The Veiled Lady

"Miss Debenham is not a woman! She is a lady."

"Murder on the Orient Express"

Last year, I was surprised by a sudden new release in Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy series, and today's book was the surprise this year. I wonder what next year will bring!?

Disclosure: I translated Higashigawa Tokuya's Lending the Key to the Locked Room. Different series, also a comedic puzzler!

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 3

Shin Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (first impressions TV drama)
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (theatrical release)
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (audio drama)

Higashigawa Tokuya's Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series is one that has been discussed irregularly in various forms here ever since I started this blog, which should probably give you an idea of how much of a fan I am of this series. It was the excellent 2011 hit drama adaptation (+ theatrical release) which also carried the English title The After-Dinner Mysteries that informed me of this series' existence, but I have of course also enjoyed the original short story collections greatly. The series is about Houshou Reiko, a young female homicide detective. But none of her colleagues know that Reiko's actually the stupidly wealthy sole heiress of the Houshou Group, a pillar of the Japanese economy. Every evening she returns home after a long day of work to enjoy the luxurious banquet awaiting her, as she ponders out loud about the cases she's working on. Her butler Kageyama seems to have a knack for detecting too, as he is always able to solve the most mysterious cases just by listening to his mistress. Kageyama however also has the habit to be a bit sharp-tongued when it comes to commenting on his mistress' intellligence as he solves each case for her. While Reiko hates the insulting (and completely unnecessary) jabs Kageyama fires at her constantly, she has to admit that her butler is truly a brilliant 'armchair' detective who has helped her solve many cases. Over the course of three volumes, Reiko was submitted to a lot of shade by Kageyama, but they also solved many cases, but the series went silent after the third volume, originally released in 2012 (the pocket release added a neat crossover with Detective Conan by the way!).

Since the series had 'stopped' almost ten years ago, I doubt I was the only one who was pleasantly surprised when a new volume dropped in the spring of 2021. Shin Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("New Mystery Solving Is After Dinner" 2021) reunites us with Reiko and Kageyama in five new short stories, which also feature both familiar and new faces. At the end of the third volume, Reiko's bombastic and hapless superior Inspector Kazamatsuri (who usually took the credit for Reiko's work) was promoted to the Metropolitan Police Department, but after messing up, he's been returned to Kunidachi Police Station. Kazamatsuri is the womanizing son of a wealthy family in car manufacturing who likes to boast about how rich he is and how he moves in the upper circles of society, not realizing that his subordinate Reiko is actually of an even more prominent family. Having to team up again with Kazamatsuri is of course the source of a lot of stress, but during Kazamatsuri's absence, Reiko also got her own subordinate: Airi is a young female detective who is a bit gullible and has sometimes the habit of saying whatever is on her mind too directly (especially when faced with Kazamatsuri's shenanigans). But it shouldn't be a surprise that both Kazamatsuri and Airi ultimately don't manage to help Reiko very much with her cases and that it's her loyal butler Kageyama who solves her most baffling cases just by listening to her. But of course, he will only explain how it was done after his mistress is done with dinner.

Kazamatsuri Keibu no Kikan ("The Return of Inspector Kazamatsuri") brings Kazamatsuri back to Kunidachi Police Station to Reiko's great surprise/disappointment, and Reiko and Airi have to work with the returning inspector immediately on the apparent suicide of Kunieda Masafumi, the oldest son of Kunieda Yoshio, the founder of the famous Kunieda Manufacturing company. Masafumi was found hanging from the ceiling in his own room, which at first suggest suicide, but there are still some minor doubts about his death, especially as Yoshio is expected to die soon and his second son Keisuke isn't actually blood-related to his older brother, meaning there's a motive for murder somewhere. Keisuke and the other people who were at the Kunieda residence at the time of the death however all have alibis: Masafumi had been working in his room the whole day, while Keisuke was visited by a friend. Keisuke showed his friend the whole, and also tried to introduce him to his brother, who was not in his room at the moment. After that time, everyone was together at the dining table save for Masafumi, who was later found hanging in his room, which happened after Keisuke and his friend swung by his room. But as there was nobody else in the house, Masafumi must've committed suicide, right? The trick of how Masafumi was hanged in his room while everybody in the house had an alibi is rather esay to guess, especially once a certain object is mentioned. I doubt anyone will be seriously surprised by the trick and in that respect, I found the story a bit disappointing as I thought it was waaaaay to obvious what was done. That said, there's a clue in this story that's absolutely brilliantly hidden, and that really made up for my initial disappointment. While it is easy to guess how it was done, this clue actually proves the trick had been used and arriving at this clue is definitely a lot harder than just imagining 'the murderer probably did this and this to commit the murder.' So you could see this as a double-layered story, where the first layer is very obvious, but the second layer cleverly hidden.

Reiko and Airi are investigating the murder on the elderly Shimoirisa Masaru in Chimoji wa Misshitsu no Naka ("The Bloody Writing Is Inside The Locked Room"). The victim was discovered inside the locked storage room in the garden, broken open by the victim's second daughter and his son-in-law (husband of the oldest daughter) who both happened to be visiting the old man that morning and couldn't find him inside the house. When they noticed some blood beneath the door of the storage room, they broke the door open to find the man dead. But there were also clues inside: the victim collected art and a valuable pot made of Satsuma kiriko glass was missing from the storage and most damning of all, the victim had written the name Nakata in blood on the floor. The case seems clear-cut, as the police start looking for someone named Nakata among the victim's acquaintances. As the police investigation continues, they find more clues that seem to indicate this Nakata, but still things don't seem to add up quite perfectly, and it's Kageyama who manages to put a completely different light on the manner. This is a story that focuses more on the why of the locked room than the how, and it's perfectly fine concept on its own, but it's a bit simple. The story is rather economical in set-up, so nothing really surprises: when you hear why the victim was found in a locked room, you'll find it a clever idea, but the story is so short little is done to really show the effects and implications that arise from the creation of the locked room, somewhat undermining its whole concept. The idea is executed perhaps a bit too minimalistically to really make an impression.

Tsuiraku Shitai wa Doko Kara ("Where Did the Falling Corpse Come From?") revolves around the investigation of a dead body which was found lying in a small parking lot surrounded by tenant buildings/apartment buildins on three sides. While it seems a suicide jump at first, a wound on the victim's head sustained before death suggests it's murder instead. Because the building beneath the victims lies has no windows at all on the parking lot side, the police suspects someone must've pushed him off the rooftop, but they come across a witness who swears he was alone on the rooftop all the time around the time the murder must've happened. Meanwhile, the police find a bloody knife among the victim's possessions, and when they investigate in the vicinity, they find an old man has been killed in one of the apartment buildings that surround the parking lot. How are these two deaths connected? This is the type of story which a reader can recognize immediately if they have read similar stories before. The trope in question isn't overly common in mystery fiction, but usually they make an impression, so it probably doesn't take long for a reader to realize what is going on here if they have read similar stories before. It's a competently written variation of the trick, and as often with Higashigawa's writing, the clewing is really good, but even Higashigawa himself has written stories with the exact same type of trick before, so it's easy to see through.

Itsutsu no Mezamashidokei ("The Five Alarm Clocks") is of course inspired by Ayukawa Tetsuya's The Five Clocks (disclosure: it's included in The Red Locked Room which I translated) and starts with Ryuuji and Mamoru chatting in the morning after ending their night shift. Ryuuji invites Mamoru to his place, a house near the train station he shares with a few other people. Lured by the fact that one of the other people living there is a genuine nurse, Mamoru follows Ryuuji to the house, but on their way to Ryuuji's home, they hear two alarm clocks going off in the nurse's room, but no sign of her switching the alarm off. Sensing something is wrong, they go inside and find her strangled, though miraculously still alive and she's swiftly brought to the hospital. When the police investigate the room of the victim, they stumble upon a surprising sight: the victim had five alarm clocks set in her room: two clocks near the head of her bed, two beneath her bed and one on the table in front of her television. The alarm clocks were all set around, but at different times, suggesting the woman probably had trouble getting up each morning, which is why she set five alarm clocks at five minute intervals to ensure she'd get up and not just switch the alarm off and go back to sleep again. Reiko and Airi question the other inhabitants of the house, learning that the nurse had to go out last night suddenly because of an emergency at the hospital which turned out to be a fluke, but that there didn't seem anything wrong when she returned. When she was found this morning, three of her alarm clocks had been switched off, but the last two went off and were still going when she was discovered, meaning she had switched those clocks off and was probably strangled just minutes before she was discovered. But none of the three people present inside the house that morning have a clear alibi, so can these clocks help point out who did it? An interesting take on The Five Clocks, because this time we don't have one single alibi vouched for by five clocks, but it's the time of the crime that is indicated due to the alarm setting of the clocks. It's an original way to indicate the time of the murder and the result is a story that's fun to read: it's very simple in set-up, set inside the shared residence and with only a few characters, but the deduction chain built upon the five different alarm clocks, the implication of the five minute intervals between them, and the way the reader is eventually brought to the culprit is very clever: at first you think the clocks can't mean much because ultimately, none of the three suspects have a clear alibi for the time of the attack, but the thing is twisted around surprisingly by showing the clocks do prove something else.

Tabako 2 Honbun no Alibi ("An Alibi Two Cigarettes Long") is a story that doesn't have any especially memorable or outstanding aspects to the core crime, but it's actually one of the better plotted stories in the volume, showing off Higashigawa's talent to control the actions of his characters to create (semi-)impossible crimes and perfect alibis. This time, Reiko and Airi are put on the case of a student killed in his own apartment room, soon after the victim returned home around eight in the evening. By sheer coincidence, someone had been smoking two cigarettes at the front gate of the victim's apartment building around that time, and this witness claims he always takes five minutes for one cigarette. During his break, he saw a fat man enter the building and ran way a few minutes later, who is suspected to be the murderer and the police soon find three suspects among the victim's acquaintances, who fit the profile, may have a motive and were in the neighborhood around the time of the crime. The suspects all have partially vouched alibis around the time of the crime, but because they were all within walking distance of the scene of the crime, and the witness' testimony relies solely on his estimation of how long he was smoking, it's difficult to pinpoint at what time the suspect fled the building, which in turn means they can't eliminate any of the suspects indefinitely. The puzzle piece that allows you to connect the various testimonies together and construct a precise timetable is devilishly clever, being an incredibly simple and common thing that people do, but which you probably won't think off until it's mentioned in the story. Once you're reminded of it, you'll be able to piece together what really happened on the night of the murder and which of the suspects could've committed the murder. There's no 'grand' situation like a locked room or a corpse which seems to come out of nowhere, but as a puzzler, it's really satisfying.

By the way, is it just me, or is Kageyama a lot milder compared to the previous books? His verbal abuse of his mistress seems less... sharp than before. Guess he softened in these last years...

On the whole, Shin Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de is a nice return of the series. The banter is between pleasantly crazy characters is fun as always and while I don't think that any of the five stories found in this volume rank among the best mystery stories of the series, I think they all have something interesting to offer, from original settings to cleverly plotted roadmaps leading to the culprit or shrewdly hidden clues that are both brilliant and oh-so simple at the same time. If you're a fan of the series, this is a must-read, as it's basically 'more of the same', but that's not a bad thing at all.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『新謎解きはディナーのあとで』:「風祭警部の帰還」/「血文字は密室の中」/「墜落したいはどこから」/「五つの目覚まし時計」/「煙草二本分のアリバイ」

The Case of the Distressed Lady

「大変失礼ながら、お嬢様の単純さは、まさに幼稚園児レベルかと思われます」

「聖なる夜に密室はいかが」

"I might be speaking out of line, ma'am, but you're simplemindedness is basically the level of kindergarten"

"How About A Locked Room On Holy Night?"

I very seldom read books by the same author one after another. No matter how much I might like a writer, or for example when I suddenly become hooked on a certain series, I almost always wedge another book in between. I guess I just like to have some variation, and not stick with an author for more than one book at a time.

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 3
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (first impressions TV drama)
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (theatrical release)
Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (audio drama)

Today's book is therefore a rare exception. Last time, I reviewed Higashigawa Tokuya's Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de, an excellent short story collection of which I knew the contents already from the 2011 TV drama adaptation. I had bought the book long, long ago, but it remained on the to-be-read pile because I wanted to forget most of the details of the drama before reading the original stories. After reading that book however, I decided to continue with the sequel, which I had bought together with the first volume back in 2012. Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2 ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner 2", 2011) continues the adventures of the female police detective Houshou Reiko, who unknown to her fellow officers, is in fact also the insanely rich heiress of the Houshou Group. Each day after work, while she's enjoying a luxurious dinner, she likes to lament about her well-meaning, but not particularly competent superior Inspector Kazamatsuri and the difficult cases she's saddled with, but her mysterious butler Kageyama always manages to solve the cases simply by listening to his mistress' stories. Unlucky for Reiko is that Kageyama also has a very sharp tongue and he doesn't hold back his (polite) comments about his mistress'  intelligence as he explains how it was done. This collection features another six of these mysteries to be solved after dinner.

It shouldn't surprise the reader that this second volume is simply 'more of the same'. Each story follows the same rough outline of Reiko and Kazamatsuri coming across a new murder and them questioning everyone involved, and at the end of the day, Reiko tells Kageyama everything, who solves the case like the armchair detective he is (even though he remains standing of course, as he's a butler). The stories do have a tendency to feel a bit alike after a while (especially as I read the first two volumes after another), and often revolve around a crime scene with something out-of-the-ordinary (a naked body; a victim who had her hair cut after the murder; a victim who had her boots on in her apartment even though that's not done in Japan). Usually there are three suspects, and the key to solving these stories is figuring out why the crime scene turned out the way it did, and from there deduce who it was. For those who saw the drama: I think every story here was also adapted for the series (together with the stories from the first volume), but if I remember correctly, some of the stories were mashed together for the two-part finale.

Alibi wo Goshomou de Gozaimasuka ("Would You Like An Alibi?") has Reiko and Inspector Kazamatsuri working on the murder of a 35-year old woman, who was found in the staircase of a largely empty tenant building. The coroner's report, and a sighting of a neigbor who saw her leave the apartment building, put her death between 19:45-21:00, giving the victim enough time to get from her apartment building to the place where she was killed. The main suspect is her ex-boyfriend, who dated her for seven years, but suddenly dumped her so he could date, and soon marry, the daughter of an executive of his company. The man has an alibi though, as he spent the early night with an old colleague, after which he spent two hours in a cafe, as vouched for by the owner of that coffee shop. Kageyama's explanation for how this alibi was created has some really good ideas, and some less inspired ones. The way Kageyama explains why it is very likely that the suspect is indeed the murderer is absolutely brilliant: the hint for this is hidden both in your face, but also subtle enough for anyone to read across it (I know I did). But once pointed out, you realize how obvious it should've been. The way the alibi was actually done however is far more crude, and a bit disappointing considering how good the set-up was.

Koroshi no Sai wa Boushi wo O-Wasurenaku ("Don't Forget Your Hat During A Murder") has Reiko and Kageyama vistiting Reiko's hat shop, as she's working on a case that is connected to hats. A woman had been killed in her bath tub, and it was discovered that not only the victim's phone and computer were missing, but also her hats from her closet. But who would want to steal a woman's hat collection? This is a very tricky story, but the moment Kageyama explains why the murderer would want to take the hats with them is fantastic: the explanation is logical, convincing and one can see that Higashigawa did his best at setting everything up, though it still requires a bit of imagination on the part of the reader. Once you know why, the story turns into a whodunnit, and while it's a simple one, it's expectly plotted, even complete with a false solution! Definitely one of the best stories in this volume.

Satsui no Party ni Youkoso ("Welcome To The Party With Murderous Intent") starts with Reiko arriving at the hotel where the sixtieth birthday party of the father of her friend/rival Ayaka is held. Ayaka, Reiko, as well as two other heiresses, were all members of their university's seasonal sports club, and have kept their friendship/rivalry alive all the time. During the party, the daughter of the owner of the hotel (who was also acquaintances with Reiko and her friends) is assaulted in the glass house on the roof garden of the hotel. The only thing the victim could say before she was taken to the hospital was that was assaulted by a woman in reddish dress, who she didn't know, but looked familiar. Besides Reiko and her three friends, there were only three other women who answered to the description of the attacker, but who of them was the assailant? Again a story that has strokes of true genius, but also elements that feel a bit underwhelming. One part of the mystery is basically only solvable if you know a certain piece of trivia. A different clue in regards to the identity of the attacker is very tricky, and perfectly executed here. The setting of this story is used to its fullest to make this trick possible, and it's quite easy to imagine how this would've gone. It requires the most careful of readers to even get an inkling of what is being played here.

Seinaru Yoru ni Mittsutsu wa Ikaga ("How About A Locked Room On Holy Night?") has Reiko in a somewhat bad mood on the morning of December 24th, especially after Kageyama asked what her plans were for the night. She takes the bus to her work, but runs into a woman who says her friend was killed. The victim was living in a small house, which save for the entrance was encircled by a concrete wall, with everything covered in the snow of the night before. The only tracks leading to the entrance were the foottracks to and away from the house made by the friend who discovered the body, and a bicycle track made by the victim when she came back last night. At first sight it seems the victim might've fallen from the loft, but the neighbor's testimony of having seen someone's shadow after she heard the fall that would've killed the victim, seems to suggests it was murder. But how did the murderer escape the house without leaving any traces in the snow? Like Koroshi no Sai wa Boushi wo O-Wasurenaku, this story can be tricky, as it requires you to deduce the existence of an object that has not been mentioned explictly before, but I think it's much easier in this story. Once you get to that point, it's almost a straight line to figuring out how the murderer escaped the house. The whodunnit is simple and short, but surprisingly well done, with subtle hints that allow you strike you out the people who certainly couldn't have done it.

Hanayagi Electric Appliances was a household name, even before the scandal, and then the tragedy became the talk of the town. Hanayagi Kenji having a mistress was a scandal: him dying in a traffic accident was a tragedy. But tragedy never comes alone, we learn in Kami wa Satsujinhan no Inoch de Gozaimasu ("Hair Means the Life of a Murderer"), as one morning, the housekeeper of the Hanayagi household wakes up to find something burning in the living room, where she finds a dead body. At first, she mistook the body for one of the family, but it turns out the victim was Yuuko, Kenji's niece, who often came to visit the Hanayagi home to visit her cousins. Usually, the housekeeper would recognize her of course, but for some reason, Yuuko's beautiful long, black hair had been cut and burned in the fireplace. Strangely enough, I've read a couple of stories about bodies of whom the hair was cut (here and here for example), and this one is another interesting one. Deducing why the hair had been cut can be a bit difficult, I think, though there are a couple of nice clues that hint at something big behind the missing hair. This story is definitely not plotted as tightly as previous ones, but still an okay story.

Kanzen na Misshitsu nado Gozaimasen ("There Is No Such Thing as a Perfectly Locked Room") is about the death of an artist: on the day of his demise, his niece and a freelance writer were about to enter his atelier, when they heard him cry out and something loud fall: inside the atelier, of which the wall was covered in a gigantic fresco, they found the artist with a knife in his back and a stepladder which had fallen over. At first sight, it seemed like he was working on the wall with the knife when he fell over, but it seems unlikely he could've stabbed himself in the back then. But if it was a murder, how did the murderer escape, as the two who first discovered the victim were standing in front of door of the building when they heard him scream, and there are no other windows in the atelier through which the murderer could've escaped. A story on which your mileage will probably vary a lot: I really liked the way the escape route of the murderer was hinted at, but I didn't like the escape route itself.  So the way Kageyama arrived at the solution, I thought much more interesting than the solution itself.

So while Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 2 was not surprising in terms of story format, this volume was quite entertaining once again. Despite the short length of each of these stories, Higashigawa manages to come up with very intricately plotted whodunnit plots, with excellent clewing and also alluring crime scenes. Some of the things he manages to pull off here are really tricky, with some hints that are almost screaming in your face in hindsight, but always go undetected by the reader the first time. For people who have seen the drama, I'm afraid only the third volume has stories you don't know yet.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉『謎解きはディナーのあとで2』：「アリバイをご所望でございますか」/「殺しの際は帽子をお忘れなく」/「殺意のパーティにようこそ」/「聖なる夜に密室はいかが」/「髪は殺人犯の命でございます」/「完全な密室などございません」

The Case of the Rich Woman

「この程度の真相がお判りにならないとは、お嬢様はアホでいらっしゃいますか?」

「殺人現場では靴をお脱ぎください」 

"As you don't even see through the truth of something as simple as this, I assume, ma'am, that you are a fool?"

"Please Take Your Shoes Off At A Murder Scene"

A while back I decided to read, and review Kishi Yuusuke's short story collection Kagi no Kakatta Heya even though I already knew the contents more-or-less. I had seen the TV drama series which was partly based on the collection, but as quite some years had passed since I saw the series, I figured now was as good as any time to read the original book. Reading Kagi no Kakatta Heya reminded me of a similar case, of a book I had bought, but not read as I had seen the TV drama adaptation already.

It was in 2011 when I first read a work by Higashigawa Tokuya, and a few months later, I caught the TV drama Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner"), which was based on one of his novel series. The show was absolutely brilliant and I soon started to read a lot more of Higashigawa's works, though I didn't write much about Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de back then: a short first impression of the TV drama, a review of the theatrical film and a review of an audio drama were basically all I had, until I reviewed the third Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato volume in 2015. But today, I go back to that very first short story collection of Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner", 2010). Houshou Reiko is a young female Homicide detective who unknown to most of her colleagues (and especially her arrogant and womanizing superior Inspector Kazamatsuri), is in fact the insanely wealthy sole heiress of the Houshou Group, which has a hand in pretty much everything. Each night, after a hard day of work, she likes to enjoy her luxurious banquet, as she ponders out loud about the cases she's working on. Her butler Kageyama seems to have a knack for detecting too, as he is always able to solve the most mysterious cases just by listening to his mistress. Kageyama however also doesn't hold back with the verbal insults towards his mistress, as most of the cases seem so simple to him, that it appears his mistress must be 'dense', 'even more stupid than the lowest-level amateur around', or something worse.

While I think all of the six stories collected in this volume were also featured in the TV drama, I had forgotten just about enough of them for most of these to feel fresh to me. The overall mood of Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series however is something nobody is likely to forget, and it is one the TV drama also managed to capture perfectly. Higashigawa specializes in comedy mystery, with almost comic-like characters and funny banter, but don't let his jokes fool you: Higashigawa is really good at hiding clues and other important elements in his comedy, and that combined with a good sense for constructing mystery plots, from locked room mysteries to the more deduction-based stories, makes his work always a joy to read. The Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de series is distinctly different from some of his other series like the Ikagawashi series and the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series, as Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato takes on an armchair detective format, with Kageyama helping his mistress (accompanied with some verbal abuse) with her cases at home. Interestingly enough though, it's Reiko who sits in the armchair, while Kageyama, as her butler, is of course the one standing.

The opening story, Satsujin Genba de wa Kutsu wo O-nugi Kudasai ("Please Take Your Shoes Off At A Murder Scene"), is the one story I have mentioned several times on this blog, as it was also the source material for both the audio drama and the first episode of the TV drama. I still consider it one of the more memorable stories, even though the story seems so simple: a young woman was found murdered in her room, but what seems so mysterious to Reiko is the fact the victim was found wearing her boots. Wearing your shoewear inside your home is a big no-no in Japan (as it'd ruin the flooring), so while it seems like a trivial matter, it's still extremely weird for the victim to be found like this. The chain of deductions Kageyama manages to create based on this fact and other testimonies from the victim's neigbors' is convincing however, and quite satisfying, especially with a hint that builds on another aspect of Japanese culture.

Koroshi no Wine wa Ikaga Desu Ka ("How About A Killer Wine?") has Reiko working on a case that at first seemed like a suicide, but might actually be murder: a wealthy elderly man was found dead in his room, and poison was detected from his glass of wine. As the bottle itself didn't contain poison, and the victim was notoriously fuzzy about clean glasses, it doesn't seem likely anyone but himself could've poisoned his glass. His children had protested heavily against his intended marriage with his housekeeper, which might've driven him to suicide, but some small matters have Reiko suspect this was foul play. The trick behind how the glass of wine was poisoned isn't that impressive: it seems like rather straightforward way to poison the wine for me. More impressive is the way Kageyama then proceeds to deduce the identity of the murderer, by focusing on the actions the murderer must've taken. The hinting is a bit crude and one could argue that the reasoning is a bit too easy in rejecting some other possibilities, but it's an okay story.

Kirei na Bara ni wa Satsui ga Gozaimasu ("Murderous Intent Is Present in Beautiful Roses") starts with the discovery of a dead woman in the rose garden of Fujikura Kousaburou. The victim had been brought to the Fujikura home by Kousaburou's son, who intended to marry the woman, despite protests of his parents and Toshio's brother-in-law. Kyouko was now dead however, placed on a rose-covered pedastal in the rose garden. The one question that's on the detectives' mind is of course why the woman's body was in the rose garden. This story is fairly similar to the previous one, as it wants you to deduce why a certain action was taken, and then use that knowledge to deduce who the murderer was. This story is much better plotted, with both a good reason for why the body was found where it was found and an excellent structured whodunnit plot that allows you identify the murderer. The story does require you to deduce the existence of a certain object not mentioned before, but it is actually fairly well-telegraphed.

In Hanayome wa Misshitsu no Naka de Gozaimasu ("The Bride Is Inside The Locked Room"), Reiko is initially not involved as a police detective, but as the heiress of the Houshou Group, and as a personal friend, as her friend Yuri is getting married. The ceremony is held at the bride's (large) home, and while Reiko is not exactly happy that Yuri got married first, she still wishes her friend the best. When Yuri doesn't come back from her short rest, Reiko decides to look for her in her room, but it is locked from the inside, with no answer at all. When the door is finally opened with the spare key, they find that Yuri was stabbed in her back. Reiko's fast actions save Yuri's life, but the question is how the assailant managed to escape this second floor room, as the door was locked, and there were no footsteps found beneath the open balcony door. As a locked room mystery, people might be a bit disappointed by this one, but man! the clue towards the identity of the bride attacker is absolutely brilliant! I don't remember having seen this in the TV drama (I probably just forgot), but this clue is devilishly subtle and yet daringly in your face. In fact, this might be one of the best clues I've seen this year.

Futamata ni wa O-Ki wo Tsuke Kudasai ("Please Be Careful For Cheaters") brings the strangest crime scene in this collection, as the victim was found completely naked in his room! His clothes are nowhere to be found, so it stands to reason the murderer took them, but why? As he was seen in the flat elevator with a woman by his neigbor minutes before his death, and another witness saw a woman leave the apartment soon after, the police suspects a woman in the life of the victim was the culprit, but it appears the man was having relations with multiple woman, so which of them did it? The puzzle revolves around disagreeing descriptions of the woman who was last seen with the victim, but once you realize why those testimonies differ, the story leads to a very satisfying reason for why the victim was found naked, and it also gives the reader a nice final puzzle in figuring out which of the women was the murderer. Excellently clewed and executed,  and also one of the funnier stories to visualize.

Shisha kara no Dengon wo Douzo ("Here's A Message From the Dead") is about a rather particular dying message, as the message was erased before the police could get to it! The president of a money lending company was murdered, her head bashed in with a trophy of one of her sons, but the circumstances that led to the discovery of the murder are what made it so extraordinary: around nine in the evening, the bloody trophy was thrown from the garden into a room on the second floor, breaking the window. It had everyone in the house gather in the room, save for the victim who was then found. But why was the trophy thrown into that room, and what did the erased dying message say? This is perhaps the most complex of the stories in this collection, but within the same page count (and these are pretty short stories), so it feels a bit rushed at some points. Like seen in some of the other stories in this collection, Higashigawa likes to hide clues in utterances and interpretations of the used language, though it's not as elegant here as in the earlier stories. Still, it leads to a good set-up that allows the reader to reasonably deduce what the dying message said and who the murderer is.

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de is thus a more than entertaining volume of well-constructed mystery short stories. Higashigawa excells in mixing comedy with a good mystery plot, and the short format, combined with the fast dialogues and funny scenes really work great. In terms of mystery plotting, Higashigawa shows he's very good at classic whodunnit plots, where he challenges the reader to deduce who the murderer is (usually from three suspects), based on actions the murderer must've taken while committing the deed. Once you recognize the pattern, you have an idea what to look for, but Higashigawa shows in these six stories he's also very capable of coming up with original variations that you aren't likely to see through in time. So a fun read, even if I already knew the plots from the TV drama.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 『謎解きはディナーのあとで』:「殺人現場では靴をお脱ぎください」/「殺しのワインはいかがでしょう」/「綺麗な薔薇には殺意がございます」/「花嫁は密室の中でございます」/「二股にはお気をつけください」/「死者からの伝言をどうぞ」

Make Me A Perfect Murder

「この程度の謎で頭を悩ませておいでは、お嬢様は本当に役立たずでございますね」

 「彼女は何を奪われたでございますか」

"My lady, you really are good for nothing if you need to puzzle over a problem of this level."

 "What Was Stolen From The Lady?"

Man, I love these stylized covers.

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 3 ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner 3") is the third volume in Higashigawa Tokuya's popular armchair detective series. In the past, I've written about the TV drama adaptation (which was based on the first two volumes) as well as the motion picture, but this is the first time I wrote about the original books, I think (I do have all of them). Anyway, the third volume is at the core precisely the same as the previous two volumes. We follow the adventures of Houshou Reiko, a young police detective who, unknown to her collegues, is actually an insanely wealthy heiress of the gigantic Houshou Group. Every day, after a hard day of work, she enjoys a luxurious banquet, during which she often spews complaints about how difficult her cases are. Luckily for her, her butler Kageyama can usually point out the truth behind each case just by listening to her stories. Unlucky for Reiko however is that Kageyama has no qualms whatsoever about ridiculing and insulting his mistress' intelligence while explaining everything. The bunko (pocket) version of this third volume (released in January 2015) collects six stories, as well as one bonus short short not included in the original release.

Reiko and her boss Inspector Kazamatsuri investigate the death of an old man in Hannin ni Doku wo Ataenaide Kudasai ("Please Don't Provide Poison To The Murderer"). The man died of some arseneous acid, but it is unclear whether it was murder or suicide. At one hand, the family appears to have enough motive to want the man dead, on the other hand, the victim is also said to have been depressed lately because of the disappearance of the family cat. Kageyama however points out a very neat solution. This story is not brilliant or anything, but is a good showcase of Higashigawa's MO: he is very experienced in leaving little hints in the story (often 'dressed' in a comedic manner) and then connecting everything in good order. These stories are actually quite solvable for the reader if the reader tries a little. In a way, it feels like Higashigawa's writings often reward the reader with the feeling of "I solved it!". They're never too difficult or easy. 

Kono Kawa de Oborenaide Kudasai ("Please Don't Drown In This Rivier") is one of the better stories in the volume and deals with a drowned corpse found...just a little away from the river. Everything points to murder and Reiko and Kazamatsuri manage to discover that the man had lately been living off a distant (and wealthy) relative. The police discovers everyone had a motive to do the man in, but also that the family has an alibi for the time of the murder, as they were holding a party at their home. The solution Kageyama points out to is not particularly surprising, but again, the solution is not screaming-in-your-face obvious and requires a little effort from the reader. The hints are elegantly hidden and overall, this story is a very solidly constructed plot.

Kaitou Kara no Chousenjou de gozaimasu ("Presenting A Challenge by A Phantom Thief") is the only story where Reiko doesn't act in her role as police officer, but as her heiress self. The phantom thief Legend declares he is going to steal the "Golden Pig", a piece of art owned by Reikos father. Her father tells Reiko to call their family detective (something like a family attorney) and they try to prevent the theft... with some success. For Legend doesn't manage to steal the "Golden Pig", but does get away with the "Silver Pig", the counterpart to the "Golden Pig". But why did Legend steal the wrong statue, and more importantly, how did he manage to steal the thing from inside a locked room? A large part of the story is quite obvious, and sadly enough, the solution to the locked room is not really satisfying because it's not really well hinted at. As shown in the other stories of the volume, Higashigawa is quite good at hinting and hiding those hints in plain sight, but it doesn't really work here.

Satsujin ni wa Jitensha wo Goriyou Kudasai ("Please Use A Bicycle For Murder") is my favorite story of the volume, and involves a case where Reiko and Kazamatsuri suspect a man of killing his aunt, but he has an almost perfect alibi. On the night of the murder, two friends visited him, but he was out for 15 minutes for a smoke. And the only way he could've made his way to the murder scene was by bike, but that would mean he would have needed to go a steady 40 KM per hour to pull the thing off. The basic trick of this story is very similar to another story in this volume and I think the solution is also a bit more obvious in this story than the other one, but I like this story better because the narrative is simply more fun to read.

The title of Kanojo wa Nani wo Ubawareta no de Gozaimasu ka ("What Was Stolen From The Lady?") asks the most important question in the newest case Reiko and Kazamatsuri are investigating: a college student has been killed, but for some reason everything she was wearing besides her clothes (belt, shoes, etc) was removed. Reiko soon guesses that the murderer only wanted to take one thing, but took everything as a camouflage, but what was the real object? Kageyama points out a solution that takes a little jumping in logic, but overall a well-constructed mystery that involves logic you actually seldom see in detective stories. At least, it's not something you'd see in Golden Age stories, but it is something we've come to expect from modern, Japanese stories and especially Higashigawa, who is always very modern and his mysteries are often very close to 'everyday life mysteries'.

The title of Sayonara wa Dinner no Ato de  ("The Farewell Is After Dinner") is actually about the epilogue of this story, which deals with a farewell. But the main mystery is about an old man who was beaten to death in his house. It appears to be the work of some burglars who have been making their rounds in the neighbourhood at first, but a chance witness changes the case. Kageyama's solution is really fun, as it really turns all previous ideas around, yet still remains quite plausible. One of the best stories.

The pocket version of Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de 3 adds a "bonus track" in the form of a very special crossover: Tanteitachi no Kyouen ("The Banquet Of The Detectives") brings Reiko and Kageyama together with... Detective Conan! In this short short, Reiko and Kageyama make their acquaintance with Edogawa Conan and Mouri Kogorou at a party held by publisher Shogakukan (the actual publisher behind both Detective Conan and Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de). Because Conan is basically a Walking Death God, it doesn't take long for a corpse to appear: a policeman, known by all as the Columbo of Takao, was found stabbed outside on the emergency stairs. But just before he died, he managed to say one thing: Kamsahamnida ("thank you" in Korean). The solution Kageyama and Conan arrive at is...well, you have to read this one for yourself. The story is a short short and really nothing more than a little bonus, but okay.

I'd say that Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato 3 is more of the same. It differs not at all from the previous volumes, which can be taken as both a good and a bad thing. There's no really excellent or outstanding story in the volume, and nothing that makes it memorable, but on the other hand, it was always an entertaining and well-constructed read. I think any reader will have a good time with this volume, even if it's not especially inspiring.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉　『謎解きはディナーのあとで3』: 「犯人に毒を与えないでください」 /  「この川で溺れないでください」 / 「怪盗からの挑戦状でございます」 / 「殺人には自転車をご利用ください」 / 「彼女は何を奪われたのでございますか」 / 「さよならはディナーのあとで」 / 「探偵たちの饗宴」

Murder is Served

「謎解きしますよね」

「します？」

「ディナーのあとですか」

「ディナーのあとじゃ、遅いですね」

『私の嫌いな探偵』

"You're going to solve the mystery, right?"

"Shall I?"

"After dinner?"

"After dinner would a bit late"

"The Detective I Don't Like"

When I step inside a train or an airplane, I don't usually think of detective fiction. Sure, there are some great stories set on moving objects, and the first couple of times, a ride might remind of such a story, but by the tenth time... But I haven't been on a boat that often, so that mode of transportation still has a bit of a (deadly) romantic allure to me. Death on the Nile and that sort of thing. The longest I've been on a boat, was the three-hour trip van Fukuoka (Japan) to Busan (South Korea), which was actually quite fun. No murders though. 

Higashigawa Tokuya's funny armchair detective series Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de has been a great hit in Japan, not in the least because of a succesful TV drama adaptation in 2011. The series is about a wealthy heiress (and rookie police detective) Houshou Reiko, who each time after a hard day at work tells her butler Kageyama about the mysterious cases she's handling. Kageyama however always manages to clear up the many murders that are troubling his mistress without even taking a step out of the room. His answer to the cases, which often includes a bit of verbal abuse directed at his mistress' intelligence), however is always only told after Reiko has finished her dinner.
  
And the hit 2011 adaptation was followed by a theatrical release with the same title last year. Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (literally "Mystery Solving is after Dinner", official English title: The After-Dinner Mysteries) brings Reiko and her butler Kageyama to the luxury cruise ship the Princess Reiko on its final voyage from Japan to Singapore. Reiko plans on a relaxing trip, but her plans go all wrong when she finds out that Inspector Kazamatsuri (her direct superior who doesn't know Reiko's a wealthy heiress) is on the ship too to guard a statue on its way to Singapore. The international phantom thief Soros is thought to be on board and Reiko's also forced to help with security. But that's not all, because on the first night, a man falls overboard, but when the man is found, it is discovered he was first shot to death, before being thrown overboard, but the murderer went through the trouble of dressing his victim in a life jacket after killing him. Can Kageyama solve the mystery before dinner so his mistress can finally have her cruise holiday?

The original TV series was based on Higashigawa Tokuya's stories, but the movie was based on an original plot and I have to say, not nearly as entertaining as the original stories. The essence of the series, in my opinion, lies in the butler Kageyama being an armchair detective in simple, yet strange cases. He would just be there in the background, listening to his mistress relating the story of a relatively simple murder investigation, but with a small, yet enigmatic feature.The first story for example, Satsujin Genba de wa Kutsu wo O-nugi Kudasai ("Please Take Your Shoes Off At A Murder Scene"), showed how Kageyama solved a murder based on the fact the victim was still wearing her shoes inside her apartment (a no-no in Japan). All before dinner. The best stories were always about very small cases with one strange feature, and seeing how Kageyama brought light to the darkness just by changing the point of view.

The movie however has Kageyama coming along with Reiko on the cruise ship and having to solve the murder 'in real time', like an active detective. It brings another dynamic to the series, and I don't think it's a positive one. It kinda takes away from the whole premise of the series if you have Kageyama actively participate in an ongoing investigation on a ship. Almost as silly as having a old spinster-detective in a sword duel on a ship.

The case itself is also fairly simple, even though the movie tries to confuse you by having a lot of storylines running through each other. But there's one good point: the mystery of a naked dead body in a dogeza (kowtow) position. In a movie two hours long with a series of plotlines, this was the only one which actually felt like a true Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de story, with a strange murder scene with a surprising truth behind it. The rest is forgettable, but it was a fair mystery, at any rate.

The visual style of the series is mostly good though. A plotline with a 'comedic' duo of thieves is awful, but the rest is what we've learned to expect from the franchise: a comic-esque presentation of events, fast cuts and the occasional text pop-ups like in comics (and, no, not like those in Sherlock). While the cuts themselves aren't really remarkable (it is 'just' a movie spin-off of a TV series), the movie did had the advantage of having been shot on location. In this case, a little bit in Singapore, but also a large part on the gigantic cruise-ship SuperStar Virgo, which served as the ship Princess Reiko of the movie. And boy, does that ship look great!

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de is a somewhat boring movie spin-off. Sure, we have our familar faces in all kinds of mysterious and comedic situations, but as a mystery film it is a bit disappointing. The original stories by Higashigawa Tokuya were much more interesting, and made much better use of Kageyama as an armchair detective. This movie is more aimed at people who liked the characters of the series, rather than people who liked the mysteries of the series, I think.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉（原）　『謎解きはディナーのあとで』

Secret of my Heart

「聞くは一時の恥。聞かないは一生の恥じ」

『428　～封鎖された渋谷で～』

"Asking will make you feel ashamed for a while. Not asking will make feel you ashamed for a lifetime"

"428 ~ In A Sealed Off Shibuya~"

This second entry in the Short Shorts certainly came earlier than I myself had guessed. I guess I pick up small, insignificant things at a faster rate than I thought. Like the previous time, this is just a series of unrelated thoughts that wouldn't have made for interesting seperate posts.

Aah, the hours that pass by as I scour websites like YouTube and Nico Nico Douga. Which is probably not nearly as long as the time it took the creators of the following Detective Conan related movies. One is an impressive statistical research of all the deaths in the series. The title says I counted the persons who died in Detective Conan (including the anime and such). Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds. The creator even went through the trouble of categorizing the deaths in homicide, suicide, accidental death, illness and unknown causes. It goes up until the first 68 volumes of the manga, episode 574 of the anime and the Lost Ship in the Sky movie. There were actually fewer deaths than I had expected. Even more ridiculous is the movie where someone counted the times the word barō (a Conan-specific swear word based on the longer bakayarō) is said. And I thought reviewing the Conan manga from the beginning was insane. Random fact: it is barō in the manga, but pronounced more like bārō in the anime, which is why most people write it as the latter.

And ooh, a new videogame of Conan! Kako kara no Prelude ("Prelude from the Past") is a sequel (prequel?) to Rondo of the Blue Jewel, which was sorta decent. It's a DS/PSP release, which means I don't have to switch hardware yet. Wondering how they'll differ. I prefer DS games as they are cheaper and I can play a lot longer on my DS than on my PSP, but I'd totally go for the PSP version if they included voice acting.

Because Edogawa Rampo mostly wrote unorthodox mystery stories, I sometimes hesitate writing about them here, but I guess they fit this short shorts segment. Hito De Nashi No Koi ("An Inhuman Love") is a pretty famous horror short story by Rampo, that actually seems to start out as a detective. The narrator, Kyouko, tells the reader about an incident that happened when she had just married, a local heir who was known as being stunningly handsome, but there were also rumors of him being misogynist. Luckily for Kyouko, those rumors seem to be false, but she does discover that her husband sneaks out of bed every night to go to the second floor of the small storage building. Following him, she hears her husband and another woman talking silently there. Kyouko naturally thinks of an affaire and waits outside the building to confront the pair, but only her husband comes out. This is repeated several times, with her husband's lover seemingly disappearing into thin air every night. Up until this point the story seems like an impossible disappearance story, but the ending clearly places this in the horror subgenre. I sadly enough already knew the ending because Hito De Nashi no Koi was mentioned a paper on a certain theme in Edogawa Rampo's works, but it is still a pretty interesting short story.

Rampo's Monogram is even shorter than Hito De Nashi No Koi, but also less interesting. The story starts with two men who just happen to sit next to each other on a couch in the park. The two men start talking with each other and they both can't seem to shake the feeling they have met before, even though they are both sure they never did. This story is really, really happy and sweet and light-hearted and everything nice, which is very surprising for an Edogawa Rampo work. Heck, even his Shounen Tantei Dan series is darker than this. It thus felt surprisingly fresh, even though the story is pretty simple and nothing special an sich. Rampo himself didn't rate this story very high either, but he had an interesting note about how he wrote this story, basically a love story surrounding a 'code' of some sorts. Hiding behind a code was what fitted his own personality, Rampo said, as he himself was pretty shy and didn't dare to show his own feelings himself too. Awww.

Around the same time the TV drama of Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner") started, NHK produced a radio drama of the series. Or to be more precise, they made a radio drama based on the first story of the first book, Satsujin Genba de wa Kutsu wo O-nugi Kudasai ("Please Take Off Your Shoes At A Murder Scene"). I didn't really like this radio drama, because it featured a narrator who was absolutely unneccessary for the story. The complete story could have been perfectly conveyed with just the two characters of Reiko and butler Kageyama and that would have made for a much more enthralling show. The story itself is still a very entertaining one, that revolves around the simple question: why was the murder victim wearing shoes inside her apartment (which is simply not done in Japan). It seems like a very trivial question, but butler Kageyama manages to solve this case based on this little fact alone. In fact, most stories in Nazotoki seem to revolve around almost Queenian strange murder scenes.Which makes the series the more fun. It's kinda sad NHK didn't do this radio drama within their own NHK Youth Adventure series, as I've been very content with those productions until now.

Original Japanese title(s):　江戸川乱歩　『人でなしの恋』『モノグラム』 / 東川篤哉　「殺人現場では靴をお脱ぎください」

「この謎はもう我輩の舌の上」

「ただ、まだ食事の途中でございます。謎解きはディナーの後にいたしましょう」

『謎解きはディナーのあとで』

"But you're still having your dinner. Let us do the mystery solving after dinner"

"Mystery solving is after dinner"

Ah, TV dramas in Japan. There is usually too much to keep track off (with morning / noon / evening dramas), and the majority is not interesting at all. Yet I tend to check what's on TV just to be sure I don't miss some sort of mystery drama. Which doesn't mean that every mystery drama series is good (ha!), but I usually try most of the series and especially those based on novels by writers I know (a lot of these series tend to be based on popular novels / manga).  Anyway, my experience with Kudou Shinichi e no Chousenjou taught me not to do reviews of every single episode, but I had been looking forward to Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (Mystery Solving Is After Dinner), which started last Tuesday, so a short impression based on the first episode!

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving Is After Dinner") is a TV drama based on the same-titled best-selling novel by Higashigawa Tokuya. The concept of the book seems a bit similar to Miss Marple's Tuesday Club Murders: incredibly wealthy heiress and rookie police detective Houshou Reiko tells her butler Kageyama about the difficult cases she handles during dinner. Like Marple though, the butler is very shrewd and he always manages to solve the cases that are troubling his mistress without even taking a step outside the dining room. But the answer to Reiko's questions always have to wait until after she has finished her dinner...

Like I wrote in a previous review, Higashigawa Tokuya specializes in comedy mysteries and Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de is certainly fun. The relation between heiress Hosho and butler Kageyama is really funny, as her butler is intellectually superior and isn't afraid to make that clear to her (actually calling her an idiot for not being to solving the cases herself). Kageyama's lines have just the right touch of sarcasm and the dialogues between him and his mistress are fast and witty.

Actually, I think that Higashigawa's style of mystery writing seems perfect for TV adaptions. Not only is his humorous writing style with a focus on fast dialogues perfect for a prime-time TV series, but his mystery plots have two characteristics that make them easy to adapt for TV. His mysteries seem to be mostly set in urban areas, with an emphasis on movement of the principle characters within the urban area. Which means that his mysteries can be filmed without having to go to locations where mobile phones can't receive any signal (which was the pretty much the standard with filming Trick).  These 'urban' mysteries are also easier to sell to the public, because of the (feigned) realism. Again, a series like Trick (or Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo) does require a bit more suspension of disbelief for the normal viewer due to the uncommon settings.

Another point is that Higashigawa's plots are not impossibly complex like something by Nikaidou Reito, which would be hard to translate to a one-hour TV drama episode. Which might sound like Higashigawa writes overly simple plots, which isn't true. But his plots are of the kind that are probably just complex enough to satisfy a more experienced mystery reader, but are also easy to convert to a working TV script.

For example, the first episode revolves around the problem of a murder victim who was found dead in her apartment with her shoes on. Which is not-done in Japan. The problem seems like a mundane, trivial one, but the solution to the problem is wonderfully easy and urban and while I haven't read the original novel, I bet this story works just as well as a written story as well as on the screen.

Call me a cynic, but my gut-feeling says most people watch the TV drama because Arashi's Sakurai Shou plays Kageyama and not because they heard of the original novel or because they know Higashigawa Tokuya. But ignoring that, I have to admit that the production values to the drama are pretty good. The original novel features some neat art by Nakamura Yuusuke, but the drama also has a distinct look, with many comic book-esque visual effects on the screen and splitscreens. The series is certainly fun to look at.

At the moment Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de seems like a series worthwhile to watch. Like I said, I'm not going to bother with reviews for every single episodes anymore, but I might want to revisit this series when it has ended.

Original Japanese title(s): 『謎解きはディナーのあとで』 (原作： 東川篤哉)