story about a murder on a train and the desperate attempts by Inspector Totsugawa to find the real murderer, but every single element of the story is written without any fire, without any real thought. The thing is not solved because the Inspector made great deductions about the crime, it is solved because his random thoughts always turn out to be correct within this fictional world, with any random guess based on nothing proven to be right. The reason I started with the book, was because I hoped the story would also feature Kyushu a bit (as the Fuji Express ends there), but what I got was The Stereotypical Mass Produced Mystery Novel by Nishimura Kyoutarou. There's definitely some fun stuff in his early work, but this novel is what happens when you publish three, four books a month.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎　『特急富士に乗っていた女』

The Mystery of the Blue Train

“Yes, yes, I know. Life is like a train, Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so.” 

"The Mystery of the Blue Train"

It's always weird reading books with complex and intricate alibi tricks that involve the railway, when you're actually waiting on the platform for a train that's ten minutes late already...

The discovery of the body of an attractive woman in the Tama River in Tokyo appeared to be nothing more than usual business for inspector Totsugawa and his team at first, until they find a reporter who swears the victim was with him on the Hayabusa last night. The Hayabusa is a Limited Express with sleeping carriages, departing from Tokyo and arriving at Kumamoto on the other side of the country the following day. Until both trains stopped their services in 2009, the Hayabusa and its sister train Fuji were both colloquially referred to as the Blue Trains, as a reference to their characteristic blue carriages, as well as one to the famous Le Train Blue. The travel reporter had been on the Hayabusa to write an article about the trip to Kumamoto and he is sure one of his fellow passengers in the private compartment carriage had been the victim. But if she had indeed been on the Blue Train to Kumamoto as the reporter says, she could never have made it back to Tokyo to be fished out of the river as a corpse the following morning. Inspector Totsugawa however has to move carefully in this case, as the discovery of the private business card of the current Minister of Transport in the victim's purse links her to a daring caper that happened several years ago, a case in which the culprits used that very business card to scam a bank out of funds. A long and puzzling case awaits Totsugawa in Nishimura Kyoutarou's Blue Train Satsujin Jiken ("The Blue Train Murder Case"、1978).

Nishimura Kyoutarou is an immensely pro-active mystery writer who since his 1970 debut has written nearly 600 novels, most of them in the so-called "travel mystery" subgenre, which focuses on traveling, tourism and means of transport. The subgenre has elements of the Croftian school, as it often involves alibi tricks using trains, airplanes and other means of transport, but also celebrates "the country": stories are often set across various areas in Japan, and so they also include a touristic element, as each book allows the reader to travel to a place faraway. Nishimura's most famous creation is Inspector Totsugawa, who made his debut in 1973. Nowadays everybody associates Nishimura with Inspector Totsugawa and his railway mysteries, but it was actually's 1978's Blue Train Satsujin Jiken that started it all, as it is seen as the very first of Nishimura's travel mysteries.

That said though, you wouldn't have guessed from the writing, as Blue Train Satsujin Jiken starts off really captivating, as it manages to paint an interesting portrait of the titular Blue Train Hayabusa and its image in the public's eye. There is a certain romantic image to trains, especially sleeper expresses, and descriptions of the children going out to take pictures of the Blue Train are certainly not a creation of Nishimura's imagination, but something that is grabbed from real life and it's parts like these that really help give the Blue Train a firm place in this tale. The opening chapters also do a great job at inviting the reader to the mystery of a woman who may or may not have disappeared from a sleeper coach only to re-appear on the other side of the country and an enigmatic assault on the reporter on the train.

Like the novels by Crofts and Ayukawa, we follow Inspector Totsugawa as he leads his team during the investigation. And indeed, like in the novels of those two writers, it's not just Totsugawa who has his moments throughout the story. Totsugawa's whole team is of importance, and he'll often remain in headquarters, while his men and women do all the footwork and follow up on their clues. It's here where we really feel the "travel mystery" element of the book. Totsugawa himself for example travels all the way to Fukuoka (Hakata) to investigate the Blue Train early in the book, while later in the book one of his subordinates actually travels on the Blue Train, seeing all the different sights, while another subordinate is investigating in a different part of the country alongside the route. We follow the team as they travel across Japan, giving you an amusing look at the country. Domestic tourism was of course already present in Japan, and with travel standards slowly raising in the post-war period, this focus on travel was well-received, as affordability, comfort and speed were all improving.

It is in the latter half of the book things start to fall apart though. Well, 'fall apart' might be worded too harsh, but the plot definitely looses steam, as it appears Nishimura appears to have problems giving a good explanation to the otherwise promising premise. Reasons he gives for why things happened the way they happened appear sound at first sight, but even a slightly closer look quickly reveals that doing those things doesn't really make sense. As it is now, the plot feels very artificial, as the actions of the characters only served to create the initial disappearance, rather than that characters were taking logical actions in regards to their own agendas. The thing becomes too complex, with the only reason being that those events need to happen so the initial mystery premise can become true. There is actually some really clever clewing going on, but a lot of that is overshadowed by the arbitrary manner in which the mystery is revolved.

The puzzle-plot driven mystery story is of course always a fairly artificial construct, but it's up to the writer to at least give a logical reason for the actors in the story to do the things they do. In this novel, it's not utterly unbelievable, but it sure looks like there were tons of ways to do things in a simpler and less conspicuous manner.

What I did really like about this novel, and a lot of railway mysteries in general actually, is that it's all based on real timetables. There's just something magical about mysteries that make use of the actual schedules of trains, and the land they traverse through. The Blue Trains as described in this novel don't exist in their original form anymore, sadly enough, so train aficionados might find some comfort in reading about those trains of the past in novels like these.

Blue Train Satsujin Jiken in general is an okay novel on average, with a great first half, but a less impressive second half. It's certainly entertaining on the whole and one can easily imagine how Nishimura found his groove and his audience with this first travel mystery novel, despite its shortcomings. A lot of Nishimura's later works feel very similar and not very inspiring actually, with trainy train plots with simple mystery plots barely worth writing about, but Blue Train Satsujin Jiken, as one of his (relatively) early works is a moderately amusing classically constructed puzzle plot mysteries of some quality, like many of Nishimura other early works.

Original Japanse title(s):　西村京太郎 『寝台特急（ブルートレイン）殺人事件』

Pursuit

Yes Wonderland

歌は国境超えて

どこまでも進むよ

「ここにいるぜぇ」（モーニング娘。）

Yes Wonderland

Songs can cross over borders

And go everywhere

"I'm Here" (Morning Musume)

Trains have always been important as a binding factor for nations (connecting different places), but I wonder if in Japan's example, the nation's love for trains is also related to the fact that the period the train network was laid down, was also the period that the common folk were permitted to freely move around in the country in the first place? I mean, before that, it was basically impossible for the common man to move around not just physically, but also legally. And then the world suddenly opens up, with trains as the perfect symbol for that.

Train-fanatics all over the country rejoiced when it was announced that the Orient Express would make a second trip to Japan. The legendary luxary train would go from France, through Germany and the USSR, and finally be shipped to Japan, where it would make a trip across the country. The Orient Express safely crosses the sea and is sent off for maintenance for a few days (to adjust for the different size of tracks). During the maintenance, a stash of Tokarev pistols is found hidden within one of the carriages, accompanied by a letter that suggest that the recently deceased ex-Secretary of State was connected to the smuggling. In fear of a scandal, police HQ sends Inspector Saeki to Europe to find out when the pistols were hidden in the train and by whom. Saeki however disappears from Berlin during his investigation, and the police have no choice but to send Inspector Totsugawa after him in an undercover operation to find his collegue and personal friend. Inspector Totsugawa goes to Berlin accompanied by his subordinate Kusaka, but discovers that a Berlin right after the fall of the wall isn't always a nice and safe place to be in Nishimura Kyoutarou's Orient Kyuukou wo Oe ("Pursue the Orient Express", 1991).

The names Nishimura Kyoutarou and Inspector Totsugawa are basically synonyms for "travel mysteries", a particular subgenre of mystery fiction that place a focus on traveling, tourism and means of transport and. Trains in particular are very important to the Inspector Totsugawa series, as they feature heavily in the old inspector's adventures, usually as part of some kind of ingenious alibi trick. As the title of this book also featured the Orient Express, I was hoping for an interesting appearance of the (in)famous train in a Totsugawa-setting, but I really should learn to read the cover blurb of books, because this was a very different book from what I had expected.

Orient Kyuukou wo Oe is basically a shakaiha (social school) version of a Inspector Totsugawa adventure. Shakaiha is a style of crime fiction popularized by Matsumoto Seichou, with the dark side of society, with all its big corporate and government organizations, usually providing the motive for crimes. In this book, we already catch an early glimpse of this, when first Inspector Saeki, and then Inspector Totsugawa are sent to Europe to investigate the smuggling in secrecy to protect the reputation of the ex-Secretary of State. Because it's probably not good for a country's 'face' if people hear your Secretary of State deals in guns. The political, and socio-economical situation in East-Berlin are also of importance of the plot, when Totsugawa and Kusaka discover that not all are happy the wall went down.

The mystery plot of the book is fairly boring. The 'investigation' of Totsugawa and Kusaka basically consists of making it rather obvious they're searching for Saeki (which is, I think, probably not the way to go in a secret investigation) and afterwards they're just following directions given by an unknown party that claims they know what happened to Saeki. Back in Japan, Totsugawa's number one subordinate Kamei is investigating the ex-Secretary of State (helped by private detective Hashimoto, an ex-subordinate of Totsugawa). Their investigation is surprisingly useful, but that's mainly because of incredible luck: basically every person they see over the course of the investigation turns out to have something to do with the smuggling. The plot hangs together by threads of coincidence and after a while you just stop caring, because heck, coincidence will solve everything, right?

I do have to say that I'm especially disappointed the Orient Express is only used in the very beginning of the story, as the hiding place for the Tokarevs. The "Pursue" in the title of the book just refers to the route the train took. The story has a interesting international angle to it, something I'm not used to in the Inspector Totsugawa series (which is very oriented on domestic tourism), though I can't say it was really impressive. Actually, most of the time in Berlin, Totsugawa and Kusaka just stay in their hotel room waiting for phone calls, so it barely feels like they're abroad.

Orient Kyuukou wo Oe really isn't an Inspector Totsugawa book I'd recommend. It has nothing of what you'd normally expect from a Totsugawa book, and there's little in here that manages to stand out (and the little that does, only does so because the rest of the book is so bland). This is one train you don't need to get on to.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎　『オリエント急行を追え』

End and Start

スタートを切ろう 君とリセットして

次に来る運（チャンス）試したい

「START」（ 愛内里菜）

Let's start and make a reset together with you

I want to take the next chance that comes

"Start" (Auichi Rina)

I think that Shinjuku Station is still the most complex railway station I've ever visited. It's more like a chimaera, with a maze-like structure of stations from different railways and metrolines merged together with other facilities like department stores. Ikebukuro Station is a solid second place.

Ueno Station is one of the major railway stations in Tokyo, used extensively not only by commuters, but also by tourists from outside Tokyo (or the country), being near Ueno Park and the Keisei-Ueno Station which connects to Narita Airport. And traditionally, Ueno Station has also been the terminal station for the lines that connect to the north of Japan. With many people moving from the more rural northern areas to the big city, Ueno Station is to any both the terminal station, as well as the starting point of a new part of their lives. To seven friends from F High in the Aomori Prefecture, Ueno Station stood symbol for their new lives in Tokyo and seven years passed, each going their own way in the metropolis. Now the seven friends once again gather to fullfil an old promise: to go on a short trip together back to Aomori in the night-train Yuzuru. Six of the seven friends board the train together, thinking the last one just couldn't make it, but little did the group know that their friend had been murdered in the bathroom of Ueno Station. When another friend disappears from Yuzuru overnight, the group of friends, as well as the police start to think something is going on. While Inspector Totsugawa is leading the investigation of Nishimura Kyoutarou's Terminal Satsujin Jiken ("The Terminal Murder Case", 1980) from the Tokyo-side, his faithful subordinate Kamei is taking the case personally, as he himself also hails from Aomori and he knows what it is to be far fom his hometown.

Nishimura Kyoutarou is best known for his Inspector Totsugawa series, starring the titular inspector in what is often called a travel mystery in Japan: mystery stories with a travel theme (usually by train), often set outside Tokyo or the other major cities. And when you're talking about mysteries involving trains, then the words alibi trick probably pop up in your mind, and indeed, Totsugawa's M.O. often involves figuring out some ingenious alibi with the use of the railway timetable. Terminal Satsujin Jiken (1980) is one of Totsugawa's best known adventures, having won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and been made into a TV drama three times. Detective Conan's Aoyama Goushou also recommended this title in his regular corner where he introduces the reader to other mystery series (in volume 22, which also features an Inspector Totsugawa-esque story involving a train).

I haven't read much of the Inspector Totsugawa series: some random volumes (like The Mystery Train Disappears, available in English) and none of them were really remarkable. But considering it's basically always an alibi trick, I was sorta interested in this well-received volume of the series. And indeed, it has a rather alluring situation, where one man is killed, while all the suspects were on a moving night-train towards the north of the main island of Japan. There are also some other complications, like a (rudimentary) locked room murder, but the main dish is the alibi trick. Which is actually very disappointing. For someone as experienced as Inspector Totsugawa, you'd think that actually checking out the railway timetable in detail should be one of the first things he'd do in such a case... The trick used in the book is only surprising in the sense that you wonder why the police hadn't noticed it right away. Even the other elements of the story can't do much to make the story more appealing on a plot-level. Matsumoto Seichou's Points and Lines is somewhat similar in that the main trick makes use of a blind spot, but there's a lot going around besides that.

On a sidenote, I am pretty sure that stories involving alibi tricks using trains/the subway only work well in Japan, as in general, the trains do actually run according to schedule. By which I mean to the minute, and not with two to five minutes of leeway. I still remember that some years ago, the train I took to school in Tokyo had a very minor delay (less than five minutes), but the company still issued official papers stating they had indeed a delay (to show at school/work, to prove you're not lying). It must be great if you live in a country where you can depend on the punctuality of the trains when commiting a crime.

I do have to admit that Nishimura does a fantastic job at depicting Ueno Station as a special gateway point of Tokyo: the place where people from the north arrive to start their new lives in the metropolis, or where people leave to go back to their real home. Nishimura succeeds in portraying Tokyo as a sometimes alienating melting pot of people from many different regions, not nearly as nice as the more rural areas further away from the capital. I never really felt it in other works I read by Nishimura, but here you really get the feeling you're reading a travel mystery novel, involving human beings moving around the country, each of them carrying their own past and the scent of their hometown. Shifting the focus from Totsugawa to Kamei, like the victims and suspects someone from Aomori working in Tokyo, was certainly a great idea.  The book reminded me of the film Kirin no Tsubasa, which was also about people from outside Tokyo arriving there and building up a new life.

The motive for the crimes is rather weak, or at least not very convincing as it is written now, and basically impossible for the reader to guess in advance because of the lack of proper hints, but I have to admit: the build-up to the reveal of the motive is absolutely fantastic and when all the curtains are drawn, it still manages to impress, despite the earlier mentioned hiccups.

Is The Terminal Murder Case a real masterpiece in the travel mystery subgenre? No, the mystery plot is a bit too underwhelming for that, even if it certainly does some great things in terms of characterization. When the alibi trick was first revealed I was really disappointed with the story, but having finished it and looking back, I'll admit that I enjoyed the book a lot more than I myself had expected to do.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎 『終着駅（ターミナル）殺人事件』

The Lost Special

なんなんだなんなんだ

この毎日はいったいなんだ

窓に映る僕は誰だ

ここはどこで　どこまで行くんだ

「ファイティングポーズの詩」 (馬場俊英)

What is this? What is this?

What kind of life is this?

Who is the me reflected in the window?

Where am I and where am I going?

'Fighting Pose Song' (Baba Toshihide)

It would have been so much more logical if I had started out reviewing English-translated Japanese novels and then moved on the non-translated novels. No offense meant to anyone, but moving back to English does feel like taking a step back.

One of the most prolific writers in Japan is Nishimura Kyoutarou. He is famous for his travel/train mysteries, that seem like a mix between detective stories, the railway schedule and a tourist guide. Keenfully constructed alibis that make use of the detailed and complex railway system in Japan and cops who have to travel across Japan by train to investigate their cases, it's the formula Nishimura has used for many, many years now and what made him popular. He is also strongly connected with TV productions and if you're watching an afternoon rerun of a two-hour mystery drama in Japan, there is a one in a three chance it's based on a plot by Nishimura (the other candidates are Uchida Yasuo and Yamamura Misa). Wikipedia tells me he has written 469 novels as of today, at the rate of almost a book a month. Sometimes two. And yes, that does has effects on the quality of his novels. I've seen a couple of the TV dramas and read one or two of his train mystery novels, but they are usually not really that interesting (I liked the first DS game though!). But no, I am not a big fan.

In fact, the only Nishimura Kyoutarou novels I've discussed here until now were the four novels of his Great Detectives series. Not Afraid of Great Detectives, Too Many Great Detectives, Even Great Detectives Don't Have It Easy and Cheers To The Great Detectives feature the four detectives Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Maigret and Akechi Kogorou in a grand murder investigation crossover. These are some early works by Nishimura and the books are out of print (also because Nishimura never bothered clearing the rights for the use of the characters), but they are 'normal' orthodox detectives and not train-mysteries at all. The series started out pretty fun but ends in a mess, but the idea is fun. Anyway, it is pretty strange to have discussed four novels of Nishimura without any of them featuring a train...

The first Nishimura Kyoutarou novel I read was The Mystery Train Disappears (original title: Misuteri Ressha ga Kieta), which is as far as I know the only novel available of him in English. The novel was originally published in 1982, with the translation dating eight years later and is part of Nishimura Kyoutarou's Inspector Totsugawa series, his most famous creation. I have to admit that I know very little about Totsugawa, but there is actually little to tell about him except for the fact that he is a homicide inspector at the Metropolitan Police Department, who with his partner Kamei has been solving crimes since the 1970s. And he's also the hero in Nishimura's most recent work (to be released this Wednesday),  Totsugawa Keibu Seibu Shinjukusen no Shikaku ("Inspector Totsugawa - The Dead Angle of the Seibu-Shinjuku Line"). So Totsugawa's been around for some time.

The title of The Mystery Train Disappears tells the reader everything, actually. The Mystery Train is a special train run by the Japan National Railways with an unknown destination and schedule. All people know is that they are promised an entertaining ride on a train that is to leave Tokyo on a Saturday and return the following Monday. And this sense of mystery of course attracts people. Over 8000 people applied for a seat, but only 400 passengers were lucky enough to receive tickets for this exclusive train. A day after the Mystery Train's departure, the JNR's director receives a phone call: someone claims to have taken all 400 passengers hostage and demands ransom money. At first, nobody believes this story, but a couple of a phone calls makes it clear: the Mystery Train has indeed disappeared! The train definitely left Tokyo on Saturday, but it never arrived at Tottori, one of the secret destinations of the Mystery Train's schedule. The trains that were scheduled after the Mystery Train were all running on time, so there couldn't have been an accident on the track midway. How did the kidnappers manage to get hold of a complete train and all 400 passengers?

The problem with the disappearance of a train has traditionally been that there are not many ways to make a complete train disappear. I think I've read Conan Doyle's The Lost Special and Queen's Snowball in July, and I like the latter's solution more, but let's admit, there are only so many things you can do with a gigantic heavy metal tube that usually needs some kind of rails under it to move. Nishimura's solution to the problem is interesting, but though I am no railway fanatic, even I see several problems with the way Nishimura explained how the Mystery Train disappeared. Indeed, the Japanese wiki-page for this novel even makes an explicit statement that the disappearance trick used here is not possible now and not even when the book was originally published. Which kinda kills the magic. A big problem also lies with the scale: Nishimura's trick might have worked on a smaller scale, but certainly not with a 12-wagon train with 400 passengers.

There are actually two investigations going on at the same time: one is the search for the disappeared train and another is related to the transfer of the ransom money and the latter one is actually more interesting. The criminals manage to get away with the ransom money from a running train, even though the windows were locked and every passenger searched by the police. This disappearance trick overshadows the trick of the Mystery Train as it is more believable, which could not have been Nishimura's original intent.

I am also not exactly sure whether a series detective like Totsugawa was needed in this book at all. The police and the JNR are being played with by the hostage takers throughout most of the book and in fact, the story reaches its conclusion pretty much on its own, without any real interference of the police. I am not a Totsugawa fan at all, but I can imagine that some readers might have felt unsatisfied with his portrayal, because literally any police inspector could have filled in the role of Totsugawa here.

In the end, I do wonder why this novel was selected to be translated. As far as I know, it's considered pretty average even among Japanese fans of Nishimura, so why not one of his better books? Most of the Japanese mysteries translated to English are pretty good / considered classics, but The Mystery Train Disappears does not really feel worthwile. If in need for an awesome Japanese train mystery, see Matsumoto's Points and Lines.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎　『ミステリー列車が消えた』