Survival of the Fittest

Memento mori

Remember you will die

I like Enta Shiho's art, but all these covers with just a girl's face looking at the camera all feel kinda samey after a while...

People probably didn't quite expect the zombie virus to take over the world in this way.  Twenty years have passed since the first recorded instance of a "zombie" or the "living dead." With time, scientists discovered it was not a virus, but a pathogen that causes dead mammals to becoming moving creatures again, even though people still commonly refer to it as the zombie virus. By now, most mammals across the world have already been infected by the pahtogen, but fortunately, a healthy person (or animal) usually has enough natural resistance against the zombie virus. It was when they die, or are severely weakened, the zombie virus can take over their mind, controlling the living dead. While the pathogen only affects the recently deceased (older bodies have not risen from their graves), society had to adapt to a world where the dead, and also the critically injured and ill will turn into a zombie. Many of them of the human zombies are rounded up, but because it is impossible to tell which are zombies of actually dead people, and which zombies are of people who are technically alive, but taken over by the zombie virus, they can't really "get rid of them" that easily. The bigger problem is the food economy, as it became impossible to do factory farming anymore, as even one single sick animal could in no time tun all the others in the farm into zombies. Society had to adapt to the new reality, and to some extent, they did, but there is still much to learn about the living dead.

Ultimate Medical is a medical company doing research into the living dead, and one day, they have a big announcement to make regarding zombie research. The presentation is to be held at the manor of Ukari Ichirou, an executive of the company. But when the time of the presentation arrives, the scientist in charge doesn't appear on stage. They go to the room where he was preparing for his presentation, but find it not only locked from the inside, but they hear rather worriying grunting noises from inside. When they mange to open the door, they see what they had feared most: the glassy look in the eyes and the slow movements of the scientist as he charges in the direction of the humans is unmistakable. The scientist is eventually led out of the house, where the police manage to capture him, but they are confronted with a mystery: the scientist was clearly murdered, which turned him into a zombie, but the room where he was preparing was completely locked from the inside, door and windows, and no weapon was found in the room, nor a murderer. So how did the scientist turn into a zombie? Yatsugashira Ruri, a rather young-looking detective, suddenly appears on the scene and manages to convince Ukari to hire her to find out why the scientist was murdered and how, but it doesn't take long for Ruri to get targeted herself by someone, sparking the suspicion that something bigger might be going on. Will she figure out who the murderer is in Kobayashi Yasumi's Wazawaza Zombie wo Korosu Ningen Nante Inai (2021), or as the cover also says: No One Bothers to Kill the Living Dead?

A mystery about the living dead might not sound that original anymore (because of exhibit A and exhibit B), but hey, it's a book by Kobayashi who makes really great use of supernatural settings in his mysteries with his Märchen Murder series, so if there's someone who can come up with something cool with zombies, it must be Kobayashi. And certainly, if there's one thing this book absolutely excels at, is the depiction of a world where a zombie virus (technically not a virus) has taken over the world, but not in a way that has immediately caused the downfall of human society. We are shown "zombie farms" where zombies are rounded up and just... let free, because they don't really know what to do with them, we have detailed descriptions of how the food economy had to change because it became impossible to continue the large-scale farming model and other goosebump-invoking details like how with the changing food economy, some people started to enjoy zombie meat (because it's better than nothing) and some even very much like the suspicious "monkey" meat they sell of which everybody knows it's not a monkey but they want to lie to themselves, and some people even go out hunting for wild zombies themselves to get some... fresh meat right off the bone. The world-building in Wazawaza Zombie wo Korosu Ningen Nante Inai is really interesting, and in that way, quite different from the earlier mentioned examples of zombie mystery fiction, which were set in worlds that barely started to know the new reality.

As a mystery however, I find the book slightly less engaging. The book opens with the locked room mystery revolving around how the scientist could've been turned into a zombie while he was preparing for his presentation in a private room, but the book doesn't really focus on that: that part is mostly ignored as we follow Ruri, who uses the excuse of being hired to investigate the locked room murder, to look into the research of the zombie-fied scientist, digging into a bigger conspiracy, which, due to numerous flashbacks to her past interspersed between the chapters, is obviously very much connected to herself. More than half of the book feels more like a private eye-type of story, where we see Ruri and her sorta assistant poking around, making people in Ultimate Medical nervous and occassionally some moves being made to get Ruri off the case. Some readers might find this more interesting to read as there's always a new event coming up, but I myself find it less interesting because at times, it just felt unfocused. As the book continues, we learn a lot more about Ruri's past which will eventually tie back to current affairs, but I didn't think this part really interesting. I believe the book was originally published with a YA horror-focused imprint, so I guess I shouldn't be expecting a hyper-puzzle-focused mystery out of this, and depending on your mood, the private eye mode of the book might be satisfying enough, but I personally felt it a bit lacking, with a few surprises which were telegraphed too obviously.

They don't completely forget about the locked room mystery of course, so we return to it at the end of the book, and it's an okay mystery, that makes good use of the unique world of the book. It's not a super complex trick however, and personally, I would also have liked a short story version of this that only introduced the world, the locked room murder and without the bigger conspiracy Ruri is after, because then I think it would have stood out a bit more, but as it is now, it's an okay locked room murder, which however is set aside for a very, very long time, so the impact is lessened.

By the way, I mainly know Kobayashi via his Märchen Murder series, which has some rather unique conversations which I always thought were because the stories were based on books like Alice in Wonderland, with characters speaking in roundabout manners and jokes based on misunderstandings and wordplay, but you also see that, though to a lesser extent, here too.

Overall, I did have fun with the book, but its main selling point is definitely the world that is portrayed within its pages. Don't expect too much of the locked room mystery mentioned in the blurb, and you'll have an entertaining time, especially if you also like the Märchen Murder series as it as a similar vibe. It's not very long either, so works great as a 'light-weight' book to be read between other books.

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『わざわざゾンビを殺す人間なんていない』

Growing Up and Good-byes

'I forget them after I kill them,' he replied carelessly.  When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see her he said, 'Who is Tinker Bell?'

"Peter and Wendy"

First one of the year!

Slow-witted Bill the Lizard still hasn't found his way back to Wonderland and Alice, and after wandering into the Hoffman universe and the Land of Oz, Bill now finds himself taken care of by Wendy, her brothers and the adopted Lost Boys as they once again fly off with the eternal child Peter Pan and the fairy Tinker Bell. Their destination is of course Neverland, where previously the children had grand aventures with Peter Pan, the members of the Piccanniny tribe, mermaids and of course, Captain Hook and his pirates. Have things settled down now Hook was defeated? Of course not, as Mr. Smee is intent on getting even with Peter Pan, and Tiger Lily, princess of the Piccanniny tribe, is intent on taking revenge for the death of her brother. Wendy takes the role of mother of Peter and the Lost Boys again in Neverland, but after a rigorous day of fishing training at the inlet, everyone is shocked to find the fairy Tinker Bell brutally murdered in their underground hide-out: her wings torn off, thrown around on the floor and stabbed through her abdomen. Everyone was shocked? No, not everyone. For Peter Pan doesn't care about Tinker Bell, who he only thought to be nuisance and barely any different from a bug, and in fact, the reader knows Peter did this. While Bill the Lizard has only known the eternal child for a short time, he knows Peter Pan is actually a complete psychopath, because right in front of his eyes and the eyes of Wendy and the other Lost Boys, the 'innocent' child has cruelly slit the throats of pirates and tribe members without any hesitation. In fact, even the Lost Boys are not safe from Peter's sword if they happen to say something that doesn't please Peter, and Peter Pan is not only their "savior" but also their dictator, the one who might stab them right through the heart at any time if he just happens to feel like doing so. Peter Pan, in all his "innocence" doesn't care about death and he tends to forget about whoever he kills. Wendy somehow convinces Peter Pan to find the murderer of Tinker Bell and bring the culprit to justice, and Bill the Lizard is assigned to be his "Watson". 

Meanwhile, the university student Imori has travelled to an inn to attend to a reunion of his primary school class. Imori and Bill the Lizard are two sides of the same coin: while they are two distinct people with their own personalities living in completely different worlds, they share memories, so whenever Imori falls asleep in our real world, he'll remember Bill the Lizard's experiences in Neverland and vice-versa. In previous adventures, Imori met other people like him, who all collectively share "a dream" of a fantasy world, where they are different people who can also interact with each other in the other world. But more importantly, he also discovered that the lives of these people across worlds are linked: a death in the fantasy world, also means a death in the real world! And when at the school reunion, people start to die in various weird manners, Imori realizes that people in his class must be the counterparts to people in Neverland, and that they are all victims of Peter Pan's murderous outbursts in Neverland. But due to a heavy snow storm, the inn becomes isolated from the outside world, making it impossible to leave the place and while theoretically, Imori and the remaining classmates could try to find out who the avatar of Peter Pan in the real world is and try to restrain them (despite understanding they are different people), Peter Pan in Neverland is all-mighty and can kill everyone as easily as taking a nap and think absolutely nothing of his deeds.  Imori tries everything he can in the real world, but can only rely on the very, very unreliable Bill the Lizard in Neverland, so how are they going to stop Peter Pan's deadly games and catch the murderer of Tinker Bell in Kobayashi Yasumi's Tinker Bell Goroshi, or The Murder of Tinker Bell (2020)?

Tinker Bell Goroshi is the fourth and final entry in Kobayashi' Yasumi's wonderful Märchen Murder series which started with Alice Goroshi followed by Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and this final book. Kobayashi sadly enough passed away in 2020, just months after the release of Tinker Bell Goroshi, thus ending the series (I read the pocket release, which was released late 2022). Fortunately is perhaps not a really good word to use, but Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and Tinker Bell Goroshi are all prequels to Alice Goroshi, so story-wise, the series does feel "complete", as those books are all set "during" Alice Goroshi, when Bill the Lizard just gets lost and ends up visiting a few other fantasy worlds based on famous children's literature before returning to Wonderland to continue with the events of Alice Goroshi. As mentioned in previous reviews of this series though, it's strongly recommended to read them in release order though: the avatar-system is first introduced in Alice Goroshi, where Alice in Wonderland becomes a suspect in the murder of Humpty Dumpty, and Imori and fellow student Ari try to prevent Alice's execution in Wonderland by investigating the murder in both Wonderland and the real world. Subsequent books however build on build on the mechanics of the avatar system introduced in Alice Goroshi, with shocking revelations and twists about the system in Alice Goroshi being taken for granted in its sequels. So some discoveries about how everything works will just be treated as common knowledge in later books, so it's best to read them in order.

Me reviewing this series has also been me confessing I read very little outside of mystery fiction and having to admit I never read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, any of the Oz books or the Hoffman stories, and while I of course know about Peter Pan, I have never read the original book Peter and Wendy, nor even seen the Disney film. I have seen Hook though, if that counts for something! And I also knew Peter Pan was a bit of a creep in the original book, with the original book suggesting he just kills Lost Boys with the line "The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out." So the concept of him being completely off-the-hook psychopathic murderer didn't actually require any time to adapt to on my part. There are probably a lot of references to the original book that flew over my head, but a rudimentary knowledge of Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook is more than enough to enjoy this book, so I never felt lost, and like with the previous entries in this series, a lot of the charm of the books come from the children's literature-esque writing: heavy on dialogue with almost no narration, and the lines themselves are often very silly, almost nonsensical conversations, as the screwball characters discuss things in roundabout ways, like Peter not understanding the concept of twins, or Wendy trying to explain the logic of why killing everybody in Neverland is not a good idea to 'catch' the killer. The repeated jokes and constant misunderstandings might take a while to get used to for some readers, but not only do these dialogues help set the mad setting of this series and its characters, it's also often skilfully used to hide clues in these nonsensical dialogues, and often feel very rewarding mystery-wise too.

While I enjoyed Dorothy Goroshi, it had a bit of a 'more of the same' feeling, which certainly isn't the case with this book. First of all, we have the closed circle situation Imori finds himself in: the inn is snowed in, and while he knows a majority of his classmates (and their teacher) probably has a Neverland counterpart, nobody dares to reveal who they are because they are afraid that if they say something in the real world, Peter Pan in Neverland (who shares memories with someone in the real world) might want to get even with them there. Meanwhile, people are dying left and right due to Peter's casual murders, which puts Imori himself in a very tense and dangerous situation, something we seldom saw in this series. It's a closed circle situation, but not like one you normally see in mystery fiction, because while people are "murdered" one by one, the actual murders only happen in Neverland, while their Earth counterparts will "automatically" die in some way or another to correspond to the Neverland death. So Imori isn't "really" trapped in a closed situation with the murderer, but it sure feels like one. The book alternates between Neverland and the real world between chapters, and near the end, this is actually used quite cleverly while the murder on Tinker Bell is explained, splitting the "deduction" scenes across both worlds as different people know different things.

Meanwhile, the Neverland part of the book also feels fresh for this series... for we know Peter Pan is an unscrupulous murderer who I think literally can't spend one chapter without killing at least one other living being, preferably by slitting their throat. And what's also important is that Peter Pan cares so little about death, he literally forgets about the people he kills, and not even his counterpart on Earth can recall if Peter killed certain people or not, because all they share are each other's memories. This makes the investigation into Tinker Bell's murder rather farcical, because it all happens while Peter is continuing his multi-hit murder combo, but Wendy somehow still manages to convince Peter to investigate the murder of the fairy properly with Bill the Lizard and actually find evidence or testimony to prove who did it and there are actually a few surprising twists and turns while they look for the 'elusive' murderer.  It makes for incredibly interesting murder mystery, because it's hard to guess where all of this will eventually end and how they'll catch the murderer despite Peter's murderous tendencies. As you can guess, the avatar-system is also part of the mystery plot and not just a funny hook for the series, and it's used brilliantly again here, like the aforementioned break-up in deduction scenes, but also by hiding hints and clues in the way counterparts in both worlds behave and the exact things they say in their memorable dialogues. The big clue pointing to the truth behind Tinker Bell's murder is pretty clever in that it's also a "dual" clue, two clues pointing towards the same idea and yet from different angles, and it also fits the world of Peter Pan and Neverland. It's a concept that probably would have been incredibly simple and silly if it had been used in "realistic" setting and fallen flat there, but it works absolutely perfectly reading it as a part of a "sequel" to Peter and Wendy. The motive behind the murder however needed a bit more depth, it's treated a bit too light now despite it having really heavy implications, which almost makes it feel like an afterthought even though I don't think that was ever the intention.

Tinker Bell Goroshi is now the final entry in this series and whether I can't say Kobayashi would've continued the series or not if he had lived longer, I can at least say Tinker Bell Goroshi was another wonderful murder mystery adventure in the world of famous children's literature. It spins the story of the boy who wouldn't grow up into a tale of mystery that is both tense, but also very comical and silly, while at the same time offering a mystery plot that is original and only possible due to the unique story setting invented by Kobayashi. In that sense, the whole concept of the avatars and shared memories is one you could imagine to have been used in classic children's literature, right? If you have read the first book in the series and liked it, I think you owe it to yourself to read the rest of the series too as Tinker Bell Goroshi is a worthwile read, and of course, if you have an interest in Peter Pan already, this is a no-brainer and should be picked up immediately. A bitter-sweet ending knowing this is the last book, but what an awfully big adventure it has been!

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『ティンカー・ベル殺し』

The Cyclone

" Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?"

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

Bill the Lizard has done it again! Last time we saw our not very bright lizard from Wonderland, he got lost and somehow arrived in the Hoffman Universe (a literary universe featuring the creations of German author E. T. A. Hoffman) and got involved in a murder case there. That case got wrapped up and Bill was ready to travel again back to Wonderland, but this time, he finds himself wandering through a desert. Exhausted, he collapses near the end of the desert, where he is found by... a girl called Dorothy, a lion, a scarecrow and a Tin Man. Bill is rescued by these four, and he's brought to Ozma, Queen of the land of Oz, who as one of the few people capable of using magic in this world, might be able to help Bill find a way back to Wonderland. This is a great relief for Imori, a Japanese student in the "real" world. Bill and Imori are two sides of the same coin: both "dream" they are the other whenever they sleep, and while the two have completely different personalities, the two do share memories. Imori has been aware of this two-way avatar system for a long time now and previously, he also met other people at his university who too have avatars in the dream world. After Bill's arrival on the land of Oz, Imori runs into the human avatars of Dorothy and Jellia Jamb at his university, Dorothy, and Juria, with whom Imori argues about the way Queen Ozma rules the kingdom.

While Dorothy and the others suggest to Bill he might as well stay in the Land of Oz, Imori is determined to have Bill return to Wonderland, so the people in Oz try to figure out where Bill came from and look for a way to send him back.  It also happens to be the birthday of Queen Ozma, and a great party is prepared at the castle, but then tragedy strikes! Dorothy is found murdered in her room in the castle, and Jinjur, who was guarding the castle entrance, was also brutally killed.  Bill's adventures in the Hoffman Universe however taught Imori that if a person dies in the dream world, whether it's Wonderland or the Hoffman Universe, their counterpart avatar in the real world also dies. Imori learns that the real-world Dorothy has also died in a freak accident at college, as well as a person who was likely Jinjur in the Land of Oz. Jellia Jamb is tasked by Queen Ozma with the investigation into the death of Dorothy and Jinjur, but she soon realizes that only a select few people, specifically Dorothy's friends, would have been let into the castle, because there were strict security measures set in place due to Queen Ozma's birthday party and the many guests invited from all the corners of the world. Meanwhile, Imori and Juria try to investigate the death of Dorothy in the real life, which brings them in contact with other human avatars of people from the Land of Oz, but to their great surprise to also run into a person who claims they killed Dorothy, but who are they in the Land of Oz? That's the great mystery Imori and Bill have to face in Kobayashi Yasumi's Dorothy Goroshi (2018), also known as The Murder of Dorothy. 

Dorothy Goroshi is the third book in Kobayashi's Märchen Murder series which started with Alice Goroshi (which I absolutely loved), followed by Clara Goroshi. Kobayashi sadly enough passed away in 2020, which makes the next book, with Tinkerbell, also the last one in the series. Alice Goroshi introduced the concepts of dual worlds, shared dreams and the avatar system, though both Clara Goroshi and Dorothy Goroshi are set before the events of the first novel. I'd recommend strongly to read these books in publication order however, as while these stories don't straight-out spoil the events of the previous book(s), they do build on the mechanics of the avatar system, and revelations that were considered shocking in Alice Goroshi, are taken for granted in subsequent novels, meaning that the first novel is a lot easier to solve because a lot of the clever trickery employed there are used as "common knowledge" in the following books. If you'd read Clara Goroshi before Alice Goroshi, you'll find out a lot of the "reveals" in Alice are mentioned casually in Clara, taking away a lot of the surprise and that's also true up to an extent for Dorothy and Alice.

I didn't really know the works of E.T.A. Hoffman before I read Clara Goroshi, and still enjoyed it a lot, so I wasn't too worried when I started with Dorothy Goroshi, despite me not really knowing the Oz series. Which might be a bit odd? While I guess the Wizard of Oz and all the novels are probably a corneerstone of American culture, I have fairly little history with The Wizard of Oz, and I haven't even seen the groundbreaking film. In fact, I basically only know the 1986 anime Oz no Mahoutsukai (known in English as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), and it's not like I even saw very much of that, though I guess a lot of people my age would recognize the Dutch theme song (which is really catchy!). But even as an Oz-novice, basically only aware of Dorothy and her posse and some other references like Kansas, yellow brick roads and things like that, I did enjoy the world and characters portrayed in this novel, which is also thanks to the funny dialogues Kobayashi writes. These books are very dialogue-heavy with little narration, and often have the screwball characters going on and on with nonsensical conversations (often with the clues to the mystery cleverly hidden there). I suppose some readers might find the repeating jokes and constant misunderstandings a bit tiring, but it really sells the crazy setting of this series and the writing makes this novel a really light read. It's quite effective at quickly drawing the various characters and the specific fictional world of the novel, so even if you don't know Wonderland, E.T.A. Hoffman or Oz at all, you'll be right at home.

With the murders in Wonderland, Alice Goroshi served as a great vehicle to lay out the rules of the avatar system and the dual worlds, and like I mentioned before Clara Goroshi was succesful in taking those basic rules, and build further on that to present a mystery plot that brought a new twist to those rules. I have to say that Dorothy Goroshi felt a bit disappointing in that regard, as this third novel doesn't feel like yet another step forward, but it basically runs parallel to Clara Goroshi. The mystery is also very focused on the question of who could've entered the palace, but this limits the number of suspects a lot, and I think that whole a certain piece of misdirection regarding the murderer is clever in theory, it's rather undeveloped in this novel: it's not brought up very often, so the attempt kinda falls flat, as the surprise really hinges on the fact whether the misdirection had been conveyed to the reader succesfully within those sparse moments, or not. In my case, the misdirection never managed to settle firmly in my mind, so I was constantly wondering why something wasn't mentioned, until I realized at the end that the book had tried to sell me on an idea early on without success. I imagine that if this misdirection had succeeded on me, I'd have found this book more surprising/enjoyable, That said, I did enjoy how the analysis of the Land of Oz and its characters through the eyes of Bill/Imori a lot and the book does succeed in portraying the Land of Oz as a place that seems perfect for a good bloody murder to happen!

I still think the first novel was the best at selling the dual world set-up though. In Alice Goroshi, you first had the hard split between the Wonderland characters and the real world characters, but as the story continued, the counterparts would slowly grow to resemble each other more, making for a (purposely) confusing cast. Both in Clara Goroshi and Dorothy Goroshi though, there's never that hard split between the real world characters and their dream world counterparts, with everyone already being aware of how the dual world system works etc., and a lot of the investigation/discussions seen in the real world just feel like an extension of what happens in Oz, rather than really looking at events from a different (more grounded) angle.

Overall though, Dorothy Goroshi is still an enjoyable mystery novel though, even if it is not as surprising anymore as the two novels preceding it. If you liked the previous two novels, or just like the idea of reading a murder mystery set in the Land of Oz (who doesn't!), this will provide some hours of good entertainment, but if you were never a fan of the nonsensical conversations of the earlier books, you'll definitely not find anything to change your mind. As metioned, the fourth book in the series is also the last, and I'll definitely will read Tinkerbell Goroshi once the pocket release is out!

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『ドロシイ殺し』

Das Fräulein von Scuderi

ほら ti ta ta ta ガラスの針

十二回の刻を打てば

 聖なる夜の七頭の影が 

無力な人形に手を伸ばす 

「Marionette Fantasia」（Garnet Crow) 

Look ti ta ta ta

When the glass hands strike twelve 

On the holy night, the seven-headed shadow

reaches out for the powerless figure

"Marionette Fantasia" (Garnet Crow)

One of the best novels I read last year was Kobayashi Yasumi's Alice Goroshi (2013), also known as The Murder of Alice. This brilliant fantasy mystery novel introduced us to Ari and Imori, two college students who discovered they shared a common dream, linking them to another world. Each night, both of them would dream very lively dreams about being characters in a mysterious Wonderland with fantastical creatures and having adventures or simply nonsensical conversations with characters like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, Boojums and the Queen of Hearts. The characters from Wonderland in turn always dreamed about living on some boring Earth, doing mundane stuff there, completing this two-way link. The slow-witted Bill the Lizard for example was the sharp-witted Imori on Earth and while both characters had their own distinct personalities, they shared their memories. In Alice Goroshi, Ari and Imori learn that if a person dies in Wonderland, even if it's 'just a dream', the Earth counterpart dies too and they realize someone is murdering people in Wonderland to kill their Earth counterparts. With Alice in Wonderland being framed for these Wonderland murders, Ari and Imori, and Alice and Bill the Lizard work together to uncover the true culprit.

A second volume followed with Kobayashi's Clara Goroshi (The Murder of Clara, 2016), though this is technically a prequel, set shortly before the events in Alice Goroshi. The mentally-challenged Bill the Lizard one day takes a wrong turn in Wonderland and eventually finds himself in a world he has never seen before, inhabitated by humans, but also automata (robots), magical snake-women, seven-headed mice and talking nutcrackers. Bill meets with Clara, a girl in a wheelchair, and Drosselmeyer, a judge and inventor, who quickly realizes that Bill is from a different world. He explains to Bill that this is a different world from Wonderland, but that the people in this world, which he dubs the Hoffman Universe, also have avatars in the world they call "Earth" and that they'll meet there because they have something to discuss with him. Back on Earth, Bill's counterpart Imori is approached by... Kurara, a Japanese girl in a wheelchair and Drosselmeyer, her German uncle who teaches at Imori's college. Clara has received a threatening letter, but attempts have been made on both Clara in the Hoffman Universe, as well as on Kurara here on Earth (which is why she's in a wheelchair). They hope that Imori and Bill, as an outside party present on both Earth and the Hoffman Universe, can help figure out who is trying to kill Clara in both worlds. Imori reluctantly agrees to the job (though he has Professor Drosselmeyer promise that Judge Drosselmeyer will find a suitable partner for Bill the Lizard while in the Hoffman Universe, as Bill is rather dense). However, Imori is unable to prevent Kurara from falling into a deathly trap, while Clara too disappears from the Hoffman Universe. Bill the Lizard (and Imori) is at the risk of becoming the scapegoat for these murders, until Mademoiselle de Scudéri in the Hoffman Universe decides to get involved.

Okay, so before I started reading this novel, I genuinely thought, nay, I never even doubted that this novel would be about Klara from Heidi. I mean, I knew this book started with a meeting with a girl in a wheelchair, and how many girls named Klara in a wheelchair could there be in children's literature? Turns out that was a fake-out, for it's revealed very early on that Clara Goroshi is not set in the universe of Heidi, but in a literary universe featuring the creations of German author E. T. A. Hoffman, known for works like Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) (on which the ballet is based). Unlike the Wonderland in Alice Goroshi however, Clara Goroshi is not set in the universe of one specific Hoffman work, but in a universe where characters from various stories all live side-by-side: from characters like Drosselmeyer and Marie from Nussknacker und Mausekönig to Clara, Nathanael and Coppola from Der Sandmann and Mademoiselle de Scudéri from Das Fräulein von Scuderi. The characters don't follow the settings from the original stories exactly either (as they all live together now), so it's a bit of a mish-mash in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-esque approach. I myself am not really familiar with Hoffman's work, but fans may find it interesting to see how these characters are portrayed in their new roles in this novel.

While Clara Goroshi is technically a prequel set immediately before Alice Goroshi, it's most definitely best read after reading the first novel, as it builds on the great premise of the first novel. In Alice Goroshi, Kobayashi explored the relation between Wonderland and Earth to bring a wonderful fantastical mystery, by having the reader, Ari and Imori slowly learn how actions in one world were reflected in the other world, and the avatars in both worlds had to work together, sharing knowledge and information in order to catch the brilliant murderer who made use of these connections. Clara Goroshi is built upon these foundations, so some elements that are only revealed later in Alice Goroshi are actually mentioned early on in Clara Goroshi, so that might spoil the former if you don't read them in order. That said, knowing Alice Goroshi certainly doesn't make the job easier for the home detective, because Kobayashi once again makes fantastic use of the premise of avatars in two connected worlds, while also portraying an enchanting fantasy world with larger-than-life characters with incredibly funny and whimsical dialogue that fits so well with the atmosphere of these novels, that embrace the dark side of children's literature.

While Clara Goroshi is definitely a fantasy novel, with characters like automata and talking nutcrackers, the core mystery plot is of course pure deductive bliss, one that works exactly because it is set in a world that is not real. Kobayashi does a good job at going beyond the framework he laid out in Alice Goroshi, taking a step back and saying "Okay, I did this and established that in the first novel, so now I can go this way with this second novel." Having Alice Goroshi as his base allows him to pull of some nice ideas, and especially the misdirection is once again great. In Alice Goroshi, the misdirection was mainly focused within the whimsical, nonsensical dialogue between the utterly nuts characters from Wonderland: in Clara Goroshi, we have a murderer who does a far more impressive job at using misdirection to confuse the detectives, and the great thing is of course that these ideas only work because of the supernatural setting of these novels: these tricks and ideas can simply not be used in "normal" settings. While technically, the underlying idea is something you'll often see in mystery fiction, the variation shown here makes such clever use of the rules and ideas established in both this and the first novel, that it's absolutely original, and due to the careful way in which Kobayashi plotted the novels, it also feels completely fair, despite the 'magic'. It's therefore such a shame Kobayashi used such a lame clue to out the identity of the murderer (the accidental slip of the tongue), as the core idea is far better than that.

What I think is especially great about this novel is that the underlying premise is very likely to fool readers who have read Alice Goroshi already, the readers who are familiar with how Earth and the other worlds are linked. The rules for both the Earth-Wonderland and Earth-Hoffman-Universe connections are exactly the same, and given their experience with Alice Goroshi, you'd think experienced readers will have an edge and have some idea of what to expect, Kobayashi does a commendable job by not subverting the established rules or even adding new rules on top of what we already know, but very simply, yet effectively using those same rules to create a plot which experienced readers are more likely to fall for than new-time readers. Some elements of the plot may raise questions with experienced readers, but it's unlikely they'll see through the whole thing, while I have a feeling first time readers will have less trouble asking the right questions.

Some parts of the story are less cohesive than the first novel though. The underlying reason for the motive for example is incredibly convoluted, involving several characters to simply act as horrible as possible for... no absolutely reason at all than to be cruel to everyone around them and to serve as the background setting for the titular murder. You don't need to figure this part out to directy identify the murderer/murder method, but it is quite difficult to truly accept the circumstances which led to Kurara's murder, whereas Alice Goroshi ultimately had a very human motive. Kurara Goroshi also seems to be a sort of ultimate crossover novel for Kobayashi: a few detective characters from his other stories also make guest appearances, and there's even a part that's confusing until you look it up: one secondary character will experience something that seems to go utterly against the rules that have been established so far about the link between Earth and the other worlds and Kobayashi uses his characters to explicitly tell the reader that his experience is singularly unique and not of consequence in solving the mystery of Kurara Goroshi. Turns out that the experiences that character had are described in an unrelated horror story by Kobayashi. Feels a bit cheap and distracting to have such a scene solely to link to another story, even if Kobayashi makes it clear that that one scene should not be considered when trying to solve the mystery.

While I had of course expected this already considering the first novel, I can safely say I really liked Clara Goroshi too: it's a great example of the fantasy mystery novel, using its unique, but clearly established supernatural rules to present highly original mystery plots. The way in which Kobayashi utilizes famous existing literature as its backdrop also gives this series a unique feeling, and while I myself was not familiar with Hoffman's work before, I loved seeing all these fantastical creatures interacting with each other, and with Bill the Lizard. I read the pocket version, which was released early 2020, and I hope the pocket version for the third novel (Dorothy Goroshi, which I think is about Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz) will follow soon too.

Original Japanese title(s):  小林泰三『クララ殺し』

Alice’s Evidence

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

(Nursery rhyme)

I always have to think of an old college classmate, whenever I come across something related to Alice in Wonderland, which is kinda strange because I'm pretty sure we only talked about the novel once. I guess she'd like this novel too though.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, but it was no accident. Some person, or animal, had oiled up the wall upon which the great egg had been sitting, and there was still a vaguely visible hand print left on one of the cracked shell shards. A murder in Wonderland! The Mad Hatter and the March Hare investigate the murder and quickly find a witness: the White Rabbit swears that Alice, and nobody else but Alice entered the garden where Humpty Dumpty was. Alice says she is innocent, but when the Gryphon is murdered too by suffocating on literally a mouthful of shellfish and Alice once again lacks a clear alibi, the net around her seems to be closing.

Lately, college student Kurisugawa Ari has been having these weird dreams that place her in some kind of mysterious and highly nonsensical Wonderland ruled by the Queen of Hearts. But once she started thinking about it, she realizes she has never ever had dreams about anything else: she always dreams about her being in Wonderland, having adventures with characters like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. On the day after she dreamt Humpty Dumpty died, she is shocked to hear a student of her faculty died in a creepily similar manner, by falling of the roof of the faculty building. It seems it was a simple accident, but speaking with some of her fellow students, she learns that it was no coincidence: more people around her dream of Wonderland! The intelligent Imori, a study mate, turns out to be the dull-witted Bill the Lizard in Wonderland, and they realize that the deaths that happen in Wonderland are reflected in this world too, resulting in the death of their Earthly counterparts. The two work together both in the real world and in Wonderland to prove Alice's innocence and find the real murderer in Kobayashi Yasumi's Alice Goroshi (The Murder of Alice, 2013).

I have not read the original Alice in Wonderland, nor even seen any of the (animated) movie adaptations, but man, I come across it a lot in Japanese mystery fiction. In fact, I think I can more-or-less construct the whole original story, simply by putting all the references I know one after another. It's kinda like Star Wars, which is parodied and referenced so often one can basically guess how the whole story goes just by consuming other media. A few titles I have reviewed here are for example Alice Mirror Jou Satsujin Jiken, The Land of the Wondrous Beauty in the second volume of Kaiki Tantei Sharaku Homura, and several works like the short story Jabberwocky by Arisugawa Alice, who took his pen name from Alice in Wonderland. Actually, I even praised myself a bit for picking up on the Alice in Wonderland reference when I was translating Arisugawa's The Moai Island Puzzle, exactly because I shouldn't even have noticed it as I don't have direct knowledge of the original story. Anyway, the concept of a mystery story that revolves around Alice in Wonderland wasn't special an sich, was what I was going to say.

Kobayashi Yasumi's Alice Goroshi seemed like an interesting title/topic when I first heard of the book, but I have to admit the title only really caught my attention when Kobayashi released a sequel titled Clara Goroshi ("The Murder of Clara"), with Clara being the friend of Heidi. Now things were becoming really interesting, as the premise of a whole series built around classical children's fiction seemed too good to pass. I opted to wait for the (cheaper) pocket re-release of Alice Goroshi though which was finally released in 2019.

Was it worth the wait? Yep, it sure was! As one can guess, story chapters alternate between Wonderland and the real world: in Wonderland we follow Alice and Bill the Lizard, while in the real world we follow Ari and Imori. The parts in Wonderland are fantastic. As said, I haven't read the original Alice in Wonderland, but the nonsensical dialogues and wordplay that go on in these half of the story are great and also sure to annoy you immensely (in a good way): everyone seems to get their wires crossed as they talk with each other leading to amusing, but nonsensical conversations, and that while Alice is desperate to find some way to prove her innocence. It's what you'd expect of Alice in Wonderland, and this novel really manages to capture that spirit. It's in this strange world that Alice tries to solve the murders, and it results in some really unique situations, with creatures like a Boojum also appearing as fanciful murder methods. Fantastical ways to kill off people are possible in Wonderland, and there's no scientific investigation like checking for DNA or blood of course, so the reader might be overwhelmed by all of this, figuring it's impossible to figure out who the murderer is: that is not the case. In fact, Kobayashi plays a nasty game with the reader here, as he plants some deliciously subtle clues in the nonsensical dialogues that actually allow you to identify at least some part of the mystery quite early on. If you manage to pick up on that, of course (I wasn't).

The events in the real world are of course less fantastical, but the more realistic tone here does really help the story, as 380 pages of only Wonderland would've been quite tiring. That said, the worlds do kinda seem to blend into each other as the story progresses. In the early chapters, Ari obviously has trouble accepting the truth that she's been living in Wonderland in her dreams and that she shares this dream with other people. But as events unfold, we learn of more people around her who have an avatar in Wonderland and certainly near the end, some human characters seem to resemble their Wonderland avatars a lot more than at the start of the story. The murders that are committed in Wonderland lead to death in the real world, but not in the exact same manner: the counterpart to the Gripphon for example was a professor at the university, but he died 'simply' of food poisoning (from shellfish), not by being force-fed them. That means that even though we're talking about a series of murders in Wonderland, there aren't even really murders happening in the real world, leading to a very unique situation where the human characters in the real world are investigating a series of murders in Wonderland. It's in Wonderland where they can find proof and interrogate witnesses, but due to the crazy characters in Wonderland, it's only possible for Ari and Imori to apply real logic to the problem and really think about the how and who while in the real world. There is an added thread of suspense here as Ari is also under investigation by two police detectives who suspect there's something fishy going on with all the deaths that happen at this university, and who are very eager to find out who Ari is in Wonderland.

You don't need Wonderland-logic to solve this mystery though. It's a surprisingly tricky plot, because it's split up in two distinct locales with their own narratives: for example it is possible to figure out who the murderer is in Wonderland fairly early on (or at least have founded suspicions), but that doesn't mean you know who that character is in the real world. You need to combine clues from both worlds in order to solve the mystery, which can be quite a challenge, especially as the dialogues in Wonderland can seem to be so crazy at times. The main clue to the identity of the murderer for example can be really easy to miss because the jumping between the two worlds, but once pointed out it seems so obvious. I myself only got the last big twist, but missed most of the stuff regarding the murderer. There's also a nice dying message near the end of the story that points towards the murderer in a very roundabout, but at the same time also very logical manner. It is a good example of how to do a dying message that is meaningful in the context of the story, without being too complex just for the sake to be too hard to decipher for the reader.

Oh, I do have to make a note that Alice Goroshi can become quite gory near the end. Guh. I mean, you might be thinking 'Haha, Alice in Wonderland, it's so cute,' but man, I didn't see that one scene in the house near the end coming. It's really frightening. It becomes really messy once you're past the halfway point.

So yes, I really enjoyed Alice Goroshi, as it not only had a really unique premise and setting, it also made excellent use of that to bring a tightly-plotted mystery plot that works because of the premise. The way it utilizes Alice-mythos isn't just for show, but in integral part of the plot, resulting in one of the more memorable reads of this year. I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequels to Alice: at the moment of writing this review, Clara and Dorothy (of The Wizard of Oz) have already featured in their own titles, so I hope the pocket versions are released soon.

Original Japanese title(s):  小林泰三　『アリス殺し』

"Let the Reader Beware!"

「俺たちは立ち止まらない、そして全力で生きて、戦い抜いて、最後に死ぬときが来たらこう言うんだ　「生きててよかった」ってな」、桐生一馬、『龍が如くOF THE END』

"We won't stop. We will live and fight throught it with everything we have and in the end, when the time to die has come, we'll say: 'We're glad to have lived'", Kiryuu Kazuma, "Ryuu ga Gotoku OF THE END"

Back to reviews.

I usually find it hard to find new authors to read. Well, no, that's not the problem, the problem is actually reading a book by someone I don't know yet. I see countless of names and titles, which all seem interesting, but as my funds aren't limitless, I usually end up with the safe and sound purchases of authors I know are good.

One way to work around this, is an anthology. I have a couple of anthologies of Japanese authors, which I only buy if I see at least one familiar name. Reasoning that at least one story (probably) won't disappoint me. And I hope for the best with the rest. Which ties in with a common problem in anthologies: for every good story collected, it seems a bad story has to be included too. I love my Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries, but I have to wonder why crap stories likes Murder in Monkeyland were included. It is like it's mandatory to wade through a stream of bad stories before you can reach the safe shores of a good story.

So I started with caution with Anata ga Meitantei ("You are the great detective"), an anthology of seven authors with seven stories. I've had this book in my possession for more than a year now, actually. But it was here, while I was in Japan, so that's allowed. The premise is nice though: all stories are divided in a 'problem chapter' and a 'solution chapter', collected in the end. You are supposed to read the problems first and then check with the solution whether you were right. A Challenge to the Reader.

First up is Awasaka Tsumao's Katoriko satsujin jiken ("The Katori Lake murder case"), a murder case in a ski resort surrounding the Katori lake. A very dry story involving people on skis, bandages, people found strangled with said bandages in the middle of the lake and not really good or bad. It seems this story is also the main story of the same-named short story collection by Awasaka and if so, I am not too impressed with his writings.

Nishizawa Yasuhiko's Obentou guruguru ("A lunch box, around and around") is another of these not-impressive stories. A man is killed in his home and according to his wife, old art objects were stolen from their storage room. Was it theft? Were there really art objects there? What about the insurance saleswoman who discovered the corpse? In the end, I didn't care.

Kobayashi Yasumi's Ookina mori no chiisana misshitsu ("A small locked room in een big forest") involves what it says in the title. A man involved with some shady business is found murdered in his mountain house, with several of his business victims around. While the mystery itself, while better than the previous one, was once again not special (I was getting real depressed by now), I at least liked the detective: an old man called Toku, who lives in the mountain selling computer parts. It seems Kobayashi used him in several other mystery stories of his, so I might try some more.

What saved this anthology was Maya Yutaka's Helios no Shinzou ("The Idol of Helios"). A locked room mystery in the tradition of Queen, somewhat reminiscent to The Chinese Orange Mystery in idea (luckily not in execution!) and an excellent story in general. Seeing his story in Trick X Logic was one of the better ones too (and actually somewhat similar to Helios no Shinzou in how the crime is solved by a elimination deduction chain), it seems I am obliged to read more of this writer. Luckily, I have another of his stories lying around here. In another anthology.

Norizuki Rintarou was the only name I knew when I bought this anthology. In Zeus no Kodomotachi ("The Children of Zeus"), the writer Norizuki is in a kantsume situation in a hotel faraway from Tokyo. Kantsume refers to canned food, but in the literary world, this refers to the action of the editor/publisher confining a writer to his room, to make sure the author finishes his work before the deadline. But a great detective wouldn't be a great detective if he didn't encounter a murder anyway.  The theme of the Dioskuri, twin brothers Kastor and Polydeuces and the twin sisters Clytemnestra and Helena, plays a big role in the story, as the owners of the hotel are actually two sets of married twins, of which one couple has died some years ago. But it seems there might be an imposter involved. Or not? In the end, Norizuki's story is mostly meant to fool the reader, which isn't something I am too keen with, but I forgive him, as it was an interesting story. And there are few good stories here to begin with.

Ashibe Taku's story, Dokusha yo Azamukarete okure ("Reader, Be Fooled"), is also a story meant to fool the reader. Ashibe goes the length to come up with a meta-introduction to warn the reader (and to set it up), but it...doesn't work. At all. Maybe it was  because I'm not a native reader and I just missed the hints meant to fool me or something, but the trick Ashibe wanted to use to fool the reader just didn't work. And that breaks up the whole story.

Finally, Kasumi Ryuuichi's Hidarite de Barbeque ("A Barbeque with the left hand") was another of these meh stories, with a man murdered, a cut ofｆ left hand and me not caring that much. Once again, it was not a bad story per se, but nothing worth writing about either.

It was all in all, a normal anthology experience. A lots of meh and a one or two good ones. Ah well, this one at least didn't had a really awful story. 

Original Japanese title(s): 『あなたが名探偵』　泡坂妻夫　「蚊取湖殺人事件」/ 西澤保彦 　「お弁当ぐるぐる」/小林泰三　「大きな森の小さな密室」/麻耶雄嵩　「ヘリオスの神像」/法月綸太郎　「ゼウスの息子たち」/ 芦辺拓　「読者よ欺かれておくれ」/ 霞流一　「左手でバーベキュー]