The Pale Horse

All living things

Into the spiral

"Spiral" (Garnet Crow)

And that wraps up another series...

Over the course of about a year, I have reviewed the spinoff novels of Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna or Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning, a mystery(-themed) manga created by writer Shirodaira Kyou and artist Mizuno Eita which ran from 1999 until 2005. Each of the novels I had discussed until now followed the same structure: one novella, featuring a completely original adventure with series protagonist Ayumu, and two shorter stories which were originally published online, which focused on Ayumu's big brother Kiyotaka, who disappears at the start of the main series. These short stories were set in the past, and were about Kurumi, a sixteen year old heir to a wealthy and influential family. Her grandfather wants her to marry Kiyotaka, who at that time is known as a prodigy in the Tokyo police force, but Kurumi of course refuses, and declares she'll beat Kiyotaka in solving police cases to show she's better than him and can thus marry someone else. Of course, in the short stories we saw included in volumes 1 until 3 of this spin-off series, Kiyotaka was always the better detective. Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 4: Koufuku no Owari, Owari no Koufuku ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 4: Ending of the Happiness, Happiness of the Ending" 2004) is the final spin-off novel and unlike the previous books, focuses solely on this storyline revolving around Kurumi, wrapping her story up and setting the pieces ready for the start of the main series. 

Interestingly, this book also follows a different structure because it is the ending. In the previous three volumes, we had first the original novella with Ayumu, followed by two extra prequel stories with Kurumi and Kiyotaka. Which made sense, as they were just extras. These stories had also been posted online before. In this volume however, things are turned around: the book opens with the two stories which were posted online previously, but ends with the original novella.

The two short stories the reader first encounters are called Kinkyou Houkoku ("Update") and Kudan wo Korose ("Kill the Kudan") and are fairly short, and don't follow the same two-chapter structure of the previous short stories. In the first, we learn about a woman who has been killed, but in her stomach a handwritten note was found with the name "Kiyotaka" as well as Kiyotaka's phone number at the police station. While it is not likely he killed the woman and that she wanted to leave a clue to indicate her killer, Kiyotaka turns out to have a connection with the victim, as they used to date in college. But why did the victim have that note in her stomach? This is a fun The Nine Mile Walk-esque story where they speculate about why she'd have swallowed that note before being killed, and while the answer comes very soon after the introduction of the problem, it does fit with the humanistic angle this series sometimes takes. This story also has Kurumi meet with a younger Ayumu for the first time (he's still in elementary school in this story), who turns out to be quite clever like his big brother. In Kudan wo Korose ("Kill the Kudan"), Ayumu's old teacher confesses to killing her husband with a statue of a Kudan (a yokai with the head of a man and the body of a cow),because she believes the prophetic powers of a Kudan will only lead to misfortune. Ayumu however has information that seems to put the matter in a different light. Again, the story is very short, so you don't really get much time to think about this yourself too much, but it's an okay story considering the page count, and because of the yokai links and the type of deductions made, it does make you wonder whether Shirodaira was already playing with ideas for Kyokou Suiri/Invented Inference when he wrote this tale.

The main story is Koufuku no Owari, Owari no Koufuku ("Ending of the Happiness, Happiness of the Ending") which might also be the longest original novella of this four-volume series. It is also by far the best pure mystery story of the four, focusing on a clear murder mystery and using the extended page length to present a robust novella. Kurumi challenges Kiyotaka one last time, and this time, they are working on the murder of a wealthy man, who was very much into horse racing. Each Sunday, he'd bet on horses, but whenever he lost, he would write down the names of the two horses he lost to, and fold a very intricate origami model of a devil figure with head, arms, legs, fingers and wings, which takes hours to fold even if you know exactly how to do it. This Sunday, he was killed, but he had finished his origami model, meaning he had died some hours after losing his horse bet. During the race, his son, illegimate daughter and another son-in-law, who all had reasons for wanting to kill him for his money, were all with him at his house, but they all left after the race and had tea together, meaning they all have a perfect alibi for after the race, when the victim was working on his origami model. Because the names of the winners of that race were indeed written on that model, it means it couldn't have been prepared beforehand, because you can't know which two horses exactly would win that week. Ayumu helps Kurumi this time to see if they can beat Kiyotaka together.

As a problem, this is probably the most "normal" murder mystery we've seen in the novellas in this spin-off series, and it's a pretty good one. Nothing mind-blowing mind you, but it's a solid "which of the three suspects is the killer" type of story. They all seem to have solid alibis because they were together after the murder, but could any of them have somehow prepared the origami model beforehand, even though you could never guess which horses would win that week beforehand and prepare an origami model so complex it even takes a veteran hours to create? You can't prepare the model beforehand, fold it open, write names in and quickly fold it back, because the pen markings would be different writing on folded paper, and the model is so complex having folded paper would only make it more difficult to fold it back into the devil. The solution is close to the type of reasonings you'll find in Shirodaira's later Kyokou Suiri, in the sense that they very much focus on what a person would do to commit a murder, looking into hypotheses more than in actual physical evidence, though I'd say the foundation for the deductions is fairly sound here. I quite like the answer to the origami problem as a proof of alibi actually, being something I had not seen before, and the answer is just crazy enough to be fun, but also quite logical even from the POV of the murderer. 

I also think that for fans of the series, this volume is probably the most interesting. The previous novellas were all set extremely early in the main series (like, two chapters in), so they seldom felt like Spiral stories, while the short stories were about Kurumi (who doesn't appear in the main series), Kiyotaka (who barely appears in the main series) and Madoka (Kiyotaka's surbordinate/later wife), who fortunately does appear in the main series a lot. Still, they often didn't really feel like Spiral. Ayumu however appears in all three stories in this volume and interacts with the other characters, so give an interesting look in his younger years and the way he thinks, the way the other stories didn't do as well I think (especially when it comes to him and Kiyotaka's relation).

And that means I am done with the spin-off novels of Spiral. Not all of them were as good as others: The second one is memorable as it has a crazy story, but also because of how it works as a proto-Kyokou Suiri, focusing on deductions and not the truth per se. The final volume Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 4: Koufuku no Owari, Owari no Koufuku has the best selection of stories when it comes to conventional murder mystery stories, and you could even read this without any knowledge of the main series and still think it's a coherent volume, whereas the other volumes are a bit more chaotic as they have stories set both in the present day of the main series, and the stories set in the past with Kurumi and Kiyotaka. Anyway, I'm glad I have read these now because I had been aware of them for many years, but never got around to them until last year.

Original Japanese title(s):城平京(著) 水野英多(イラスト) 『小説　スパイラル～推理の絆4　幸福の終わり、終わりの幸福」

Mystery of the Samurai Sword

"For all who take the sword will perish by the sword."

"Matthew 26" (New Revised Standard Version)

Reading these books does bring back memories as while Spiral was far from the first anime I ever saw, it was one of the first series I encountered once I started to actually look for mystery anime series after Conan and Kindaichi Shounen.

 

Ayumu, piano and deductive prodigy, solved two murder cases that occured at his high school, but never had he expected to find himself dueling a teacher of his school. Kuromine Kiriko is one of the best swordfighters in Japan and now Ayumu, who has never even picked up a sword in his life before, is standing in a dojo, facing this terrifyingly cold martial artist. Ayumu is to win one point by hitting Kiriko in one of the vital points of Kendo, but how is a complete amateur going to win even one point against a swordmaster? The reason why Ayumu is in this predicament? The murder on Sakurazaki Kengo. Kengo and Kiriko had been Kendo-rivals since their youth and had been polar opposites. Kengo fought with passion and would overwhelm his opponents with his blazing energy, Kiriko fought calculated, striking with cold preciseness. Both also happened to enroll in the same dojo, and were the top students there. Jinpachi, the master of the dojo had to decide who would become the next master and inherit the centuries-old sword Yuugao. While it was clear Kengo, who was not only dating the master's granddaughter, but with his warm personality, was obviously the better "people's person" when it came to leading a school, Kiriko in the end was the better swordsman and out of the many duels between Kengo and Kiriko, it was usually Kiriko who became the victor. However, when the master had Kiriko and Kengo have one final duel to win Yuugao, Kengo managed to win, and with that, he'd became the next master. Seven months ago, Jinpachi handed Kengo the sword Yuugao. While Jinpachi had to go to the hospital afterwards, his granddaughter of course celebrated the occasion with Kengo, and even Kiriko stopped by to congratulate him. However, the following morning, Kengo's dead body was found in a burning car, a stake having been driven through his chest. The murderer was never caught, even though Himeko is sure Kiriko killed her brother. And now seven months later, Kiriko is set to receive Yuugao, as Jinpachi also passed away in the meantime and the dojo needs a new master. The police never managed to find evidence Kiriko killed Kengo, so Himeko at least want to damage his reputation as a swordmaster by winning a point on him, but Ayumu decides to look in the case, as he perhaps can figure out how Kiriko killed Kengo despite having an alibi, but he then finds himself having to fight Kiriko himself... Can Ayumu win this duel and prove who killed Kengo in Shirodaira Kyou's Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 1: Swordmaster no Hanzai ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 1: The Crime of the Swordmaster" 2001)? 

 

Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna or Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning, the mystery(-themed) manga created by writer Shirodaira Kyou and artist Mizuno Eita, was about Ayumu, whose brother Kiyotaka disappeared two years ago after a final phone call with Ayumu where he mentioned the phrase "Blade Children". At the start of the series, Ayumu, who like his brother is a prodigy in both the piano and reasoning, gets involved in a murder case that occurs at his school, but with the help of the school newspaper club president Hiyono, he manages to prove his innocence, only to learn that this murder involved the Blade Children. This spin-off book was the first of four to be released, and is set extremely early in the series. It basically has no connections whatsoever with the main series save for the presence of Ayumu and Hiyono and tonally, it's also fairly different, so it really feels like a spin-off.

While this is the first novel, I have already read the second and third ones because I don't read books in order, so I already expected this book to be a bit different in tone compared to the main series. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by the media res opening scene where Ayumu faces Kiriko in a Kendo duel where Ayumu has to deduce his way to winning a point against a swordmaster. This is the type of "logic battle" we often saw in the main series, where Ayumu had to outsmart his opponents in life-or-death games involving bombs, guns or... a ball game, so this scene felt very much like Spiral. Like in those situations, Ayumu can actually logically deduce what to do in a Kendo duel, and while this sounds weird at first, he comes up with a very logical conclusion to what to do in this duel in order to win a point over Kiriko. It all makes surprisingly sense, and is cleverly clewed in a fair way, which you wouldn't expect for a sword fight, which makes it all the more fun. It also ties in well with the past problem about Kengo's murder, because if you figure that out, it gives you strong hints about Kiriko's actions in the duel, so those parts are really well integrated.

 

Like the other novels, this book consists out of one short novella (the titular The Crime of the Swordmaster) and two short stories, so ultimately, the main story isn't that complex. The Kengo murder is... okay, considering it's a short story. I think one part of the misdirection is a bit too weak, and once you realize what that misdirection was intended to do, you also know the how and why behind Kengo's death. So it's a bit short and straightforward as a mystery story. It also depends on a few characters acting in certain ways to have this mystery work in the first place, though I think the motivation for these characters is supported well enough. But as a perfect alibi story, it's fairly weak, and I think the way it ties back to the duel scene, is the more memorable part of this book.

The book also includes two stories which were originally published online, which focus on Ayumi's brother Kiyotaka when he was a police detective. The stories were originally published in two parts, a Problem and Solution part, so I suppose the idea was you had a week or something like that to guess who did it between the posting of the first and second parts. While they are okay short mystery stories, one about a woman being killed by a jellyfish stuffed in her mouth, and the other about a braindead woman who'd die anyway being stabbed in the heart, I don't think they really work well in this format of "guess the solution", because the type of mystery these stories are about aren't really that straightforward. Ellery Queen-esque reasonings where you cross off suspects off a list one by one work better for these kind of puzzle challenges I think. I do think the second story, about the stabbed braindead woman, was good as a mystery story, just not as one that is intentionally split up in two parts.

Overall, I'd say Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 1: Swordmaster no Hanzai is a pretty decent first spin-off novel. While it is still quite different from the main series, I'd say that of the three I have read now, it comes closest to the tropes we know of the main series, so it feels the most as part of the Spiral world. As a mystery story, the second one is the best, but it also feels barely connected to the main series. Anyway, one more to go!

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京(著) 水野英多(イラスト) 『小説　スパイラル～推理の絆1　ソードマスターの犯罪』

The Organ Speaks

"It's not a ghost. It's a player piano."

"Scooby Doo, Where Are You?"

Speaking of man-eating pianos, go watch the Japanese horror film House!

Earlier this year, I reviewed Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 2: The Locked Room of the Steel Gang Boss"), the second spin-off novel of the Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna or Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning series, originally a a mystery(-themed) manga created by writer Shirodaira Kyou and artist Mizuno Eita which ran from 1999 until 2005. While the main series focuses on young prodigy Ayumu's adventures as he delves into the mystery of the "Blade Children", something his older brother was handling before his disappearance, the novel series seem quite detached from this main narrative, being set very early in the story chronology, when Ayumu has recently met the very nosy and busybody school newspaper club president Hiyono and they're often hanging out in the school club room, with Ayumu occasionally, despite him usually not really wanting to, getting involved in minor mysteries to solve. I started with the second book because I didn't have the first one yet and I knew the second one was particularly well-received, even beyond a Spiral audience, and it was funny how just a few weeks later, I read a completely different novel that actually started with a dedication to the second Spiral novel, showing how it really influenced some people. 

Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 3: Elias Sauer no Hitokui Piano ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 3: The Man-Eating Piano of Elias Sauer"), once again written by Shirodaira Kyou and illustrated by Mizuno Eita, follows a similar set-up to the second novel, featuring a novella that was originally written for this book, as well as three short prequel stories Ayumu's brother Kiyotaka back when he was in the police force. These stories were originally published online and were often split in two, featuring a "Problem" part and a "Solution" part. These stories are pretty short, and I won't be discussing them here this time. They are usually fairly solid, but not particularly memorable puzzlers, and if you're a fan of the series, it might be fun to see Kiyotaka a bit more around, as he seldom appears in the main series. The main story however is about Ayumu and Hiyono of course, and starts with a girl who suddenly addresses Ayumu on the street. Curious Hiyono of course wants to know who she is, and despite Ayumu's attempts to ignore her, Hiyono eventually learns that the girl's called Yuzumori Fumio, and that the two used to go to the same piano school. A year ago, Ayumu apparently hlped Fumio with something, and Hiyono learns that this involved Fumio's grandmother Tamaki. She was a very unhappy woman. The Yuzumori clan was a very prominent family, but the son seemed not fit to lead such a family, being a failure business-wise, and having four children from a previous wife to care for. That is when his father decided he should marry Tamaki, who worked in one of the Yuzumori's businesses. She was an "ordinary" woman, but worked incredibly hard and was very intelligent, but burdened by her parents' debt. In exchange for relieving her parents of her debt, Tamaki was to marry into the Yuzumori family and become the mother of the four children. The marriage remained loveless however, and while it was undoubtedly her brains that allowed the Yuzumori business to grow, her personal life was never enrichened. She was married into the Yuzumori clan, but had no inheritence rights at all, and in fact possessed nothing at all, while she had no true blood relation with "her" children either. This seemed to have embittered the woman, which is why Fumio was always a bit afraid of her grandmother. 

One year ago, Fumio was called upon by her grandmother, who showed her a piano. She told Fumio the story behind the piano. Two centuries ago, it was found inside a ship which had sunk to the bottom of the sea during a storm. It had been sealed tight, so the piano itself was still intact, but when they opened it, they found the body of a young boy inside: Elias Sauer. Since the piano's recovery, it seems its owners constantly end up dead, with the piano's cover falling and breaking its victim's necks. But why did Tamaki tell Fumio this story, and does this have to do with her grandfather's death five years prior?

(Minor comment: by the time this review is posted, it'll be November. This is in fact the first book I finished in 2023 back early in January... I really have the bad habit of not writing reviews in time)

I called this a novella, but it's basically just a very short story. Interestingly, it has basically nothing to do with the main series of Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning in terms of themes or style, like the previous book. It's like author Shirodaira just had these ideas for novels, but knew he couldn't get them published as standalone stories so just forced Spiral into them. So I wouldn't recommend these novels per se if you are looking for material similar to the main series, because they're not even similar, not even to the earlier chapters of the manga which had more of a 'case-of-the-week' structure. Interestingly, this story too features an narrative-within-a-narrative structure like the second novel. Whereas the second novel spun a whole outrageous history of gang wars between schools across Japan, this book comes with a creepy story of a man-eating piano which has killed several owners in the last few centuries.

Unlike the second novel however, there's no clear mystery in this story, and that's basically also what makes Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 3: Elias Sauer no Hitokui Piano as a book, and as the title story, a bit... boring. After Fumio had been told about the piano, she became really afraid of the piano, but she never knew what her grandmother really wanted to accomplish by telling her that story. She only remembers her grandfather would also play this same piano, but he died some years ago, so what relevance could the story now have? But it's at this point already Ayumu basically arrives at an interpretation of the situation, and he confronts Tamaki about why the story was told to Fumio. It's a very straightforward story, relying on an intuitive mode like a Christie or Chesterton story, and because the solution basically follows immediately after.... no real mystery has been presented, the story feels a bit underwhelming as a tale of mystery and detection. I think the story might be more fun if it hadn't been a Spiral story, but just something completely independent of anything, but as it is now, it just reads as a very weird installment in a longer series, having next to nothing to do with the main series. It almost reads more like a horror story, and while I guess there is a twist, I didn't think this was a very remarkable story mystery-wise.

So I didn't like Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 3: Elias Sauer no Hitokui Piano ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 3: The Man-Eating Piano of Elias Sauer") nearly as much as I did the previous book. It's just too little, and what is offered still doesn't provide for a very memorable mystery story. The extra short stories give the book a bit more content, but still, on the whole, this is not a very remarkable volume on its own, and certainly not a book I'd recommend to anyone who has not read Spiral, and even then, I wouldn't really make it a priority. I think my next one will be the first novel, before I tackle the last one because that one seems to have a slightly different set-up.

Original Japanese title(s):  城平京(著) 水野英多(イラスト) 『小説　スパイラル～推理の絆3　エリアス・ザウエルの人喰いピアノ』

Murder Digs Deep

「論理の旋律は必ず真実を奏でる」

『スパイラル～推理の絆』

"The melody of logic always plays the truth."

"Spiral - The Bonds of Reasoning"

Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna or Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning was a mystery(-themed) manga created by writer Shirodaira Kyou and artist Mizuno Eita which ran from 1999 until 2005, and which also saw an anime adaptation in 2002. The series was about Ayumu, who lives with his sister-in-law Madoka after his brother Kiyotaka disappeared. Kiyotaka was a true prodigy, talented at everything he did and his brilliant mind was put to good use as he was a police detective, but two years ago, Kiyotaka disappeared after a final phone call with Ayumu where he mentioned the phrase "Blade Children". At the start of the series, Ayumu gets involved in a murder case that occurs at his school, but with the help of the school newspaper club president Hiyono, he manages to prove his innocence, only to learn that this murder involved the Blade Children and that he himself, as the younger brother of Kiyotaka, has become involved with this affair too. This is the start of an adventure where Ayumu and Hiyono start digging in the mystery of the Blade Children, which however is not without danger for themselves and more often than not, Ayumu finds himself forced into deadly games of life and death to get to the truth. While the first volume or so might make Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning look like Detective Conan or Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo with 'a case of the week', it soon becomes a very different series, focusing more on deadly strategic games where Ayumu has to fight for survival with his mind, and the last third/ending of the series is probably not at all like you'd expect based on the first chapter, 

Author Shirodaira Kyou also wrote four novels set in the world of Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning (with illustrations by artist Mizuno), and in general, they seem to have been received pretty well, so I always wanted to read them, and recently, I managed to get hold of them. The first one I read is not the first on the series though: I started with the second one, because it was often referred to as the best in the series and I even sometimes saw references to the book outside of a Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning context, so just on its merits as a mystery novel! Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu ("Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning 2: The Locked Room of the Steel Gang Boss") was first released in 2002 and as I am typing this, I was paging through my own copy, which was apparently from the 14th printing run in 2004, so I guess this book sold reasonably well to have at least so many print runs! The book has no direct ties to the main series, so you could get pretty easily into it without any prior knowledge of the series, as it is clearly set very early in the series' timeline, when most of the Super Dramatic Events haven't happened yet. You could easily read it after just reading the first volume of the manga or watching the first few episodes. The book opens with a nightly visit to the convenience store by Ayumu, when he witnesses a girl dancing on the street. The girl feels offended by Ayumu's staring eyes, while Ayumu is offended by her dancing in the street for everybody to see, and after a bit of bickering, the girl orders Ayumu she never wants to see him again, but also gives him a metal badge with the kanji for "steel" etched into it, telling him to keep it safe. The following day, when Ayumu is loofing around in the newspaper club's office, Hiyono immediately recognizes the badge as the one once owned by the "Steel Banchou" or "Steel Gang Boss" about five decades ago. She tells about the Golden Age of School Gangs, when juvenile delinquents at schools across the country formed gangs who would gather under charismatic "banchou" (gang bosses) like the Magic Gang Boss or Pistol Gang Boss, and how ultimately the dramatic suicide of the Steel Gang Boss prevented a nation-wide gang war. Ayumu buys nothing of Hiyono's story, but then the mysterious girl, who happens to be a student at their school too, appears in the club office. At first it appears she wanted to hire Hiyono to locate "the boy she gave a badge to", but finally noticing Ayumu in the room and being too proud to admit she wants the badge back, she changes her request to Hiyono (and Ayumu): she wants them to prove that contrary to what is believed, the Steel Boss didn't commit suicide, but was in fact murdered inside a locked room and by doing so, destroy the nearly fifty-year old legend of the Steel Boss who gave his life to prevent a war.

Okay, I have to admit this book wasn't at all what I had expected of it. For on the whole, this tale isn't really connected to the main Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning series and at times even feels out of place. The only real connections are Ayumu and Hiyono, but the "world-building" presented in this story sounds nothing at all like the rest of the series, which is really odd. It feels more like a story author Shirodaira wanted to write, and he happened to use Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning to tell this story because it would have an established audience of readers already. On the other hand, I can definitely understand why so many readers like this particular novel, and how it is an important novel when seen in a wider context, to be exact, in relation to Shirodaira's later work.

So the book doesn't really feel like a Spiral story, and that's also because almost half of the book consists of excerpts from an in-universe book, being the definitive work on the Golden Age of School Gangs and their wars. This book details how in post-war Japan,  juvenile delinquent students started forming gangs at school under the leadership of banchou, who would get into fights with the leaders of other schools. What follows is an absolutely bonkers story about school gang bosses plotting to become the number one boss across the whole of Japan, putting other schools under their control, and in-party power struggles eventually leading to the rise of the Magic Gang Boss and the Pistol Gang Boss, two charismatic leaders who basically each controlled half of the schools in Japan. But when a new leader arrived in the form of the Steel Boss, the balance of powers was disturbed, and things were heading to a nation-wide school war between the three factions, until on the day of the war of the fates, the Steel Boss was found dead inside the little shed he was living in on the riverside. He had taken poison, and the cottage was locked from the inside. A few days later, letters were delivered to the Magic Gang Boss and the Pistol Gang Boss signed by the Steel Boss, where he stated his wishes to stop unnecessary bloodshed and his death should be enough to make everyone realize this, and this became the legend of the Steel Boss. Author Shirodaira obviously has immense fun writing this completely ridiculous story of high school students fighting each other like Warring State period generals, with 'wars' being fought along the riverside and 'clever' strategies and tricks employed by the warring factions, It doesn't feel like it fits Spiral ~ The Bonds of Reasoning, but the world of those stereotypical Japanese school gang delinquents fighting nation-wide wars is just really funny, and while this "history lesson" is really really long, it does set-up the mystery and all the necessary clues to solve the death of the Steel Boss. For the facts say the Steel Gang Boss died drinking poison in a small river-side shed, of which the door was barred from the inside and the window wouldn't open due to a crooked frame. That coupled with the suicide letters sent to the Magic Gang Boss and the Pistol Gang Boss seems to indicate suicide, so can Ayumu prove this was actually not a suicide, but a locked room murder, and can he prove who did this and why?

And this is the point where this book becomes important in the greater context, for we soon learn their client isn't exactly looking for the truth, but she simply wants to destroy the legend of the Steel Gang Boss. And so Ayumu comes up with three different explanations based on the known facts for the death of the Steel Gang Boss that indeed put the Steel Boss' death in a completely different light, changing his death from a honorable suicide to prevent a war, to a one-direction murder. So in a way, Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu is a kind of direct precursor to Shirodaira's later series Kyokou Suiri (known in English as both Invented Inference and In/Spectre). In Invented Inference, the truth usually often involves something supernatural, and the series detective has to come up with a believable human explanation for the events, so one without the supernatural stuff even though that is the truth. So that series revolves around coming up with believable inferences based on the known facts, but they don't need to be true. Invented Inference is about interpretation and multiple solutions and those are exactly the themes of Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu: we are told what is likely a factual build-up to the death of the Steel Boss nearly fifty years ago, but Ayumu then comes up with alternate interpretations of the facts that lead to believable theories about the murder of the Steel Boss. And that is quite fun! The basic puzzle pieces are all the same, but by shuffling them and turning some pieces around, you are able to come up with a very different picture. Each of Ayumu's theories seem plausible enough, but make use of clever interpretation of the facts presented in the excerpts from the history on the Golden Age of Gang Bosses, allowing him to "open the locked room" and change the Steel Boss' suicide into a murder and make the Steel Boss a simple "victim" rather than someone who sacrificed himself. The book isn't really long, so the three "solutions" are all fairly simple, but they are supported well by the clues both in terms of "mechanics to create the locked room situation" as well as in motive, and they can be quite surprising. I believe a lot of readers praised this book because it was their first encounter with a mystery novel built around multiple solutions/interpretations, and given that Shirodaira later came up with Invented Inference, I think he himself liked the idea a lot too. The book is more interesting read as a book about motives though than as an actual locked room mystery, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu also contains a short story which is technically a prequel, starrring Ayumu's brother Kiyotaka back when he was in the police force. Apparently, there was a whole series of these short stories published online back when the manga was still being serialized. The four novels would all include these stories with Kiyotaka as extras. This particular story is a pure whodunnit which is split up in two parts, the problem and the solution, so I assume originally, they published the first part online and the solution would be published a bit later, allowing readers some time to guess who the murderer was. As a whodunnit it's pretty simple, and a bit weird because it involves a man creating a robotic hand for himself to commit a murder but stuff happens of course, but it's fun enough considering this was just a short story published on the official site. 

Anyway, Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2: Koutetsu Banchou no Misshitsu is not at all what I had expected. I have read spin-off novels for detective manga series before, like those of Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, but those novels were written to be like the stories in the manga. Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2 was clearly not written with such intentions. It is only marginally connected to the Spiral series. but as a mystery story, it's pretty fun, focusing on the concepts of multiple solutions. The story itself, about the student gang wars, is really ridiculous, but you can sense Shirodaira had a lot of fun coming up with that backstory and especially knowing he later went on to write Invented Inference, I think Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna 2 is a pretty rewarding mystery.

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京(著) 水野英多(イラスト) 『小説　スパイラル～推理の絆2　鋼鉄番長の密室』

Camping-Out Murder

「真実はいつも一つ！」

『名探偵コナン』

 

"There's always only one truth!"

"Detective Conan"

 

I should probably point to the Honkaku-themed Discord server more often. Take a look there if you want to chat with other fans about mystery fiction, including (shin) honkaku stories!

By the time this review is published, the second season of the anime adaptation of Kyokou Suiri, also known as Invented Inference or In/Spectre should have started airing. Iwanaga Kotoko, seemingly a small girl ("woman!") with a glass eye and one prosthetic leg is in fact the Deity of Wisdom for youkai (all kinds of supernatural beings, spirits, etc.). She helps these supernatural beings whenever they were in trouble involving the human world, acting as arbitrator and detective. Sometimes it's having to come up with a reasonable excuse for problems caused by a rampaging spirit, sometimes a youkai is actually a witness to a suspect's alibi, but obviously, the youkai can't go to the (human) police. So this often leads to Kotoko having to create fake, but believable (human-world) explanations for events that occured with actual supernatural causes. Hence the title Invented Inference, for in this series, the truth is often clear from the start and explainable through supernatural means, but it's a rational fake solution Kotoko is after, and of course the solution still has to be based on "clues" in order to sound convincing to humans. The fifth book in this series by Shirodaira Kyou is titled Kyokou Suiri - Gyakushuu to Haiboku no Hi (2021) and also bears the English title Invented Inference Short Stories - Day of Counterattack and Defeat. I am not really sure why it is called "short stories" though, as it's basically a novel, even if the opening chapter isn't about the main case of the book. Kotoko and her boyfriend Kurou are surprised when they are contacted by the police, who are asking about Kurou's cousin Rikka who had been evading them ever since the events of the first novel. Rikka had been roaming Japan without a fixed address, but got involved in an accident and because Rikka had lived in Kotoko's home for some time before she moved out, they were contacted as the persons closest to her to confirm her identity. When they visit her, they learn she was involved in much weirder accident than the police believes it is. As far as the police know, Rikka happened to be out camping on a mountain and on her way up, she also met a group of four men who were also planning to camp on the mountain. Later that night, three men fell from a cliff and died, while a fourth man barely managed to survive his fall. Rikka found him and carried him all the way down the mountain. The police is of course investigating the death of the three men, but they could never imagine that the direct cause of their fall is...the vengeful spirit of a giraffe whose remains were kept at a shrine on the mountain, but which has been left unattended for ages. The men were suddenly assaulted in their camp by the rampaging giraffe spirit, causing their fall, and Rikka even faced off against the spirit herself, surviving due to her own supernatural powers. But now Rikka has been placed in the custody of Kotoko and Kurou again, Kotoko has to come up with an explanation for the curious fall of the three men, and also device a way to tame the rampaging giraffe.

 (I really shouldn't read a book and then wait... *checks notes* ...eight months before writing the review...)

This is most definitely the fifth book in a series. Yep. I wouldn't recommend anyone to read this entry as their first step into the world of Invented Inference, for while I think the underlying theme of this book is interesting, it won't work without having seen Kotoko work and do her thing in the previous stories, and the fact that this story is the first we actually see Rikka real-time is also a reason why a lot of the pay-off is in the fact this is the fifth book. We first learn about Rikka in the first novel, where she has already been evading Kotoko and Kurou, and while she pops up now and then in flashbacks, this is the first time we have a direct confrontation between these characters. However, a lot of how she acts and what she actually wants from Kotoko becomes a lot clearer with the knowledge we have of her from the previous flashbacks, so yeah, read this one in order.

But how is the book as a mystery?  Well, for one thing, it's actually a pretty short book (oh, so that's what "short stories" in the English title means?), so the whole set-up is a bit limited. We have one short prologue where we hear about a short case Kotoko once handled, which becomes important at the end again, but most of the book is about the 'mysterious' fall of four men, of which three died. Obviously, this isn't a normal accident, so you have to come up with something pretty convincing to explain three deaths, but fortunately for Kotoko, Rikka is actually very sharp too, and while she only met the party of four men once and later briefly talked with the man who survived the fall, saving him from the giraffe spirit, she actually managed to learn a lot about the dynamics between the four men, and has caught on the fact that something fishy was going on between them. This of course allows for Kotoko to come up with a plausible explanation for why three men ended up dead because we now know they weren't there just to camp. The focus in this tale is more on motive than anything else, I think. While the false solution is of course also based on physical evidence found at the camp and also on actions taken by the men, a lot of the mystery revolves around Kotoko having to explain why everyone acted the way they did on their trip, and how that eventually led to their deaths. While that is of course a matter very open to interpretation, interpretation is exactly what this series has always been about and that coupled with the physical evidence found to serve as support for her proposed "truth", it still feels fairly solid. As said, the mystery as it is set-up is really limited and it's not like we get that many different fake solutions proposed to explain the three deaths, but I do like how the supernatural elements really do play a very important role in the mystery. It's not just Kotoko having to explain away the ghost giraffe: some events that help explain what was going on between the four man at their camp are directly influenced by the presence of the supernatural on the mountain that fateful night, influencing the actions of the men and thus leaving "possibilities" for Kotoko to pick up to come up with a non-supernatural explanation. This concept of the supernatural creating possibilities for a non-supernatural explanation is really neat, and it works well here, especially as the reader is tempted to not think of the supernatural at all in order to come with a human explanation and just consider them anomalies.

The ending shines more light on why this book is also called the Day of Defeat and coupled with the first chapter and perhaps more importantly, the events from the previous four books, we are shown a kind of shifting point in the series, where it appears Rikka will join the main cast of Kotoko and Kurou, but that this will put pressure on Kotoko in her activities as the Deity of Wisdom and her absolute role as god in a world with inabsolute truths. This is more a thematic matter than directly involved in the mystery plotting of this series, but it might mean Kotoko will come up with slightly different kind of invented inferences in the future.

But while I liked Kyokou Suiri - Gyakushuu to Haiboku no Hi generally as a new entry in the series, it is really awfully short and feels more like an extended short story than a full novel. It is not the high point in the series and a lot of it only works because it expects you to have read the previous four volumes and be familiar with the trio of Kotoko, Kurou and Rikka. So it's not a book I will recommend as is: if you liked the first four books, yes, go read this one too, but otherwise, start with the beginning and just see how far you want to go with this series, and perhaps you'll end up here too.

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京『虚構推理 逆襲と敗北の日』

Snow White, Blood Red

So when in tears

The love of years 

Is wasted like the snow,

"The Forest Reverie" (Edgar Allan Poe)

I did read this book in the winter, fitting the theme, but by the time this review is posted here, it's probably almost summer...

Iwanaga Kotoko returns once again as the Deity of Wisdom for youkai (all kinds of supernatural beings, spirits, etc.) in Shirodaira Kyou's 2021 short story collection Kyokou Suiri Tanpenshuu - Iwanaga Kotoko no Junshin which also has the English title Invented Inference Short Stories - Innocence of Iwanaga Kotoko! When she was a child, she was abducted by youkai and made their Deity of Wisdom, helping these supernatural beings whenever they were in trouble involving the human world, acting as arbitrator and detective. Because Kotoko's cases are always connected with humans, she has become quite capable at the act of inventing inferences: while the truth is simply that some supernatural being is involved with the problem, Kotoko always presents the humans with completely false, but convincing explanations that incorporate all the known facts, without having to reveal that in fact youkai were involved. The series is thus not about finding out a truth, but fabricating a truth that humans will believe. Innocence of Iwanaga Kotoko is the fourth book in the series, and the second short story collection following 2018's Invented Inference Short Stories - Appearance of Iwanaga Kotoko, and the two books are quite similar in structure. Innocence of Iwanaga Kotoko too features five stories, some of which are very short and closer in style to short intermezzos/character vignettes, but all of them present rather unique mystery stories because they involve the supernatural. Interestingly, some of these stories were first published in manga format: the manga based on the series runs simultaneously with the books nowadays, but due to different publication schedules, some stories will be featured in the manga before the books.

The very short stories however are once again the less memorable parts of the book. Yoku kangaeru to Kowakunai demo nai Hanashi ("A Story That Could Be Creepy If You Think About It") tells the story of Kotoko's boyfriend Kurou, who has a part-time job as a mover. This time, he's moving stuff out of a house which is said to be haunted, but to his co-workers' surprise, nothing happens at all that day. It's more a story that works towards a punchline about the supernatural, but it's easy to predict where this is going if you know who Kurou is (and his history was already explained in the first book). Similarly, Mato wo enaide Mato wo iyou ("Hit the target without hitting the target") is a very short story where Kotoko is asked to arbitrate between two monkey spirits who are arguing about a bow and arrow they stole. This leads to a Judge Ooka/Judgement of Solomon-esque situation, but the story is over before you know it. These stories are not bad per se, but just so short you'll barely remember them once you're done with the book.

Shisha no Futashika na Dengon ("An Unclear Dying Message") starts with the visit of Reina to her grandparents in the countryside. On her way back to the station, she runs into a mysterious woman, who reminds her of her old high school classmate Kotoko. It turns out this woman is Rikka, cousin of Kotoko's boyfriend Kurou. Reina tells Rikka about Kotoko's life at high school and how everyone thought she was so mysterious, with rumors flying around that she had ties with the supernatural, and that she'd sometimes help people out, though often not in the way most expected. For example, one day, a classmate wanted Kotoko's help due to a problem her uncle had. Her uncle had been rivals with a co-worker at the office, vying for the same positions, but one day, the man was hit on the head with a hammer and died. But before he died, he wrote down the name Takehiko, which was the uncle's name. He became a suspect of course, but soon after the police arrested another man, who had confessed to the death, caused by a freak accident, This seemed to clear the uncle's name at first, but nobody knows why he wrote the name "Takehiko" before dying, and that combined with rumors of a bloody ghost still appearing at the scene of the death, and rumors of the uncle being the real murderer who somehow got away, the man is more-or-less ostricized at the office, unable to get a promotion. Kotoko's classmate has to listen to her uncle's story every time the family meets, so she hopes Kotoko can clear things up so her uncle will finally shut up. While initially, you might be inclined to think this is a classic dying message story, it certainly isn't, and that's made clear rather early on through a discussion about the dying message trope in mystery fiction and how it's so unbelievable and unpracticable. And that fits this series perfectly, because of course Kotoko's answer to the dying message is probably made-up, but it's convincing enough, and what's more, Kotoko's clever enough to recognize the true problem her classmate has, and the solution she provides is just a whole pack of convincing conjecture, but which does allow her classmate to solve the underlying issue. It's a fun story because it turns the idea around of a detective needing to find the truth, instead of focusing on the idea of a detective who only needs to find a workable solution for everyone involved.

The first and final story in this book are the main dish, and form a set together. Yukionna no Dilemma ("The Dilemma of the Snow Woman") features an interesting problem that, at first sight, could only occur in this series. Kotoko is this time approached by Yuki Onna (a female snow spirit) who seeks help for a dear human friend. Masayuki had once been saved by this Yuki Onna in the past already, but he had retreated to the countryside once again his wife cheated on him: he left his company and went back to the place where long ago, Yuki Onna had saved him from an icy death. Sheer coincidence has the two meet once again, and they slowly develop a friendship, with the Yuki Onna often staying at his home to drink and eat. A year after his divorce however, he's visited by the police, as his ex-wife has been murdered, and there are clues, like a partial dying message that point to Masayuki as the killer, as well as a letter written by his ex-wife sent after her death, where she accuses Masayuki of the murder if she dies an unnatural death. When asked for his alibi for the night of the murder however, Masayuki finds himself in a bind: he technically has an alibi, as he was eating and drinking with the Yuki Onna at his home, but how are you going to explain to the police you were spending the night with a spirit!? Masayuki and the Yuki Onna therefore ask Kotoko for help to resolve this problem. The idea of someone having a perfectly fine alibi save for the fact it's a supernatural alibi is pretty fun, though most of the problem is solved by Kotoko in a surprisingly "conventional" manner: she doesn't really need to twist facts for the police to solve this case without revealing the existence of the supernatural, for at the core, the murder itself is a completely human affair, and it's only the problem of Masayuki's alibi that depends on the supernatural. In that respect the story might be a bit disappointing, because the existence of the Yuki Onna is used in this story more effectvely for dramatic effect rather than for the mystery, even if it's an enjoyable story on its own.

The final story, Yuki Onna wo Kiru ("Slaying the Snow Woman") involves the Yuki Onna once again, but for a different problem. Long ago, in the Edo Period, there was a swordfighter who managed to defeat a Yuki Onna who had been challenging swordfighters and killed many of them. This man, Shirakura Hanbei, perfected his swordstyle, opening his own dojo and while he had no child of his own, he adopted a mysterious child who was at least as talented. At age 40 however, the unbeatable swordfighter Hanbei was found with his neck slashed open in the garden of his dojo and with his dying breath, he seemed to accuse the Yuki Onna. Many generations later, and Shirakura Shizuya finds himself consulting Kotoko. He is a direct descendent of the adopted son of Shirakura Hanbei, and he wants Kotoko to find out what happened to Hanbei, because he fears he's actually the offspring of the Yuki Onna, and thus a terrible murdering beast himself. Kotoko consults with the Yuki Onna from the first story, who reveals that Shizuya is actually her nephew, and that the Yuki Onna from the old story was in fact her older sister. So Shizuya is indeed half-youkai and while she explains everything to Kotoko, Kotoko is burdened with a different task: she has to come up with an explanation that will give Shizuya hope, an answer that won't lead to him cursing his own blood forever or even worse, actually turn himself into an evil spirit. This is not a conventional mystery story, as once again a lot of the "truth" is explained by spirits, and Kotoko's main concern lies not with the truth, but focuses on an acceptable lie. Personally, I do think the historical setting of (large parts of) the story undermines the "power" of this series. Kotoko's elaborate lies work best in the context of her abusing existing hard evidence to dance around the supernatural explanation, and such evidence are more clear in modern-day, real-time cases. But here, we're talking about a murder case that happened centuries ago, with only hearsay as "evidence" so Kotoko's interpretations just feel less... convincing in general.

I'd say Kyokou Suiri Tanpenshuu - Iwanaga Kotoko no Junshin (Invented Inference Short Stories - Innocence of Iwanaga Kotoko) is on the whole a fairly entertaining volume, though I do feel the first short story collection was better, with the individual stories being more memorable. This book does offer something interesting with two very different cases involving a Yuki Onna and those two stories are definitely the better ones in this volume, but their best moments simply don't match the best moments from the first short story collection. I'd still say the first book in this series is the best, and if you like the concepts and characters found there, this volume is also worth reading, The next one is a full novel again, and I have already purchased it, so let's see how that one will turn out!

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京『虚構推理短編集 岩永琴子の純真』：「雪女のジレンマ」/「よく考えると怖くないでもない話」/「死者の不確かな伝言」/「的を得ないで的を射よう」/「雪女を斬る」

Pilgrim

"It really is very dangerous to believe people. I never have for years."

"Sleeping Murder"

 

Last one for this year!

When she was a child, Iwanaga Kotoko was chosen by youkai (all kinds of supernatural beings, spirits, etc.) to become their Deity of Wisdom in exchange for one eye and one leg. With her sharp mind, she would help these supernatural beings whenever they were in trouble they themselves couldn't solve, acting as arbitrator and detective. Ever since, Kotoko has become a feared figure in the supernatural world together with her reluctant boyfriend Kurou (who has supernatural powers himself), as they solve quietly solve problems that involve the supernatural. While few people in the 'normal' human world know anything definite about her link with supernatural, Kotoko, as the daughter of a family in good standing, has gained a reputation as an extraordinary problem solver among the people in a position to know. While anything on Kotoko is extremely hush-hush, those with connections know that if they find themselves involved with something that might be not be quite "normal", Kotoko can probably sort things out.

In Shirodaira Kyou's 2019 novel Kyokou Suiri - Sleeping Murder, which also sports the English title Invented Inference - Sleeping Murder on the cover, Kotoko is asked by the CEO of the Otonoshi Hotel Group, Otonashi Gouichi, to become the arbitrator in an odd family gathering. It was his wife Sumi's father Denjirou who first started the Otonoshi Hotel Group, but after his death, Sumi became the new CEO and succeeded in making the brand name big both in and outside Japan. Twenty-three years ago, Sumi was stabbed to death by a robber on the street. It turns out everyone around her had a motive to kill her: Sumi was a highly stubborn woman and husband Gouichi saw that Sumi tried to push the development of the hotel chain too hard too fast, and it would've led to disaster in just a few months. Sumi also didn't allow their three children to live their own lives, deciding for them where to work or whom to marry. But it turns out each and any of them had a solid alibi for the time of death of Sumi, and ultimately, everything went well after Sumi's death, as Gouichi as the new CEO managed to save the hotel group, while the three children all got to live their lives the way they wanted. Kotoko is therefore a bit surprised to learn that Gouichi was the murderer of Sumi. To be exact, Gouichi struck a deal with a kitsune youkai: if the kitsune would kill Sumi for him in a way so he and his family wouldn't be suspected, he'd buy a piece of land and have it developed to drive off a rivaling pack of kitsune. They both kept their part of the deal, but now the elderly Gouichi has not long to live and he regrets what he has done. He wants to show to his children that a murderer will be punished sooner or later by Heaven, but in order to make his children accept that he killed their mother, he must find a fake solution to convince his children, as they are sure not to believe in the kitsune story. Gouichi decides to confess to the murder on his wife, but then 'challenges' the children to explain how he killed Sumi. Obviously none of them will actually guess the truth, but Gouichi figures that if they can come up with a plausible solution themselves, they are more likely to actually believe it. Kotoko is asked to judge which of the three children will present the most believable solution.

Invented Inference - Sleeping Murder is the third book in the Kyokou Suiri series, which has both Invented Inference and In/Spectre as its official English titles. A few months ago, I reviewed the second book, a short story collection, but in a way, Sleeping Murder can also be considered a kind of short story collection. For the first half of the book consists of short vignettes that focus on Kotoko as a detective, before we dive into the main storyline of the Otonashi Sumi murder. The previous two volumes focused more on the supernatural mystery plots, as well as the notion of the 'invented inference': this series has never been about finding the truth, as it usually involves supernatural beings. Instead, this series has been about cooking up lies that people were willing to believe. Most stories revolve around Kotoko coming up with a rational, realistic-sounding solution based on the available clues that humans were likely to accept, even though the truth is that some supernatural being did something. Invented Inference focused on what people fundamentally like about mystery novels, being a story about logical reasoning, but also about solutions that were entertaining rather than truthful or realistic.

Sleeping Murder is interesting in the sense that the notion of the invented inference takes a backseat in the first half, as the chapters here function more like a character study of Kotoko. In the first chapter for example, we follow a young Kotoko, back when she had just entered high school. Because the school's mysery club hasn't seen many new members and is dangerously close to being shut down by the school, the two remaining members try to convince Kotoko to join them, figuring that the school would never dare to close the club of the daughter of the well-connected Iwanaga family. The scheme hatched by the club president explodes in his face when Kotoko instantly sees through the president's true intentions, but ultimately, she decides to become a member of the club anyway, becoming what you may almost call friends. Several years later, the club president would recount another episode about Kokoto to his uncle, who is looking for information on Kotoko. In another chapter, we follow Kurou's older niece Rikka, who is on the run for Kotoko and Kurou as explained in the first book. She becomes the newest tenant in a rather troublesome apartment: the previous three tenants all committed suicide there. Rikka doesn't seem to worried by that fact though and seems to live a peaceful life there, becoming friendly with all her neighbors. She quickly moves out of the apartment the moment Kotoko and Kurou find her trail though, but before she leaves, she tells her neighbor that Kotoko will likely explain why there were three suicides in that room, and why there won't be anymore. While short, this was a pretty interesting mystery: the second person in the room to commit suicide had been dumped horribly by her boyfriend, and it was the same boyfriend who later committed suicide there too. However, he did that after three months living there and he had a new girlfriend, so it wasn't like he suddenly felt remorse. The solution involves the supernatural in a very clever way, and an excellent example of how concepts like ghosts can be used fairly in a mystery story.

The Sleeping Murder storyline makes up for the bulk of the volume and the part most in line with the other volumes. Three people have gathered to come up with a theory that will prove Gouichi's guilty of murdering his wife: Rion (daughter of the oldest son), Kouya (husband of oldest daughter Kaoruko) and Shin (second son). The one who comes up with the best solution will be given an advantage when it comes to dividing up the inheritance, but it's Kotoko who will decide who will provide the best solution that will fit the known clues and which will be convincing enough (as she alone knows that Gouichi actually struck a deal with a kitsune). What follows is an interesting conversation where Kotoko acts as discussion leader, skilfully leading the three family members to a plausible solution by pointing out contradictions and by secretly hiding hints in her utterances. As seen in the first novel, Kotoko's skills do not simply mean she can come up with a convincing solution, she also knows how to set them up so everyone will be willing to believe them. In order to do so, Kotoko will also uncover secrets nobody had ever thought about, and make everyone first come up with one theory first, only to have them also discard themselves and thus set-up the next theory. The way in which Kotoko acts like a teacher and slowly shows the path to her invented truth is as amusing as always. The murder case itself though is a bit simple, so it never becomes really complex, but the story does show off what Kotoko does best

And like I mentioned earlier, this book does a better job than the previous books at showing the character Kotoko. Whereas previous stories focused on her as a problem solver, this book shows how humans look at a fearsome character like Kotoko, a small girl who looks almost like a doll, but who hides a darkness far greater than anyone can imagine. The first half of the book showed Kotoko through the eyes of characters like her classmates and Rikka, while in the Sleeping Murder storyline, we see what happens if Kotoko is forced to work on a case which ultimately only involves human actors and see how her morals may not coincide with human morals.

Purely seen as a mystery novel, Kyokou Suiri - Sleeping Murder/Invented Inference - Sleeping Murder is probably not as strong as the previous two books. The episodes collected in this volume are intentionally designed to function as a character study of Kotoko, showing her off in various minor mysteries from different parts of her life. Some of these mysteries are quite amusing, but the limited length of these episodes do make the invented inference angle of the series weaker. In a way, Sleeping Murder also feels like a kind of set-up for the sequel, like a prologue for things to come. I don't know for sure whether we'll have something 'big' next time, but Sleeping Murder is like silence before the storm, focusing on Kotoko as we know her now before throwing her into a more dramatic storyline. Kyokou Suiri - Sleeping Murder is not the best volume in the series, but the previous volumes were highly entertaining and if you've gotten that far, it's definitely worth it to read this volume too as it's still an entertaining mystery novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京『虚構推理 スリーピング・マーダー』

Try Again

"Unagi is a total state of awareness, only by achieving true unagi can you be prepared for any danger that may befall you."

"Friends"

One of my favorite reads last year was Shirodaira Kyou's 2011 novel Kyokou Suiri, which carries both Invented Inference and In/Spectre as its official English titles. In a way, the novel reminded me of the work of authors like Christianna Brand and Anthony Berkeley, as Invented Inference was also about multiple false solutions and a challenge to the notion of one truth, which are themes that come up in the novels by the aforementioned writers. But Invented Inference went far, far beyond what Brand and Berkeley ever dared, and Invented Inference was also a great example of show how the supernatural can be incorporated in a fair-play mystery plot, as well as a good example of showing that a good mystery story really doesn't need to revolve exclusively around the pattern of murder/other criminal case and the subsequent search for the truth. When she was a child, Iwanaga Kotoko was chosen by youkai (all kinds of supernatural beings, spirits, etc.) to become their Deity of Wisdom: with her sharp mind, she would help these supernatural beings whenever they were in trouble they themselves couldn't solve, acting as arbitrator and detective. In the first Invented Inference novel, Kotoko had to face the fearsome Steel Lady Nanase: the powerful ghost of a deceased idol singer who was being a danger for both humans and other supernatural beings. She was powered by the belief in the urban legend of the Steel Lady Nanase, making her nearly unstoppable as stories about her spread across the internet.The only way to stop Steel Lady Nanase was to weaken the belief in her existence, and it's here where Invented Inference showed its brilliance. For while it was actually the truth that a ghost was going around causing trouble, Kotoko had to come up with an elaborate lie (an invented inference) that would explain all the supernatural events that had happened in a non-supernatural manner. Ultimately, the novel wasn't about finding out the truth (in fact, Kotoko knew what the truth was because some spirits already told her everything), but about cooking up a lie that was even more alluring than the truth. Invented Inference thus showed what people fundamentally like about mystery novels: it was a story based on logical reasoning, but it also provided a (false) truth that was entertaining.

Iwanaga Kotoko and her reluctant boyfriend Kurou (who has some supernatural powers himself) returned in the 2018 short story collection Kyokou Suiri Tanpenshuu - Iwanaga Kotoko no Shutsugen which also has the English title Invented Inference Short Stories - Appearance of Iwanaga Kotoko. You know this is probably the first time I've read a short story collection in a series which is simply titled "Short Stories"? What if Ellery Queen hadn't named his short story collections after the Holmes' collections, but simply "Ellery Queen Short Stories"? Anyway, this volume collects five short adventures of Kotoko that get her involved with cases that involve both supernatural beings and humans. As with the first novel, the unique aspect of this collection is that the stories here are often not really about figuring out the truth, or at least, not the the truth that human society is usually after. Often various ghosts and spirits will have witnessed something, so even when there's a murder case investigated by the police, Kotoko will usually know who the murderer is because some spirit hanging around happened to have been witness to the murder. The mysteries in this volume therefore revolve around different problems, and often, these problems are only possible because of the supernatural setting, providing an entertaining volume with thrills you really won't find elsewhere.

Though I'll be honest and say that not all the stories are gold. The very short Unagiya no Kouunbi ("A Lucky Day At The Unagi Restaurant") for example feels more like a short horror story to introduce Kotoko to new readers, almost like a The Twilight Zone story. The story is set inside an unagi (Japanese eel) restaurant, where Kajio Takaya and Juujuji Ryoutarou, two old friends, are having a meal. The two hadn't seen each other ever since Kajio's wife was murdered by a street robber six months earlier. When they notice a young-looking girl, beautiful but almost inhuman-looking, sitting all alone in the restaurant, the two start a little game of deduction to guess why a girl like her would be in a restaurant like this on her own, as it's not the type of restaurant even they would go alone to considering the prices and atmosphere. As they pile up their ideas about her presence here however, Ryoutarou slowly moves the discussion to a daring accusation. There's little 'real' deduction here though, as most of what we see here are fancy guesses at best. Weirdly enough, this is the second story in the volume, even though it'd work much better as the introduction story, showing us Kotoko from a third person's view before we get into the stories with more prounounced supernatural elements.

The first story for example, Nushi no Orochi wa Kiiteita ("The Lord Orochi Heard"), is one of the best stories in the volume, making great use of the supernatural to provide a unique problem for Kotoko to solve. An anime television series based on the first novel was broadcast at the start of this year, but it also included an adaptation of this particular story. Kotoko is asked by Lord Orochi (a Great Snake) of Mt. Chikuna to provide the answer to a problem that's been bugging him. One month earlier, a corpse was found in the swamp on Mt. Chikuna by some mushroom hunters. It didn't take long to identify the corpse as Yoshihara Hiroo, who worked at a construction company. The arrest of Tanio Aoi followed soon. Five years ago, her boyfriend had committed suicide together with another woman, because he had embezzled money from the company. It appears Yoshihara had actually been the real culprit, and he had killed Aoi's boyfriend (a colleague) to take the fall. He felt regret now and had confessed it all to Aoi, who had then killed him in a rage. Yoshihara's body was thrown in the swamp of Mt. Chikuna, right behind Aoi's own home. Lord Orochi actually saw Aoi dumping the body in the swamp, so there's no doub that the police got the right person, but there's one thing that bothers the Great Snake: after Aoi had thrown the body in the swamp, she was overheard muttering "I hope they find him quickly" by Lord Orochi. But why would she carry a dead body all the way up the mountain to dump it in a swamp, if on the other hand she hopes it will be found soon? What follows is a great story of invented inferences, where Kotoko has to come up with an explanation for the seemingly contradicting actions of Aoi. The brilliance is of course is that this situation is only possible because we're taking about spirits here: Lord Orochi only overheard Aoi muttering those words because Aoi never noticed there was a spirit around: a human could just go to the police and testify about this. Kotoko comes up with various theories for Aoi's actions, but Lord Orochi's not easily pleased and quickly pokes holes in each of Kotoko's theories, but with each rejected theory, she slowly builds a case that is likely to convince both Lord Orochi and the reader. Ultimately, the fun lies in the fact that Kotoko isn't looking for the truth though: she just has to come up with an explanation that will convince Lord Orochi. A great showcase of the multiple/false solution trope of mystery fiction.

In Dengeki no Pinocchio, Arui Wa Hoshi ni Negai wo ("Blitz Pinocchio, Or: A Wish Upon A Star"), the small fishing town of Todomizu is facing a crisis as every few days, they find countless of dead fish washing ashore. While a popular television drama last year did make the town a tourist destination, the local economy still revolves around the fishing industry, so people are quite worried to see the fish being killed by some unknown force in the sea. While nobody dares say it out loud, there have been some vague sightings of a wooden puppet walking around lately. The wooden puppet belonged to old Zenta, whose grandson was killed by some tourists visiting here in a traffic incident. People in town however seemed to care very little about the death of the boy, fearing that negative news would kill the stream of tourists. The grieving Zenta had been working on a wooden puppet until he himself died too, but the puppet was never found. People in town now fear the puppet has come to life and is taking revenge on the town. And that's actually the truth: every few nights, the wooden puppet descends from the mountains, makes its way to the sea and uses an electric shock blast to kill the fish in the sea. Not even the local spirits can subdue the Pinocchio figure, so they ask Kotoko to deal with the dummy. What troubles Kotoko however isn't the actual threat of this Blitz Pinocchio, but its actual goal. I really like the explanation behind the real intent of the Blitz Pinocchio, but oh, how I wish it had been clewed more fairly. The story first points out that the will of old Zenta and the actions of Blitz Pinocchio don't seem to match up completely, but in order to arrive at the conclusion Kotoko proposes, you need to think of something that may not be on your mind immediately, so it's not completely fair. Had this been extended into a longer story, with more fleshing out of the background story and for example included a mini-lecture on puppets as supernatural themes, this would've been a great story: now it's a fun story, but it feels a tad cheap because Kotoko points out something that you, as the reader, can not know for certain is relevant or not until it is mentioned within the universe of this story. But the solution is definitely original and wouldn't work in any other series except for this one, where we know the supernatural is very real.

In Guillotine Sanshirou we follow the illustrator Sayoko in the train. From her thoughts, we learn she has a connection to Miyaigawa Koujirou, a man who was recently arrested for murdering his brother-in-law and decapitating him with his own guillotine. Miyaigawa owned a genuine Japanese guillotine, constructed in Japan in the nineteenth century, but ultimately never used. When confronted by the police about the decapitation, Miyaigawa said that he had killed his brother-in-law by accident, after fighting over money, but when he saw his brother-in-law was dead, he wanted to try out the guillotine just once. Our look into Sayoko's mind however shows she too is involved with Miyaigawa's crime. When Kotoko and Kurou confront Sayoko however, she's very surprised. Kotoko tells Sayoko that she's hired by the spirit of the guillotine, who apparently is named Sanshirou. When Miyaigawa decapitated his brother-in-law, he muttered the words "Now it should be alright" which seems to suggest there was more to it than just trying out the guillotine. But what? This story is not completely fair to the reader, as Kotoko is told something by the guillotine which she doesn't mention until the conclusion and it's pretty damning information. It does lead to an interesting situation though, as it gives a very good explanation (the foreshadowing in particular is good) as to why Miyaigawa would want to decapitate his brother-in-law like that and it also makes good use of the idea that it was the guillotine itself which provided Kotoko with that information, as nobody else would ever be able to tell her that. So I do think that the plot justifies the use of the supernatural, as it leads to a situation you normally couldn't have in a mystery story (a witness seeing a very important moment, but not able to tell that to others/the police), but that the information gained from that isn't conveyed in a fair manner to the reader, so it feels slightly cheap.

Maboroshi no Jihanki ("The Phantom Vending Machine") is my favorite story of the collection, as it features a truly original conundrum. We learn that a few shape-shifting tanuki (raccoon dogs) have been making some really delicious udon noodles, and they had been selling them to fellow beings of the other world through an udon vending machine in a small building in a phantom rest area along a mountain road. The rest area is located not in this world, and therefore only accessible for supernatural beings. At least, that's normally so, but occassionally humans driving up the mountains do end up at the interdimensional rest station, giving birth to the urban legend of the "phantom vending machine" with the delicious noodles. The tanuki didn't mind the urban legends, but now they're involved with a criminal case! Honma Shun had killed his business partner accidently in self-defense after accusing him of drug smuggling and being attacked himself. After the murder, Honma drove around in a daze, ending up in the mountains. When he arrived at a small rest area, he talked a bit with the maintenance man of the udon vending machine (actually a tanuki who had transformed into human form), had a bowl of noodles there and then drove on to arrive at a coast town in the neighboring prefecture. The problem is that when Honma left the interdimensional phantom rest station, he was not put back in the exact same spot on the mountain, but further down the mountain. Because of that, he arrived at the coast town much sooner than usual and that inadvertently gave him an alibi for the murder, for nobody could've committed the murder and arrive in the coast town at one in the morning! While Honma admitted to the murder, the police find it puzzling that he didn't seem to realize he has an alibi, but the problem is that they can't find the rest area, nor the maintenance man who serviced the vending machine. One detective in particular is very keen on finding the rest area, which is making the tanuki very nervous, so they hope Kotoko can think of a solution that can explain the situation without actually revealing there is a real phantom rest area.

Absolutely brilliant premise for an alibi story! The culprit is been given a perfect alibi by accident because he wandered into an interdimensional space, and now Kotoko has to crack this real alibi by coming up with a logical, believable solution that does away with the supernatural even though that is what actually happened. It's really fun to see Kotoko build a logically sound case based on the known facts, even though you know it's not even remotely true. Like I mentioned in the introduction, it's at these times where you see how Shirodaira dares to go beyond Berkeley and Brand, by actually rejecting the truth and opting exclusively for the false solution as the "correct" solution, even if it's not the truth. Seeing Kotoko spinning a tale based on the facts to explain how Honma got his perfect alibi, makes you realize that mystery fiction is really often not about finding the truth: it's about finding an amusing solution and that's exactly what's done here fabulously.

Kyokou Suiri Tanpenshuu/Invented Inference Short Story Collection has a few stories that I'd have liked even better with some tinkering, but the first and final story in the volume are absolutely great must-reads. They do great things with the supernatural premise of the series, providing you a type of mystery you simply can't get with other 'conventional' mysteries. I mean, how many series do you know where you know the murder weapon can actually explain what happened in person, or where someone is given an alibi by accident due to interdimensional shenigans!? It's easy to assume that this would make this series not a fair-play mystery because of the use of the supernatural, but by shifting the focus of the mystery from 'finding the truth' to 'finding a logically reasoned solution that does not rely the supernatural even though it exists', Invented Inference can offer some great moments not seen in any other detective fiction.

Original Japanese title(s): 城平京『虚構推理短編集 岩永琴子の出現』：「ヌシの大蛇は聞いていた 」/「うなぎ屋の幸運日 」/「電撃のピノッキオ、あるいは星に願いを」/「ギロチン三四」/「幻の自販機」

Lie, Lie, Lie

"The truth is out there"

"The X-Files"

Hey, have you heard about Steel Lady Nanase? The stories of a ghost who carries a steel beam and attacks people around Makurazaka City? They say she's the ghost of the idol Nanase Karin. Never heard of her? Well, she wasn't a household name yet, but she was getting there. She was smart, calculating and that chest of hers! Anyway, she was doing fine until her father died. The two of them, they didn't get along, and there were even rumors he hadn't fallen off the stairs, but that she pushed him. The press was all over her, so she took a break from work to get away from those pesky journalists. Stayed in one city for a few days, then to another, etcetera. Until she arrived in Makaruzaka. One evening, she had snuck into a construction site, when a pile of steel beams fell on her, crushing her face and killing her instantly! And after a while, people started talking. That her ghost still lingered around to avenge her death. That her death was not natural, as she didn't even try to protect herself from the falling beams. She's supposed to be dressed like in her idol days, wearing a mini skirt and a ribbon in her hair, but also swinging a heavy steel beam around at anyone she sees...

Rookie cop Saki of course didn't really believe the rumors of Steel Lady Nanase, but when she heard from a fellow detective that lately, more and more incidents occured in town where people seem to refer to a being that might be Steel Lady Nanase, her interests were piqued, and she agreed to help him out in his investigation. In most of these incidents, like a horrible car accident, the involved eventually gave other excuses for what happened, but strangely enough, it seems their initial, and perhaps most honest reactions were to say they were attacked by Steel Lady Nanase. One night however, Saki herself is confronted with Steel Lady Nanase, and to her shock, she learns that Steel Lady Nanase is really a ghost. And a terrifyingly strong one too, who is growing more powerful by the night. The only ones who can stop Steel Lady Nanase from causing more destruction and eventually perhaps even kill somebody, turn out to be Saki's ex, Sakuragawa Kurou and Kurou's current girlfriend Iwanaga Kotoko, a young girl with a baret and a walking stick. Both Kurou and Kotoko are more than mere humans, falling right in the gap between normal humans and the supernatural. Despite's Kotoko petty and arrogant attitude at times, she is respected and worshipped as the Diety of Knowledge by the various supernatural beings that exist, who count on her wisdom to help her out. Usually, their requests are pretty minor, but now the local ghosts, monsters and other youkai need Kotoko's help to defeat Steel Lady Nanase, who is completely out of control and attacking everyone, humans and other supernatural beings alike. Saki learns from Kotoko that Steel Lady Nanase is an actual product of people's imagination: it's the belief in the urban legend of Steel Lady Nanase that created her and gave her this tremendous power, so the only way to defeat Steel Lady Nanase is to create an even more elaborate urban legend, an even fancier lie that disproves Steel Lady's Nanase's existence for people to believe in, even if she does really exist now. This seemingly contradictional problem lies at the heart of Shirodaira Kyou's 2011 novel Kyokou Suiri, which also carries the English title Invented Inference.

You ever decide to quickly read something because you knew an adaptation was coming? The original novel first caught my eye when in 2012, I was a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club and one of the scheduled bookclub sessions was about this book (I didn't participate then). The title seemed so weird, yet alluring. Later I learned there was also a manga adaptation, which is being published in the United States with the title In/Spectre and then I heard last year that in January 2020, an anime series based on this novel would start. So I decided to quickly read the novel before the anime adaptation would start. Shirodaira Kyou, whom I knew from the manga mystery series Spiral ~ Suiri no Kizuna, was quite busy preparing for the upcoming hype of the anime series it seems, as both a short story collection and a second novel were published late 2018 and 2019.

Anyway, this is obviously a supernatural mystery: both Kotoko and Kurou have extraordinary powers and can even communicate with supernatural beings like the ghost of the dead, and in fact, early on Kotoko reveals to Saki that Nanase Karin really did just die in an accident and that she wasn't murdered or anything like that, and she can prove that because she has an actual witness to Karin's death: a ghost of a construction worker who had died at that site. So much for a mystery story, you might think, if ghosts can tell you who did or did not kill someone, but that's of course a rather small-minded way to think of a mystery story. Invented Inference is really fun to read, because it's built on a supernatural theme, leading to a type of mystery that is actually quite familiar to veteran mystery readers.

The genius angle with which this novel is written is that Steel Lady Nanase is a ghost that is powered by the belief in her urban legend: because of the internet, modern urban myths can spread with abnormal speed, diffusing a consistent image across the country shared by all readers. This has made Steel Lady Nanase a very powerful ghost in a short time, while in the old days, this process would've taken decades, and it was likely the urban myth would already be forgotten in the meantime. One way to defeat Steel Lady Nanase would be to disprove the urban legend, but as we all know, people like to believe in ghost stories, urban muths and conspiracy theories. Thus Kotoko explains the only way to defeat Steel Lady Nanase, to weaken the belief in her, is to create a new story, which proves there's no such thing as Steel Lady Nanase. But it has to be a story that people want to believe over the story of Steel Lady Nanase, it has to be wackier, more alluring, more worthwhile believing, while at the same time this new story has to be believable and logical. Coming up with a story based completely on lies is easy, but if holes are poked in your new story, then nobody is going to believe it, so it has to be a plausible story too. And thus we have the title: Kotoko has to come up with a completely fictional deduction, an invented inference, that will explain all the incidents that happened across Makurazaka City the last few weeks, including the sightings of Steel Lady Nanase and the enigmatic death of the idol Nanase Karin, an explanation is not only plausible and based on the real facts of the case, but also one that will not create an even worse monster.

The concept of having to come up with what is basically an elaborate lie is really fantastic and touches upon the fundamentals of mystery fiction. For do we really read mystery fiction to find out the truth? No, we read mystery fiction because we like fiction, because we want to hear a story that is plausible and logically based on the facts presented, but also a story that is entertaining, a story you want to believe in, something to amuse you. That is exactly what Kotoko has to do here, and the way she builds up her fake, but plausible deduction is really a sight to see as she skilfully mixes up all kinds of small elements from the urban myth to create her own new (completely fabricated) urban myth. The device of fake solutions of course reminds of writers like Christianna Brand and Anthony Berkeley, who often had the characters in their novels propose false solutions. But the difference is that in Invented Inference, the false solution is not a concept meant to divert you from the truth: the false solution is the goal. In this story, you already have the story of a poor idol who died tragically and is now haunting the city as a ghost swinging a steel beam around, and now the reader and Kotoko have to think of an explanation that is acceptable, based on the facts as far as they are publicly known and most importantly, one that is more entertaining than an actual vengeful ghost story. It's the last condition which makes Invented Inference so original because it's easy coming up with evidence or explanations that there are no ghosts, but people are more willing to believe the more interesting story. Truth is sometimes weirder than fiction, but in this novel, fiction needs to be more entertaining than the truth. The existence of supernatural beings in the world of the novel also doesn't interfere with the fair play element of the mystery, as the story's about creating a new urban myth based on the facts: people's beliefs in Steel Lady Nanase are strengthened by the real incidents she causes, but talking about other supernatural beings in a potential new urban myth is less likely to be accepted unless it has facts to back it up.

I already mentioned this first novel already saw two sequels this last year or so. It was no surprise sequels would follow, as these first novel is also clearly set in a much larger world, with more characters that will be explored more indepth in other stories. Invented Inference is a standalone story, but there's still plenty of questions left unanswered about the characters at the end of the tale.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Kyokou Suiri/Invented Inference, as it took a very original, and seemingly contradictionary approach to telling a mystery plot. The unconventional story setting and disinterest in truth makes this an entertaining read, while at the same time it does make you think, what is it really that makes you want to read a mystery novel. It's pretty light-hearted novel actually, and with the comedic bickering between the characters, surprisingly action-packed narrative and all the supernatural themes going, one might be inclined to think this is also a very light mystery, but at the core it actually addresses a core theme of the whole mystery genre in a way few dare. I might try the anime in January too.

Original Japanese title(s):  城平京『虚構推理』