The Magician's Secret

 “For certain, neither of them sees a happy Present, as the gate opens and closes, and one goes in, and the other goes away.”

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Finished the answer chapter Tsumihoroboshi as well as the Advanced Story arcs Yoigoshi and Tokihogoshi of Higurashi: When They Cry, and have added my thoughts on their consequences for the mystery on the memo page for my playthrough of Higurashi: When They Cry. Still a lot to do, but I guess I'm slowly approaching the finale of this long, long tale of human drama, suspense and mystery!

Yep, it's finally time for this book today!

Nikaidou Ranko series  
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)  
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)  
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)  
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)  
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)  
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)  
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)  
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001) 
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004) 
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)  
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)  
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014)
Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Giant Phantom Mammoth Case", 2017)

The Houshou Clan has been one of the most influential families in the city of Hakodate for decades, so when not one, but two of them appeared at the night club Black Lizard one evening, everyone's eyes were fixed on them. Shibahara Etsuo, accompanied by his beautiful fiancée Suzuhara Tomoka, might "just" be a member of the branch family, but still a well-known face around town, but it was his beautiful cousin, Houshou Kimiko and her fiancé Takioka Takashi who had everyone at the tables around them mumble to each other. The two cousins had not expected to meet each other here, but the four decide to share a table and watch the show they had come for: a magic show by the Sorcery King Mephisto, an illusionist who's had a fantastic run abroad and recently in Tokyo too. After some introductionary magic tricks, Mephisto invites both Kimiko and Tomoka on the stage. Kimiko is put inside a box, while Tomoka is placed on a bed. When Mephisto brings out a chainsaw, everyone gasps for a moment as he slowly brings the loud machine down on the bed where Tomoka is lying. But as the audience hear Tomoka's horrific cry as blood spatters all around on the stage and on the face of Mephisto, they slowly start to realize... that this is not a magic trick! After cutting Tomoka in two in front of a live audience, Mephisto then proceeds to tie his assistant to the guillotine on stage, removes the safety and decapitates her on the spot. Everyone is in a panic and tries to flee the club, while Mephisto disappears backstage. It's only by the time the police arrive it becomes clear how grave the situation is: not only has Memphisto killed Tomoka and an assistant on stage, another assistant was killed in his dressing room and Kimiko has gone missing. But while Mephisto's bloody footprints show how he went backstage and killed his other assistant there, there is no trace of him in the building, even though all doors and windows are locked from the inside. Takioka and Etsuo soon receive a letter from Mephisto, who asks for ransom money for Kimiko, but it also soon becomes clear that Mephisto has a grudge against the whole Houshou Clan and that he is after the three family jewels: the Blazing Eye, the White Fang and the Black Heart, which are connected to a secret of the Houshou Clan. The police try everything to protect the members of the Houshou Clan from Mephisto, but the mad illusionist manages to pull off the impossible everytime: spiriting people out of secured hospital rooms, disappearing from a house surrounded by snow without leaving footprints and steal a jewel from a guarded room. The police inspector in charge soon realizes only one person will be able to help them: the brilliant detective Nikaidou Ranko, but she is busy working on another case in the south of Japan now, so they'll have to hold the fort until she can clear this case up in Nikaidou Reito's Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King" 2004).

I'm finally done! Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series was one of the earliest series I started to review on this blog and especially in the early years of this blog, our young protagonist Ranko and her brother/Watson Reito had frequent appearances here. While I didn't read the books as regularly the last few years, it remained a series I have fond memories of: I started reading them early on in my Japanese studies, so they had always been a kind of indicator for me for my studies. And they were also the first "big brick" books I read: most of the novels in this series have really high page count, so especially early on in language studies, those bricks can seem rather intimidating. And I haven't even mentioned Jinroujou no Kyoufu yet, which with four hefty volumes is probably still the longest locked room murder mystery. While I'll be the first to admit that I did not enjoy all the novels in this series as much as I would have wanted do, finishing this series still feels a bit sad. Well, I say "finish" now, but in reality the series hasn't officially ended yet, it's just that I have read all the books currently published, and new volumes only come very, very rarily nowadays. Oh, and I think I mentioned in an older Ranko review already, but I have basically managed to read this whole series out of order! The only ones I read in publication order are Akuryou no Yakata and the short story collection Yuri Meikyuu, as well as the four volumes of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, though the latter doesn't really count because the four books form one story.

I once described early Ranko novels as Carr on crack: the books are oozing with dark atmosphere, set in the seventies and featuring many (MANY) locked room murders and other impossibilities committed in creepy mansions, often against a backdrop of family curses, Western esotericism and medievalism. After the epic Jinroujou no Kyoufu however, Nikaidou shifted the story style significantly by introducing the Labyrinth saga with the 2001 novel Akuma no Labyrinth. This book introduces us to an enigmatic and very dangerous murderer called Labyrinth, who served as the archenemy of Ranko. Their battle would last for four books, ending with Haou no Shi in 2012. Unlike the earlier novels however, the Labyrinth novels were styled more closely to the henkaku horror mystery stories by Edogawa Rampo: these tales were lighter on the mystery, and much heavier on adventure, horror and grotesque story elements, reminiscent of the 20s-50s pulp science-fiction novels with evil scientists and things like monsters, bloodthirsty murders who commit their crimes in the bloodiest/horrific manners possible and elements like secret codes and hidden treasures. To be honest, I didn't really like these novels: Akuma no Labyrinth wasn't bad per se, but it was basically just two short novellas that felt a bit lacking, while Soumenjuu Jiken was just straight-up mad scientist sci-fi horror, and the final story Haou no Shi also didn't stray too far from that model. I understand this was the kind of story Nikaidou wanted to write now with Ranko, but it wasn't really what I wanted to read, so it took me quite a while to finally finish the Labyrinth saga with Majutsuou Jiken, which is actually the second novel in the Labyrinth saga.

Reading things out of order also meant I already knew about the murders in the night club, because they are mentioned in the third novel Soumenjuu Jiken. Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken take place around the same time, and this is relevant to this book's plot. After solving a murder committed by the Sorcery King in Tokyo (but failing to trace his whereabouts), Ranko travels to Kyushu hot on the trail of Labyrinth. These are the events of Soumenjuu Jiken, but during that story, Ranko also happens to read a newspaper article about the gruesome murders that happened at Black Lizard in Hakodate, which she suspects is related to Labyrinth too, but she can't leave right now as she is busy with her current case. This is also why Ranko and Reito don't appear in Majutsuou Jiken until the end, as they were occupied. That also means that the Sorcery King Mephisto is free to do whatever he wants until the end of the story, and he sure does!

Because Majutsuou Jiken is a suspenseful, incredibly pulpy thriller like we know from Edogawa Rampo, with a creepy, insane murderer with a goofy villain name who goes around hurting or killing people in the most horrific ways because, well, he can and he's evil. There's a certain cartoonish element to this which I can appreciate, and I have to admit: I think Majutsuou Jiken is the best of the four Labyrinth novels, as it does what it's supposed to do in the best manner, without feeling too gimmicky like Soumenjuu Jiken. Go in expecting a pulpy adventure similar to Rampo's The Black Lizard or The Dwarf, and you're okay. The story is basically a string of events where the Sorcery King constantly manages to baffle the police and endanger the lives of Kimiko, Etsuo and the others in the Houshou Clan. The mysteries basically never stop piling up. The book opens with a mysterious murder by the Sorcery King, where he stabs someone in a room while observed by a witness, but then the room disappears. Ranko quickly solves this riddle, and I think many readers will have an inkling of what happened too, but then the narrative switches over to Hakodate, and there the Sorcery King is absolutely unchallenged. A few things that occur while Ranko's occupied: a woman is trapped inside an old stone structure that doesn't even have an entrance, a patient is spirited away from a hospital room while a police guard had been standing at the door all the time, a trapped and shot Sorcery King manages to escape from a house even though there was snow around the building and no footprints can be found, threatening letters from the Sorcery King appear inside the Houshou manor even though there's police security in and outside the house and the Sorcery King makes a whole room disappear from a building. The police and the other involved people like Etsuo are constantly baffled by the impossible disappearances/appearances by the Sorcery King, and it is only in the last quarter of the book that we see Ranko.

But the solutions to most of the mysteries we see in Majutsuou Jiken also betray the pulpy nature of the book. A lot of the trickery employed by the Sorcery King is rather simple and more often than not, these "set pieces" in the story are just there to look impressive, even if there's not really a reason for the culprit to do so. In fact, during her explanation of the events, Ranko even states a few times the Sorcery King only did certain things just to scare the wits out of the people involved. There's also a lot of horrifying moments that mostly just there to creep you out, which also sometimes results in weird moments, like the Sorcery King managing to make Kimiko disappear from her hospital room, thus showing how he can make the impossible possible... but at the same time, we also learn he casually killed a nurse and a guard elsewhere in the hospital. So you have this super criminal who manages to commit impossible feats, but who also just slashes and kills rather casually, There are more moments where we see a lot of violence, which again puts this book firmly in the pulp corner, though Nikaidou does make good use of the more horrifying moments for the mystery plot at some moments. Some events in the story however ae really just there to make the story more suspenseful or to drag things out a bit like a serial adventure story, but I don't think it benefitted the story. The book is really, really long (the pocket paperback version is split in two volumes), but having a pulpy, Rampo-esque story at this size is pretty tiring, as it's one cliffhanger after another, and all the protagonists can do is gasp at every new trick the Sorcery King does. I think the book would've been more fun at half the length, because some parts really feel dragged out. Even the summation by Ranko at the end is strangely lengthy, with Ranko constantly using roundabout comparisons first before she uses twice as many words as necessary to explain each and every mystery. Most of the impossible disappearances feature elements that won't be unfamiliar to a fan of the genre, and will even feel a bit too simple. I do have to say the mystery of the vanished boy, who was spirited away from a house even though the police had arrived outside and there were no footprints in the snow around the house, was surprisingly good, and definitely a highlight of the novel.  The more adventure-esque part of the story near the end is something your mileage may vary on, I didn't really like it but I kinda knew it was coming due to the Rampo inspiration and references in other novels.

Oh, by the way, this story is also book-ended by a discussion between Ranko and Reito about Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and both Ranko and Reito propose theories about the unfinished mystery (with Ranko absolutely convinced her theory is right), so people interested in the Drood mystery might also be interested.

I should note that my expectations of Majutsuou Jiken were definitely not high. The Labyrinth novels never really worked for me, and the two middle books, Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken seemed to have had mediocre reception, an opinion I certainly shared concerning Soumenjuu Jiken. But you know, perhaps it's me having more "experience" with the Labyrinth novels now, or me becoming more accepting of what Nikaidou wanted to do with these novels, but I think Majutsuou Jiken is actually the best Labyrinth book of the four. It sets out to present a Ranko story in the format of a serialized, pulp thriller like we know of Edogawa Rampo, and it does that in a perfectly fine manner. The book is certainly a bit too long, but there are some good ideas here and there in terms of mystery in this book, and Majutsuou Jiken I think is also the best at really showing the concept of Ranko VS a superhumanly intelligent and vicious insane murderer (with a Scooby Doo villain name), especially compared to the other three books in this saga. So while I think the best Ranko novels are those that predate the four Labyrinth novels, Majutsuou Jiken is the one book you'll want to read if you do want to try out the Labyrinth storyline (and if you don't mind reading things out of order). Anyway, with that, I'm finally done with the Ranko series, at least, for now. I hope Nikaidou Reito will go back to the style of the older books in future Ranko novels, if more are to follow, but no matter what will come, I will probably read it!

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人『魔術王事件』

That's Snow Ghost

"It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast."

"His Last Bow"

I suddenly remembered I have ridden on an elephant once, at some children's festival. Weird how you suddenly recall things when writing.

Nikaidou Ranko series  
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)  
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)  
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)  
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)  
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)  
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)  
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)  
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001) 
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004) 
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)  
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)  
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014)
Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Giant Phantom Mammoth Case", 2017)

Nikaidou Ranko has made a name for herself as a young, yet brilliant detective with a strong sense of justice. She also likes to solve mysteries of either the fictional kind, or at least less bloody-serial-killings-in-locked-rooms-and-other-impossibilities kind, which is why she, and her brother Reito are also members of the Art of Murder Club. This small informal club meets once a month in Ranko and Reito's regular cafe, with the members a diverse bunch, including the owner of the cafe and Professor Speer, a German who moved to Japan after World War II. In these meetings, the members propose tales of mystery (fictional or real) and challenge the others to solve them. In an earlier meeting, Professor Speer had told about his younger days, when he was a covert agent for the German army and came across the impossible disappearance of a whole mansion in a few hours in Russia, which was also where he first met with his late wife (who is revealed to be the surviving daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia). Nikaidou Reito's Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Giant Phantom Mammoth Case", 2017) has Professor Speer reveal more his spy past during the Russian Civil War, in a sequel to the prior story.

Young Lieutenant Speer is ordered by his superiors to find "the Valley of Death" beyond Lake Baikal in Russia. The German army has reason to believe "Rasputin's Brides", a group of spirit mediums who used to serve Rasputin, are held by the White Army in that Valley. They are believed to have psychic contact with the Russian Empire in the future (which has apparently taken over the world), allowing the White Army to utilize (war) technology from the future. One of the generals of the White Army has set up base in the Valley of Death, which is believed by the people to be protected by a phantom mammoth from ancient times, capable of throwing giant boulders to crush tanks coming in. Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and secretly the lover of Lieutenant Speer, is also held in the valley. Speer's orders are to kill the spirit mediums and Anastasia, though he himself naturally wants to save his lover. Lieutenant Speer therefore, under the name of "Sergei Ephrussi", joins a certain unit of the Merchants, a group affiliated to the White Army. This unit, led by Captain Frolov, is scheduled to deliver goods to the White Army in the Valley of Death, which is the easiest way for Speer/Sergei to get inside the valley. The Red Army is everywhere though, making it a difficult trip for the Merchants to deliver their freight, especially as a mysterious person they call the "Chaser" is on their trail, who has already offed several men of the unit without leaving any footprints in the snow. Professor Speer hands the relevant diaries and documents to Ranko and the others in the Art of Murder Club, challenging them to figure out who the Chaser is, and how this person managed to commit the impossible murders.

I started reading the Nikaidou Ranko novels again this year, after a long reading hiatus. The direct reason for my return to this series was actually the release of this novel: Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken was not only the first full-length Ranko novel since 2012's Haou no Shi, it was also a special novel to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series, as Jigoku no Kijutsushi released in 1992. With the medicore Labyrinth saga finished, which had unfolded in the last four Ranko novels, and the fact this was released especially for the occassion, I was hoping that this new novel would be a return to the more classically structured grand puzzle plot mysteries with impossible crimes and Ranko being involved early on, like in the earlier novels, rather than the more 1920s/1930s science-fiction horror mystery adventures that made up the Labyrinth stories. Chronologically Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken was also set in the time period that featured the more classically-styled stories: this novel takes place after the short story Russia Kan no Nazo, when Ranko and Reito were still students (in the 70s), with Ranko's greatest adventure (Jinroujou no Kyoufu) still ahead of her.

The Ranko framing story is only book-ending the main body of the story however, which consists of excerpts from the diaries Lieutenant Speer (Sergei) and Captain Frolov kept during their trip for the White Army's secret base in the Valley of Death. To be honest, I felt great disappointment when I realized this was the story structure. Jinroujou no Kyoufu is the only story wherein the story-within-a-story framework worked for this series, and that's a special case, as each of the two seperate narratives were full-length novels on their own, and they were followed by two lengthy volumes that followed Ranko as she started her investigation into the two narratives presented earlier, so she had plenty of room herself. Soumenjuu Jiken and Haou no Shi however were not very enjoyable (or not enjoyable at all), as Ranko herself barely appeared on those stories, and most of those stories were more focused on bringing an 'oh-my-god-what-is-happening' atmosphere, rather than a good mystery story. There is less dwelling on gore in Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken, but still, it mostly reads like a spy thriller adventure novel, with a few mystery elements, rather than a full-fledged mystery novel.

The main problem I have with this novel is that it feels disjointed, like a collection of ideas here and there that however never really manage to become one whole. Take the titular Phantom Mammoth for example. The novel starts with a very short account by the sole survivor of a Red Army unit which had been annihilated by the ghostly monster, which obviously paints the being as an impossible mystery. But then the whole story about the Mammoth is mostly brushed away for the Merchants/Chaser story and while the "mystery" of Phantom Mammoth is revealed at the end of the story, when Sergei and Captain Frolov arrive in the Valley of Death, the "solution" given for the being is basically the most boring one you could give, and it's not like there were any real clues to that explanation. So why have the Phantom Mammoth feature in the title at all if it's actually a minor element in the story that isn't particularly good anyway?

The mystery surrounding the Chaser of the Merchants and how he twice manages to commit murders without leaving footprints in the snow is constructed in a more capable way, though still somewhat underwhelming. The Chaser pulls of the trick twice, in somewhat similar situations. The first time, Lieutenant Speer/Sergei and Captain Frolov arrive at a house where one of their unit members has been killed just moments ago. The only snowprints leading to the house are that of the victim, but there is no sign of the murderer inside despite a search by the two. The second time something similar happens is when the Merchants are invited to the home of Maiya Myskina, a former Bride of Rasputin. During the night, Myskina is murdered and decapitated, and the same happens to her daughters. The body of one of the daughters is missing, while the Siamese Twin is found in the chapel, but while the person who brought the body there left footprints in the snow, there are none found leaving the chapel, yet nobody is inside. The solution to both these impossible episodes hinges on the same concept at its core, and it's... okay, I guess. It's nothing original, but mostly an okay combination of various elements that seasoned readers of mystery fiction will know, or will likely come across quite often. It's not a particularly inspiring solution to the impossible crime though, and the impossible situations themselves are treated rather lightly within the context of the story, so it's hard to feel really engaged with them. The biggest issue I have is the rather bland clewing. The clues on their own are not original either and Nikaidou does nothing new with them and the implementation is rather disappointing. I wouldn't say I felt cheated, but it feels more like Nikaidou added the clues just so the reader can't say he cheated, rather than he really tried to make it a fun game for the reader to solve.

In the afterword, Nikaidou mentions he got the inspiration for the title of this novel, and for the contents from Shimada Souji's Russia Yuurei Gunkan Jiken, which was also about Anastasia surviving the revolution in Russia. While Shimada's story was more rooted in actual history, Nikaidou employs much more fantasy in his story, which is certainly an element that has been present in most of the series. The use of folklore and the occult (or the belief in the occult by certain figures) has always given the Nikaidou Ranko series a creepy atmosphere that went really well with the grand murders, with tales about subjects like the Spear of Longinus, vampires, the Pied Piper of Hamelin woven into the narrative. But the occult is seldom as upfront as in this novel, as the whole reason Lieutenant Speer is sent to the Valley of Death is because the German spirit mediums say the White Army's spirit mediums are in contact with the future and stuff. I mean, the occult itself does not infringe upon the core mystery plot of the no-footprints-in-the-snow conundrum, but still, it's a bit weird to see it so prominently, especially as it's not as much 'you can choose to believe it or not' occultism, but actually occultism (Speer for example gets a revelation through Rasputin's Brides at some point, showing him an early glimpse of World War II). We had genetically engineered gorilla-like monsters in Soumenjuu Jiken, but even that is more believable than receiving messages from the future.

So I wasn't too big a fan of Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken as a novel. The core mystery plot (the missing footprints motif) would've worked just as well as a much shorter form (novella or even short story), as as it is now, the novel feels disjointed, as the titular Phantom Mammoth is just a very small element of the story (and not a particularly good one either). There are elements that work better becauese there's the framing story and the story of Lieutenant Speer/Sergei, Captain Frolov and the Chaser, but even so, I'm not sure whether the longer length is really an improvement over a hypothetical shorter version, even if that version might not incorporate those elements as well as the current form. While not a bad novel, I find Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken surprisingly bland, especially as I had hoped that for the occassion, we'd have something more similar to classic Ranko. I have only one Nikaidou Ranko novel left unread now by the way, but the reputation of that novel is not particularly good, so I'm not sure whether I'll be reading it any time soon (especially as I have already read three of them this year).

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人 『巨大幽霊マンモス事件』

Monsters Unleashed

"How many times do I have to tell you? There is no such thing as ghouls, ghosts, goblins or monsters! Listen up, there is absolutely absolutely no such thing as.... MONSTER?!!!!" 

"Scooby-Doo"

Today, a book I really didn't want to read. I think I bought it used when I was in Kyoto, but the things I heard about it were so discouraging I left it unread for almost six, seven years. But I guess I had to read it some day.

Nikaidou Ranko series  
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)  
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)  
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)  
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)  
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)  
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)  
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998) 
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)  
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001) 
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004) 
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)  
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)  
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014) 
Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Case of the Giant Ghost Mammoth", 2017)

The celebrated detective Nikaidou Ranko and her brother Reito first learned of the horrible murders and other crimes committed by the super criminal Labyrinth in the adventures chronicled in Akuma no Labyrinth. Nobody knew who or what Labyrinth was, but he, or she, was able to commit the most horrifying murders and other mystifying crimes, and was also very eager to challenge Ranko in public to try and solve their 'exploits'. During the events of Akuma no Labyrinth, Ranko and Reito came across an old abandoned house that Labyrinth had used for some reason, and they discovered that Labyrinth had some of the old furniture there shipped off elsewhere. Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts", 2007) starts with Ranko, Reito and the police hot on the trail of that set of furniture, and their journey brings them to the southern island of Kyushu. There they learn that two grotesque and blood-curling serial murders happened there the last few days: a whole hospital was completely destroyed from within, with the victims horribly mutilated with limbs torn off and worse, while elsewhere, the inhabitants of a whole village were also similarly killed as if they were mere broken toys. The only clue for Ranko are the testimonies of some survivors, which seem to point to the existence of genetically-engineered two-faced monsters created during World War II, who are being used by Labyrinth to... do what actually?

A few weeks back, I reviewed Nikaidou Reito's short story collection Ran Meikyuu, which also marked my return to the Nikaidou Ranko series after quite some years. The reason I hadn't touched this series for so long was basically this novel. I had already read most of the series, and I actually quite like it: I love post-war 70s atmosphere, the locked room murders and other impossibilities are often grand, over the top and always sure to leave an impression and the distinct occult/horror tone that pervades throughout the series is something perhaps not all can appreciate, but most of the time, I think it works out quite good. That is, the above holds mostly for the series until the mammoth work Jinroujou no Kyoufu (which is probably the longest locked room mystery ever, spanning four pockets of over 700 pages each).

The Nikaidou Ranko books written after Jinroujou no Kyoufu introduced a new storyline (though chronologically set before Jinroujou no Kyoufu), and a nemesis for Ranko: the enigmatic super criminal Labyrinth. These novels also meant a shift in tone: whereas the earlier novels were like Carr on crack, the Labyrinth novels were styled more closely to the henkaku horror mystery stories by Edogawa Rampo, which were lighter on the mystery, and much heavier on adventure, horror and grotesque story elements, reminiscent of the 20s-50s pulp science-fiction novels with evil scientists and things like that. The first novel in this mini-series, Akuma no Labyrinth was not that bad, but the fourth novel and ending to the Labyrinth series (Haou no Shi) was at best mediocre, with a disappointing mystery plot and an over-emphasis on horror and science-fiction elements. I had also heard that the two novels in the middle, Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken were far worse, with especially Soumenjuu Jiken often panned as horrible, so I wasn't too eager to read them. But like I mentioned in the introduction, I only learned of Soumenjuu Jiken's reputation after I had picked it up, so it remained unread in my collection for a long time. I haven't read Majutsuou, nor do I have a copy at the moment, but the events in Majutsuou Jiken and Soumenjuu Jiken happen almost simultaneously: while Ranko is investigating the case of the double-faced beasts in the south of Japan, she learns of a horrible murder that occured during the show of an illusionist in the north and realizes Labyrinth is also behind that case.

But to get back to Soumenjuu Jiken: I have to agree with the general consensus that this was not a very entertaining novel. Most importantly, it's not really a mystery novel. It is pre-World War II science-fiction horror. Unno Juuza is quoted in the book, and yeah, that's certainly a name that'll pop up while you read this novel, as well as things like Conan Doyle's The Creeping Man, Rampo's Kotou no Oni or Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. For the double-faced beasts that feature in the title? Yeah, they exist. The novel opens with an account by a woman who, as a girl, had miraculously survived the extermination of her village by the titular double-faced beasts. She lived on Skull Isle, an island housing a secret laboratory of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, with her village serving as camouflage. Strange experiments went on in that laboratory, all in the hope to win the war. The double-faced beasts were one of the weapons produced by these experiments: the gorilla-like animals had four arms, stremendous strength and stamina, possessed poison breath and could burn people with rays from their eyes. The beasts were taken away at the end of the war, their existence kept top secret by the extinction of the village on Skull Isle. We also learn that Labyrinth too was o a product of genetic engineering by the Imperial Army during the war: Labyrinth is a ruthless superhuman with extraordinary mental and physical traits originally designed as a super-soldier until they escaped the clutches of their creators, so Labyrinth gaining possession of these double-faced beasts is not good news.

The bulk of Soumenjuu Jiken consists of accounts by various people who had encounters with either the double-faced beasts or Labyrinth, both during the war or now, twenty years later, when Labyrinth and the double-faced beasts are leaving a bloody trail throughout Kyushu. Ranko learns about all these accounts as she's chasing after Labyrinth, slowly puzzling the tale of the double-faced beasts and the origin of Labyrinth together. These accounts are very grotesque and basically horror-stories, as we learn about the horrifying acts of these genetically engineered creations, with every single detail about how limbs were torn off and things like that explained. There's no mystery to be solved here, just sheer horror. At the end of the novel, Ranko does make a few deductions that show that not all events were as they seemed at first, but the things she figures out are poorly clewed and rather unimpressive. Soumenjuu Jiken reminded me of Shimada Souji's Nejishiki Zazetsuki, as that novel too revolved around an account of something that seems incredibly fantastical, and which invites to an alternate interpretation that is a bit closer to reality, but the 'alternative' interpretation by Ranko of the events and the existence of the double-faced beasts in Soumenjuu Jiken only involves small parts of the story: most of the monsters-are-loose story is true, and with genetically-altered monsters from World War II wiping whole villages out and things like that, it's kinda hard to care about what Ranko has to say about things that ultimately make no difference at all to the problem they're facing. (that is: that they have to fight genetically-altered monsters from World War II).

And what really kills this novel is the length. It's incredibly long. The version I have is about 750 pages long in double columns: the paperback pocket release consists of two volumes, each nearly 600 pages long. The thing is: it really doesn't need to be this long. The novel consists of accounts by various people on the double-faced beasts, and the story of Ranko and Reito piecing the whole thing together using these accounts, but I think almost half of the book is repeating itself. For example: there's an extended account by a teacher who discovers how a hospital was raided by the double-faced beasts, with everyone inside horribly ripped apart. This is followed by the Ranko narrrative, where she learns about the hospital case and then gets a report from the police. The problem: there is a lot of overlap. All the important facts we learn from the accounts, is always also repeated again in the Ranko narrative, so you're almost always told something twice. Obviously, something good could be done with a dual narrative structure: the discrepency between the eyewitness account and what Ranko learns from the police might for example be connected to some mystery. This however never happens in this novel. It's always a horror account, followed by a more business-like account of the same facts. This repeats itself over and over again, which explains why this book is so ridiculously long even though very little happens here. So even read as a science-fiction horror novel, I can't say Soumenjuu Jiken is good: it's a very repetitive novel and the horror-side of the story doesn't really work towards a (worthwile) climax anyway, so you'd better have no expectations there either.

So no, I can't say I can recommend Soumenjuu Jiken, not even if you like the Nikaidou Ranko series. It's completely different from the earlier novels, and while the other two Labyrinth novels I'd read where also a bit more focused on horror, they at least featured stories one could recognize as a mystery plot, with locked room murders or other impossible crimes. Soumenjuu Jiken on the other hand is all about monsters causing bloody havoc, which at the end is followed by a flimsy attempt at turning it into a mystery story by having Ranko making insignificant deductions, considering they do nothing at help solving the problem that they are facing double-faced four-armed monster gorillas. I remember that Haou no Shi (the last of the Labyrinth novels) kinda revealed the plot and outcome of this novel, so for those who have emotionally invested in this series, I can say you can just skip this novel and skip to Haou no Shi if you really want to see how the Labyrinth saga ends (even if that novel isn't that great either).

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人 『双面獣事件』

Black Orchids

「劇場でいちいち蘭ぁん！て言うのやめてくれる？」

林原めぐみ -『名探偵コナンラジオ　第6回』

"Could you stop yelling 'Raaaaan!' all the time in the movies?"

Hayashibara Megumi (voice actress of Haibara Ai) in "Detective Conan Radio - Episode 6"

I'm kinda bummed that the cover of the short story collection discussed today doesn't match the covers of the previous short story collections in this series (this one and this one)  at all, on the other hand: this cover is definitely much better-looking.

Nikaidou Ranko series
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001)
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004)
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014)
Kyodai Yuurei Mammoth Jiken ("The Case of the Giant Ghost Mammoth", 2017)

Ranko is a young woman who has made a name for herself as a brilliant private detective, having solved countless of horrifying murder cases. Her powers of reasoning are not only appreciated by the wider public and the Japanese police force, but occasionally even foreign governments rely on her mind. She first honed her deductive skills as a high school student, when she and her brother-by-adoption Reito (Ranko was adopted into the Nikaidou family) solved the murder case involving the Magician from Hell. Reito has chronicled many of their adventures, among which Ranko's long-standing fight with the superhuman criminal Labyrinth, but also her exploits in solving the baffling case that happened in the Werewolf Castle on the French-German border. Nikaidou Reito's Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids", 2014), collects three novellas/short stories with smaller problems for Ranko to solve, like a five-layered locked room murder mystery and a mystery that lies in the faraway past.

It's been a while since I last read a book featuring Ranko! I absolutely devoured the Ranko novels in the early days of this blog, despite the sizes of those bricks (most Japanese paperback pockets I read end up somewhere around 350~500 pages long. Nikaidou's books on the other hand usually start at 600, and can go up to 900) and I think I read almost all of them (the ones I'm still missing are either brand new, or not very well received). The books have a distinct old-fashioned atmosphere: they are set in the 70s, but the many (MANY) locked room murders and other impossibilities committed in creepy mansions evoked a Carr-ish world, especially as the Ranko stories more often than not also involved themes like family curses, Western esotericism and medievalism. There was a significant change in story style though halfway through the series. What I described mostly applies in the books up until Jinroujou no Kyoufu (probably still the longest locked room mystery around). Ranko would disappear in Europe for three years at the end of that story, so the books jumped a few years back in time, to chronicle Ranko's intellectual battles against the master criminal Labyrinth, who was basically an artificial human created during World War II who had genetically engineered monsters at their disposal or something like that. And while Ranko still solved some impossible crimes in those Labyrinth novels, they were never as impressive as the ones seen in the earlier books, and her encounters with Labyrinth were often more like science-fiction horror novels with slight elements of the mystery genre, like you'd expect from mid-period Edogawa Rampo, rather than the you-aren't-going-to-get-more-classic-than-this, conventional mystery tales published before Labyrinth's first appearance. The three stories collected in the short story collection Ran Meikyuu are all set in different periods in Ranko's life, and thus also have a different tone to them.

The first story, Dorogune Hakase no Akumu ("The Nightmare of Professor Dorogune"), is set before the events in Jinroujou no Kyoufu, when Ranko was still a university student, but already a famed detective. The police wants her help in an absolutely puzzling case: Professor Dorogune, who had used his fortune to research supernatural phenomena in search of a way to revive his dear dead wife, had been found murdered inside a building, behind four locked doors, with only the victim's own footprints on the snowy path leading to the building in question! Fuyuki Mayako claimed she could teleport and control objects with her psychic powers, so the professor had the building especially designed to test her powers of teleportation, promising to bestow upon her a fortune if she was the goods. The building was basically designed like four squares laid within each other, each one smaller than the next, like four Matryoshka dolls. You'd need to go through four doors, each door leading deeper into the next square (and deeper inside the building), to reach the center square (room), which was where the professor was found dead one morning, with a knife in his back. But as all four doors were locked from the inside (with even the keyholes blocked by handkerchiefs stuffed inside), and only the footprints of the victim himself were found on the only path leading to the building, it seems that only Mayako, with her powers of teleportation and psychokinesis, could've committed the murder!

Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way first: YES, the premise of this story is absolutely amazing. A four-layered locked room mystery, plus missing footprints in the snow? So basically a five-layered locked room mystery? This is what I want to see in a Ranko story! And now you're expecting me to say how disappointing the solution was and how it didn't live up to the set-up, right? You'd be right, but only partially. What Nikaidou does here is use tricks and solutions that are in no way new or original on their own: even beginning readers of the genre might have come across these ideas. But Nikaidou does show his craftsmanship in the way in which he uses those familiar ideas, as he combines very basic tricks with confidence and expertise to create this five-layered impossible murder situation. The result however is a story that fails to truly surprise at the conclusion, as almost all of the crucial parts of the solution are so recognizable. On the other hand, one have to admit that Nikaidou certainly showed skill in how he used these familiar elements to craft a locked room mystery that's still absolutely stunning in terms of premise, and far more than average in turns of clewing. I would have preferred a completely original solution of course, but at least this story manages to solve this five-layered locked room in a plausible manner, and doesn't resort to really bad solutions.

Ran no Ie no Satsujin ("The Murder In The House of Orchids") is set after the events in Jinroujou no Kyoufu and Haou no Shi, when Ranko has returned from Europe back to Japan, as a single mother raising her son Aran. She runs an art gallery in Karuizawa together with Reito, now a married man and also a news journalist. Ranko had stopped her work as a private detective so she could focus on raising Aran, but with Aran two years old now and her sister-in-law Noriko around, Ranko is starting to feel the need for mystery solving again. It's Noriko who has a mystery for Ranko: her friend Kaori is engaged with Karai Shinji, son of the famous artist Karai Leonard. Leonard was a true prodigy, but also very loose in his relations with women, often fooling around with his models. Twelve years ago, when Shinji was still a child, Leonard died due to cyanide poisoning, though it was deemed suicide. Some days later, Shinji's mother called her sister saying she had killed Leonard, and she too took her own life with cyanide, inside a locked room within the orchard house in the garden. While the scandal had been suppressed, the deaths (and possible murders) of his parents has weighed heavily on Shinji's mind, preventing him from taking the next step in his relation with Kaori. Kaori wants Ranko to find out what happened twelve years ago to ease Shinji's mind, and as Ranko is also asked to sell Leonard's remaining work through her gallery, she and Reito make their way to the House of Orchids and start digging in the past.

The story itself mentions it already, but Ran no Ie no Satsujin is very much inspired by Christie's Five Little Pigs: the plot of an investigation into the suspicious death of a womanizing artist a decade or so ago by asking the witnesses to recall the day of the death is basically the same. Unlike Christie's story though, that focused on the psychology of the suspects, Nikaidou's story is built on a core involving a locked room mystery (the death of Shinji's mother inside the locked orchid house), combined with a poisoining plot (of Leonard). I find it difficult to judge this story. My main gripe is that the story is very, very long and as the basic structure mirrors Five Little Pigs fairly closely, leaving few surprises there, and as the narrative's mostly talking about events that happened many years ago, things move very slowly. The locked room mystery is workable and very cleverly clewed, but has trouble standing out amidst the constant talking about the past, and has trouble actually leaving any impression because it's snowed in between the boring parts. The poisoning part of the story however is basically impossible for anybody to solve, at least, not with a chain of reasoning with a solid foundation, as no way anybody is going to connect those dots. There are some good points to it, but I wouldn't call it fair.

Aoi Mamono ("The Blue Monster") too is also set after Ranko's return from Europe, but while Ran no Ie no Satsujin was still mostly a story that relied on classic mystery tropes like the locked room mystery, Aoi Mamono is much closer to the Labyrinth stories, with a rudimentary mystery plot mixed with grotesque science-fiction/horror elements in the tradition of the Sherlock Holmes' story The Creeping Man. Ranko is working on a case involving wild dogs attacking and killing two Caucasian men in Kamakura. Meanwhile, two children adopted by Doctor Moro'o plead for help with the police, claiming the doctor, known throughout the town for his ecccentric behavior and strange experiments, has gone mad and tried to kill them. While Ranko does use some kind of logic to explain the strange events portrayed in this story and it's arguably based on hints in the text, one can best read this as some horror story, as it's nothing special as a mystery story. The weakest link of the collection.

As a short story (novella) collection, Ran Meikyuu actually manages to give a fairly good idea of the sort of stories one can expect to find in the Nikaidou Ranko series. The opening story, while quite smaller in scale and not as impressive in terms of originality, does remind of the earlier Ranko stories, with her working on fairly baffling impossible crimes that you'd expect from the Golden Age. The second story in turn fits the scale of the other short stories in this series, while the final story is very reminiscent of the weird horror-science-fiction-mixed-with-detective-plots later in the series. The first story is by far the best, and while I'd consider none of them timeless classics, I have to admit I enjoyed reading about Ranko again, so I might go after the couple of books I haven't read yet in the near future.

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人　『ラン迷宮』: 「泥具根博士の悪夢」 / 「蘭の家の殺人」 / 「青い魔物」

Maze of Nightmare

Gegroet, vaarwel, wat gaat het leven snel

O, tranen maken een afscheid tot een hel

"Vaarwel voorgoed" ("De Speurneuzen")

Greetings, farewell, life goes by so fast

Oh, tears make parting into a hell

"Goodbye Forever" (Dutch version of "Goodbye So Soon" from "The Great Mouse Detective")

I buy most of my Japanese books used when I'm in Japan. You can usually find new books quite fast in used bookshops for a fair price. But as I was writing this post, I noticed that today's book was actually released in the same year I bought it. Well, that's not that strange a happening on its own, but I bought the book for a mere 105 yen, even though the book was 'just' released and selling for about 1500 yen new. The used book market in Japan is fast, I know as a reader and buyer, but for the value of a novel to fall to even less than ten percent of its original price in less than a year?!

Nikaidou Ranko series
Jigoku no Kijutsushi ("The Magician from Hell") (1992)
Kyuuketsu no Ie ("House of Bloodsuckers") (1992)
Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent") (1993)
Akuryou no Yakata ("Palace of Evil Spirits") (1994)
Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") (1995)
Bara Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Roses") (1997)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany") (1996)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - France Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France") (1997)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective") (1998)
Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion") (1998)
Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth") (2001)
Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King") (2004)
Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Case of the Double-Faced Beasts") (2007)
Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") (2012)
Ran Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Orchids") (2014)

Aoki Shunji had nothing left to live for. But one day, his eye fell on a curious advertisement: WILL PURCHASE YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE. HIGH PRICES. Having nothing to lose, Aoki visits the shady laywer Busujima, who has sinister plans with Aoki's worthless life he purchases. Busujima was hired to locate a distant relative of the influential Ouchi clan. Family head Ouchi Daisuke may soon be drawing his last breath and because his own sons have died, he tries to locate some distant relatives to see if they are worthy of becoming his successor. Busujima had found one relative, in a rather dead state, but the lawyer plans to present Aoki as the relative, and together take over the wealth and power of the Ouchi family. The Ouchis are said to be direct descendants of the legendary snake Orochi and the family is therefore the de facto ruler of the Makai Valley on the Noto peninsula, said to be the home of the Orochi. At the entrance of the Makai Valley lies New Holly Village, a small town comprised mostly out of American missionary workers. Some villagers claim to have seen a strange four-armed monster wandering in the woods lately, which also seems to be the only creature who could have committed the horrible double murder of two people impaled on a high tree. Other villagers also seem to have been mentally unstable, sometimes even resulting in deadly confrontations. And Aoki's arrival in the Makai Valley leads to more tragedy...

The beautiful detective Nikaidou Ranko was the only one capable of foiling the plans of the great criminal Labyrinth. Ranko however disappeared in Europe after solving the horrifying double-digit serial murders in Jinroujou no Kyoufu. Not even her brother-by-adoption (and chronicler) Reito knew where she was. Haou no Shi ("Death of the Ruler") starts with the terrible experiences of the fake heir Aoki in the Makai Valley as described above: the story then jumps a year forward, when Ranko finally returns to Japan from Europe after a three year disappearance. She is not interested in detective work anymore, but when she hears her nemesis Labyrinth was involved with the happenings in the Makai Valley and New Holly Village, Ranko decides it's time to put an end to their longtime battle.

A somewhat chaotic summary of Nikaidou Reito's Haou no Shi "("Death of the Ruler"), but that it is because it is a rather context-heavy novel. This novel basically has three points of focus: first is the story of Aoki and the murders that happen in Makai Valley. This a is pretty straightforward part, but the other two focal points make the novel a bit more complex, as they deal with two major plot points of the Nikaidou Ranko series: for Haou no Shi is also the final chapter in the Labyrinth story arc of the series, as chronicled in Akuma no Labyrinth (2001), Majutsuou Jiken (2004) and Soumenjuu Jiken (2007). And not only that, but Ranko also finally returns from Europe after she disappeared at the end of Jinroujou no Kyoufu (1998). I don't recommend going in Haou no Shi without having read at least some earlier adventures of Ranko, because to be honest, Haou no Shi has almost no exceptional merits as a standalone detective story, so I think it's mostly interesting as a book that finally gives us closure on some storylines that had been going on for years.

The events that take place in Makai Valley make up for about three-quarters of the novel, with two parallel-running stories. The first one feels very Yokomizo Seishi-esque, with Aoki posing as a distant relative of the Ouchi family, and a complex inheritance ceremony where suitors vie for the hand of a beautiful heiress in an isolated, rural part of Japan (plus a bit of Edogawa Rampo's The Strange Tale of Panorama Island). The other parallel storyline focuses mainly on a gruesome double murder in New Holly Town, and the accounts of several villagers who are slowly, but surely going mad as they start to see aliens / monsters / cannibals / cursed children and other freaky creatures in town. This is familiar territory for Nikaidou: suspenseful horror stories with a touch of the occult that, even though extremely long, are easy and pleasant enough to read. Nikaidou Reito's books are always gigantic tomes with 600~900 pages, but when you get in the rhythm, the pages really fly by.

In the end, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in Makai Valley, and one year later Aoki Shunji awakes in a hospital, having lost an eye, an arm and a leg. But what happened exactly? Two locked room murders, and a double murder in New Holly Town where the victims were impaled high up in the trees, and the legendary murderer Labyrinth also showed up somewhere, but Aoki, who is also suffering from amnesia, can't make head nor tails out of it. The answers series detective Ranko has for Aoki are....  a bit disappointing. For a story billed as the end of the long lasting Labyrinth saga, and the return of Ranko, the puzzle plot can be considered mediocre at best: most of the events in New Holly Town are handwaved away with an answer that's almost as bad as saying 'it was all magic!', while the locked room murders also fail to impress. Well, I don't really think that Nikaidou even tried to surprise the reader with the locked room murders, because the tricks behind them are really, really basic. But you'd think that someone who had written the longest locked room murder story (and a fun one at that too!) ever, would come up with something better...

And while I said that Haou no Shi is best read for its ties with the overall storyline of the Nikaidou Ranko series, I'll have to say that even in that aspect, it's not very impressive. Ranko appears very late in the novel and she explains practically nothing about her stay in Europe (and Reito's slightly worrying admiration for his stepsister hasn't gone down a bit, despite having a girlfriend now...). And as the final chapter in the Ranko VS Labyrinth saga, I can tell you one thing: you were probably not expecting Labyrinth to go like that.

Besides Haou no Shi, I actually only read the first book of the Labyrinth saga (Akuma no Labyrinth, Majutsuou Jiken, Soumenjuu Jiken and Haou no Shi), but already in Akuma no Labyrinth, it was clear that Labyrinth was not just a human, but an almost superhuman criminal who could become practically anyone. And the series atmosphere also shifted more towards science fiction/fantasy, I think. Sure, the series always had occult tones (NAZI-WEREWOLVES, I will never forget you!), but those elements were never really confirmed as 100% real. But in the Labyrinth novels, you suddenly have genetically engineered two-headed monsters going around killing people, as if monsters travelling across Japan is just normal business. I get that Nikaidou Reito is going for an Edogawa Rampo-vibe here, but I think he already got that right with his earlier novels (Jigoku no Kijutsushi is extremely Rampo-esque, for example) and now he's just gone too far.

I don't think I can really recommend Haou no Shi, except for those who just want to know how Ranko returns from Europe and who want to read about her final confrontation with Labyrinth. The novel is rather disappointing as standalone detective story and it doesn't even really work as one, because it has too much overall storyline luggage. One for the fans.

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人　『覇王の死』

And On the Eighth Day

「だが、殺人者が、君を殺しにくる可能性もある」

私は最悪の事態を危惧した。

「だったらその時には、黎人宛てにダイイング・メッセージを残しておいてあげるわ。あまりむずかしくないのをね」

『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

"But the murderer might come to kill you."

I feared the worst case possible.

"In such a case, I'll be sure to leave you a dying message. An easy one."

"The Tragedy of Saint Ursula Convent"

You would almost think I read Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series in the weirdest order possible on purpose, if you look at it closely. The following list is of the books I've read of the series so far:

(1) Jigoku no Kijutsushi | The Magician From Hell
(2) Kyuuketsu no Ie | House of Bloodsuckers
(3) Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki | The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent
(4) Akuryou no Yakata | Palace of Evil Spirits
(5) Yuri Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Lillies
(6) Bara Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Roses
(7a) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany
(7b) Jinroujou no Kyoufu  - France Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France
(7c) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective
(7d) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion
(8) Akuma no Labyrinth | The Devil's Labyrinth

And for some reason, I've read the books in the following order: (2), (6), (7a), (7b), (7c), (7d), (8), (1), (4), (5), (3). The only books I've read in order are Akuryou no Yakata and Yuri Meikyuu, and Jinroujou no Kyoufu (the individual books of this story have to be read in order, except for maybe 7a and 7b). Akuma no Labyrinth I have read in relative order, after Jinroujou, but in terms of publication history, I still didn't read them in order and chronologically  Jinroujou and Akuma no Labyrinth are set the other way around, just to make things even more confusing. For many series, this isn't really of importance, but Nikaidou Reito has the habit of refering to his earlier books /  adventures, so it is actually better to read them in order. That's why I am stuck in Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata series at the moment however: the one I'm reading now is almost as long as Nikaidou Reito's Jinroujou no Kyoufu. Which is very, very long.

Brilliant and beautiful detective Nikaidou Ranko (and her brother Reito) return in Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent"), where they are asked by the head of the Saint Ursula Convent to solve the mysterious death of a student one year ago. The girl had been found dead at the foot of a tower and because the door to the room where she had spent her last living breath was locked from the inside, the incident was considered a suicide. Of course, the police conveniently ignored the fact that there were definite signs that she was attacked by someone there. And that around the same time, a headless corpse was found hanging upside down near the convent. And there was something with a strange message the victim left behind. Anyway, something strange has been going on in and it is up to our dynamic duo to solve the arcane mysteries of the Saint Ursula Convent.

Jigoku no Kijutsushi was an interesting take on Edogawa Rampo's novels, Jinroujou no Kyoufu is the world longest locked mystery story and Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is... chaotic. A locked room mystery and a headless body and a secret code can work together in theory, but the individual elements aren't very strong and while they work better together (as often in such stories), the complete picture is still not nearly as entertaining as Nikaidou Reito's other books pre-dating Jinroujou no Kyoufu (and he moved towards somewhat... stranger places after Jinroujou no Kyoufu). I do have to note that most of Nikaidou Reito's novels are absolutely packed with detective fiction tropes (c.f. my review of Akuryou no Yakata), which usually works out OK (although, sometimes just barely). It works this time, but Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is the weakest link of Nikaidou's Ranko novels up to Jinroujou no Kyoufu.

The locked room problems are better suited for a short story for example and the actual discussion about the headless body, which even in Japanese detective fiction is usually not a convention used just for fun, takes no more than a couple of pages (of a 600 page novel). Nikaidou tries to string everything together by presenting everything as a mitate murder (naturally after the bible, considering the setting of this story), but it is hardly convincing, because the way the murders are supposed to be mirroring biblical events is really weak. No way a reader is going to figure out that before Ranko points out the fact, and even after the reveal, the reader still won't be convinced it is a mitate murder, because it's barely related!

The setting of the convent is used mostly in a very predictable way. Creepy atmosphere, secretive nuns, secret rituals and stuff, considering Nikaidou has always used a lot of esotoric history and conspiracy theories in his novels (Jinroujou no Kyoufu had the Spear of Longinus and Nazi-Werewolves, Akuryou no Yakata witches etc.), so you can guess how Nikaidou uses the convent. The ending does bring something interesting, but it is more of an extra than really part of the detective plot.

I have to admit that I read this book in a record speed though. As a whole, the plot... well, I certainly won't say this is gold material, but by keeping throwing all these elements at you at a steady pace, Nikaidou does keep the reader hooked for most of the book. It's definitely written as entertainment, and I have to admit that it mostly works as such. The whole outshines the individual parts and while not a classic, it's not really horrible (not really praising it either). If you like Nikaidou Reito and can get Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki for cheap, it's an okay read, I guess. I mean, I paid more for Nikaidou's Zouka Hakase no Jikenbo and that was absolutely horrible. I wouldn't recommend reading Nikaidou Reito starting with Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki though.

Original Japanse title(s): 二階堂黎人　『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

Death wears an Orchid

Okay. I'll take a bunch of those white ones.

- I wouldn't do that if I was you.

No?

- They are lillies, m'sieur. Some people associate them with death...

Yikes! Thanks for telling me. What other flowers do you have?

- Dahlias?

What do they signify?

- Insecurity.

Hmm, I don't want to give her the wrong idea about me.

"Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars"

Please tell me the answer, is fate unchangeable? Yes, I will have to return this TV in a few weeks. Though I love playing games on it. Though I didn't really like Suikoden II as much as I did Suikoden I.

Nikaidou Ranko and her stepbrother Reito should by now be familiar with readers of this blog. Or else I refer to the Ranko tag. The Nikaidou Ranko series might be a sorta of an acquired taste, the more I think about it. Set in post-war Japan, Nikaidou clearly aims at a sort-of modern Edogawa Rampo story-telling with his novels. Weird, grotesque murders and situations that seem like a continuation of the grand master himself. This becomes more clear as the series continues (see Akuma no Labyrinth), but I have to admit, it does get harder to really get into later Nikaidou. I mean, what starts out as a honest bit of Rampo homage, has been giving us destined detectives, cannibals and Nazi-Werewolves (I will never drop this point) in slightly more recent entries. I haven't even started in the more newer novels, for sheer fear of what Nikaidou might have turned to the series into.

But to get back to the book: Yuri Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies") is the first short story collection featuring Ranko, with three rather long short stories. It starts off with Russia-Kan no Nazo ("The Russian Mansion Mystery"), which in turn starts with the regular meeting of the Murderer's Art club (a mystery club) to which Ranko and Reito belong. This time, the meeting is about mysterious events the members themselves have experienced in their life. The final member to tell his story is old man Speer, a Jewish-German who had fled from Germany to Japan during the war and who used to be Ranko and Reito's teacher. Speer tells the club that he used to work as a spy after World War I in Russia and one day, he was supposed to deliver vital intellegence to the Blizzard Mansion, a mansion hidden somewhere in Russia's snow fields where blizzards just won't stop. He manages to fulfill his mission thanks to the help of some fellow soldiers and is invited to stay a bit in the Blizzard Mansion. But the following day, the complete mansion just disappears. Speer still has no idea what happened to the mansion, but Ranko has an idea about what happened.

An impossible disappearance of a building! Queen's The Lamp of God is of course mentioned and while there are few variations in the story-types involving disappearing buildings/trains/etc., I still liked this story, mainly because how the story was told and because Nikaidou added a little touches to tie it up to the historical background (post WWI Russia, the revolution etc.). It works well as a short story and I was quite pleased with it.

Misshitsu no Yuri ("Lilies in the Locked Room") is about the locked room murder of a writer in her apartment. The murder was actually recorded on audio-tape, because the victim was dictating a manuscript when the murderer visited her apartment, but does it also proof to be a clue to the murderer? No, not really actually. But the thing I actually want to say the most about this story is: the basic ideas behind this locked room murder is precisely the same as a story I had been playing around with in my head for two years now. Heck, I sorta tried it in real life too. Heck, I even mentioned it at the time on this blog (point V)!

This story predates my idea and I never actually wrote it, so I am not complaining. In fact, one of the reasons I never wrote the story (besides the fact that I can't write) was because I couldn't never seem to work out in a satisfying way. It would always end up as too obvious. And I am sorta happy to say that Nikaidou also didn't really succeed with this story. Which is actually very, very low of me. But still. I actually think Nikaidou made it worse, because the clues he left pointing at the murderer and the way the actual locked room is set up, make no sense at all. There was no reason for the murderer to do all that. Especially if you realize that by creating the locked room, (s)he was actually leaving more clues incriminating him/herself! Anyway, I guess I'll abandon this idea for a while, though I still want to use it one day...

The last story in the collection is more of a short novellette, called Gekiyaku ("Strong Poison"). And yes, it's a reference to Sayers, even though the contents of the story are more related to Christie. The story is about a poisoning murder done during a bridge party, with Reito as one of the attending guests. It's a bit more complex than Christie's story, with eight people spread over two tables and a bit of walking around by the dummies, but yes, the basic idea is the same. How was the victim poisoned and by whom. Ranko wasn't there at the party, but an examination of the score cards (like Poirot and a hint of Vance!) gives her a good idea about who the murderer is.

A fairly mediocre story. The inclusion of the bridge rules as a sort of intermezzo was sorta strange, as it broke up the flow of the story. Of course, the story had a very, very tedious beginning with the victim making lots enemies, just so we could have a nice cast of suspects. The ending of the story is surprising though, with an incredible amount of plot-twists and multiple solutions, that almost seem too impressive for just a short novellette. Actually, it doesn't just seem too impressive: it simply is. A look at other reviews showed that a lot of people thought that it was unneccesary complex. Not in the sense of logic, but just in the sense that Nikaidou tries too hard to surprise the reader with several solutions presented one after another. I wouldn't say simple is best, but in this case, simpler would have been better. And shorter. Seriously, this story could have lost half the page count and still work.

All in all a not very impressive collection. I only really enjoyed the first story, which feels the most like a Nikaidou story with its detailed historical background and the more gothic atmosphere. Which is what he does best, I guess. Maybe I should continue reading the series to see whether he managed to get rid of the Nazi-Werewolves.

And yes, another bland review, presented by Lack of Sleep, I Want to Play Videogames and of course Mediocre Books Lead to Mediocre Reviews. But from what I've read until now, I think I will be a bit more enthusiastic about Hoch's Hawthorne series. A bit. And to wrap things up, I pose the question: why is there a complete Sam Hawthorne collection available in Japanese but not in English?

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人　『ユリ迷宮』: 「ロシア館の謎」 / 「密室のユリ」 / 「劇薬」