Deadly Games

"I know what you're thinking, but those silly riddle crimes are a thing of the past, ancient history that's gone now"

"Riddler's Reform" (Batman the Animated Series)

What is it with cats and covers for mystery-related books in Japan... A lot of anthologies with no connecting story/theme seem to default to cats on the cover when in doubt...

After reading the generally excellent Anata mo Meitantei ("What A Great Detective You Are") anthology earlier this year, I went looking for other similar books, and I soon arrived at Kibun wa Meitantei ("Feeling Like the Great Detective"), which features a few of the same authors. The set-up is nearly identical: this is an anthology originally published in 2006, collecting six stories by as many authors. All six stories were originally serialized in 2005 in the tabloid Yukan Fuji and were pure whodunnits, divided in two distinct parts: the first part being the "problem", where the main mystery (usually a murder) is presented along with all the relevant characters and clues and which ends with a formal Challenge to the Reader. Originally, readers would then have some time to write in their answers, with money prizes awaiting the correct guessers. This book notes for each story the percentage of contenders that got the answer right, which can range from as high as nearly 30% to as low as 1%! Interestingly enough, the pocket release of this book includes an interview with the participating authors, but the authors have anonymized in the text, turning this interview into a "guess who is who" game too! Note that while this book features six stories, I will only discuss five of them here: I already discussed Norizuki Rintarou's excellent Hydra Daijuu no Kubi ("The Tenth Head of the Hydra") when it was later collected in the Norizuki collection Hanzai Horoscope 1 - Rokunin no Joou no Mondai ("Horoscope of Crime 1 - The Problem of the Six Queens").

Glass no Ori no Satsujin ("Murder inside a Glass Cage") was written by Arisugawa Alice and is narrated by a private detective who hasn't seen much business lately. That day, he is visited by an old college friend, Saya, who needs his help: she works at a gym and one of the customers has become smitten with her. So much so he's turned into a genuine stalker: first hanging around the gym after closing time to ask her out, but lately he's found out where she lives and has been waiting for her near her home. Saya's attempt to get the police involved ended with a "But he hasn't done anything yet...", so now Saya wants to know who he is exactly and put a stop to it. The plan is for the detective to follow Saya after she's done with work and confront the stalker when he appears. This part of the plan goes well, but the stalker makes a run for it the moment the detective talks to him, resulting in a chase. The detective loses the man, but as he tries to find his way back to Saya, the stalker appears from behind him, and knocks him out. A few minutes later, he's awakened by Saya. They are discussing what had happened, when a policeman arrives, telling them a man has been stabbed nearby and asking whether they saw anyone suspicious. It turns out the man who was stabbed is the stalker, and eventually, he dies. Police investigation however lead to a curious conclusion. The police arrived almost immediately after the deed happened, confirmed by the fact the detective had seen the stalker (was attacked by him) just a few minutes prior. There were basically only four routes away from the crime scene, each leading  in a different direction (a cross). There were people on all four routes: Saya found the detective on one of those routes, the police box was on another, a man who had been locked out by his wife on another and a noodle stand owner on the last. And yet one of them saw anyone come their way. So where did the stabber go? And if one of the witnesses was the stabber, where then did the knife go, as none of them could've gone far enough to dispose of a bloody knife before the patrol officer stopped them. This is a decent, semi-impossible mystery tale (a disappearing weapon from a closed circle), but it is very one-dimensional, in the sense that it basically hinges on one trick. There are a few hints that point to how the murderer managed to spirit away the knife, but I wish there were more 'steps' in the solution, as this is a very simple story indeed.

Choutsugai no Mondai ("The Problem of the Hinge") by Nukui Tokurou is interestingly one of two stories in this collection that revolve around a narrative within a narrative. We first see how the succesful writer and amateur detective Kisshouin is visited by Katsujima, an old friend who now works as a police detective. Katsujima tells Kisshouin about a curious case the police is having trouble with: five bodies were discovered in a rental home in the woods that day. Three of them had obviously been murdered, two of them had died of either an accident or suicide. A diary was also found penned by one of the women: it details how the five, who belonged to an acting troupe, had rented the place to rehearse an upcoming play. On the first night, one of them fell from the stairs and died. They had no reception on their phones in the woods, and the storm outside prevented them from getting help themselves (and unbeknownst to them, the road further down had collapsed due to the storm), so they were forced to stay in the house longer. However, one by one they got murdered, until the diary stopped. Katsujima now wants Kisshouin to figure out who the murderer is: anything that could precisely identify these five people had been disposed of, and the rental home had been rented by someone under a false name,so this indicates the murderer had planned all of this, but which of the five bodies belongs to the murderer?This is an interesting twist on the And Then There Were None formula, with the question shifting from a simple whodunnit, to guessing which of two (dead) persons is the murderer. Like the Arisugawa story, you could argue this too is based very much on one single idea, but I find the idea here developed much better, with far more hints, and also more subtle hints, that permeate the whole diary part of the story, and also using a multi-stage line of reasoning to lead the reader to notice that one important idea. 

Maya Yutaka's Futatsu no Kyouki ("Two Weapons") stars his series detective Kisarazu Yuuya, who is visited by his 'friend' Tsukigase Naoko, who desperately needs help from the great detective.  And she's sure he won't refuse, as he owes her for setting up a date for him in the past, a date that didn't lead to anything, but the date did provide Kisarazu with a clue vital to solving a case he was working on (so Naoko didn't do anything... but he still owes her).  Naoko's brother Hidenori is a suspect in a murder that happened at the university: while he has an alibi for the murder as he was on the phone with Naoko, the police doesn't trust the testimony of family, which irritates Naoko greatly. Hidenori is one of two "over-doctors" (PhDs who can't get employed) belonging to the Miyamiki research lab of the Kyoto University of Science. The people here research nuclear fusion under the guidance of professor Miyamaki, though few people see a future in their specific research theme, which is also why they don't have that big of a budget. Lately, a new assistant's position opened up though, which had two candidates: Hidenori and... the murder victim. On the fateful day, the victim Ookawara Akira was working at the lab on the top floor of the building, when a man with a full-face helmet appeared: this was quite usual actually, as the lab had regular visits of Shimokoma Aisaku, who believed he had made a breakthrough in his research on nuclear fusion, but also feared "organizations" were after him, so he always kept his face hidden. The helmeted person was seen on security footage entering the lab soon after the victim did, and after a minute or so, was seen leaving hastily, and some other people on the floor saw the helmeted person too. However, it turns out this helmeted man was not Shimokoma, as he had been visiting somewhere completely different. When later Hidenori entered the lab, he found Ookawara dead, having been hit hard on the head. The police soon puts one and one together: someone had disguised himself as Shimokoma to hide their face from the security cameras. While the police hasn't made any arrest yet, they do know the murderer is one of the five Miyakami-affiliated researchers/students who had been present on that floor that day, as they were the only ones with a key to the lab. Hidenori's position in particular is not great, as he had the greatest motive for wanting Ookawara out of the way. What makes this mystery even more puzzling, is the fact the disguise and the murder weapon were discovered outside the university, but for some reason the package had two weapons: the wrench actually used to hit Ookawara, but also a knife. Why did the murderer prepare two weapons?

This is a story I like better as a concept, than the actual execution. It is a bit of a tedious read, with all the witnesses stating when and how they saw the helmeted person move around on the floor (there's a floor plan), and it drags a bit because of that (it is also the longest story in the collection). The solution is well-hinted, and I like the conclusion that derives from the fact they discovered two weapons (of which only one was used), but some elements of the solution I did not like because of how this was originally a story published as a competition: sometimes I can accept certain things to happen in a mystery story if it was published "as is", but if it's explicitly published in two parts (problem/solution), and you are challenging people to send in answers/have prizes available for the correct answers, there are some elements I'd like writers to avoid to ensure the story feels fair. Maya isn't being unfair here, but it's not something I particularly like in these kinds of stories.

Juugofunkan no Dekigoto ("It Happened in Fifteen Minutes") by Kirisha Takumi is set on the Shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo: Mystery screenplay writer Oogami Tsuyoshi had been visiting Kyoto to work on an upcoming script, but is now on his way home to Tokyo. After buying a beer from the purser, he spills the contents on himself, so he moves to the wash corner to clean himself, but he finds a man in a Hawaii shirt leaning over the sink. As the man doesn't move, Oogami touches the man on the shoulder to see if he's okay, but the man tumbles on the floor. The purser arrives and establishes the man has been hit on the head by something hard, as there's a bloody wound there. It turns out the victim had been a nuisance to more than few people: he had been overly rude to the purser, had hit a trainspotter when he got in the way and had even got into a fight with another rider on the train. So there were more than a few people who might have wanted to hit the man in the head, but which of them did it in the mere fifteen minutes after he was last seen? Like the Arisugawa story, this is a whodunnit story that relies on the howdunnit: the victim's wound was clearly afflicted via something hard (so not someone's bare knuckles), but none of the suspects seems to be carrying something on them that could have done that (or at least, not without it leaving a trace on the item in question). The solution is rather simple, and while Kirisha does add a whole extra, very well-established layer of clues to support that solution, it feels uncessary, as you can easily just intuitively guess the whereabouts and identity of the weapon used, especially after another prop has been introduced in the story. So the solution falls a bit flat, partially because it feels very similar to the Arisugawa story.

Abiko Takemaru's Hyouryuusha ("Castaway") has the most interesting set-up of all the stories found in this collection. A man, wearing a life preserver, is found floating near the shore of an island, with a dinghy floating nearby. The man is pulled on shore by a local and a tourist. The man is alive, but seems to be suffering from amnesia: he can't remember who he is and what he's doing there. They find what appear to be diary pages wrapped safely in plastic hidden inside his life preserver. The pages are apparently written by a manager of the young idols/actresses/singers Saori and Yuuka. The two young women were "cordially invited" to join a small party held on the private island of the entertainment agency's president, accompanied by an influential television producer. However, the true intention of the "party" was so have these girls "offered" to the powerful industry men to "help their career". The manager knew this was going to happen and wanted to prevent this: while Yuuka seemed to be aware of what was going to happen and seem resigned to this, Saori was completely oblivious to what was awaiting her. All the people on the island had their own cabin to sleep in, but it was made clear to the girls they were supposed to be going to the producer and the president's cabins that first night. The manager kept an eye on things, and made sure Saori did not leave her cabin that night. However, the following day the president was found murdered in his cabin. Luck has it the ship's engine broke down too and there are no ways to communicate with the mainland. The diary tells of more deaths occuring after the first one, but that leads to the question: who is the man who was found in the sea and what happened to the rest of the people on the private island? I found this the most memorable story in the volume. It is somewhat similar to Nukui's story, with a story-within-a-story narrative and the problem requring you to deduce something more than just a one-stage "whodunnit": in this case, you are required to figure out who committed the murder(s) on the island, but also who the castaway is. While the reader will go a long way if they deduce a certain fact regarding the murderer, something which might be a bit easy due to the fact the main clue that points to that fact is inserted rather crudely in the story, this is generally a fun multi-layered mystery.

While I think the anthology I read earlier this year was overall better than this book, Kibun wa Meitantei is still generally a very solid whodunnit anthology. I like how there's quite some variety in these stories, from classic closed circle stories like the one by Maya, to more urban settings in Norizuki and Arisugawa's contributions, to meta-mysteries with a narrative-within-narrative shenanigans by Abiko and Nukui. I think I like the Abiko story the best out of the five I read this time (having skipped Norizuki's story this time). I will remain a fan of these pure whodunnit stories though, with clearly defined problem/solution parts, so I'll be sure to check more of these in the future too.

Original Japanese title(s): 『気分は名探偵』: 有栖川有栖「ガラスの檻の殺人」/貫井徳郎「蝶番の問題」/麻耶雄嵩　「二つの凶器」/霧舎巧　「十五分間の出来事」我孫子武丸「漂流者」/法月綸太郎「ヒュドラ第十の首」

Dead Man's Cavern

"Ragnarok, the end of the Viking world with a terrible winter that covered the Earth in ice, when vile crimes were rampant and all humanity lost."

"Max Payne"

I wonder if at those detective fiction courses at university they actually have locked room murder lectures...

During a holiday, Narumi, the self-proclaimed great detective of the Sealed Door club, invites his fellow member Kakeru (who was recently made his debut as a mystery writer), to go on an adventure together. While Narumi hesitates to tell Kakeru exactly why, they are travelling to a small village deep in the mountains of Gifu called Kagerou Village. When they arrive, they notice a strange church-like building in the middle of the village. They chat a little with the local people there, when they hear a cry coming from the nearby cliff: one of the Jizou statues has toppled on top of her, trapping her legs. Narumi and Kakeru quickly help her, but she then tells them her friend Yasoshima Daisaku fell off the cliff down in the swamp below. There's a dangerous path along the cliff that climbs down to the swamp, so Narumi and Kakeru carefully make their way down to look for Daisaku, who fortunately is safe: he is a firefighter and has experience with this. A tremendous storm starts as they climb up the path however, and it's becoming too dangerous to walk up this way. Daisuku instructs Narumi and Kakeru to find shelter in a cave halfway up the cliff path, while he goes further up to secure a way for them. Narumi and Kakeru are just inside the cave when the ground shakes, causing a cave-in that blocks off the entrance. To their surprise, they find there were more people inside the cave, and as they talk with these people, they learn this cave runs beeneath Kagerou Village and that in recent years, it has actually been converted to a cave hotel: the "church" Narumi and Kakeru had seen above is a wedding venue, and an elevator there goes down to the main part of the cave, which is surrounded by several rooms. The hotel is a somewhat eccentric attempt to attract tourists to the region. They also learn that Daisaku is a local who is to be married soon to Tsugumi, who is one of the people in the cave, as she was being shown around.

The group makes their way back to the main "lobby cave" to take the elevator back up, but when the elevator doors open, they find the nearly deceased Nanako, a local high school student: she's been shot in the cage. When she's asked who did this to her, Nanako points her finger at... Kakeru before she dies. While Narumi can quickly prove it couldn't have been Kakeru who shot her considering they just arrived there, the local people are still a bit suspicious about these two outsiders. They learn the elevator doesn't work anymore and for some reason, there's also no answer when they try the intercom connecting to the wedding venue above, even though there should be people there, and Daisaku should also know they're there. While afraid the murderer might have attacked the people above too, the people below in the cave can only wait, so they stay in the hotel rooms for the night, with Narumi warning everyone to keep their doors locked in case the murderer is still down in the cave, but his warning is not enough to prevent another murder the next morning. When one guest doesn't respond to calls from outside, Narumi and Kakeru try to open the steel door, but are only able to bend it slightly to create a gap, but the gap is enough for them to see the inhabitant is lying dead on the floor. But she has also written something in blood on the floor that seems to point to Kakeru again! Who is the murderer in the cave, and can Kakeru prove this time he really isn't the murderer in Kirisha Takumi's Ragnarok Dou - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Kagerou Numa he ("The Cave of Ragnarok: The Sealed Door Goes to Kagerou Swamp", 2000)?

Ragnarok Dou is the third entry in Takumi Kirisha's Sealed Door series, about the colorful members of a college club specializing in opening sealed doors. Last year, I read the first book in this series, Doppelgänger-kyuu - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Ryuuhyoukan he ("The Doppelgänger Palace - The Sealed Door Club Goes to the Ryuuhou House", 1999), which was also Kirisha's debut work. You might wonder why I skipped the second book and went straight for the third book in the series. Well, like with Summer Apocalypse a few weeks ago, I didn't actually choose this book because it was a book in this series. I was looking for books with dying messages as the theme, so when I learned this book had a dying message lecture, it found a place in the to-be-read pile, despite it meaning I would be reading a series out of order. Again. As always.

So yeah, the theme of the book is dying messages and it might be surprising to learn Narumi, the self-proclaimed great detective, comes up with a dying message lecture fairly early on in the book. While he namedrops Doctor Fell, Nikaido Ranko, Mercator Ayu and Sorachi Masaya as eminent predecessors when it comes to presenting a lecture on a specific trope in mystery fiction (locked rooms, no footprints in the snow, motives for creating locked rooms and alibis, respectively), I do have to say I find Narumi's alibi lecture really original. While I have seen dying message lectures before (disclosure: I translated Arisugawa Alice's The Moai Island Puzzle), the one in this book is quite original in that because it is about a message: being there's a sender and receiver, this lecture actually consists of two seperate sections (chapters). In the first Narumi presents a categorization of the type of dying messages a victim may leave behind to denounce the murderer (writing, oral, etc.), so the medium of the message, while in the second part, the lecture goes in detail about why said message might be misinterpreted/not understood (so the signife of the message). But what I liked especially about this lecture, is that it is in fact not just a fourth wall-breaking moment, or just two chapters where Kirisha shows he has done his homework and to provide the reader with context to understand how his twist on the dying message in this book will work. While I can't give details because it spoils one of the cleverest elements of this book, Narumi actually has a fantastic reason to actually be holding a lecture about dying messages, and it's precisely because he does this, they're in the end able to solve the case. Narumi might be a self-proclaimed detective, but.... he's actually truly a very clever detective, who in every other series would have been the protagonist. Narumi's just not lucky here, as the club president Godou is just a little bit smarter than Narumi (though less active). At any rate, I have seldom seen a lecture in a mystery story used in such a clever way in-universe, and that alone makes this worth a read, I think.

As the proper cave entrance is blocked and the elevator broken, the people in the cave hotel find themselves in a closed circle situation, but an odd one, as at first, there's no reason to believe the murderer is still in the cave, and it in fact seems more likely the murderer is on the surface, having shot Nanako and then sending the elevator down. The pistol used to kill Nanako is believed to be the one that should have been enshrined in the shrine in the cave: it used to belong to a World War II pilot who crashed in the swamp. But if the murderer did go up, how come a second murder occured in one of the hotel rooms? The door was locked from the inside, and because it's a steel door with a very sturdy, submarine-esque turn-dial lock, Narumi and Kakeru can't even force the door open with a steel bar, only able to open a minor gap through which they could confirm the victim died. As the story progresses, more people are of course killed in the cave. Meanwhile, everyone is also worried about the people above, for Daisaku and other people should know people are trapped in the cave hotel (especially Daisaku, as his soon-to-be-wife Tsugumi is one of the people there!) and Daisaku's a firefighter who told Narumi and Kakeru he'd inform the rescue unit, but why is nobody coming to their rescue? This leads to a lot of speculation on Narumi's part, and it's here where the book kinda repeats some of the... I wouldn't call them faults per se, but it's definitely something that stood out when I read the first book.

For like the first book, this book does feature a large cast of characters like many closed circle murder mysteries... but the narrative is mainly focused on the recurring characters, in this case Narumi and Kakeru, and later other club members after everyone is rescued and they go over the case again to try and solve it. Most of the book revolves mainly around discussions between just the recurring cast as they go over theories and discuss what they could do next, and the side characters that only appear in this book barely get anything to say before they die. The worst example of this is Nanako, who appears as a dead person right away, and we hear some characters lament her death, but we don't actually hear about how they know Nanako, who she is, and why she was in the elevator or anything. She's just there, dead. Only much later you hear a throwaway line about how one character knew Nanako exactly. This happens with other parts of the story too, where you don't really understand what their role is and how character X knows character Y, because the story is focused on Narumi and Kakeru chatting among themselves, instead of with others. It does allow the story to focus on a lot of the detective plot, as Kakeru and Narumi obviously talk about the ongoing case, but some of the puzzle pieces remain vague because you don't hear the other characters speak up too often. And while I do think the members of the Sealed Door club are fun and their banter does mean we get intelligent, genre-savvy discussions regarding the mystery, like the first book, you do feel some of the other characters should have given more speaking lines to flesh out the mystery more.

As for the mystery itself.... it's really dense! You have multiple dying messages (in the broad sense of the meaning, so writing, gestures, in-actions etc.), a locked room murder, long deduction chains about how the murderer must have been moving both on the surface and in the cave, and while I do think sometimes feel a bit chaotic, ultimately, I think it worked out pretty well. The solution to the locked room isn't that interesting to be honest, and the closed circle situation is resolved in a rather easy manner, but the deductions regarding the dying messages and the reasoning chains that point to the murderer are more memorable, and they work really well in conjuction with the aforementioned dying message lecture. Parts of the backstory of the shrine in the cave, which ties directly to the motive, are interesting ideas, though it's debatable about how "fair" it was presented and at times, this backstory goes pretty weird ways: I wouldn't have found the revelations here in any way weird had this been for example a Nikaidou Reito novel, but this being my second book in the series, I hadn't quite expected Kirisha to tell us this kind of backstory. This is an element I think could have been worked out in more detail to feel both more shocking, but also less... coming out of nowhere. 

The book also provides some more insight into the history of the Sealed Door club and why club president Godou started the club, which likely will tie to the final, fourth book in the series, I assume. These books are easy and fun enough to read, so I will eventually get there, not sure whether I will read the second book first, or the last one though.

Ragnarok Dou - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Kagerou Numa he is a fun mystery novel that does some original things via its dying message lecture, and for that alone, I think this is worth a read. Like the first book, it's a story that focuses a lot on the recurring characters and often has a comedic tone to it, so like many character-focused mysteries, it's pretty easy to get into, and while because of that focus, I do feel the mystery isn't presented as strongly as it could be, overall, I do always end up enjoying these books. Solid entry, and I'll be sure to read the other two books in the series too.

Original Japanese title(s): 霧舎巧『ラグナロク洞 《あかずの扉》研究会影郎沼へ』

Two-Way Murder

"I remember now," she said, "what that German word is. Doppelganger!" 

"At Bertram's Hotel"

I seldom read summaries before reading the actual book, so based on the title, I was actually expecting this to be set in Europe and be about twin castles....

Nihonmatsu Kakeru has become the newest member of the Sealed Door club, a somewhat private university club, originally only created to investigate rooms that have been sealed and kept locked in houses, usually because of some kind of history behind it. Practically speaking though, it's just a group of friends hanging out, with rather unique characters like Narumi, who considers himself a Great Detective, Sakie, who might or might not have paranormal powers, Oomaeda who can open any lock and moodmaker Yui. One day, they are visited by high school teacher Toomine Yukihiko, who wants the members of the Sealed Door to come with him on his visit to Himuro Ryuukan, the grandfather of Himuro Ryouka, a girl in his class, but who has not appeared at school for a year now due to bullying. Last year, he visited Homuro Ryuukan's home too, when Ryouka had only missed a few days, and was told she'd return to school soon, but she never came back. But now he has received a letter signed by Ryuukan, telling him to come and that he'll be able to meet with Ryouka again. Toomine thinks Ryouka might be held captive in her grandfather's home, and therefore wants people of the Sealed Door club there so they can find the room and get her out. Ryuukan also happens to be the president of the famous mystery club Next Door,  which self-publishes its material, one of the members being the famous mystery writer Aoyama Masayo, and Narumi agrees to come with Toomine right away the next day in his own car, while the others, under the guidance of Sealed Door president Godou Satoru, will arrange for a van so they can go together the next day. When Toomine arrives at Ryuukan's large manor, which lies near the sea far away from town, he learns the other members of Next Door are also invited here, as well as three girls from his school who were some way involved in the bullying of Ryouka. Narumi initially wants to sneak around to look for Ryouka, but is soon captured... but then the members of the Sealed Door lose contact with him.

The rest of the Sealed Door change their plans and hurry to the Ryuukan residence, but when they arrive there they find it completely empty. They then get a phone call from Narumi, and they learn something shocking. Narumi and all the others have been moved to an exact copy of the Ryuukan manor, but with shuttered windows, and no door out or stairs up or down. They have no idea where they are, or why there are here. While they are calling, they both stumble upon something horrifying: in the "real" manor, Godou finds two decapitated bodies in the bathroom, while in the same bathroom in the "second" manor, Narumi finds two cut-off heads: those being of one of the high school students, as well as of the taxi driver who drove her there. To preserve Narumi's battery, they decide to call again later while both sides look for clues, but when the next call comes, another death has occured at the second house, and it appears the murderer should be one of those in the sealed house, but who? Can the members of the Sealed Room find the second house and open the closed circle in Kirisha Takumi's Doppelgänger-kyuu - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Ryuuhyoukan he ("The Doppelgänger Palace - The Sealed Door Club Goes to the Ryuuhou House", 1999)?

Kirisha Takumi made his debut as a professional novelist by winning the 12th Mephisto Award, leading to the publication of Doppelgänger-kyuu. While it is the first novel published, the book starts off right away with Kakeru realizing there's some kind of backstory to all the members of the Sealed Door club which they try to keep a secret for now, so that is something that might be explored in later novels. I had never read anything by Kirisha yet by the way, so this was also my "debut" with his work and going just by this book, I'd say Doppelgänger-kyuu is certainly not a perfect book, and a lot of it can be attributed to it being a debut novel, but there are mystery-wise definitely interesting elements, which make me curious to the rest of the series.

The oddest part of this book is definitely that this is a closed circle murder mystery... but also not. Early on, we learn Narumi and all the other guests at Ryuukan's house have been moved to a sealed copy of that house, and they get killed one by one. This is pretty standard closed circle fare, but unlike most, if not all, closed circle mysteries, this book doesn't really focus on the suspense of such a situation at all. For the narrative doesn't follow Narumi in the second house, it's completely focused on the rest of the members of the Sealed Door, while they are working with the police trying to figure out where the other house is where Narumi and the others have been brought to, and discussing the murders that have occured both in the real and the second house. So unlike Jukkakukan no Satsujin (The Decagon House Murders), which also has a dual structure where you follow a closed circle situation on the island, but also an investigation on the mainland, Doppelgänger-kyuu focuses mainly on what happens in the "safe area", while we only get occasional updates on what is going on in the second house via phone calls. The tone is therefore also surprisingly light, as there's more focus on the (mis)adventures of Kakeru and Yui as they bumble around (with good intentions) to find clues, rather than a focus on a tense situation where people get killed off one by one and people starting to suspect each other. We only get to hear about the closed circle situation second-hand, and we basically never even got a real look at all the characters in the second house before Narumi called the others, so we don't really know them at all: we constantly see the closed circle situation via a filter, hearing about events after they have happened, and that makes this a very weird experience to read, if you're familiar with closed circle mysteries. It doesn't help the people in the second house are.... completely stupid by not following Godou's instructions about sticking together and not go exploring the house alone, so you feel no sympathy for them whatsoever, even if one death in particular is supposed to be somewhat emotional.

The investigation in this novel therefore focuses a lot on the background of the crime, as we aren't really there "on the scene": why has everybody been taken away to a second house, and where is this second house? I liked the mystery surrounding the location second house, even if the solution wasn't that surprising (it's revealed about 70% into the book), though I think it could have used more clues: a lot of the revelation ushured in by Godou depends more on pure intuition rather than actually clues we had seen ourselves properly. Somewhat frustrating is that Godou keeps on telling the police they are completely wrong and looking for the second house in the wrong place, but he doesn't say why or what his thoughts then are until the very end! He doesn't even have a reason to keep quiet, as he's constantly saying he wants to save Narumi and the others, but then refuses to elaborate. One part of the misdirection is daring, but it comes a bit too close to the truth, and I think a lot of readers will figure it out tat that point. The mystery of the why is not as interesting, a lot of it is basically speculation based on flimsy clues/indications, and then we just get a revelation which feels a bit unearned. 

At this point, you'd think I hate this book, as you don't get to see a lot of the core mystery of the on-going murders in the second house, while the focal points of the investigation we do get to see, are the less interesting parts of the mystery. That said, on the whole, I didn't think this an awful book though, as they are, as mentioned, also interesting parts to the mystery. I definitely found the parts relating to identifying whodunnit quite clever, even if it's told in a rather roundabout manner. You'd think there'd a better way to lay down the hints for that revelation, but as it is now, it can feel a bit chaotic, even if there are some points about it that quite good mystery-wise. It gave a really good reason for some of the murders, and it also ties nicely back to one of the underlying themes of the book. But it is definitely an uneven book, that feels very much like a debut novel.

While most of the characters barely appear in the book, and the focus is on the Sealed Door members, even then some of them barely get anything to do. The banter between the various members of the Sealed Door is fun enough I guess, but obviously, it's not enough to carry a mystery novel. It's very much a main cast-character-focused mystery novel, but in this case, it seems it goes a bit too far, not giving the core mystery as much attention as it deserved, as I do think the actual events/happenings are interesting and make for a good mystery novel, but it is just told in a weirdly limited manner.

Is Doppelgänger-kyuu - Akazu no Tobira Kenkyuukai Ryuuhyoukan he a perfect debut novel? Not by any means. Its focus on a kinda rom-com between the core members of the Sealed Door somehow mean it also focuses less on the mystery than you'd expect from... a mystery novel, and while there are clever parts and clues in the book, a lot of it is told in a rather meandering manner. But going by what I have read here, I do think Kirisha might be able to pull a tighter mystery novel, so I'll definitely read more of this series!

Original Japanese title(s): 霧舎 巧『ドッペルゲンガー宮 《あかずの扉》研究会流氷館へ』