The House on the Cliff

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"Saturae" 

Huh, guess this is the third Monzen review of this year on this blog within just a few months. Pretty rare for me to do reviews of the same author in such a short period of time.

Back in 2024, the bookshops Shosen and Horindou published a facsimile release of Monzen Noriyuki's Shi no Meidai ("A Proposition of Death", which was technically published as his fourth novel, but can also be considered his first novel (see the post for more about that). A "upgraded" version of this  facsimile release was also offered, as it included a booklet with a completely new, original short story by Monzen himself. Tsukiatari no Ie ("The Building in the Cul-de-Sac") isn't long at about fifty pages (which is usually around the lower page range of most Japanese short stories I read), but the set-up is rather memorable, and I think it deserves a brief discussion here.

he book opens with Ninomiya Seiji, a man in his early twenties, arriving at a small building near the sea, built in a clearing in the woods, only reachable by following an overgrown path from the nearest parking spot through the wood for five minutes. The concerete building, slightly bigger than a shed, was used by ama (free-divers, usually women) as a spot to get dressed, rest, and warm up, but has been long abandoned. Inside, Ninomoya finds his employer, Inuzuka. Ninomiya served time after killing a person, and once he was free, it was Inuzuka who was willing to hire him at his construction firm. Ninomiya owes a lot to Inuzuka, as he only still treated him as a decent human being despite his past, and he wasn't a truly bad person either. That said, Inuzuka isn't a truly good person either, and he's been duping people into far-too-costly reconstruction projects. Ninomiya has stood by his friend's side for a long time, but fearing Inuzuka might go too far with his criminal endeavours sooner or later, Ninomiya wants out. Inuzuka agreed, but Ninomiya had to do one last job for him.

And thus Ninomiya arrives at the building, where Inuzuka explains Ninomiya is to keep an eye on a person, who is being held captive. The building consists of two "rooms": entering the building leads to the larger entrance room. In the back of that room, is a smaller room, which has no windows and can only be accessed via the door in the entrance room. The prisoner is being held captive in the smaller room, which is locked with a key and also barricaded with a heavy, sturdy-looking barricade bar, which is held in place with four metal hinges on the wall and the door itself. Ninomiya is to not communicate with the prisoner at all, whether it's him starting a conversarion or the prisoner, but also not treat him badly.  The task will last for seven days. Ninomiya hasn't quite sized up the situation, when Inuzuka also locks the outer door of the building, meaning Ninomoya himself is also locked up. Inuzuka assures Ninomiya he'll come pick him up in seven days, and that someone will bring food for both Ninomiya and the prisoner twice a day (both the outer door and the inner door have a small door near the ground, meant for air intake, through which food can be pushed inside).

At first Ninomiya adheres to his assignment, not talking to the prisoner and keeping to himself. Food is also properly delivered around noon and the evening, so he has not to worry about being hungry. The prisoner however is surprisingly quiet, which makes Ninomiya wonder whether there is a prisoner inside. Fortunately, after some time he does hear a person inside. As the hours and days pass by however, Ninomiya starts to wonder. Who is the prisoner? Perhaps Inuzuka has kidnapped someone, and making Ninomoya a scapegoat, keeping him prisoner too so he can be the fall guy. Ninomiya starts to wonder out loud and even starts to talk to the prisoner, who very occasionally answers with short replies. Ninomiya also keeps a diary, detailing the little that happens during these seven days.

Seven days later, the murdered bodies of Ninomiya and Inuzuka are found: Ninomiya in the entrance room, Inuzuka's body in the locked room, which is still barricaded.

So we have an interesting two-folded mystery here: why is Ninomiya asked to watch a prisoner, while he's being kept imprisoned in the building himself too, and how come both Ninomoya and Inuzuka end up dead in the house (with Inuzuka being inside the room where the prisoner was). It's a very short story, so　I do think some details should have gotten more attention, but on the whole, I did enjoy this story a lot. The first two-thirds of the story read as a thriller, as Ninomiya starts to get more doubts about the task he has been given by Inuzuka, slowly realizing he might be set-up for some huge crime and trying to negotiate with the prisoner in the room to see if they can get out together. But then we shift to a police investigation after the seventh day, in which we not only learn that Ninomiya was mudered, but that also Inuzuka was found dead in the locked room (and Inuzuka died hours before Ninomiya too). While I have only read Monzen's novels, I was both surprised, and not surprised, to see he included diagrams in this story too: he always makes very detailed diagrams and floor plans for his stories, as he studied architecture and it's often an important motif in his mysteries. One could say the same here, though I wasn't that surprised by the "architectural" deception going on in this story: it was in fact the whole deal about why Ninomoya is being kept captive together with the prisoner that presented a fun mystery. Not completely fairly clewed perhaps, but an interesting, and most importantly, suspenseful plot nonetheless.

As this was written exclusively for the Shosen/Horindou facscimile release of Shi no Meidai, I doubt this would be collected in a short story collection if Monzen would decide to write more short stories in the future. I personally would be interested in his short stories though, going by what Tsukiatari no Ie brought! He apparently has at least three other short stories published, so I might try and see if I can obtain them/get copies of them.

Original Japanese title(s):  門前典之「突き当たりの家」

By Dawn's Early Light

"Well, I'll be tougher than the toughies, and sharper than the sharpies -- And I'll make my money square!"

"The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" 

Visited Sapporo recently actually. All the dairy products (soft serves!!!) were amazing.

Golden Kamuy is a highly succesful manga series created by Noda Satoru, set in Hokkaido, soon after the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. It follows Sugimoto, a war veteran and the Ainu girl Asirpa on their quest to find a fortune of gold of the Ainu people, with other parties also after the enormous treasure. The manga is well-known for its historical setting, incorporating real historical events into the plot. It also focuses a lot on Hokkaido and the Ainu culture, exploring the Ainu people in that period in time. The manga has been adapted into a succesful anime series, and there's also a live-action film series. 

And of course, there's a mystery spin-off book! Or else I wouldn't be writing about it here.

I have in fact not read the manga nor seen the anime. And I only caught like the only first 15 minutes of the first Golden Kamuy film. So I know next to nothing about the series. But when it was announced last year that not only the very first Golden Kamuy spin-off novel would be a mystery story, but that it was also written by none other than Ibuki Amon, I knew instantly I wanted to read it, even without knowledge of the series. It would not be the first time I have read a mystery book based on a Shonen Jump franchise I'm not super familiar with (which reminds me I also need to read the second Kinnikuman mystery short story collection), and more importantly: Ibuki Amon is basically the person you want to be writing mystery short stories with a historical setting, with plots that utilize the time period to their fullest, ranging from objects and historical events to culture. Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan ("Golden Kamuy: The Aspirations of Tsurumi Tokushirou") is a prequel short story collection set during the Russo-Japanese War and it follows Tsurumi Tokushirou, First Lieutenant of the 7th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Tsurumi is in fact the antagonist of the main series, but his popularity have thus earned him the honor of being the protagonist of the book. Tsurumi is a highly strategic, calculating officer who nonetheless cares about the men serving beneath and besides him. The 7th Division is sent deep into Russian grounds as they move from one battlefield to another to support other divisions and Tsurumi, in his position of First Lieutenant, acts as the platoon leader, being the link between command and the men on the ground. In Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan, we see how the 7th Division moves deeper into Russia as the war wages on, but during their deployment, the members of the 7th Division come across several mysterious incidents, including sightings of the ghost of a fallen comrade patrolling at night, the disappearance of a war prisoner from a guarded tent and a series of murders on Japanese soldiers right in the middle of their own camp, without the enemy ever being detected. While these cases baffle his soldiers, it's always Tsurumi who holds the answers to the questions.

I have to admit that while I bought this book without much worries about my non-existing familiarity with the series, I was taken aback by the first few pages of the book, which featured 15(!) named characters of the 7th Division, all with profile pictures and character introduction, and then more pages that explain the military ranks of the people in the 7th Division, and a chart of the battles the 7th Division were involved with during the war. Once you get reading, you'll realize you'll get explained all of this within the stories themselves too, but the front-loaded info-dump pages were a bit intimidating. The book features five stories, which all follow different members of the 7th Division as they encounter weird cases and see how Tsurumi handles all of them. Each of the stories show how these men become devoted followers of Tsurumi, recognizing not only the aspirations of the man, but also the heart he has for the mission and for the men who fight along him, which earns him the respect and loyalty of the men that see his actions in person. While the stories are all completely original creations by Ibuki Amon, the book does feature several original illustrations made for this book by the original series creator Noda Satoru. 

The book opens with Yuurei Hoshou ("The Ghostly Sentry"), which follows Tanigaki Genjirou, Private First Class. The story follows Tanigaki who is put on night guard. He stands on top of a hill, when he hears a bell, and then he briefly spots someone else standing on an opposite hill: for a moment he fears an enemy, but he soon recognizes the face of his fellow soldier Yoshino. He calls out to Yoshino, but the figure disappears, followed by Tsurumi appearing next to Tanigaki. Tanigaki mentions seeing Yoshino suddenly appear, when Tsurumi informs him that Yoshino already died two days ago on the battlefield. So who did Tanigaki see patrolling in the night? This is a story that is less about the how of how the ghost of Yoshino appeared in front of Tanigaki, but more about the why: which is absolutely fantastic. The reason is firmly grounded in the historical and cultural context of the story, being incredibly convincing. It is hard to even hint at the explanation, because I have the feeling a simple nudge in the right direction might give it all away because it's ultimately a surprisingly simple matter, but Ibuki does a great job at not pointing too much at it until the reveal.

Shiroi Nipponhei ("The White Japanese Soldier"), told from the perspective of Warrant Officer Kikuta Mokutarou, starts with Mokutarou on the verge of being shot by a Russian soldier who surprised him, but for some reason the Russian soldier hesitates for a second before he cried out "the White Japanese!" in Russia, giving Mokutarou's comrades the time to save him. Everyone is puzzled by the Russian soldier's cry, because Mokutarou, and all the other Japanese soldiers, were wearing their black uniform. After interrogating the soldier, Mokutarou learns that the soldier had previously had encountered a Japanese soldier in a white uniform, whom he shot at point-blank range, but the soldier was unharmed by his bullet. The Japanese soldiers doubt the accuracy of the story, suggesting the Russian soldier just missed his mark, though they have no idea why the soldier would have mistaken their uniform for black. When later Mokutarou visits a comrade, he's shocked when that comrade asks Mokutarou why he's wearing a white uniform instead of his usual black... This is a mystery story that has a cool idea in regards to the solution, but the way it works as a mystery story is a bit uneven: it's not really structured as a fair clue-to-solution style of story, making the reveal not as satisfying as it could've been. Again, it's less the how that is memorable, but more the why, with this why being a lot more ambitious than the previous one, but at the same time, because of that wider range, a little bit harder to swallow, because it immediately raises questions about the feasibility, something that the first story did much better.

Habutae Tent to Misshitsu ("The Sealed Field Tent") follows Usami Tokishige, Superior Private of the 7th Division. The division has been hastily moving across the battlefield as they are needed to support an important attack. On their way, they manage to capture a group of Russian soldiers and Tsurumi is ordered to interrogate the leading officer, as they need information on the Russian platoons stationed at their destination. While everyone, from Tsurumi's superiors to the men beneath him, suggest beating the information out of the officer, Tsurumi alone suggests treating their prisoner of war with the respect his rank deserves, and the man is kept in a private tent. Usami is one of the two guards placed at the exit of the tent, while Tsurumi goes out for a bit. Tsurumi returns later with some food for the officer, but apparently can't get anything out of the man, so Tsurumi leaves again. Another prisoner however manages to escape and attacks Usami's fellow guard, but eventually Tsurumi and Usami manage to take out the escapee. They suspect the escapee was trying to rescue his commanding officer, but when they look inside the tent, they find the Russian officer is gone! But this is impossible, as there's only one exit out of the tent, and while Usami had been distracted by the attacker for a while, he swears nobody escaped from the tent during his fight in front of the tent. So how did the Russian officer escape? This is the best story of the collection, as it manages to best combine both a good how and why. The way the Russian officer disappeared from the tent is perhaps a bit simple, but it makes great use of the historical/cultural setting and Amon also manages to introduce enough depth to also delve into false solutions a bit. The why is absolutely stunning, and really only works in a war-setting and with certain characters, but it works so insanely well in this story. It is an insane motive and while not as intuitive as what you'd see in the Father Brown stories, there's an essential core to it that does feel like it could've been in a Father Brown story: it hinges on a very instinctivee, emotional concept that doesn't sound logical at all, and yet it is very convincing.

Toki ni wa Yasashiku Minai Furi ("Sometimes Gently Pretending Not to Notice") is told from the perspective of Superior Private Ogata Hyakunosuke. The soldiers in the 7th Division are slowly becoming restless, when they learn there's been a second murder on one of their fellow soldiers. While soldiers dying on the battlefield is not a surprise at all, there's something special about two specific murders: these soldiers were killed in the middle of their own camp. As one would expect, the Japanese camp is set-up far away from the Russian enemy, with night sentries making sure that the camp itself is safe, but twice already an enemy has managed to strike at fellow Japanese soldiers, who assumed they were safe within the confines of their camp. While at first, they assumed some lone Russian soldier might have made his way into their camp and killed one of them before escaping, this theory quickly loses credibility by the second murder, as it's rather unbelievable an enemy could sneak inside the camp twice. Suspicion therefore turns to someone within the camp, so who is this traitor? This story is basicallly all about the why, as the story basically soon points out all the victims were basically just surprised by whom they thought was a comrade. The why is, as is basically the norm for this collection, a memorable matter that only makes any sense in the specific historical/cultural context of the story, being a war-time story of soldiers being gone for months from home, fighting daily deep within enemy grounds. This may even be the shortest story of them all, but the motive definitely ranks among the strongest of the collection in terms of memorability. In practice, you'd think some of the actions of the murderer are a bit contradictionary, but again, this being a story set right in the middle of an on-going war basically makes the motive not only viable, but even believable. 

The final story, Tsurumi Tokushirou wa Madowanai ("Tsurumi Tokushirou Does Not Waver") is about Sergeant Tsukishima Hajime, a very loyal subordinate to Tsurumi, who will follow his orders no matter what. The 7th Division is visited for an inspection by a commander who has been wavering in his leadership of the army as the war continues: while the soldiers fighting the battles on the ground have a feeling they'll get through, the commander is having second thoughts, which might endanger their opportunity at defeating their enemy. Tsukishima is handed a suspicious package by Tsurumi and is ordered to plant alongside the route the commander will be taking during his inspection. The very precise Tsurumi gives about where to place the package make it clear it's not a safe package, and Tsukishima understands Tsurumi is trying to take matters into his own hands to push the Japanese army forward, but Tsukishima apparently mistimed or misplaced the package, as the explosion does result in multiple casualties, but the commander goes unharmed. Will this botched-up attempt at the commander's life mean the end of Tsurumi and his aspirations? Well, now, because otherwise the main series wouldn't have an antagonist.  This one feels more like a thriller than a conventional mystery story, with Tsukishima being ordered to do something that obviously is illegal, and we see him have to deal with the aftermath of his mistakenly planted bomb. Because of this, it's also not a really a well-clewed story, as the emphasis lies more on the emotional turmoil within Tsukishima as he realizes his mistake will have consequences not for him alone, but also for Tsurumi, whom he sees as vital to the division. Of course, as the title says, Tsurumi does not waver and he manages to deal with the matter nonetheless, but the "solution" to what he does is not really set-up with clues or anything. While the solution does recontextualize a few things Tsurumi did or said throughout the story, the twist doesn't feel as strong as some of the surprises we saw in earlier stories in terms of character motivations/actions. It does portray a strong Tsurumi, in a way I suspect that ties deeply to the main series, and in that respect, I can't really fault this story, because I assume most people who read this book are interested in the character of Tsurumi, rather than the mystery set-ups, but I did find it disappointing I found the previous four stories stronger than the finale as mystery stories.

As I haven't read the original series, I can't say whether Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan contains anything that makes this instant recommendation to Golden Kamuy fans: perhaps just knowing it's about Tsurumi's time in the Russo-Japanese War is enough, or knowing which people of the 7th Division are featured in this book. As a fan of mystery fiction however, and as someone who has constantly been admiring Ibuki Amon's historical short story mysteries, I think Golden Kamuy: Tsurumi Tokushirou no Shukugan is overall a very solid book. Ultimately, I don't think my unfamiliarity with the source material really hurt my experience, as Ibuki always manages to write solid mysteries based on well-researched historical and cultural settings and presenting them well to the reader. The stories here are no expection, so it didn't take long for me to be all familiar with the setting, and at the same time, be amazed with the plots Ibuki comes up with based on the setting of the early 1900s setting and the Russo-Japanese War background. So I can safely recommend this book if you're just into cool historical mystery fiction!

Original Japanese title(s): 野田サトル（原作・イラスト）, 伊吹亜門（小説）『ゴールデンカムイ 鶴見篤四郎の宿願』: 「幽霊歩哨 《谷垣源次郎》」/「白い日本兵 《菊田杢太郎》」/「羽二重天幕の密室 《宇佐美時重》」/「時にはやさしく見ないふり 《尾形百之助》」/「鶴見篤四郎は惑わない 《月島 基》」

While the Clock Ticked

 Are you death or paradise?

 Now you'll never see me cry

There's just no time to die

"No Time to Die" (Billie Eilish) 

Disclosure: I translated Ayatsuji Yukito's The Decagon House Murders, The Mill House Murders, The Labyrinth House Murders and of course, The Clock House Murders.

In 2024, Hulu released a wonderfully produced live-action adaptation of The Decagon House Murders. It just so happened I actually was going to meet author Ayatsuji Yukito the day after it was released, so I binged the series the night before, so I could actually talk about it to him. Like many others, I too was curious how they were going to actually film the book, as it is a very difficult work to adapt for certain media, but the result was honestly really, really good. So when I learnt last year they were going to do an adaptation of The Clock House Murders in 2026, I was thrilled: given how good The Decagon House Murders was, I have only high expectations for this new release, which was released this very week. Obviously, The Clock House Murders is a book dear to me: not only because it's easily one of my favorite books in the series, I also did the English translation of the novel, so I spent a lot of time on, and with the book. 

The live-action series releases today (Friday 27th), so I haven't seen the series yet at the time of writing this post. While they released the complete The Decagon House Murders series on the release day two years ago, this time they are splitting the release across two batches, with the first six episodes presenting the main problem released this week, and the last two episodes, with the solution, releasing next month. So I might binge everything next month in one go. 

To celebrate the release of this adaptation, the literary magazine Shousetsu Gendai (published by Kodansha, the Japanese publisher behind Ayatsuji's House books) featured a The Clock House Murders special in its March 2026 issue, with not only interviews with Ayatsuji, Arisugawa Alice and one of the main actors of the series, the magazine also featured no less than five (!) original "House"-inspired mystery short stories, written by as many authors. 

The first story featured is Aosaki Yuugo's Kubisogiyama no Kaiten Yashiki ("The Revolving Manor on Mt. Kubisogi"). The titular Revolving Manor is one of the six manors built by the legendary architect Kurotsubo Shinku. This particular building stands on Mt Kubisogi in the Hyogo Prefecture, and is best imagined as one of those revolving restaurants that offer a 360-degree panoramic view. The "entrance" of the house is actually just an elevator shaft: the elevator that leads up to the circular house built on top of that shaft tower. The house consist of three "rings". The fixed outer ring is the outer wall of the building, and is made of acrylic: the whole outer wall functions as a window, offering a panoramic view. The middle ring is built right against this outer window/window and holds most of the rooms, liking a sitting room, study and bedroom. This ring slowly revolves clock-wise, meaning each room not only has an amazing view, this view actually changes depending on the time! The inner "ring" is the static center of the house around which the second ring revolves, holding the elevator entrance, bathroom and kitchen.

The house is currently owned by Nishikubo Hiroyuki, who runs a make-up company. He and his wife are visited by a crew from a magazine on architecture for an article on the house. The crew are to stay for the night at this unique creation by the enigmatic architect Kurotsubo. The members all stay in a different room. The following morning however, a gigantic hole is found to have been carved out of the acrylic window. It's clear it wasn't just broken by accident, but someone actually bothered to open a hole in the outer wall. Down on the ground, at the base of the elevator shaft, they find one of the crew members lying dead, seemingly having fallen through the hole down the tower. Everyone is perplexed by the situation: did someone kill him and then cut a hole in the window to dump the body downstairs? But what purpose could that have?

This story is actually a sequel to an earlier Aosaki story, which features another house (The Glass Manor) by the architect Kurotsubo. I have the book, but I haven't read it yet. But it's no problem if you start here. The house in this story is actually pretty "normal" all things considered: I can easily imagine someone wanting a revolving house in the mountains with the complete outer wall acting as a window so you can always enjoy the view! It's not a particularly long story, which is why I was surprised Aosaki manages to pack quite a lot into the story, from a secondary storyline involving the narrator to a few (very short) wrong theories and then we have the actual explanation of what happened and it's... pretty hilarious if you visualize what happened and how the victim found their death. It's not mind-blowing good, but I do like the story for its subdued silliness and I'd love to see a live-action adaptation of this! I think Aosaki could even have gotten away with just that one main idea, so I do appreciate it how he decided to still add some more story details that weren't that necessary.

Ibuki Amon's Tsubaki Fujin no Subarashii Yakata ("Madam Tsubaki's Wonderful Home") is a historical mystery, as we may expect from Ibuki. Set in Manchukuo, we follow private detective Tsukisamu Sanshirou (also appearing in this collection), who is hired to find the brother of a young woman. When their father died, the whole family fortune was stolen by their uncle. The young woman and her mother managed to find some work to earn a humble living, but her brother ran away. He became a robber and eventually made it to the position of captain within his gang of robbers: his robbers already took revenge on their uncle. His sister had not seen her brother in a decade, but recently got a letter saying he had been wounded and was now recovering in a strict medical institution run by a Mrs. Tsubaki: patients aren't allowed to write or receive any letters, but he managed to get one of the suppliers to deliver a letter to his sister for him. He would write again later on, but she never got more news from him and when she asked the deliveryman to go ask at the institution, he was found out by guards and beaten to death. Tsukisamu happens to know Mrs Tsubaki from his time working for the railway ministry. He decides to pay the institution a visit, and is shown a truly wonderful place where wounded Manchurians, from criminals, to simple women and children, are slowly nursed back to health with all the love and care they need... but Tsukisamu knows there's something wrong about the house and the intentions of Mrs. Tsubaki.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit disappointed when I realized the "house" in this story was not as important as in the other stories in this feature: the focus of the mystery lies more on the intentions of Mrs. Tsubaki and why she is running this hospital. As one can expect from Ibuki, it's a great historical mystery though, set very firmly in the time period and setting of the story, which is of course also fairly original as you don't have many present-day mystery writers anymore who use Manchukuo as a setting. The motive for Mrs. Tsubaki's actions is set-up wonderfully and eventually, Tsukisamu arrives at a heinous plot hiding within Tsubaki's seemingly wonderful hospital. Less of a "add-clue 1-and-clue 2-to-arrive-at-answer 3" mystery, more of a "given-these-remarks, can-you-imagine-why-someone-would-do-this?" type of mystery, but still well-done.

Kesshoukan no Satsujin ("The Crystal House Murders") by Ooyama Seiichirou is set in November of 1990 and first introduces the reader to a group of friends, consisting of Ryouta, Kouji, Shuuichi, Rikka, Maki and Satomi. They are staying at the Crystal House, a small hexagon-shaped hotel in Hokkaido. They have been friends since primary school, and still meet once in a while even now they're all adults. The Crystal House is owned by Ryouta and not in business just yet, but he's giving his friends a sneak peek at his new business adventure. The friends have a pleasant night in the Crystal House, surrounded by nothing but nature and snow, but the following morning, Rikka is found murdered in her room: her head's been bashed in and for some reason, her left hand has been cut off. Rikka has always been the mysterious one of the group, with strange powers of clairvoyance, but is that why she got killed? When they try to call the police, they find the line's dead. Is the murderer someone from outside, or is it one of the friends, and why was the victim's hand cut off? 

This is probably my favorite story in the feature, partially because the story feels the most like a story inspired directly by Ayatsuji's House series, with a few cool nods like the cut-off hand, as well as a great set-up of the narrative: the tale actually starts with a news report detailing how the Crystal House went up in flames and how everyone but one person staying at the hotel had died: one person made it out alive and was saved by the emergency services, but is seemingly suffering from amnesia, with no recollection of the events that led to the deaths of all the people in the hotel. This "book-ending" mystery of who the survivor actually is, and what their role was in the deadly events that occured inside the Crystal House starting with Rikka's death, add a great extra layer to the mystery. The mystery of the cut-off hand, as said, invokes a few moments from Ayatsuji's house series, but the way Ooyama develops this clue feels much more Queenian than Ayatsuji would generally do. So even though the "prop" is the same, Ooyama definitely makes best use of his own expertise, using the cut-off hand for a proper physical-clue-based chain of deduction. I really like what he does with the Crystal House here as a setting too, giving it a unique vibe, and the whole tale feels really complete.

Shasendou Yuuki's Goumonkan no Satsujin ("The Torture House Murders") has the WeTuber Kugi Hikage and her assistant visiting the Torture House, as Kugi is best known for visiting houses with a nasty background stories. Twenty years ago, Horikoshi Toutarou, the original owner of the house kidnapped a few people to torture them to death in his basement with his collection of torture device. One victim managed to escape eventually and notified the police, leading to Horikoshi's arrest. The house, now known as the Torture House, was later bought by Nukube Ikurou and he had an exact copy of the Torture House built next to the original. He has preserved the original Torture House and has a caretaker there keep an eye on things, while he lives in the copy. As this copy houses his collection of antique wares, he has dubbed it the Nostalgia House. He has invited a few people interested in the Torture House and the torture devices kept in the basement to view them, with Kugi as one of his guests. The tour is to be held the next day, but when Nukube doesn't appear in front of the Nostalgia House the next morning as agreed upon, the group crosses a snow-covered field to head for the Torture House themselves. The caretaker there states he did see his master come to the Torture House yesterday. He had assumed Nukube had returned to the Nostalgia House for the night, but the complete absence of footprints in the snow suggest Nukube never left the Torture House. When the group enter the dark basement, they find a dead Nukube, who has been clearly tortured to death, with his joints and bones broken. Unfortunately for the caretaker, it seems that he's the main suspect as he was the only other person in the Torture House last night.

Setting-wise, I really love this story, as the backstory of the Torture House is really cool, as well as the idea of a Nostalgia House full of weird, antique curiosities. It's why I am a bit disappointed that due to the way this story was structured, one person stands out a bit too much as the only viable suspect, which immediately limits the ways the murder could've been committed. The story does make cool use of the torture theme though. I also like the idea of how Kugi manages to trap the murderer in principle, but the way it is written now, the clue depends very much on trivia, while I think it could probably have been written in a way to be a bit fairer towards the reader, if they happen to not have certain knowledge.

The last story, Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken ("The Black Arrow Mansion Murder Case") by Takemoto Kenji, is one I'm not going to discuss in detail. The story is about the detective Norimuzu Rintarou who's asked to look into the disappearance of the owner of the Black Arrow Mansion in Saga Prefecture. Some readers will probably already have realized it by now, but this is a full-on parody of Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken, one of the most notorious anti-mystery novels from Japan. Takemoto goes full throttle here, doing not only direct mirrors to scenes from that book, but the story is also absolutely brimming with countless of literary references that may or may not be real and characters who don't speak like humans but like... well, I guess, like AI that tries to sound smart and well-read. The story is basically only fun if you know the original Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken and recognize what this story is mirroring exactly. For Takemoto does that really good, it feels as frustrating to read as the original! (Considering the author's intent, this is praise).

Overall, I think this The Clock House Murders feature in Shousetsu Gendai was pretty fun though, and it's great seeing all these authors doing a take on a house-based mystery. I'm looking forward to watching the live-action adaptation too. If you haven't already though, please consider reading the English translation of The Clock House Murders too, as it's really a great mystery novel!

Original Japanese title(s): 青崎有吾『馘殺山の回転屋敷』/伊吹亜門『椿夫人のすばらしい家』 / 大山誠一郎『結晶館の殺人』/ 斜線堂有紀『拷問館の殺人』 / 竹本健治『黒矢館殺人事件』

The Maddest of All

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by— 

From the thunder, and the storm— 

And the cloud that took the form  

"Alone" 

Looking up the etymology of words sometimes points out such obvious connections you never had even considered. After writing the main body of this post, I decided to look up the etymology behind the Dutch word for "lightning", and yes, of course, it does make sense the German "blitzen" is related to the word!

Mephisto is a magazine providing entertainment fiction, with a focus on mystery, but not exclusively so, as it also features stories encompassing sci-fi and other genres. It has gone through a few formats since its inauguration in 1994, and since 2021, it has become one of the perks for subscribers of the Mephisto Readers Club, being published four times a year as its club magazine, featuring serializations of for example the newest House novel by Ayatsuji Yukito, but also original stories written for the magazine. When the contents of Volume 18, 2026 Winter were first announced, my attention was immediately drawn to a new short story by Maya Yutaka: Raimei to Inazuma ("Thunder and Lightning", 2026) is a short story that will be part of an upcoming collection featuring Maya's series detective Mercator Ayu, the brilliant, but self-centred great detective who's always dressed in a neat suit and a top hat and often used as a device by Maya to address meta questions about the literary detective genre. The collection, tentatively titled Mercator Ayu no Gyakushuu ("The Insurrection of Mercator Ayu"), has no scheduled release window yet nor has it been revealed yet what and how many stories there'll be, meaning it might still be years until we see the actual book on the shelves, which is why I decided to discuss this one story early, as I really liked it.

Mercator and his Watson Minagi are staying at the Canaria Lodge, a cosy hotel near a mountain road in Okayama, three hours away from Osaka. Mercator is looking to buy some property, and preferably, haunted or otherwise stigmatized property because that's of course a lot more interesting than a normal home. His search for such a property has brought him near Tsuyama, which is why he and Minagi are taking a rest at the Canaria Lodge, which is run by Ogakie Hajime. Circumstances have left him short-handed, so he has enlisted the help of a handful of members who belong to the same club he used to be in while in university, who just have to help clean a bit, while being offered a free stay at the hotel. Mercator's quest for 'tainted property' leads to Ogakie telling about the legend of a cursed headless Jizo-statue nearby, and how he himself once saw a giant eyeball monster standing at a ridge overlooking the hotel. Mercator of course is interested in the stories, so during the day, he and Minagi go visit these sites. In the evening, they all have dinner at the Canaria Lodge, but rain and lightning cancels any plans for evening strolls. Later that evening, a decorative vase on the ground floor topples over and breaks into pieces. It's clear someone had deliberately push the vase around for it to topple over, but Mercator happened to be nearby as it happened and he didn't see the "culprit" come his way: other people in other places of the ground floor also deny having seen anyone flee the scene towards their location. They then try to ask the people upstairs, until they find one of the students is lying dead in his room, his head bashed in. Who is the killer?

Raimei to Inazuma is a pure puzzle whodunnit by Maya, who is really good constructing these puzzles, but he's also really good at playing with the format by for example taking the format tropes to ridiculous extremes, like the insanely constructed time table puzzle in Mokusei no Ouji, the brilliant set-up of having the reader guess who the victim is before they can proceed with the question of who the killer is and other such playful twists on the Queenian puzzle. Raimei to Inazuma is another fun example of Maya playing around with the format, and while some might be frustrated by the way Maya kinda ridicules the idea of a fair-play whodunnit, it works really well in this story.

In essence, the game presented here is very familiar: we know a crime has been committed, we have a rough idea of when it must have happened, so we need to identify the killer based on the actions we deduce the murderer have taken, and compare that information with the available suspects. Some of these "murderer conditions" are pretty classic ones you'll likely have encountered before in other similar pure guess-the-culprit scenarios, others are quite original: I especially like one major line of deduction of Mercator's solution, which is incredibly cleverly imbedded in the narrative of the story and basically only works because this is a Mercator story, for it would just be too outrageous for any other series detective, but in a Mercator Ayu story? Yeah, that concept goes, and it goes hard! It had me laughing out loud as I finished the story and I definitely think this was one of the best Mercator Ayu stories I've read. I have no idea how the whole collection will look like, but I already want to claim it'll be worth reading for this story alone!

Ultimately, it's just a short story though, so there's not much I can discuss about it here without spoiling anything. I don't really do posts on a single short story often, but I guess I should do them more often. Anyway, Raimei to Inazuma is definitely worth reading for the Maya Yutaka fans, or for those who want to see a mystery author play with the tropes of the genre, exploring the genre to see how ridiculous things can get if one sticks strictly to the conventions. 

Original Japanese stories: 麻耶雄嵩『雷鳴と稲妻』 

The Problem of the Ghost Woman

It is indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow,plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke　from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense　chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming,　boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream　onward over its jagged lip.

"The Final Problem" 

Now I think about it, having a waterfall right behind your school is probably not that safe. Sure, high school students aren't stupid, but still, something is bound to happen sooner or later...

Shiotani Ken's Meitantei Futabi (2025) also has the English title The Return of The Great Detective (well, technically it's The Return of Great Detective) and indeed, the book is about the legend of a great detective is given new life again. The Raihen Academy for Girls offers free schooling and accomodations for the family members of those who have contributed to the school's long history, and nobody has contributed more to the safety and reputation of Raihen than the legendary great detective Tokiya Yuu: she was a student at the school in the early 1990s, who solved many incidents that occured at Raihen. While they started out as minor incidents, things soon escalated to even murder. Yuu eventually figured out there was a mastermind behind all these crimes: Yuu confronted the mastermind at the waterfall behind the school and in the subsequent struggle, both fell down, with Yuu's remains never recovered. Tokiya Shou had never heard specific stories about her great-aunt, which is why she's surprised to learn she gets to study at the prestigious Raihen Academy for free. When she arrives at the school, she's welcomed as if she were a princess, as for Raihen, Yuu was indeed a queen. In fact, the dorm director was a student at Raihen herself in the early 1990s and assisted Yuu. Shou becomes classmates with Mima Shizuka, president of the newspaper club with a knack for making up stories. Shou is first shown around the school, which has memorial plates for Yuu all over the place, commemorating the various incidents she solved, like the mystery of the unconcious student in the communal bathroom or the murder of a student in the art room. 

The rumors of Shou, a relative of Yuu, soon spreads across the school, and it doesn't take long for a student to ask Shou for help. She recently got a polaroid camera, and while playing around with it, she and her friends took risqué pictures of each other in the bathroom while getting undressed. However, after they had their bath, they found the pictures missing, and now she got a blackmail letter with one of the stolen pictures, demanding for money. The victim rather not have the police involved, which is why she wants Shou to help. The problem: Shou isn't any good as a detective. Of course, just because your great-aunt happens to be a great detective, doesn't you are, but Shou can't say no, and ends up accepting the request. Out of her wits, Shou strolls to the waterfall where her great-aunt met her end and to her great surprise.... a ghost appears! The ghost agrees to help Shou and act as an armchair detective for her, if Shou helps gather her remains and properly bury her, so her spirit can finally pass on to the life beyond. The case is soon solved, earning Shou a reputation as a great detective herself, but then more incidents start to happen at Raihen, and another figure who saw Yuu's ghost, starts plotting against Shou...

It's of course no coincidence the school's called Raihen (Reichenbach) and that the great detective and her nemesis both died falling down a waterfall. The book's not designed as a Sherlock Holmes pastische though, nor are there really meaningful references to Holmes canon beyond these ones, so you don't need any knowledge of Holmes to enjoy this book. The book is structured as a connected short story collection, where Shou is confronted with ever-escalating cases during her time studying at Raihen, culminating in a grand finale involving both her great-aunt and her nemesis. One thing I have to mention first is how different this book is than Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi ("The Count and the Three Coffins"), the only other book by Shiotani Ken I have read at this point. That book was a historical epic with drama and tragedy like a Dumas novel, while this is a fairly light-hearted, comedic short story collection set at a girls' high school. Shiotani Ken does like using unusual settings/ideas though, and that's what we do have here too: Shou being helped by an armchair detective ghost each time, all just to maintain her reputation as a great detective herself (or as her excuse goes to keep the family name high). This device has some parallels to how Conan feeds Mouri his answers to maintain the Sleeping Kogorou's reputation high, only in this case, Shou herself wants to be fed all the answers, as she genuinely isn't smart enough to solve the crimes herself (though she does get "educated" as a great detective herself slowly but surely over the course of the book).

While I do describe this book as a short story collection, the individual mysteries are not titled as "stories", but as "chapters" in a novel, so I guess they do want to present this as a novel rather than a story collection. Anyway, the first story involves the stolen polaroids, with the mystery revolving around who could have stolen the polaroids and how: the only persons to know about the pictures are the group of four who took the pictures in the first place, but the pictures had been put in a locker while they were in the bathroom, and nobody had the pictures on them when they left, so the theft was impossible. This is a fairly short mystery, as it is also used to explain how Shou first went to the waterfall and stumbled upon the ghost, but it is a fairly well-constructed, if simple mystery, doing what you usually expect of an impossible heist story (offering multiple false solutions, offering a true solution that builds cleverly on the discarded false ones). The banter between Shou and all the other school girls is really fun though: not only with her roommate Shizuka (who's a bit insane when it comes to wanting to find a scoop and has no qualms about making things a bit more spicier in her articles), but also with her ghostly mentor, as she too is basically just a high school student who likes to chat about ordinary life (or at least, the ordinary life she saw pass by ever since she became a ghost). The second story is about an assault on an art student that occured in a classroom that could only be accessed via another classroom, that was occupied by the art club at the moment. Again, a seemingly impossible crime, and while I didn't like this mystery on its own that much, I loved how it really built on the previous story, as it showed the previous story had real consequences for the student life at Raihen Academy, making people act and think differently. 

The third story in turn has the first murder: members of the newspaper clubs of several school are invited to the house of an alumnus of one of the clubs. It's supposed to be a kind of training camp to hone the journalistic skills of the members, but Mima Shizuka, who had attended last year too, knows the organizer just uses this occassion to vent his frustrations on the current club members by completely roasting their writings. During the snowy evening, the girls sleep together in the storehouse of the manor, which can only be locked from the outside (as it's not meant to be lived in). During the night however, the organizer is found dead in the courtyard, his head bashed in. The only footprints left in the snow in the courtyard however belong to the victim, with no footprints of the murderer. The victim was furthermore found near the window of a room of the annex, where the guests were sleeping, but the windows on that side can't be opened, so the occupant of that room couldn't have hit the man either. Shou is asked to look into the case, not only because of her roommates involvement, but her uncle, a police inspector, is also on the case and has heard of the exploits of his niece. This is quite an elaborate story, that is great at using the various moving parts of the story (characters) to create a seemingly impossible mystery. The reason why the murderer ended up dead in the courtyard is a bit silly, but well-clewed and the way the culprit created the footprint mystery isn't per se that impressive method-wise, but very convincing motive-wise.

Up until this point, the stories also saw short intermezzos told from the POV of a character, who has also seen Tokiya Yuu's ghost herself, and has deduced that Shou is actually getting assistance from Yuu in solving the mysteries. This person however absolutely hates what Shou's doing, so they set a trap for Shou.

Shou, her uncle, the dorm director and some of Shou's allies have gathered, because they have realized the incidents Shou has been involved with, mirror those Tokiya Yuu solved during her time at Raihen. Yuu at the time deduced a mastermind "M" had been orchestrating all these crimes, and she died during her confrontation with M. It is now suspected a new mastermind has also been behind all the crimes Shou has been involved with. During their meeting however, Shizuka keels over after drinking her tea. A message is then delivered to the room: the tea cups have been poisoned and the door has been locked, with no way to call for help. The only way to open the door and get help for Shizuka, is if Shou drinks one of the cups: only one will not kill her. With no way to go to the waterfall to get help, can Shou manage to solve this mystery herself? The story feels a bit like a Liar Game game, where Shou has to deduce which of the cups is safe to drink (with a lot "if they think I think they think..." type of thoughts). The solution is simple yet elegant, and the story moves right to the finale, where Shou is confronted with the mastermind behind all the crimes and the truth behind the death of her great-aunt. This part of the mystery is elegantly clewed, with great foreshadowing planted throughout the various adventures to build up to this Reichenbach Falls-esque finale. Unfortunately, I already knew a bit how this finale would end up, because I happened to have met the editor of the book who kinda spoiled it to me, but despite my prior knowledge, I did think the mystery was constructed very neatly.

So while Meitantei Futatabi is not at all like the historical epic drama that was Hakushaku to Mittsu no Hitsugi, I did greatly enjoy the book: it's a fun, light-hearted school mystery (the sometimes venomous banter between Shou and her ghostly mentor is especially a highlight) with a clear, overarching story that manages to achieve exactly what it sets out to do. The individual mysteries are often fairly short, but competently constructed and the overall storyline, with Shou slowly growing into a detective herself, is satisfying. This is a great book to read between heavier stuff.

Original Japanese title(s): 塩谷験『名探偵再び』 

These Names Make Clues

The more that you read, the more things you will know.

"I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!" 

For those interested in the guess-the-culprit games as mentioed below, creative members of the Honkaku Discord  venture each month to present a guess-the-culprit scenario to their fellow members, challenging them to solve their puzzle. Come have a look in the server if you want to try solving such a scenario yourself, or if you want to write one! 

Last year, I reviewed the anthology Suiri no Jiken Desu ("It's Inference Time", 2024) and earlier this year, I discussed Anata mo Meitantei (AKA What A Great Detective You Are, 2022) and Kibun wa Meitantei ("Feeling Like the Great Detective"). The stories in all these anthologies were designed as guess-the-culprit whodunit puzzels, with the stories clearly divided in a "Problem" part and a "Solution" part: all the necessary clues to solve the problem are presented within the first part of the story, so there's often an explicit Challenge to the Reader between these two parts: "this is a fairly written mystery and you have all the clues at this point, so try and solve it!" As someone who loves the puzzle-ness of mystery fiction, I just can't get enough of these stories, so when I heard publisher Tokyo Sogensha was doing an anthology series collecting past guess-the-culprit stories from various writers, I was of course immediately intrigued. I skipped the first volume (released in August of 2025) for the moment, as I already knew a large number of the stories included, but I decided to pull the trigger on the second volume: Yokochou no Meitantei - Hanninate Shousetsu Kessakusen ("The Great Detective of the Backstreets - The Best Whodunits", 2025), which also has the simple English title The Best Whodunits 2, collects seven stories selected by editor Fukui Kenta, who also wrote the foreword in which he looks at the history of such stories and similar anthologies.

The first story in the collection is the title story, Yokochou no Meitantei ("The Great Detective of the Backstreets"), a story by Niki Etsuko and originally released in 1972. The story interestingly consists only out of dialogue between the characters (so no narration) and with the historical setting, it reminds of a rakugo play. The story seems to be set in the Edo period and starts with the discovery of a theft in a small village, so they go to the retired elder to ask him for help. A paper craftsman had finished a scroll for a client and was on his way to deliver the valuable goods when nature called. He placed the package on a rainwater bucket on the corner so he could relieve himself in the bushes, but when he came back, he found the package gone, and no sign of any thief, though there were other peddlers and salesmen walking in the vicinity, who are all called upon to testify who they saw around the time of the theft. The story is fairly amusing to read due to all the merchants chiming in, but the main mystery is simple in design, as you basically only need to identify a certain lie, though to do that, you do need to combine information from various people and the basis for pointing out the lie, is well hidden. There's not really a "trick" here done by the culprit, just the need to find out how the testiminonies of all people fit assuming everyone but the culprit tells the truth. Very decent start.

Alibi Fuseiritsu ("No Alibi", 1973) is a story by Ishizawa Eitarou, a writer I do intend to write more of because his main series is about a police detective in Fukuoka, where I once lived. Alibi Fuseiritsu too is set in that city and starts with police detective Wakumoto receiving a phone call at the police station who says Akama Gouzou is dead, and that's lying in the apartment building next to the police station. Akama Gouzou was the name a real estate swindler had adopted. He had been deceiving people by first befriending people and then offering to sell them land for a cheap price: people handed him all their savings for the dream of purchasing some land to build their own house on it. The police had been investigating Akama already, but someone got to him first, and it's likely the murderer is one of the four people who were deceived by him and had already been trying to track him down after Akama started to lay low. The police had already interviewed them earlier for the swindling case, but the four are visited once again to ask them about their alibis for the murder. However, it turns out none of them have one: each of them claims that they received a call that night by someone purporting to be someone else in the group, with the claim they had found Akama and that they'd all meet at a certain spot to catch Akama and hand him over to the police. However, the calls were fake and they had all been sent to a different lonely spot in Fukuoka, leaving them all without alibis. It seems obvious the murderer orchestrated this so nobody would have a clear alibi for the murder, so how is the reader supposed to find the murderer? Well, based on the clues of course. This is a story that has a great conclusion, but the clues actually pointing to the murderer aren't all as clever as presented. It follows the Queen tradition of having to identify a few characteristics which apply to the murder, but some of those conditions presented in the story are rather questionable, like saying people working in certain professions wouldn't know about something, while that something isn't even something that is exclusive to a profession. Other clues are better and as I said, I do like the idea of what Ishizawa was going for.

Tatsumi Masaaki is a critic of the genre, who has written one serialized novel (which has not seen a collected release) and a handful of short stories. Umoreta Satsui ("Buried Malice") is one of those short stories and deals with an interesting problem. Yajima Tarou is an amateur detective who is asked by Handa Shinzou, a friend of his father, to assist with a problem. Handa and Sone Tamio are both looking for the son of Furuyagi Denjirou: before World War II, the Furuyagi Company was a well-known sales firm and Sone Tamio had joined the firm in his twenties. He became Denjirou's promising disciple, but business didn't go well right after the war, so it was decided to dissolve the firm for now, letting go of all the employees but Sone and Denjirou and his wife retreating to a mountain village. Sone became gravely ill just as Denjirou's wife gave birth to a child. Not wanting to be a burden, Sone gave up his position, allowing himself time to recover at a friend's place while Denjirou and his wife would go back to the city to try and start the business again. Later, Sone learnt Denjirou and his wife had passed away soon afterwards. Sone had been given the business contacts and a full recommendation by Denjirou in case he might not make it, so later on, Sone managed to set-up his own business as a successor to the once well-known Furuyagi Company. But then he later heard Denjirou had actually given up his son before he died, and that the son had been brought up by another family. Handa, the family friend of Yajima Tarou, also heard about this, and now Handa and Sone are looking for the son of Denjirou and they even use a television show to ask anyone with information to contact them. But then it turns out two men called, claiming they are the son of Furuyagi Denjirou. When later the midwife who found the adoption family for the baby is also found, they try to have the midwife identify Denjirou's child, but she's killed before she can make the identification.

I think in some way, it's fairly easy to guess who the fake one is based on the set-up of the story, but I do like some of the clues and the logic behind proving that a lot: some of the clues allow for quite some deep logical reasoning, considering the length of the story, but I think the surprise is a bit weakened because you can instinctively guess the solution to the main problem pretty easily even without those otherwise well-planted clues.

Dial 7 was written in 1979 by Awasaka Tsumao and deals with the underworld: Kitaura Shinya, boss of the Kitaura gang is found murdered in his house. As a gangster boss, he of course has many enemies, ranging from enemy gangs to people in his own gang who may have found themselves treated unfairly. The police have more than enough suspects, but can't seem to find any good clues at the crime scene until they notice the murderer must have used the phone after the murder. While the murderer was smart enough to not touch the phone directly, and used a pencil to turn the dial on the phone, the police was able to find out that the murderer called a number that did not use the numbers 8, 9 or 0. However, this was enough for the police to find the murderer. Though modern-day detectives might have problems with solving this mystery. I like the clues and set-up of this story a lot, but even if you know those old-fashioned phones with a dial, you still probably lack certain "common knowledge" information to solve this mystery, as it really isn't common knowledge now anymore. I do think it's a really clever story with subtle hints, that however is really strongly imbedded in the time/setting it was written for.

Sei Valentine Day no Satsujin ("The Murder on Valentine's Day", 1984) is a very short story by Okajima Futari, set at a baking school, where a group of nine students all made a chocolate-based sweet for Valentine's Day. The idea was to judge each other under the watchful eye of a teacher. They would all bring their creation, cover them up and the chocolates would be assigned a number. They'd then draw lots, and each person had to try out the sweet with the number they got and honestly review the sweet. The second person to try a sweet died however, as it turned out the sweet had been poisoned. But when they match the sweets to the creators, it turns out... the victim ate his own poisoned sweet. What happened here? Very short story, so the solution is also very short and simple. Neat idea, not sure if it's really suitable for this format though.

Hitori ja shinenai ("I Won't Die Alone", 1989) was originally written by Nakanishi Tomoaki as a guess-the-culprit scenario for the Kyoto University Mystery Club, but was also reprinted in a literary magazine in 1990 for a special on the Guess-the-Culprit tradition of the Mystery Club, with Ayatsuji Yukito and Norizuki Rintarou acting as the reader's guide. This is a very complex story and revolves around a group of friends, of whom most are either current or graduated members of a high school cooking club who often hang out with each other. Kouichi, a graduate, recently committed suicide, as his girlfriend Remi (a current member of the club) left him for someone else in the club. They still have gatherings where they cook together, but at the first gathering after the funeral, one of the members falls dead after consuming something: the food was poisoned, but the police thinks it's likely not murder, as no murderer could make sure one specific person would consume that food. They suspect it's suicide, but then the same thing happens again at the after-funeral gathering... If it is murder, how is the murderer making sure their intended victim dies? The answer lies in a series of intermezzos for the reader, where the murderer confesses they are just doing things randomly until their truly intended victim dies, but how is that fair to the reader? Well, it's still incredibly fair, with Nakanishi parading some clues very daringly in front of the reader, and yet, it's likely they will miss it. This is a very good example of a great guess-the-criminal story and certainly among the best in this collection. It's a bit long, but there's so much going on, it never bores and in hindsight, you'll see it's a very tightly writte story due to all the clues.

The final story, Tokeikan no Satsujin ("The Clock House Murder", 1990) by Imamura Aya has a somewhat confusing title. Ayatsuji Yukito has indeed written The Clock House Murders, known as Tokeikan no Satsujin in Japanese (disclosure: I translated the book in English!), but while both stories are pronounced the same in Japanese, they are written differently (different kanji). Both are about houses with clock collections though. In the Tokeikan no Satsujin in this anthology, an elderly man who had been many collecting clocks in his house, but his wife, thinking the house is too big for just the two of them, has them reform part of the house so it can function as a boarding house. Two clocks remain in this boarding house, though these clocks give the wrong time, because the owner likes his clocks to be 'free' and not chained to time. Ookuzu Junya, a writer of mystery stories became their first tenant, and since then, he has introduced more industry-related tenants to his landlord, like an editor and critic. The owner's nephew and niece also stay there, resulting in a rather crowded house. One winter evening, after dinner and Ookuzu has retreated upstairs, an editor arrives at the Clock House to visit Ookuzu to pick up a manuscript. When Mariko, story narrator, niece of the landlord and huge mystery buff, goes up to Ookuzu's room, she finds a letter, where Ookuzu says he's sorry he didn't his manuscript and that he will sneak out of the house and return when he's done. However, Ookuzu couldn't have left the house, as there were people in the sitting room (with a view on the entrance door) that whole evening. Ookuzu however is indeed gone. The following morning Mariko and her brother go out to make a snowman, but they find... a dead Ookuzu outside, covered in snow. How did Ookuzu leave the house, and reappear in the garden as a snowman? This is a delightful story: Mariko is so much fun as the snarky narrator badmouthing people as she sets the scene for the mystery. The mystery of how Ookuzu disappeared from his room is simple in essence, but Imamura builds on that simple concept to turn it into something much more complex, with plenty of clues that allow for some deep reasoning. What is also great is that this story also includes a bookending narrative, that adds another meta-layer to the mystery, making this perhaps my favorite of the collection.

So Yokochou no Meitantei - Hanninate Shousetsu Kessakusen is a very solid collection indeed. It collects stories from the late seventies until 1990, so most of the stories are quite a bit older than the Guess-the-Culprit stories I usually read, but some of these are really good, and I think the collection on the whole is worth a read. I have more of these books already purchased by the way, so expect more reviews about these game-like stories in the future too!

 Original Japanese title(s):　福井健太（編) 『横丁の名探偵　犯人当て小説傑作選』: 仁木悦子「横丁の名探偵」/ 石沢英太郎「アリバイ不成立」/ 巽昌章「埋もれた悪意」/ 泡坂妻夫「ダイヤル７」/ 岡嶋二人「聖バレンタインデーの殺人」/ 中西智明「ひとりじゃ死ねない」/ 今邑彩「時鐘館の殺人 

A Body To Die For

"Bart, I have a riddle for you. What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
"The Simpsons"

 

Never seen a full sumo match before now I think about it.

 

Disclosure: I translated Yamaguchi Masaya's Death of the Living Dead. What, you haven't read it yet? Go read it!

 

Kazumi hadn't been in Sam's life for a long time as his stepmother before she passed away, but she had a great influence on Sam's life, and it sparked a life-long interest in Kazumi's home country of Japan. After losing his father too, Sam decided to emigrate to Japan. Fortunately, his stepuncle reassures Sam he's welcome in Japan in a letter, and soon, Sam found himself boarding the ship on its way to Kannon City, a harbor city known for its gigantic statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon (which also serves as a lighthouse). Sam has studied the language and culture of Japan in the States, but of course, there's a lot one can only learn "on-site". However, soon after he lands in Japan, he finds himself involved in several curious murder cases that are inticrately connected to Japanese culture, from a harakiri ritual where the head is stolen to a murder in a locked tea ceremony room. After solving these cases successfully, Sam, who now goes by the nomer Tokyo Sam, decides to open his own detective agency, and after getting the right licences, he's all ready for business in Kannon City, but what Japanese wonders await him in Yamaguchi Masaya's short story collection Zoku: Nihon Satsujin Jiken ("The Japan Murder Case: A Sequel", 1997)?

Or, if you have read the first Tokyo Sam book, you'd know that the "real" author of this book is one "Samuel X", an American who got all his knowledge on Japan from books and stuff, but who had never visited the country itself. Yamaguchi, supposedly, came across this book in a used book shop, and found it so curious, he decided to translate it after managing to contact Samuel. The Japan as envisioned in the book was set in the modern world, but was at the same time an amalgation of  'all the cool Japanese stuff Samuel knew' with a good dash of cultural misunderstandings, with for example people using mobiles, but also samurai walking around, and people still using rickshaws. After the success of this translation, Yamaguchi contacted "Samuel" again, and it turned out he had an unpublished manuscript lying about for a sequel, and after some nagging by Yamaguchi, he got permission to translate this second book.

Yes, this is just a framing story, but it's a really fun one, and it was what made the first book so special: the setting was incredibly unique as it was about a fictionalized, idealized and misunderstanding-filled Japan, imagined by someone who had never visited the country and made up of stereotypes and very broad interpretations of Japanese culture. But, Yamaguchi also used this laughing-mirror Japan to present mystery plots that were only possible in that very unusual Japan, making use of ideas and concepts that were genuinely Japanese, but still transformed in a way that felt unnatural, in a deliberate manner. If this had been written by a non-Japanese author, they would have been criticized due to their complete mispresentation of actual Japanese culture, but because we had a Japanese author do this, it resulted in a very unique experience, as it was Yamaguchi's knowledge of actual Japanese culture, but also the stereotypes that allowed him to write this.

 

The book opens with Kyojin no Kuni no Gulliver ("Gulliver in the Land of Giants"), which starts with Tokyo Sam opening his detective agency, and soon he is visited by his first client: a sumo wrestler he met the day before via a shared acquaintance. While this wrestler belongs to a sumo stable which focuses not on competitive sumo, but in ceremonial sumo, they do occassionally participate in matches, and recently, there had been tragic accident during one of this wrestler's matches, and his opponent passed away after tripping in an unfortunate manner. But a few nights ago, in the garden, he heard his dead opponent calling out his name and he swears he saw the man's head sitting on one of the garden lanterns. Tokyo Sam is to find out whether this is the handiwork of someone trying to scare him, or the actual floating ghost-head of his opponent. Sam visits the sumo stable where he learns about ceremonial sumo, and during his visit, the stable is also visited by wrestlers from the stable to whom the dead wrestler belonged, and these wrestlers are clearly still very pissed about the deadly incident. Tokyo Sam of course suspects wrestlers from the other stable are trying to scare his client, but one afternoon, after following up on a lead and returning to the stable, he finds one of the wrestlers has been murdered. He loses consciousness due to a timely earthquake, but then finds the body gone, and later finds the gigantic body hanging from a torii gate. Who has committed this murder, and why?

This is a fairly long story (about 2/3 of the whole book), more like a novella, and feels quite different from the stories in the first book because of it, even if it has a lot of recurring characters and does have the same slapsticky feel at times. The story uses the extended page count to slowly set-up the story, and the story focuses more on Tokyo Sam's adventures/investigation than previous stories, even with chase scenes and Tokyo Sam going undercover in search for clues. I personally liked the more "problem-focused" approach of the previous book more, but your mileage may vary here, and while of course the Japanese aspects in this story are fictionalized up to a degree, learning about other types of sumo besides competitive sumo was quite interesting. As a mystery story, I think the tale has some good ideas, some others I'm rather indifferent to. There's one clue for example regarding symbolization that is really good, and very well based on Japanese culture which I think even local people might fall for pretty easily, and that works really well in the context of the book: presenting misunderstandings about Japanese culture even Japanese might have. But other parts like how the (big) sumo wrestler's body disappears from the stable and ends up hanging from the torii gate I found not as interesting, especially not because a certain revelation related to that trick seemed to fall flat for me: the way it was presented here, the "revelation" didn't feel like one, and just a weird oversight by everyone until the story decided it should become relevant now.

 

Jitsuzai no Fune ("The Ship of Existence") has Tokyo Sam befriending a travelling zen monk, who has been planning to visit a local temple Tokyo Sam thought to have been abandoned. The monk brings back a manuscript written by an American who had also been visiting the temple titled The Ship of Existence, where he questions his understanding of zen and pleads for help. Tokyo Sam, mesmerized by the manuscript makes his way to the temple, where he sees the American being killed by a figure. What is going on? To be honest, even after reading the story I don't really know. This story is completely different from the previous stories, delving into zen and philosophy to basically work towards a punchline. I have seen Yamaguchi do something similar in a different short story, so to me, this felt a bit like a rehash, but the way it was told here, via zen koan problems to make Tokyo Sam realize something, just didn't appeal to me personally. This might be an interesting story if you're into zen philosophy, but I found this so extremely different from the other stories, I just couldn't enjoy it at all.

I liked the first book in this series a lot, but I have to admit I didn't like Zoku: Nihon Satsujin Jiken that much. While the first story is alright, it misses the impact the stories in the first book had, and it's fairly long despite the mystery plot not being that dense. The second story is just a completely different type of mystery, being based on philosophy, and that's just not really a topic that really interests me, and I found this story really not fun to read at all. So overall, I was a bit disappointed with this second volume of Tokyo Sam, as I did enjoy the first book a lot. This is also the last book featuring Tokyo Sam, so it's a bit of a sad way to end the series for me, but nothing to be done about it!

 

Original Japanese title(s): 山口雅也『續・日本殺人事件』:「巨人の国のガリヴァー」/「実在の船」

The Gambler's Club

"It's me, Kaiba. And this time, you don't stand a *ghost* of a chance."

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" 

The Kyoto University Mystery Club is a name you'll hear about sooner or later whenever you get into Japanese mystery fiction. It is, in essence, the birthplace of the shin honkaku  (new orthodox) movement in mystery fiction, as the first writers who were actually promoted with the term "shin honkaku" were members of the Mystery Club. Members of the club are all fans of crime and mystery fiction in general and there are quite a lot of members who after graduation find work in related industries, like publishing (editing). I attended the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony earlier this year and I was surprised to learn so many people there had roots in the KUMC, with a few people even I knew personally from my own time there. But with quite a few well-known alumni who have become established mystery authors, it's no wonder there are also many members who focus on the creative side of mystery fiction, ergo, writing stories themselves. 

Houjou Kie was active as a writer during her time in the club too, but she made her professional debut in 2019 with the stunning Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller") and she has since become a personal favorite of mine. Since her debut, she has been entertaining her readers with tightly-plotted mysteries that utilize original settings, ranging from murders inside a virtual reality game, a girl teaming with a ghost to solve a murder and a series about a hotel for the criminally inclined. She has also been writing a lot of short stories lately, published in several magazines. The last time I wrote a post tagged short shorts, I discussed two stories by her and funnily enough, this time I will be discussing another short story by her. 

Shoubu no Yukue ("The Outcome of the Match", 2025) was written for a new series of flash fiction titled "5 Minute Labyrinth" in the weekly magazine Shuukan Bunshun ("Weekly Bunshun"). As the story is only about four pages long, you can guess I can't tell you too much about it, but the premise is pretty alluring: the story opens late at night, in a nearly empty bar with only a few regulars hanging around until it's time to close. A woman enters and she starts a wager with the other people in the bar: the bar regulars have to guess whether a new customer will arrive within the next fifteen minutes or not. If they guess right, the woman will pay 30.000 yen, while if they get it wrong, they'll have to treat her on a glass of the most expensive drink in the bar. It turns out the regulars in this bar had already heard about the woman: she has been doing this bet in all the bars in the neighborhood. The regulars accept the bet and start guessing whether it's likely a new customer will come or not, but why is this woman repeating this wager with everyone?

As I said, the story is very short, but Houjou does manage to make it a neat armchair detective experience, with proper hinting available and even surprise twists, all tightly compressed in a few pages. The somewhat sinister ending is also very Houjou-esque, who has been doing these "dark ironic twists" a lot in her Amulet Hotel stories, but you already saw glimpses of anti-hero nuances in her Ryuuzen Clan series. In fact, I could actually imagine the basic idea of Shoubu no Yukue as an Amulet Hotel story with some rewriting. 

And to move on to another Kyoto University Mystery Club member who has made a professional debut: Washuu Takumi is actually a current member of the club, who recently (jointly) won the third iteration Sougen Mystery Short Story Award, which is given by publisher Tokyo Sogensha for the best new short mystery story by an amateur writer. As is usual with these awards, the winners are given a publishing contract for their story, in this case, the stories are published in Tokyo Sogensha's literary magazine Shimi no Techou and as a seperate e-book. Washuu Takumi's story is titled Yuurei Shashin ("The Phantom Photograph"), which starts not long after Anri lost her father suddenly. While reminiscing about her father, her uncle mentions her father loved to take photographs as a hobby, though Anri only has vague memories of that and says she didn't really see him doing photography that often anymore in recent years. They go through her father's study though and find some undeveloped negatives. She goes to a nearby camera shop to have them developed, but one photograph stands out: it is a picture of her father in his study. Nothing wrong with that, but the camera also printed the date on the picture and it is dated on the day after her father died. This is thus not a photograph of a ghost, but a phantom photograph, a photograph that shouldn't exist. But why is there a photo of her father dated the wrong way?

This is a tightly-written mystery with an everyday-life theme: while one can easily come up with a direct reason why the wrong date could be printed on a photograph (wrong setting, battery failure), one wonders how exactly it could have happened. The commentaries of the three judges in the committee on all the finalistsis included and regarding Yuurei Shashin, they note how this is an incredibly complete story, almost unimaginable from an amateur writer. One even wonders how Washuu could develop from this point on. Indeed, the story is very competently written, with a mystery that is, admittedly, a bit too mundane for my own personal taste, but as a story, Yuurei Shashin is very well-plotted, with good clewing for the mystery too and even substantial character development. As a standalone mystery story in a slice-of-life setting, I think it's a very well-crafted tale worth a read.

Oh, in case you missed this post, last year I discussed a Danganronpa guess-the-culprit scenario written by another current member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club. 

Anyway, I just wanted to briefly discuss these two KUMC-related short stories that happened to be published around the same time. It's become easier for me to get hold of these kinds of stories in serial publication, so you might see the short shorts tag used more often in the future too.