A Blast from the Past

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

"Those Were the Days" (Mary Hopkin)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye Released

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

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

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

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

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

番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

番外編：Death Among the Undead Released

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

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

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

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

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

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

番外編：Death Among the Undead

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

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

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

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

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

Dungeon of Doom

Deep into that darkness peering, 

long I stood there, wondering, fearing

"The Raven"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Track of the Zombie

最大限界行きたいわ 

宇宙全体が手品いやい

「再生」（Perfume)

I want to go all out

The whole universe is just a sleight of hand

"Rebirth" (Perfume)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original Japanese title(s): 『屍人荘の殺人』

Danger in Disguise

The clouds are heavy.

- Yes, a storm is approaching.

"The Valley of Fear"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turnabout Power vs. Supernatural Power

ひとつの目で明日を見て

ひとつの目で昨日を見つめてる

「The Real Folk Blues」（山根麻衣）

One eye looks at tomorrow,

While the other eye stares at yesterday

"The Real Folk Blues" (Yamane Mai)

Late November last year, I reviewed Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead"), which I friggin' loved: it was a mystery novel that took on a very classic approach with its closed circle situation and impossible crimes, but set under extremely unique circumstances. I was already late to the party, as it was widely lauded as the hit mystery novel of the year  in its release year of 2017 and its popularity certainly didn't wane in the following year. In fact, 2019 will see both a live-action movie adaptation and a manga adaptation of the bestseller, so I think that the work will eventually find its way, be it in the form of the original novel or one of the adaptations, to the English-language market.

It was announced around the time I was reading the first novel, that Imamura was working on the sequel, and that it would be published soon, in February 2019. This time, I didn't wait a few years to come across a nice discount campaign, and bought the new book on release day (and finished it on the same day... more or less). Magan no Hako no Satsujin ("The Murders In the Box of The Devil Eye", 2019) takes place a few months after the events in Shijinsou no Satsujin. In the previous novel, Hamura Yuzuru (first-year student of Shinkou University and the narrator) became friends with Kenzaki Hiruko, a second-year student who, unknown to the public, has solved many criminal cases over the course of her life. After the crazy circumstances in which they had to deal with multiple impossible murders in a hostel near Lake Sabea while having to literally fight for survival, Hiruko decides to investigate how that all could've happened, and she learns of a mysterious letter that had been sent to the occult magazine Atlantis: apparently, the anonymous letter had foretold several major deadly incidents in Japan, months before they even happened, including the sudden outbreak near Lake Sabea. Another letter hints at where the prophesy came from: their destination is the abandoned settlement of Magan, where Sakimi lives, an old woman who can supposedly see in the future.

Hiruko and Hamura travel to the small village of Yoshimi deep in the mountains, as you must pass through Yoshimi to get to Magan. To their great surprise, they not only find a gate blocking the road from the bus stop to Yoshimi, but when they slip through, they find that the village itself is completely empty. Well, not completely, because several other outsiders happen to arrive in Yoshimi at the same time, including a journalist of the magazine Atlantis, two high school students of whom one also seems to be able to see in the future too, and a former inhabitant of Yoshimi who's back for the day to visit her parents' grave. Baffled by the disappearance of the people of Yoshimi, the group crosses the bridge across the river to go to abandoned Magan, to the windowless, box-like building where Sakimi and her help live, to ask about what happened to the people of Yoshimi. Here they learn that Sakimi's prophecy  has foretold that in the two days starting tomorrow, two men and two women will die in Magan, and that is why everyone in nearby Yoshimi left. But as some of the vistiting group try to make their way back, they find the bridge back to Yoshimi has been burned down for some reason, and now everyone is trapped on this side of the river, in Magan. At first, not everybody seems to believe in the prophecy, but the following morning, one of the group is buried in a landslide after an earthquake. While this incident might still seem like a mere coincidence on its own, the following murders that happened under seemingly impossible circumstances suggest that Sakimi's prophecy is destined to come true, flinging the party staying in Magan in a whirlpool of fear.

After I finished Shijinsou no Satsujin, I really wondered how Imamura was going to write a sequel to that novel. Was he going to build further on the specific circumstances he used in that book, or perhaps go a completely different way? The answer is that Imamura, perhaps wisely, decided to go a completely different way. We don't see those beings from the first novel anymore, but the reader will not be disappointed by Magan no Hako no Satsujin despite that, as the novel definitely builds on the underlying foundations what made the first novel so good: it combined a classic, closed circle murder mystery story with completely unique (and not particularly realistic) circumstances, to create an immensely original, but also entertaining, and clever detective novel. This time, the unique situation is of course that everything occurs because the prophecies of Sakimi are real. We actually have two people who can tell the future in this novel, Sakimi who prophesied four people will these in the coming two days, while one of the high school students is able to make sketches of incidents happening in the very near future (within ten minutes). Whereas in other mystery novels, you'd usually find out that these people are frauds or something like that, Magan no Hako no Satsujin makes sure you realize that these prophecies are real and thus these insights into future events actually become part of the deduction process. For example, early on in the story the high school student Toiro is both suspected, and partially cleared from suspicion of poisoning Sakimi, because her sketch of the crime scene before it happened, also included an object she couldn't possibly have known about, with the deductions and accussations all revolving around how those objects still made their way in her sketch.

In a way, the concept behind the prophecies isn't very different from what was done in the first novel: Imamura locks his whole cast up in a closed circle situation, and then has a supernatural/unnatural phenomenon threaten our cast. What makes his novels different from most other closed circle mysteries is that the threat isn't simply a force of nature, like a snow storm or the raging sea or something like that, but something out of the ordinary. What's more, Imamura is sure to make use of these unique special circumstances to come up with situations that can only exist because he's utilizing these unique ideas, resulting in mystery stories that are in the core recognizable, but also like something you have never seen before. The core mystery plot in Shijinsou no Satsujin could not have worked if not for those special circumstances, and that is also true for what happens in Magan no Hako no Satsujin.

That said, Magan no Hako no Satsujin is likely to leave less of a visceral impression on the reader at first, as the threat of... those beings was far more intense that the threat of a prophecy. Whereas the first novel felt quite dynamic, with barricades being forced open and the survivors being forced to move around, this novel feels calmer (relatively speaking, of course), as the prophecy itself isn't going around breaking down doors and attacking people. The deaths in the novel are also less gory, though the first clear murder is still quite brutal, with someone shot by a shotgun. This situation is the main problem of the novel perhaps, as the deductions surrounding this death are what allows Hiruko to figure out who the murderer is. The investigation initially focuses on the semi-impossibility of the situation, as everyone seems to have an alibi: nobody was away long enough from the dining room to break open the locker with the shotgun and kill the victim. However, this problem later turns in a more Queenian investigation when Hamura focuses on the physical clues left on the scene, and this part is quite ingenious. The deduction chain based on one physical object left on the crime scene allows one to identify the murderer, and opens up possibilities to solve the other deaths. There's also a situation with footsteps leading to a waterfall, but none back: this one is a bit simpler in design, but a bit tricky to uncover beforehand (as there are basically no real clues indicating what had exactly happened). Another death is quite subtly clewed through physical clues, not as clever as the first one, but still very nicely hidden within the text.

What makes Magan no Hako no Satsujin a unique read however is that the premise of the prophecies being true, is unmistakenly a fundamental part of how this mystery is plotted. I won't spoil too much as obviously, these prophecies spoil the story, but for example, several characters act in certain ways because they know the prophecies are true, and this is also reflected in the deductions made by Hiruko, but also the other characters, and the result is a detective story that can't exist without this shared reality of the existence of foresight. It's not as in-your-face as in the first novel, where you could immediately point out how those beings were involved in the mystery, but by the time you get to the end, you'll see how the theme of foresight is an integral part of the plot, with each of the murders happening or made possible only because the premonitions will come true.

The overall structure of this novel might be trickier than the first novel though, as even after an initial climax, the remaining number of pages betray there's even more to be solved by Hiruko, even if it's not obvious there's something else lurking beyond the obvious. This part was nicely done, even if the hints were a bit more obvious to pick up on. Even so, even this part makes fantastic use of the premise of the prophecies being real.

With the waves and impression the first novel left, I couldn't help myself drawing comparisons with that book in this review of Magan no Hako no Satsujin. The overall impact of this second novel is definitely not as shocking, but Imamura once again manages to write a tightly plotted, fair play closed circle murder mystery, which once again is made possible, and memorable because of extremely unique and special circumstances. The prophecies aren't just for decoration, but are a fundamental element in just about everything, making this a read you just won't find elsewhere. As this novel does build upon the story and characters introduced in the first novel though, it's recommended to read the novels in order. I for one can't wait to see what Imamura will cook up next in the third novel!

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘　『魔眼の匣の殺人』

Crawling with Zombies

"They're just dead flesh, and dangerous."

"Night of the Living Dead"

Most of the Japanese books I have, are in the so-called bunko format: A6-format pockets which are both small and relatively cheap, yet still printed on reasonably good paper. While there are also novels which are printed right away in the bunko format, new novels are usually first printed in large hardcover or softcover format at a higher price point, and after three or four years, the novel is reprinted/replaced in the bunko format, which is usually half the price and the physical size. So often, I hear all kinds of great things about newly released novels but I still choose to wait a few years for the bunko release. I had been eyeing Aosaki Yuugo's Taiikukan no Satsujin since its release in 2012 for example, but waited until it was released as a bunko in 2015.

Sometimes, this wait can be excruciating however. Case in point: 2017's Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead"). If you had to name one novel that made enormous waves in the world of Japanese mystery fiction, it would be this debut novel by Imamura Masahiro released last year. For Imamura managed to accomplish something nobody had done before, with his very first novel: take the number one spot in the Kono Mystery ga Sugoi, Weekly Bunshun Mystery Best 10 and Honkaku Mystery Best 10 rankings. This was the first time anyone had managed to grab the grand spot of these three annual mystery fiction rankings. These awards are all backed by different publishers, and each determine their rankings differently based on votes of critics/authors/readers, so it was no wonder nobody before had ever managed to come in at no. 1 in all three rankings. The novel alsomade off with the Honkaku Mystery Award by the way, meaning it was extremely well-received among all kinds of readers of mystery ficton. And yet I was planning to wait patiently for the bunko release, no matter how much I wanted to read the book. That is, until I came across a generous cashback campaign this week which returned half the price in store credit. And I am glad to say that Shijinsou no Satsujin is indeed one of the most entertaining mystery novels I've read this year!

Narrator Hamura Yuzuru is a college freshman who is drafted by Akechi Kyousuke into the Shinkou University Mystery Society (not to be confused with the Mystery Club). Akechi is not only the president of the club (which now has two members), he's also an aspiring detective who has solved a case or two on campus, earning him the nickname of "the Holmes of Shinkou". The two learn that the university's Film Club has received a mysterious note with the message "Who will be the next sacrifice?", which seems to be related to the club's annual trip to a countryside hotel, where this year, they'll shoot a short Blair Witch-type horror film as part of their club activities. Hamura and Akechi are quite surprised when they are invited by Kenzaki Hiruko to come along with this trip. Second year student Hiruko has solved several criminal cases in the past and has even been awarded by the police for her exploits, though she has kept that all a secret and it's only through his connections that Akechi knows about this. Hiruko isn't a member of either the Film or Drama Clubs, but as many members didn't want to go this year because of the mysterious letter, she's been invited to make up for the female numbers (the annual Film Club trip is also an excuse to get hooked up), and Hamura and Akechi are her tagalongs.

The Violet Villa used to be a private holiday villa overlooking Lake Sabea, owned by the parents of one of the graduated members of the Film Club. They later had it renovated into a little hotel, and now the Shinkou University Film Club can stay there for free for their summer trip, while the son of the owners and his friends also come down to meet the current Film Club members (and try to get lucky with the female members). The first day is supposed to end with a barbeque dinner and a 'test of courage', where they'll visit a creepy shrine in boy-girl pairs, but this game is horribly interrupted when the group is suddenly assaulted by... a horde of zombies! Not everyone makes it back alive to the Violet Villa, and the group of survivors has no choice but to flee up to the upper two floors of the hotel and barricade themselves against the waves of zombies waiting for them below. Cut off from the outside world, the survivors make plans on how to keep the zombies downstairs until they're saved, but while the news on television warned people to look out and be on their guard for the "strange" epidemic that started at a local music festival, the survivors couldn't have known that the zombies weren't the only danger in the hotel. In the early hours of the following morning, the Film Club's president is found dead in his room and the way his face and body had been mutilated by horrible biting marks, leaves little doubt that his death came by the hands of a zombie, but there are also several problems to this conclusion: while only a zombie could've committed the murder in such a horrible way, only a human could've performed feats like somehow opening the locked hotel room and leaving mysterious handwritten threatening notes in and outside the room! Even supposing a zombie did commit the murder on its own, how did they get through the barricade and out again without anyone noticing!? And this isn't the only violent murder to occur inside the Violet Villa while the zombies are coming closer and closer in Imamura Masahiro's Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead", 2017).

So I knew of this novel since last year, but I hadn't actually read up on the story, so imagine how surprised I was when I came to the part zombies appeared in the story! Imamura comes up with a unique way to created a closed circle situation, as in this novel, the characters aren't cut off from the outside world due to storms or broken bridges, but zombies (and jammers and media blocks by the authorities to prevent people from spreading panic and false information on social media). There are some short segments that "explain" the how and why of the zombie attack, but don't mind that too much: it's all an excuse to create a unique closed circle situation for a mystery novel, and one that works really well too!

The book opens with the three-storied floorplan of the hotel and I think it kinda symbolizes how dynamic this story actually is. When you first open the book, you might read through the character list and try to memorize where everyone is sleeping in the hotel, but once the zombies come, you can forget everything. Corridors are barricaded and closed off, people are eaten by zombies, others are murdered and everyone has to move to other rooms or to other floors as the zombies slowly break through the various lines of defense and available space becomes less and less. In your mind, you're constantly updating the 'map' as circumstances change. A lot happens in Shijinsou no Satsujin and you certainly can't accuse it of being a boring mystery novel with long investigation scenes in the middle, because this is a novel that uses the form of the zombie panic movie to not only bring thrilling scenes from start to finish, but also to force frequent changes on the circumstances that help deepening the core mystery plot, for example by creating siutations where characters have to move to other rooms or by making some parts of the villa inaccessible after a while, which are all elements that will later be used in determining the culprit.

It's in this ever-changing locale that we see multiple impossible murders occur. These murders too make fantastic use of the zombie setting: one of the main problems the detectives face in this novel is the question of how and why these murders were committed, as all the murders show signs of both zombie, and human action: the horrible way in which the murders are committed could only be attributed to the zombies, and yet there's also a human hand detectable, but how could one person direct the zombies without endangering themselves or the other people? Besides an "orthodox" locked room murder, there's also a murder where the victim was dragged outside of their room, which was obviously locked from the inside, so a different type of impossible murder. What makes this novel so fun is that all the murders only work because the story's set during a sudden zombie attack. These murders could not possibly have worked if the story had been set in a "normal" world, without zombies. While the zombies are not completely explained within this work, Imamura carefully hints at certain conditions and characteristics of the zombies in this novel which you'll need to solve the case, and Imamura skillfully utilizes the zombies to create unique murder situations. As an example of how to do a good supernatural/fantasy mystery novel, Shijinsou no Satsujin gets very high marks (though I have to add that Shijinsou no Satsujin does not feel really fantasy-like, it's fairly realistic. Save for the zombies).

And while some might be turned off by zombies in a mystery novel, the way the murders are solved in Shijinsou no Satsujin show it's definitely a true, puzzle plot mystery that is intricately planned out and fair to the reader. Despite the unrealistic plot device of zombies, Imamura does a great job at both clewing and defining the capabilities of the zombies and nobody could ever accuse of him of being unfair to the reader. The mystery solving is quite Queen-like, in the sense that the deductions revolve much around physical evidence and "this culprit did this, which means they must have also been here or done that, and therefore..." lines of thought, but keeping in line with the dynamic of the zombie panic story, these deductions are never too long, and quite to the point, and while Shijinsou no Satsujin certainly isn't a simple mystery to solve, it's certainly solvable without having to keep precise notes. There is one moment that contains a very damning piece of evidence in regards to the identity of the culprit that might feel a bit unfair, I admit, but that's more in the sense of "I'd have wanted some psychological explanation for that" than really "Wait, that came out of nowhere", as it is something is definitely properly hinted at, and the implicitions are clear, even if you don't want to believe it at first.

Shijinsou no Satsujin is thus a very entertaining debut work by Imamura, that manages to mix the zombie panic genre in a wonderful manner with a classic puzzle plot locked room mystery. The unique closed circle situation and the inspired way in which zombies are utilized in the mystery plot are fantastic and I can't wait for Imamura's sequel to this novel, which was announced a while ago! Definitely a contender of one of my best reads this year.

Original Japanese title(s): 今村昌弘 『屍人荘の殺人』