Deadly Games

"I know what you're thinking, but those silly riddle crimes are a thing of the past, ancient history that's gone now"

"Riddler's Reform" (Batman the Animated Series)

What is it with cats and covers for mystery-related books in Japan... A lot of anthologies with no connecting story/theme seem to default to cats on the cover when in doubt...

After reading the generally excellent Anata mo Meitantei ("What A Great Detective You Are") anthology earlier this year, I went looking for other similar books, and I soon arrived at Kibun wa Meitantei ("Feeling Like the Great Detective"), which features a few of the same authors. The set-up is nearly identical: this is an anthology originally published in 2006, collecting six stories by as many authors. All six stories were originally serialized in 2005 in the tabloid Yukan Fuji and were pure whodunnits, divided in two distinct parts: the first part being the "problem", where the main mystery (usually a murder) is presented along with all the relevant characters and clues and which ends with a formal Challenge to the Reader. Originally, readers would then have some time to write in their answers, with money prizes awaiting the correct guessers. This book notes for each story the percentage of contenders that got the answer right, which can range from as high as nearly 30% to as low as 1%! Interestingly enough, the pocket release of this book includes an interview with the participating authors, but the authors have anonymized in the text, turning this interview into a "guess who is who" game too! Note that while this book features six stories, I will only discuss five of them here: I already discussed Norizuki Rintarou's excellent Hydra Daijuu no Kubi ("The Tenth Head of the Hydra") when it was later collected in the Norizuki collection Hanzai Horoscope 1 - Rokunin no Joou no Mondai ("Horoscope of Crime 1 - The Problem of the Six Queens").

Glass no Ori no Satsujin ("Murder inside a Glass Cage") was written by Arisugawa Alice and is narrated by a private detective who hasn't seen much business lately. That day, he is visited by an old college friend, Saya, who needs his help: she works at a gym and one of the customers has become smitten with her. So much so he's turned into a genuine stalker: first hanging around the gym after closing time to ask her out, but lately he's found out where she lives and has been waiting for her near her home. Saya's attempt to get the police involved ended with a "But he hasn't done anything yet...", so now Saya wants to know who he is exactly and put a stop to it. The plan is for the detective to follow Saya after she's done with work and confront the stalker when he appears. This part of the plan goes well, but the stalker makes a run for it the moment the detective talks to him, resulting in a chase. The detective loses the man, but as he tries to find his way back to Saya, the stalker appears from behind him, and knocks him out. A few minutes later, he's awakened by Saya. They are discussing what had happened, when a policeman arrives, telling them a man has been stabbed nearby and asking whether they saw anyone suspicious. It turns out the man who was stabbed is the stalker, and eventually, he dies. Police investigation however lead to a curious conclusion. The police arrived almost immediately after the deed happened, confirmed by the fact the detective had seen the stalker (was attacked by him) just a few minutes prior. There were basically only four routes away from the crime scene, each leading  in a different direction (a cross). There were people on all four routes: Saya found the detective on one of those routes, the police box was on another, a man who had been locked out by his wife on another and a noodle stand owner on the last. And yet one of them saw anyone come their way. So where did the stabber go? And if one of the witnesses was the stabber, where then did the knife go, as none of them could've gone far enough to dispose of a bloody knife before the patrol officer stopped them. This is a decent, semi-impossible mystery tale (a disappearing weapon from a closed circle), but it is very one-dimensional, in the sense that it basically hinges on one trick. There are a few hints that point to how the murderer managed to spirit away the knife, but I wish there were more 'steps' in the solution, as this is a very simple story indeed.

Choutsugai no Mondai ("The Problem of the Hinge") by Nukui Tokurou is interestingly one of two stories in this collection that revolve around a narrative within a narrative. We first see how the succesful writer and amateur detective Kisshouin is visited by Katsujima, an old friend who now works as a police detective. Katsujima tells Kisshouin about a curious case the police is having trouble with: five bodies were discovered in a rental home in the woods that day. Three of them had obviously been murdered, two of them had died of either an accident or suicide. A diary was also found penned by one of the women: it details how the five, who belonged to an acting troupe, had rented the place to rehearse an upcoming play. On the first night, one of them fell from the stairs and died. They had no reception on their phones in the woods, and the storm outside prevented them from getting help themselves (and unbeknownst to them, the road further down had collapsed due to the storm), so they were forced to stay in the house longer. However, one by one they got murdered, until the diary stopped. Katsujima now wants Kisshouin to figure out who the murderer is: anything that could precisely identify these five people had been disposed of, and the rental home had been rented by someone under a false name,so this indicates the murderer had planned all of this, but which of the five bodies belongs to the murderer?This is an interesting twist on the And Then There Were None formula, with the question shifting from a simple whodunnit, to guessing which of two (dead) persons is the murderer. Like the Arisugawa story, you could argue this too is based very much on one single idea, but I find the idea here developed much better, with far more hints, and also more subtle hints, that permeate the whole diary part of the story, and also using a multi-stage line of reasoning to lead the reader to notice that one important idea. 

Maya Yutaka's Futatsu no Kyouki ("Two Weapons") stars his series detective Kisarazu Yuuya, who is visited by his 'friend' Tsukigase Naoko, who desperately needs help from the great detective.  And she's sure he won't refuse, as he owes her for setting up a date for him in the past, a date that didn't lead to anything, but the date did provide Kisarazu with a clue vital to solving a case he was working on (so Naoko didn't do anything... but he still owes her).  Naoko's brother Hidenori is a suspect in a murder that happened at the university: while he has an alibi for the murder as he was on the phone with Naoko, the police doesn't trust the testimony of family, which irritates Naoko greatly. Hidenori is one of two "over-doctors" (PhDs who can't get employed) belonging to the Miyamiki research lab of the Kyoto University of Science. The people here research nuclear fusion under the guidance of professor Miyamaki, though few people see a future in their specific research theme, which is also why they don't have that big of a budget. Lately, a new assistant's position opened up though, which had two candidates: Hidenori and... the murder victim. On the fateful day, the victim Ookawara Akira was working at the lab on the top floor of the building, when a man with a full-face helmet appeared: this was quite usual actually, as the lab had regular visits of Shimokoma Aisaku, who believed he had made a breakthrough in his research on nuclear fusion, but also feared "organizations" were after him, so he always kept his face hidden. The helmeted person was seen on security footage entering the lab soon after the victim did, and after a minute or so, was seen leaving hastily, and some other people on the floor saw the helmeted person too. However, it turns out this helmeted man was not Shimokoma, as he had been visiting somewhere completely different. When later Hidenori entered the lab, he found Ookawara dead, having been hit hard on the head. The police soon puts one and one together: someone had disguised himself as Shimokoma to hide their face from the security cameras. While the police hasn't made any arrest yet, they do know the murderer is one of the five Miyakami-affiliated researchers/students who had been present on that floor that day, as they were the only ones with a key to the lab. Hidenori's position in particular is not great, as he had the greatest motive for wanting Ookawara out of the way. What makes this mystery even more puzzling, is the fact the disguise and the murder weapon were discovered outside the university, but for some reason the package had two weapons: the wrench actually used to hit Ookawara, but also a knife. Why did the murderer prepare two weapons?

This is a story I like better as a concept, than the actual execution. It is a bit of a tedious read, with all the witnesses stating when and how they saw the helmeted person move around on the floor (there's a floor plan), and it drags a bit because of that (it is also the longest story in the collection). The solution is well-hinted, and I like the conclusion that derives from the fact they discovered two weapons (of which only one was used), but some elements of the solution I did not like because of how this was originally a story published as a competition: sometimes I can accept certain things to happen in a mystery story if it was published "as is", but if it's explicitly published in two parts (problem/solution), and you are challenging people to send in answers/have prizes available for the correct answers, there are some elements I'd like writers to avoid to ensure the story feels fair. Maya isn't being unfair here, but it's not something I particularly like in these kinds of stories.

Juugofunkan no Dekigoto ("It Happened in Fifteen Minutes") by Kirisha Takumi is set on the Shinkansen bullet train back to Tokyo: Mystery screenplay writer Oogami Tsuyoshi had been visiting Kyoto to work on an upcoming script, but is now on his way home to Tokyo. After buying a beer from the purser, he spills the contents on himself, so he moves to the wash corner to clean himself, but he finds a man in a Hawaii shirt leaning over the sink. As the man doesn't move, Oogami touches the man on the shoulder to see if he's okay, but the man tumbles on the floor. The purser arrives and establishes the man has been hit on the head by something hard, as there's a bloody wound there. It turns out the victim had been a nuisance to more than few people: he had been overly rude to the purser, had hit a trainspotter when he got in the way and had even got into a fight with another rider on the train. So there were more than a few people who might have wanted to hit the man in the head, but which of them did it in the mere fifteen minutes after he was last seen? Like the Arisugawa story, this is a whodunnit story that relies on the howdunnit: the victim's wound was clearly afflicted via something hard (so not someone's bare knuckles), but none of the suspects seems to be carrying something on them that could have done that (or at least, not without it leaving a trace on the item in question). The solution is rather simple, and while Kirisha does add a whole extra, very well-established layer of clues to support that solution, it feels uncessary, as you can easily just intuitively guess the whereabouts and identity of the weapon used, especially after another prop has been introduced in the story. So the solution falls a bit flat, partially because it feels very similar to the Arisugawa story.

Abiko Takemaru's Hyouryuusha ("Castaway") has the most interesting set-up of all the stories found in this collection. A man, wearing a life preserver, is found floating near the shore of an island, with a dinghy floating nearby. The man is pulled on shore by a local and a tourist. The man is alive, but seems to be suffering from amnesia: he can't remember who he is and what he's doing there. They find what appear to be diary pages wrapped safely in plastic hidden inside his life preserver. The pages are apparently written by a manager of the young idols/actresses/singers Saori and Yuuka. The two young women were "cordially invited" to join a small party held on the private island of the entertainment agency's president, accompanied by an influential television producer. However, the true intention of the "party" was so have these girls "offered" to the powerful industry men to "help their career". The manager knew this was going to happen and wanted to prevent this: while Yuuka seemed to be aware of what was going to happen and seem resigned to this, Saori was completely oblivious to what was awaiting her. All the people on the island had their own cabin to sleep in, but it was made clear to the girls they were supposed to be going to the producer and the president's cabins that first night. The manager kept an eye on things, and made sure Saori did not leave her cabin that night. However, the following day the president was found murdered in his cabin. Luck has it the ship's engine broke down too and there are no ways to communicate with the mainland. The diary tells of more deaths occuring after the first one, but that leads to the question: who is the man who was found in the sea and what happened to the rest of the people on the private island? I found this the most memorable story in the volume. It is somewhat similar to Nukui's story, with a story-within-a-story narrative and the problem requring you to deduce something more than just a one-stage "whodunnit": in this case, you are required to figure out who committed the murder(s) on the island, but also who the castaway is. While the reader will go a long way if they deduce a certain fact regarding the murderer, something which might be a bit easy due to the fact the main clue that points to that fact is inserted rather crudely in the story, this is generally a fun multi-layered mystery.

While I think the anthology I read earlier this year was overall better than this book, Kibun wa Meitantei is still generally a very solid whodunnit anthology. I like how there's quite some variety in these stories, from classic closed circle stories like the one by Maya, to more urban settings in Norizuki and Arisugawa's contributions, to meta-mysteries with a narrative-within-narrative shenanigans by Abiko and Nukui. I think I like the Abiko story the best out of the five I read this time (having skipped Norizuki's story this time). I will remain a fan of these pure whodunnit stories though, with clearly defined problem/solution parts, so I'll be sure to check more of these in the future too.

Original Japanese title(s): 『気分は名探偵』: 有栖川有栖「ガラスの檻の殺人」/貫井徳郎「蝶番の問題」/麻耶雄嵩　「二つの凶器」/霧舎巧　「十五分間の出来事」我孫子武丸「漂流者」/法月綸太郎「ヒュドラ第十の首」

Diagnosis of Murder

Primum non nocere

First, do not harm

I like the style of the illustrations on this cover, though I wish it was a bit more obvious which character is supposed to be who in the book. And before I had a good look at the cover at full size, I only knew it from a small thumbnail, and I thought the art would be similar to Tezuka Osamu's art, which... isn't really the case now I see it at full size.

EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin, which also has the English title EDS Emergency Detective Services on the cover, is a rather interesting anthology of mystery writers, all using the same original setting: in the near future, Japan has erected the Emergency Detective Services, which functions like the emergency department of a hospital: people with medical emergencies that require a detective are brought here. The hospital has a large of number of specialist departments, from doctors handling children and animals to specialists who 'cure' impossible crimes and other curious mysteries. The doctors at this hospital are referred to Holmeses, while their assistants are called Watsons. This book contains stories by Ishimochi Asami, Kagami Masayuki, Kuroda Kenji, Komori Kentarou, Takada Takafumi, Tsukatou Hajime, Torikai Hiu, Matsuo Yumi and Nikaidou Reito, who is likely the planner of this large project as he also wrote the preface. All the stories in this book are set on the same day (the twenty-fourth of December), and each of these writers takes on one of the many departments of the EDS. Have a look at this hospital, where for some characters it's just another day at work, while for others it's a literal matter of life of death.

I first learned about the existence of this volume when I read The Uncollected Stories of Masayuki Kagami, which ironically included Kagami Masayuki's contribution to this volume, The Uncanny Deductions Department (which I won't discuss here, as I refer to that review for my thoughts on it). I say ironically, because obviously, his story was already collected in EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin. Anyway, I wasn't aware of it at the time, but later I learned Kagami's story was just of many set at the EDS. Which also brings me to one other point I wanted to discuss before moving on to the individual departments/stories. When I read Kagami's story, I noticed how the scenes were all time-stamped, to give you a feeling of the "emergency" going in, but it actually had another function. While Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin features nine authors, writing about ten different departments, the stories are all set on the same day in the same hospital... so they decided to put all the scenes of all the stories in chronological order. So you are not reading story 1, and then story 2, and story 3, but it's scene 1 of story 1, then scene 1 of story 5, then scene 1 of story 4, etc. You are constantly jumping between stories, and while there are moments this feeling of "real-time"-ness is used for example for cameos between the stories, it's not actually necessary to read these stories like this: to be honest, they read a lot easier as seperate stories, instead of constantly being interrupted by other stories, so if you want to, you could just as well just read all the stories individually. The book's formatting and design is done really well by the way, with "tabs" on the edge of the page like it were a file folder, marking each department/story, so you can easily skip to the next part ("tab") of the story you want to read. 

Ishimochi Asami's story is set in the Inchoushitsu  ("Director's Office"), where the director of the EDS is visited by Minai Nanase, whose father used to work in the Poison Department of the EDS, until he died under mysterious circumstances last year: a John Doe who appeared to have been in a fire was brought in one night, but there were too few staff that night: the triage Watson couldn't find the right "Holmes" (specialist) to help the man, until the Holmes Minai happened to pass by and decided he'd try his hand. They failed in saving their patient, unfortunately, and later on the Holmes Minai summoned the Watson in charge to his office. Yelling and fighting followed, and when other people entered the office, they found both men dead: the Watson had been stabbed with a pair of scissors, which were being held by the dead Minai, who had apparently hit his head on the corner of a desk. It appeared Minai had stabbed the Watson, only to be pushed away himself, hitting his head on the desk fatally. The whole deal was hushed up, but now daughter Nanase has returned, demanding to know the real truth, because she can't believe her father would have killed the Watson for whatever reason. She threatens the director by showing she has planted a camera on Sayuri, the young daughter of the chief receptionist, who always at the hospital. Nanase has gifted Sayuri a Santa hat (with camera) and a bag with something that might "go off" if Nanase clicks her pen, forcing the director to give her all the infomation about the death of her father, hoping to clear his name. This is a pretty thrilling story playing out in the director's office, even though nobody in the hospital itself knows what is going there. The mystery regarding why Minai and the Watson ended up dead last year is pretty good, with subtle clues pointing to a well-hidden explanation for why the two men ended up fighting and killing each other. This story by the way also mentions a Holmes called Ukai, who hails from Ikagawa City... Author Ishimochi debuted together with Higashigawa Tokuya via publisher Kobunsha's Kappa-One program, which is why they know each other pretty well, and probably why Ishimochi decided to insert a cameo of Higashigawa's character here.

Nikaidou Reito is responsibile for two storylines, but both of them are very light. The Uketsuke ("Reception") story features more like intermezzos between the various stories, featuring cameos of characters from all the stories. The Shouni Suirika ("Children's Deductions Department") story stars six-year old Shibugaki, a guest Holmes who narrates like he's a hardboiled detective. He solves a few minor mysteries fellow children bring him, and the main mystery for him revolves around two children who have an argument about a place both of them supposedly visited, both calling the other a liar. The solution is basically just a trivia thing, so not really interesting as a puzzle.

Kuroda Kenji's Sports Suirika ("Sports Deductions Department") has a far more interesting puzzle. Banba, A father who coaches his own son, a promising swimming athlete, has a rather unique problem. His son is always losing to Hino Shouta, so Banba decided to adminster doping to Hino, in the hopes of getting him disqualified. Banba knew Hino's diet is closely monitered and that he always has to drink a certain energy drink before going in the pool, so his plan involved administering a forbidden drug in one of his drinks. Hino receives a month's supply each month, and is of course quite protective of his energy drink, but last month, Hino, Banba's son and other swimmers were all training together at a facility, and Banba found an opportunity to sneak into Hino's room, where he had stashed his newly delivered supply of his drinks. Banba had prepared a special gadget which allowed him to reseal a bottle, making it impossible for anyone to see the difference between an originally-sealed bottle, and the one he opened. And indeed, Hino broke a swimming record when the big competition came around, so everything seemed to go according to plan. Until... Banba heard no news of Hino being caught for doping. Was everyone covering up for Hino? Banba thus wants the Holmes to how Hino could've used Banba's doped drink without being caught, as he is absolutely sure Hino couldn't have known he had been doped. An interesting puzzle of the kind you don't often see in mystery fiction (a doped drink, i.e. not poison) and I also really like the way Kuroda used a hidden fact, which you can deduce based on the hints, to explain what happened to Banba's doped drink and how it was used by Hino. I'm always a fan of these kinds of stories, where you don't deduce the "main" mystery straight on, but it becomes a two-level type of mystery. 

Takada Takafumi's story is set at the Rekishi Suirika ("Historical Deductions Department"), fitting as Takada's mainly known for his Q.E.D. historical mystery novels. This story revolves around a dying message, where the victim was holding on to a page from a Japanese historical poem, which should point to one of three suspects for the murder. Like all good dying message stories, this story points at several possible interpretations of the message, all pointing to different suspects, until the Holmes comes with the correct solution, but this story does what is always risky with dying message stories: the final, correct solution fails to be really convincing as the final one, as in, it fails in convincing the reader this last solution is the actual correct interpretation and that the others are wrong. In reality, the 'wrong' possibilities feel as valid as the real one, which undermines the whole dying message.

Another disappointment for me was Torikai Hiu's Doubutsu Suirika ("The Animal Deductions Department"), where the Holmes is asked to save a dog who was poisoned, the third victim in a series of dog violence, one of them even fatal. The story is basically a missing link story (why is someone targetting these dogs?), but the solution is not really surprising or entertaining as mystery fiction, with the link feeling somewhat out of place and also over-telegraphed. This idea would perhaps have fared better if this was only the first part of a mystery, with more building on it/as part of a larger narrative. But on its own, it feels underwhelming.

Komori Kentarou's Gaikokujin Suirika ("Foreigner Deductions Department") deals with mysteries involving foreigners, with specialists from various cultures present. In this story, a Japanese man is accussed of the murder on his American wife Lucy, who was set to inherit her father's business, which would have greatly upset her father's business partner. Husband was working on the building project America Village in D City, with the husband acting as a liason for the city as he speaks English. Lucy was visiting Japan for the first time and after staying at her brother and sister-in-laws, she was given a ticket on the express train to Osaka to reunite with her husband. However, she did not arrive by the express train she was given tickets for, and the following day, she was found murdered near the hotel of the husband. The husband had since said a few things that seemed to indicate he knew more about her death than he was willing to admit, which has made him the prime suspect in the murder, even though Lucy's father's business partner, who was also in Japan, had a good motive for wanting Lucy dead, even though he has a perfect alibi for when Lucy would've arrived in Osaka. This story has both brilliant ideas, and very wrong concepts. The book presents great reasons for why the husband's a suspect, and these reasons are closely related to the mystery genre, as it involves linguistic misdirection (only in this case, it was the husband who accidentally said something that put suspicion on him), but then the trick behind the 'alibi trick' behind Lucy's death follows, which is a bit troublesome. For there's a brilliant piece of misdirection, one I truly love and which I think is incredibly well thought of, but it is immediately followed by an idea that hinges on a complete misunderstanding on the part of author Komori about how a certain thing works, and it makes the whole deal fail. For that... is not how it works. So that trick wouldn't work. Which is a shame, for the first part of the idea is really good and a good example of the mystery trick based on cultural differences.

Tsukatou Hajime's Fukanou Suirika ("Impossible Deductions Department") starts when two men are brought in: one is unconscious, the other has been strangled to death and in such a strong manner hand marks can still be seen around the throat of the victim. It turns out both men were found in the same storehouse, which was locked from the inside and the only key was also found inside. This seems to point to the unconscious man (Rokujou Eiichi) as the strangler of the other man. The Rokujous are a fashion mongul led by Eiichi's father, and the victim was a freelance writer who was visiting the Rokujous to interview them on the upcoming fashion show. Both Eiichi and the victim had vanished from the sights of the other people in the house after a fight, until they were found in the locked storehouse, one of them dead. Eiichi's brother however doesn't believe his brother killed the man, despite the fact the only key was found inside the locked storehouse and the victim clearly having been strangled by hand only shortly before he was discovered in the locked storehouse. This is a mechanical locked room as we have come to expect from Tsukatou, though I wouldn't consider it one of his best. While he sketches an interesting problem with a locked room murder trick that involves strangling, the solution to the locked room is rather simplistic, and you'd wonder whether it'd really fool the police for long as it seems a bit unbelievable it would work the way it is described here. So not one of my favorite Tsukatou tales.

Matsuo Yumi's Joseika ("Women's Deductions Department") has one of the more interesting stories in the tale: Migishi, the Holmes of this department, is visited by a pregnant woman who comes with a strange tale. Last week, the client, who will soon give birth to her first baby, was on her way to the Q University Hospital when she noticed a new gynecology clinic had opened nearby. As the place was less crowded than Q University Hospital, she decided to have her check-up there, and she was quite pleased with how things went, so today (two weeks later), she visited again, only to find the place was closed and everything had been removed, and there wasn't even a notice or anything explaining why it had closed. It is odd a clinic would close so suddenly, so Migishi takes the case, planning to call some acquintances in the medical world to see if they heard about anything about this, but to her surprise another client arrives directly after the first left, with the exact same story. What happened to this gynecology clinic to have it disappear so suddenly? While this is a variation on a well-known type of mystery story, I think Matsuo did a great job at spinning this into her own original version and at the same time, working this into the EDS theme of the Emergency Detective Services being a hospital too. To be honest, a lot of the other stories do extremely little with the hospital theme, so this one really stands out, which is surprising to me, as this was the one author I hadn't read yet before! I guess it helps Matsuo is best known for her Balloon Town series, about a town where only pregnant women live...

EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin is a book that has a cool premise and few cool ideas, but it is definitely not a work where the total is greater than the sum of things. Not all writers truly make use of the unique EDS setting besides scenes of people being brought into the hospital, and while the intermezzos do their best to glue the stories together, as well as the device of having all the scenes of all stories printed chronologically, it often doesn't really feel like one coherent work of fiction. Having more of a running thread between all of them would have helped, or using a smaller cast and having Holmeses appear more prominently in each other's stories. Some of the stories are good mystery stories on their own, and others simply don't know what to do with the (relatively) little amount of pages each story gets alloted to them. So not a must-read as a whole, though some of the stories are worth a read.

Original Japanese title(s): 石持浅海、加賀美雅之、黒田研二、小森健太郎、高田崇史、柄刀一、鳥飼否宇、 二階堂黎人、松尾由美『EDS 緊急推理解決院』

Battle of the Humungonauts

"Way I see it, the beast can only be a completely-new and as-yet-undiscovered monster, and as the beast discoverer, I have decided to call it a "humungonaut" from the Latin term for "big and hairy space traveller."

"Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated"

Yep, this cover rocks!

The first kaiju attacked Japan in the fifties, and since then, the world has been regularly been under siege by a variety of these gigantic monstrous beasts. Nobody knows where they come from, but they can appear very suddenly from the sky, ground or the sea and attack people and the cities they live in indiscriminately. As it's been many decades since First Impact, humans however have adapted to this new reality. Japan, being the first country to have to deal with kaiju, has been a forerunner when it comes to developing defence systems against kaiju, and most countries have now adopted their three-tier defense system: the first line of defense are the Active Detection Units, which are actively searching for indications a kaiju may appear, wherever it may come from. They for example monitor movements out in the ocean, but also investigate local rumors about strange happenings, for that too may be an omen a kaiju will soon appear. Once the appearance of a kaiju has been confirmed, responsibility is passed over to the Planning Units: they identify a kaiju, and if applicable, pull up all the data from past encounters to determine their weak points and the best way to fight them, and they calculate the route and when they will arrive on Japanese soil. Once a kaiju hits land, control is passed over to the Eradication Units, who by then should be standing by at the estimated landing point with the necessary artillery to fend off the kaiju attack. It's this system that has allowed Japan to fight off kaiju succesfully, and by now, people have actually become accustomed to kaiju attacks, and the government is even aiming for a 0 deaths by kaiju quotum.

Iwato Satomi is a Chief Planner: whereas there are Planning Units all across Japan, ready to react to a kaiju appearing nearby, Chief Planners are not tied to any specific unit, and are flown all across Japan to take charge of such units when necessary, assisted by local planners who have more knowledge about the specific region and politics. While it may seem a gigantic monster attacking a city might make any other issue trivial, it turns out people will remain people, and even when a kaiju is approaching, people will still commit murder. During one operation, in which a whole evacuated city was demolished by a kaiju, the corpse of a man is found. However, it turns out the man was killed by a human, not a kaiju. Iwato is visited by Inspector Funamura Shuuji of the Special Investigation Unit, who deals with these kaiju-related crimes, and the two work together to figure out who committed a murder during a kaiju attack in Ookura Takahiro's short story collection Kaijuu Satsujin Sousa: Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku ("The Kaiju Murder Investigations: Silence in the Special Eradication Zone", 2023).

Ookura Takahiro is an author of mainly mystery, both on paper as well as for the small and silver screen: he for example often writes screenplays for the Detective Conan anime. He however also has an interest in tokusatsu and kaiju productions: he has written novelizations of Godzilla productions, as well as screenplays for Ultraman Max, and one of his best-known Detective Conan anime original stories indeed involved a kaiju. So it was only a matter of time before he would write a detective story featuring kaiju, right?

And you can definitely feel his love for the genre right from the start, for I'd argue it's the world building in the four stories collected in this collection that is the most memorable aspect: Ookura has built a very believable world where people have gotten used to dealing with kaiju. The defense organization comes across as very realistic as Ookura has thought out a lot of the details of how each units works, their responsibilities and even the political tensions between them, and we see glimpses of how national politics and other industries have changed, or are at least influenced by kaiju. You could easily imagine these scenes in full-on kaiju media, and it's here where the book really shines best.

The notion of having mystery stories set in a world where kaiju exist and regularly attack the country is of course really exciting, and really entices the imagination: imagine someone using a kaiju as a murder weapon! A kaiju used for a locked room murder trick! As a motive! It is why I do have to say that overall, I was a bit disappointed to learn Ookura mostly uses the kaiju, and the kaiju attacks as a backdrop for the murders. Take for example the title story Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku: Iwato is dealing with a kaiju with acute hearing which reacts to unnatural noises, so the Planning Unit orders a silent eradication zone: they try to lure the kaiju to a place where the Eradication Unit can deal with it with an aircraft, while everything else in the area is "shut down". However, on its way to the slaughterhouse, the kaiju seems to react to a noise: it turns out a pistol had been shot, and eventually, they find a man who was shot in the vicinity of the kaiju. And yeah, it's interesting it was the kaiju which brought them on the trail of the victim, and ultimately, we do learn the victim was here for a reason tied to the kaiju, but the kaiju itself isn't really connected to the murder beyond this. The mystery itself revolves around the victim and his reasons for being where he was, making the kaiju feel like just a plot device to introduce the victim and who is then pushed to the background. Even though you'd want the kaiju to be the main dish!

The opening story, Fuusha wa Tomaranakatta ("The Wind Turbines Didn't Stop"), was more interesting in that regard: Iwato is dealing with a kaiju that had appeared in the past, and based on its behavior then, surmises it reacts to the sounds of wind mills. The kaiju is heading for a spot where the Eradication Unit can easily deal with it, but nearby is a city with wind turbines, so Iwato uses her connections to order the city council to have all wind turbines stopped. To her great surprise, one section doesn't stop its turbines, and as they fear, the kaiju heads for that spot and destroys it. While the Eradication Unit manages to defeat the beast, one victim is found among the debris. However, it turns out he was murdered by a human, and not simply crushed by the kaiju. Here we have a much more interesting investigation, as the victim turns out to be Tozuka, who was an important man in an electric company which was pretty aggressive in buying out land from the local populace, and he's been personally sued for that. But why was he still in the city even though an evacuation order had been issued and why didn't the wind turbines stop? Here we have a much more intricately designed mystery, and while a lot of the story does revolve around shady politics and a 'bigger-than-life conspiracy', the core whodunnit part of the mystery is properly clued, and at least the kaiju is more integrated into the mystery.

The third story, Koujinko Satsujin Jiken ("The Lake Koujin Murders"), on the other hand is basically nearly pulp. Iwato is sent to investigate the disappearence of several persons around Lake Koujin: this is usually the sign of a land-based kaiju eating people, and a Chief of an Active Detection unit had actually gone there to check up on these signs, but he too disappeared. The frustrating aspect however is that land-based kaiju are believed to not exist in Japan anymore, making it political unwise for the higher-ups to send a whole unit to investigate it. So now Iwato is "privately" visiting Lake Koujin, where she's staying at a small inn where a few other visitors are staying, but one of them was actually a contact for the disappearing Active Detection unit chief, so Iwato tries to learn more about his disappearance from him. But that night, a loud noise wakes up everyone... except for her contact, and when they check up on him in his room, he's found murdered. But which of the other guests killed him? This story I didn't like that much, as here the kaiju is only made relevant very late in the story. The murder itself has an interesting clue: on its own it's a bit obvious, but the deduction leading up to the realization that was a clue made it mentally more challenging. 

You may have noticed I haven't written much about Inspector Funamura by the way: he appears and disappears throughout the story, and is presented as a rather mysterious police detective who often already knows that is going on and is very practical in his dealings with crime, but also needs Iwato's expertise at times, so while he seldom gives away all his cards, he does help Iwato figure out things for herself. He's also the man of action in this series, which again make these stories feel more grounded in tokusatsu tradition than the mystery genre.

The bunko/pocket version of this book includes a prequel short story, Kaiju Chaser, which depicts a younger Iwato as she tries to identify a certain kaiju, but this is more an action story than a mystery one and it's really short too.

So I'm a bit torn on Kaijuu Satsujin Sousa: Senmetsu Tokku no Seijaku. It's clearly written by someone who loves the kaiju and tokusatsu genres, and it can be immensely amusing when read as such a book, and the mystery plots are also decent enough most of the time, but I still can't help but think Ookura could have incorporated the kaiju more closely to the mystery plots, using them more as active tools rather than as backdrops around which these murders take place. A second volume has been released too, so I hope the kaiju are more involved with the murders there.

Original Japanese title(s): 大倉崇裕『怪獣殺人捜査 殲滅特区の静寂』:「風車は止まらなかった」/「殲滅特区の静寂」/「工神湖殺人事件」/「怪獣チェーサー」

The Legend of the Murder Hotel

Nancy and Helen mounted the wide steps and entered the center hall. Its paneled walls, old staircase, and beautiful cut-glass chandelier made them feel as though they had stepped back into an earlier century.”

"The Mystery of Lilac Inn" 

As announced last week, here's the review of Houjou Kie's latest work... I'm doing a relatively good job at reviewing these books soon after their release, right?

The Amulet Hotel is a completely regular hotel with normal guests... at least, when we're talking about the main building. The annex is a completely different story. The annex of the Amulet Hotel tailors to a very specific clientele: criminals. All those in the industry who need to know, know the annex of the Amulet Hotel is a safe haven for criminals. The hotel is members-only, and guests who stay at the hotel, know they can sleep safely without the hotel calling the police. In fact, the hotel can provide services normal hotels won't, as long as you pay the fee: room service can bring you pistols, disguises or even get rid of dead body for you. The hotel serves as neutral grounds for all criminals and therefore, there re two iron rules that are enforced very strictly: 1) one is not allowed to cause damage or harm the hotel and 2) One is not allowed to harm or murder someone on the hotel grounds. These rules ensure that even the biggest of rivals stay safely here in the hotel together without having to worry about being ambushed. However, like with normal hotels, some guests think they can violate the rules anyway. However, the Amulet Hotel has the means to deal with such guests. The night manager Kiryuu also acts as the hotel detective and has full authority to investigate any incidents that violate the hotel house rules. Incidents are not only covered up, but the people who violated the rules are also dealt with by Kiryuu, who in a previous life, was a feared assassin who's used to cleaning up loose ends. The reader returns to the Amulet Hotel in Houjou Kie's 2025 short story collection Amulet Wonderland.

The original Amulet Hotel was one of my favorite reads of 2023, with Houjou using the immensely fun setting of the 'hotel for criminals' to come up with original mystery stort stories, that relied on the fact basically all the characters were criminals themselves. The hotel basically acts as a great closed circle, due to the heavy security measures, and because Kiryuu is instructed to work in the interest of the hotel (i.e. protect its reputation as a safe place for criminals), stories often have rather dark conclusions as the best way to ensure 'wrap up a murder case' is to cover everything up and make sure the culprit doesn't get away alive, to make sure all future guests also understand they shouldn't try to violate the rules. Houjou is pretty open about John Wick being a huge inspiration for the series, so that should give you an idea of what kind of setting she's using for these stories. I had been looking forward to this second volume, which collects four stories originally published in the magazine Giallo between 2024-2025. 

Our return to the hotel starts with Do Not Disturb, where, in a very rare situation, Kiryuu is summoned by  Hattori, the assistant manager, to solve a jewel theft that occured in the restaurant of the main, normal (non-criminal) building. The restaurant has been reserved for a piano recital party in honor of the world-famous actress Strangelove. A couple of jewels, property of a jeweler who is trying to become the exclusive supplier to Strangelove, have been stolen during the party, and Hattori wants the whole deal hushed up before the party ends. It turns out that she has video evidence of the actual theft: a thief nicknamed the Wombat who has wormed himself into the party disguised as a food critic is actually caught on camera, but Hattori can't find the actual jewels that prove he did it. Wombat also happens to be such a low-level criminal he doesn't actually know the Amulet Hotel is the legendary hotel for criminals, which explains why he dared to pull off such a stunt, even if it's in the main building. Kiryuu and Hattori very quickly discover where the jewels are and the two are headed for the annex to report the incident to the owner, when Kiryuu is called on to solve a murder that occured in the hotel. A criminal influencer, Kiku, had been live-streaming himself on SinTube (a video sharing site for criminals) from room 813 of the annex, which is said to be cursed (people who stay there... get arrested). During the stream, Kiku was attacked by a figure. The owner of Amulet Hotel happened to be watching too, so he hurried to the room with back-up and when they entered, they found Kuki stabbed to death. They also learn Kuki's twin brother Yarai was staying at the hotel. The two brothers had been partners in crime until very recently, but after Yarai messed up a job, the two got in a huge fight and they seperated. Yarai however has an alibi for the murder, as he had been in the bar during the live-stream. So who killed Kuki and why?

This story does feel like the 'first story of a second season', as the story slowly reintroduces the setting of the Amulet Hotel, slowly explaining the special rules of the hotel via the relatively minor jewel theft part of the story. This mystery is solved pretty quickly, and seen in a vacuum, not particularly exciting considering the heights this series has reached in the past. The second part, following the live-stream murder on Kuki in room 813, is of course more interesting. Houjou fleshes out a lot of the criminal world of the Amulet Hotel series here by introducing us to a lot of warring crime factions, veteran thiefs and concepts like SinTube, a members-only criminal take on YouTube with special rules like not being able to hide your own identity (so no VTubers on SinTube). While the Amulet Hotel annex, due to privacy reasons, doesn't have that many security cameras hanging in the communal areas like the hallways, witnesses do make it clear basically nobody could've killed Kiku in room 813 and gotten away without any of the witnesses catching sight of them, and with a twin brother hanging around, suspicion soon falls on him, but how did he do it? The main trick is perhaps not super surprising, but I do very much like the mystery-embedded clue pointing to the twist. I do think the story requires a bit of suspension of disbelief in regards to character motivations (was that plan really the only way to get out of that?). The ghost story of room 813 is integrated in an interesting way with the murder by the way and I loved how the story fleshed out more of the staff members of the hotel (which is a running theme of the collection in fact).

The second story, Otoshimono Gassen ("Battle for the Lost Item"), for example revolves mainly around the recently hired Yazaki and veteran Izumi, who work in the bar lounge Black Kaiser of the annex. Black Kaiser also functions as the Lost & Found counter. Because all the guests are criminals (many of them thiefs), it is likely multiple people will try to claim a lost item as their own. This always leads to multiple people trying to argue with the staff, so they moved the Lost & Found counter from reception to the bar in the back of the ground floor. They also have a strict rule: anyone claiming a lost item must describe it in detail and you only get one single chance. A bag is delivered to the bar: Nomura, one of the guests, happened to spot the bag inside the grand piano of the lounge. Yazaki and Izumi examine the bag to find a doll of a platypus inside a sock and an expensive necklace with embedded jewels. Because the bag was found inside the piano, they deduce the bag was meant to be found by Otomaru, the piano player who will come in later in the day. They suspect it might be meant as a kind of veiled threat. Because Nomura has now delivered the bag to Lost & Found before Otomaru found it, it is likely the threatener will now reclaim the bag. However, to Yazaki and Izumi's surprise, no less than three people come to claim the bag, though only the last person manages to make a perfect description of the contents of the bag, with the previous two each mistaken certain points. Kiryuu happens to swing by the bar and upon hearing about the lost item, deduces there's something much grander going on in the hotel, which will require immediate action of the hotel detective.

This is a story that really shows off why the Amulet Hotel setting works so well. A mystery story revolving around multiple people claiming a lost item is pretty alluring on its own, but of course, when everyone is a criminal used to deceiving others, things become more interesting, and the absolute rule of allowing everyone only one single chance to claim an item of course only goes in the Amulet Hotel. While something criminal is definitely going on in this story, this story comes very close to a everyday-life-mystery in this setting. I think part of the mystery doesn't work as well, as it relies on the knowledge of the existence of something: I happened to know about it, but I don't think it's very common knowledge, and especially of a writer like Houjou, I do expect really meticulously clewed stories, so having part of the mystery revolve around a 'fact' that isn't really telegraphed well, feels a bit disappointing. That said, the rest of the story builds pretty well, with the mystery of the bag and its many claimers slowly being developed into something bigger and Kiryuu appearing to make sense of all of it.

Youkoso Koroshiya Compe ("Welcome to the Asasssin Competition") brings us closer to a John Wick world with perhaps the best story in the collection. Morooka, owner of the Amulet Hotel, has summoned his right-hand Mizuta, Kiryuu as well as security heads Suzuki and Tanaka to the Room of the Titans (see final story of first volume( for an emergency meeting. Morooka has learned Sofia, head of the Italian mafia organization Jupiter, has started an assassin contract competition to be held in the Amulet Hotel annex. Jupiter is trying to get a foothold in Japan and is now looking for a suitable assassin for some jobs, but in order to decide on their assassin of choice, they have invited a number of assassins and given them an assignment: the one to perform this assignment will win the contract. Morooka suspects the invited assassins will be trying to kill his right-hand Mizuta: Mizuta and his sister were once members of Jupiter, with Morooka being their ace "chaser" (tracks targets), but when the siblings left the organization, his sister was killed by an assassin sent by Jupiter. Mizuta took revenge by killing Jupiter's boss, but now his daughter runs the organization. Morooka guesses Sofia is hoping to bring down two birds with one stone: she'll have the assassins target Mizuta, and the winner takes the contract. Morooka isn't going to have his dear assistant killed and he has a fair amount of confidence in the security of his hotel, which doesn't allow for outside weapons to be brought in, but there are some pistols and other weapons kept in the hotel, like in the Room of the Titans, which they have to secure before the assassins get to them. They get amushed in the Room of Titans however, but manage to chase the assassin away for a moment. Kiryuu deduces where the assasssin is heading for... only for them to find that assassin killed by... another assassin. Thus starts a long quest for Kiryuu to deduce who all the hired assassins staying at the hotel are, and figure out which of them have actually already committed a murder, meaning they violated the hotel rules, because no matter what happens, they must pay with their lives.

A very action-packed mystery story that feels a bit like Houjou's novel released last year, which had a lot of smaller mysteries happening in a sequence, as opposed to the more "grand scale mysteries with a start, middle and ending" of her Ryuuzen Clan series. Here we have Kiryuu constantly confronted with new mysteries, which are solved and then lead the group to a new mystery. For example, Kiryu notices very quickly they're being ambushed, which turns out to have been foreshadowed by various clues. They follow the assassin, because Kiryuu deduces that based on the assassin's actions taken during the ambush. When they find the first assassin killed and have a short fight with the second assassin (who is masked), they gather enough clues to identify them from a list of suspected assassins currently staying at the hotel, which leads them to their hotel room, which again leads to a new mystery etc etc. While I do have to say I generally like Houjou's "grand" stories better, this story is really fun to read, as it constantly keeps you on your toes, with new mysteries being flung at you all the time, but they follow each other in a logical manner. There's actually quite some scenes with old-fashioned deduction chains based on physical evidence too, though not as long as we've come to expect from the Ryuuzen Clan series. Ultimately, I think the main large twist won't be too surprising once you see a certain pattern emerging, but I very much like how Houjou then uses it to add some more mysteries that ultimately build to a fantastic conclusion. 

Bomber no Satsujin ("The Bomber Murder") is told from the perspectives of both Morooka and Kiryuu this time. Morooka is attending a wedding reception that is held under his personal auspices: the "Romeo and Juliet" of the criminal world consisted of the son of the (Japanese) Swindler King, and the daugher of one of the high-ranking members of the Italian mafia group Jupiter, which has been trying to get a foothold in Japan. Their relationship was of course strictly forbidden by both families, leading to an elopment, and eventually Morooka and some other big names in the industry with a heart started mediating, resulting in a wedding reception held at the Amulet Hotel, with both sides playing nice at least for now. Morooka is of course attending the reception, while Kiryuu is acting as the night manager and making sure the whole hotel is safe for the criminals, when Morooka is suddenly served an anonymous call by someone (with a scrambled voice) who demands Morooka to sign over the whole of the Amulet Hotel over to them. 

To show he's serious, the caller ignites first a small bomb, and explains he has fifty bigger bombs hidden in the wedding reception hall: if they all go off, over a hundred people are likely to get killed, and all big names in the criminal industry. It would kill the reputation of the Amulet Hotel. The bomber has also enlisted the help of Aramaki Norika, the daughter of Morooka's ex-wife and also an Underworld Arbitrator: these arbitrators act as neutral judges among the criminals in a world where thieves have no honor, and ensure that deals between criminals are upheld, or else you call upon the wrath of the Court of Arbitration and the rest of the criminal world. Norika has a contract to sign everything over to her anonymous client, just waiting to be signed by Morooka. Once Morooka has signed the papers, the caller will tell Morooka the ten-digit code needed to disarm the bomb, to be typed into the control panel connected to one of the the bombs. Morooka has one hour to decide what to do, before the bombs go off. Meanwhile, the caller has also sabotaged all the lifts, meaning Kiryuu can't reach the reception floor and there's more trouble: a murder has been committed on Norika's father (a personal friend of Morooka) on the sixth floor and it's likely connected to the bomb threat. Can Kiryuu solve this murder and find the killer, and can Morooka find and disarm the bombs?

Again a story that is very dynamic, with both Morooka and Kiryuu being forced to deal with multiple smaller mysteries in a sequence. Morooka needs to locate the bombs and find the one with the control panel in a limited time, figure out the disarm code, without the guests noticing what is going on (because it'll only lead to a panic, as the lifts don't work). Meanwhile, Kiryuu has to solve the murder on Morooka's friend, who was found in an unused hotel room, lying near the door with his throat slit and for some reason, with mahjong tiles in his mouth. The story alternates between the investigations of both Morooka and Kiryuu, allowing for some tense build-up and a nice rhythm of one side investigating something, another side solving an aspect of the mystery and then the other way around. The Kiryuu part is the most 'classical mystery', with a crime scene investigation and deductions regarding the actions of both the victim and the murderer, based on the physical clues left by them. This eventually allows Kiryuu to deduce who the killer is, which turns out to be one of three suspects who all have a beef with Amulet Hotel. I think as a mystery story, I liked the third one better, but this works great as a finale to the second season.

This second volume is very much about extending the world of Amulet Hotel: we see more recurring staff members of the hotel and learn more about their background and it really helps sell this world. While Kiryuu wasn't the only recurring character in the first volume, it's clear Houjou is expanding the cast while also painting in more details in her image of Amulet Hotel, with the reader learning more about all the restaurants in the hotel, but also things like how lost items are handled in a hotel with mostly liars as guests. It certainly makes the prospects of a third volume even more promising, with this become more an 'ensemble cast' type of series, with Kiryuu acting as the main detective, but other characters also being allowed to carry some of the weight of protecting Amulet Hotel.

Anyway, I enjoyed Amulet Wonderland a lot, as expected. As a pure mystery story, I do think the first book is better overall and you should certainly start from there, but you can easily see Houjou's having a blast playing around in the hotel and slowly introducing new ideas and characters in the setting, and while I think she intentionally made a move to make the stories closer to "entertainment" on a Mystery vs Entertainment spectrum compared to the original stories, she's still a master at her craft and there's still a lot of great mystery moments to be found in this wonderland.

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵『アミュレット・ワンダーランド』:「ドゥ・ノット・ディスターブ」/「落とし物合戦」/「ようこそ殺し屋コンペへ」/「ボマーの殺人」 

The Shadow of the Goat

"Cry havoc and let slip the goats of war."

"Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse" 

Houjou Kie has been a personal favorite of mine ever since she made her debut. While she initially focused on novel-length stories, she has lately also been releasing short stories serialized in magazines, which are then later collected in one volume. Next week will see the release of the sequel to the amazing Amulet Hotel, but today, I want to take a brief look at two new series by Houjou. At least, one of them is confirmed as a series, the other might be developed into a new series!

Maison Initier no Kai ("The Mystery of Maison Initier") is a 2025 short story published in All Yomimono and starts with a freelance writer on the occult going inside an apartment building in Hachiouji as he films himself. There are rumors that the elevator in this building connects to different worlds. While there are many of such rumors, with elevators often going down to the underworld, this rumor is connected to a more specific story: twelve years ago, a murder was committed in the hallway of the top, seventh floor. Rumor has it that if you push in a certain combination in the elevator, you'll be brought to that scene fifteen years ago. Our writer pushes the buttons accordingly and when he arrives at the seventh floor... he finds a dead body lying in the hallway, killed in the exact same way as the victim fifteen years ago, stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Superintendent Hachijou Miku is the crime scene investigator in charge of the case, though she immediately regrets this when she learns who discovered the body: for Ikoma Soramichi is only a freelance writer on the occult in his spare time, as he is a real police superintendent himself too. Only with a love for the occult. However, even he realizes he didn't go back in time, and that the body he found is in fact "fresh". The parallels to the murder 15 years ago however are clear: 15 years ago, the owner of the building had been stabbed with a kitchen knife on the seventh floor, and a priceless jewel was stolen. The new victim however has a note planted on his body, saying "Pay for your sins with your life", once again suggesting a strong connection between the two cases. While Miku is investigating the case however, Ikoma is intent on finding proof the occult is involved one way or another...

Whereas Houjou specializes in writing mystery stories with special settings (time travel, vr-worlds, a hotel for criminals, ghosts), she this time opted for a realistic setting: while Ikoma hopes there are ghosts and other occult occurences, as if this first story we don't really have any reason to believe they exist. In fact, Houjou mentions having to rely on her editor for knowledge on real police investigations/organization structure, as they usually don't really play a significant role in her other stories. The story is fairly simple in design, with the mystery revolving around why the two murders resemble each other. I don't think the story showcases Houjou's strenghts (densily plotted mysteries) very good, as the story is relatively short and the riddle of the two murders, and the clues leading to the revelation, feel not as meticulously plotted as her other stories. That said, the story is highly readable, and I think this story is probably more appealing to "non-hardcore" mystery fans than some of her other stories.The banter between "science is everything" Miku and "I wish there were ghosts" Ikoma is fun... because it's actually Ikoma who solves the case! In stories with these "science vs occult" setups, it's usually the science person who prevails, but this time we find it's Ikoma, in his quest to find real supernatural phenomena, who quickly sees through the human deception. I think the actual truth behind the case is pretty interesting though, and I'm curious to see how this series will develop further.

Houjou also recently wrote a piece of mystery flash fiction for the anthology GOAT, which has a very cute goat on the cover (even though the title actually refers to the acronym "greatest of all time"). She wrote this for a special on travel, and she was offered a stay at the Book Hotel Kyoto Kujo for inspiration, so unsurprisingly, her Rakugaki ("Scribbles" 2025) is actually set in that hotel.  The story is about five pages long, so I can't really write too much about it: a woman staying at the hotel finds someone has scribbled on her book while she was gone for a moment, and a... book sprite? helps her figure out who did it. Very short, kinda cute... and apparently, Houjou's editor liked it so much they are now developing it into a full series, with this story either being the proper "first entry" of the series, or it'll just be the prototype and be developed into a new story. I'm always into bibliophilic mysteries, so I'm looking forward to whatever may come!

This were pretty brief write-ups on these stories, so perhaps they feel a bit lacking in information on the stories, but... consider them more like previews, as we'll likely see more of these two series in the future. Next week is Amulet Wonderland, which I'm really looking forward to, so I'll try to read that and start on my review as soon as possible!

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵「メゾン・イニシェの怪」/「落書き」

Out of the Past

"That is where the rare plants and the butterflies are, if you have the wit to reach them.”

"The Hound of the Baskervilles"

While I like reading short story collections, I generally don't really like writing the reviews, because they take up much more time. For some reason I read four short story collections in a row, with today's book being one of those four, though I switched the order in which I wrote these posts.

Chou to Shite Shisu ("He Died A Butterfly", 2022) is a historical short story collection by Hanyuu Asuka, starring as its main detective Taira no Yorimori, half-brother of Taira no Kiyomori, who established the samurai-dominated administrative government in Japan. While Yorimori had military success in his career at one time, the centralization of power to Kiyomori's own men soon meant Yorimori was sidelined, finding his career hitting a stop and now living a peaceful life in Kyoto as the Lord of the Lake. Because Yorimori's sharp mind is not being used on the battlefield anymore, he intends to use his analytical skills to resolve incidents taking place in the place, as hoping to regain the favor of his half-brother. This collection holds five adventures for Yorimori, set in different parts of his life as he tries to climb back up the career ladder in a highly volitile military environment in the Heian period.

Hanyuu Asuka won the 2018 Mysteries! Newcomer Award with the short story Kabane Sanemori ("The Corpse Sanemori") included in this book, but even though this award of publisher Tokyo Sogensha is meant for unpublished authors, they were not really one: Hanyuu had been active since 2010 as a writer of children's fiction under the name Saitou Asuka, but after winning and publishing enough stories with Yoritomo to collect in a volume, they changed their name to Hanyuu Asuka, perhaps also to differentiate between the actress and former Nogizaka46 member with the same name. Before winning in 2018, Hanyuu had also made it to the final judging round of the Mysteries! Newcomer Award in the previous year with Kaburo-Goroshi ("Murder of a Kaburo"), which serves as the opening story of this collection. The citizens of Kyoto have been complaining about the kaburo Kiyomori has set loose on town: these boys with a page cut serve as his spies in the city, reporting all the on-goings to him. When one of these kaburo is found murdered near a temple, the people in the neighborhood are afraid they'll be blamed for the death of one of Kiyomori's men, so they send someone to warn Yorimori: they hope the Lord of the Lake will solve this case for them, as they know Yorimori is waiting for any chance to do self-promotion to his half-brother. Yorimori swiftly examines the scene, and soon finds out the murder on the kaburo might be hiding something bigger. This story introduces the format all stories in this collection follow, with a rather lengthy introduction that provides the historical context, followed by a rather short mystery and Yorimori swiftly solving it, and then ending with a historical contextualization of the case. This story has Yorimori solving the murder on the kaburo surprisingly easily, with the major clue being simple, but quite fair, but I have to admit I found the process a bit too short. But I do really like the historical contextualization of the case, and that is in general where these stories shine: Hanyuu is excellent at presenting history and using tidbits like the kaburo to create mysteries that only could have happened in that time period, in that specific cultural/political environment. So the act of the murder of the kaburo wasn't very memorable on its own, but the way it builds on actual history to provide unique motives and other parts of the mystery, is great.

Aoi-no-mae Araware ("Pitiful Aoi-no-Mae") has Yorimori investigate the death of Aoi-no-mae, a former servant who had been loved by the emperor Takakura, but died a mysterious death. When Takakura learns about a certain poison, he realizes the symptoms resembles the one Aoi-no-mae showed before she died. He asks Yorimori to investigate her death, as he has no idea how Aoi-no-mae could have been poisoned, as they ate and drank together. This impossible poisoning case is a bit simple to solve, as not only does it revolve around something you'll often see in poisoning stories, it basically only works due to the (lack of) knowledge back in the Heian period, while you'd be far more likely to think of it in this day and age. So while it works as a historical work, and very well as that, as a detective story read now, it might lack a real surprise.

In Kabane Sanemori ("The Corpse Sanemori"), Yorimori is asked to identify the body of general Saitou Sanemori, a warrior who fought in the Gempei War and died on the battlefield at age 73. During their retreat, his men had buried his body in a make-shift grave as they weren't able to bring his body along during their retreat, but when they later returned to retrieve the body, more bodies had been buried at the same place. Now Yorimori has to identify Sanemori's body out of five candidates. I was not too big a fan of this one, as it felt a bit too... clinical? Like, a clue being Sanemori's age, so an obviously younger looking corpse being ruled out and things like that. While one clue is good, because it is rooted in actual history and Saitou Sanemori's character, I felt the mystery was less important than the surrounding historical story. While these stories generally manage to get the right balance between history lesson and mystery, I felt this one was the one where the mystery felt a bit tacked on, even though the problem itself (the difficulty in identifying a specific person on the battlefield) is one I like, like the one in Kokuroujou (AKA The Samurai and the Prisoner).

The fourth story is Tomurai Senju ("Thousand-Armed Mourning"), which I have already discussed when it was featured in the anthology Honkaku-Ou 2021, so I will be skipping it here. Please refer to that post to hear about that (pretty good!) story.

Rokudai Hiwa ("The Secret of the Sixth") is set much later in Yorimori's life, after the Taira are basically defeated by the Minamoto clan. The Minamotos are hunting for the grandson of Taira no Kiyomori, Taira no Takakiyo, who is also known as the Sixth as he was the sixth generation since Taira no Masamori, who facilated the rise of power of his clan. The hunt leads to Yorimori's manor: Yorimori is leading a retreated life now, having converted himself to being a monk and having cut ties with the Taira. However, the Minamotos suspect Yorimori has hiding the grandson of his half-brother, by having Takakiyo pose as one of his own sons. Yorimori of course denies the accusation, but how can he prove that? In essence, the problem is one that is similar to the aforementioned problem with Sanemori: in an era with no real identity records or photographs, how do you prove a person is actually that person, and not someone else? While I am not a big fan of the main proof provided by Yorimori to show he's not hiding Takakiyo, I do like the minor tricks he plays on the Minamoto hunters to put them on the wrong trail. 

Chou to Shite Shisu dives deep into actual real history and each story starts with basically a history lesson (and you'll be looking up a lot depending on how much (little) you know about this era), so while some might love this book for that, others might find it a bit tiring. While the core plots can be a bit simple at time, Hanyuu does a great job at linking these cases into actual historical context, and you're almost inclined to be believe it really happened like this, because it all fits so nicely. Yorimori is also an interesting detective, someone who is really trying to prove himself, not because he is a believer in truth or justice, but because of the political background, and seeing him trying to manouver himself into certain social positions in a volatile and often outright hostile environment is interesting, especially as we know he ultimately never really managed to arrive at where he wanted to be. Hanyuu has written a scond volume in this series, a full-length novel, and I will probably read that one in the future too!

Original Japanese title(s): 羽生飛鳥『蝶として死す』: 「禿髪殺し」/「葵前哀れ」/「屍実盛」/「弔千手」/「六代秘話」

The King's Club Murder

The king is dead, long live the king! 

Huh, now they went for the color yellow for the book title for the third time in a row.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. I didn't vote for any stories this year as always. But I did manage to go to the Honkaku Mystery Award ceremony for the first time! Finally got to meet some of the authors I have translated and also met some other authors I have been a fan of for a long time!

I have been reviewing the annual summer anthology Honkaku-Ou ("The King of Honkaku") since it started in 2019, so long-time readers of the blog should be familiar with the series now. The pocket-sized anthology collects the best honkaku short stories published the previous year, as selected by the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. It practically functions as a companion release to the Honkaku Mystery Award, which is awarded to the best published book (novel or short story collection) each year. Short stories are still often published in magazines and other time-limited (paper) publications in Japan, so sometimes it can be difficult to trace a short story xx months after the magazine it originally appeared in was released. Anthologies like this help in keeping this stories easily available. Honkaku-Ou 2025 ("The King of Honkaku 2025") follows the same format as always, consisting of six stories, as well as a short introduction by the current president of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan (Maya Yutaka) and an afterword by Inui Kurumi.

Occasionally I already know some of the stories collected in this book and if I'm lucky, I even have discussed them already on the blog. While I had already read two of the stories in this year's anthology, I haven't actually written the review of that story yet, so I guess I'll do it here... But the story I have already read, and have already discussed is Hayami Shirou wo Oikakete ("Chasing after Hayami Shirou") by Mamon Kouhei, which was included in Bokura wa Kaishuu Shinai ("No Pay-Off for Us", 2024), so I refer to that post for the write-up on that story. The tale was actually not my favorite of Mamon's book, but it has some interesting clues so I can see why it'd get high praise.

Gainen Tantei ("The Concept Detective") by Shiotani Ken starts with the strange tale of Manami, who explains that when she was a child, she saved a spider-like creature at the beach, which turned out to have god-like powers. Grateful for her help, it says it will grant Manami one wish. She wishes for a great detective like from the novels. As it would be a bit weird to just "give" her a living person, the being grants her a special power, that allows her to turn anyone she wants into a great detective, complete with amazing deductive powers and the police willing to listen to the lengthy explanation scenes. Fast-forward to a grown-up Manami, who is now in university. She's still a huge mystery buff and hopes to film a mystery film. She also has her star in mind: Houga Hiromichi, a fellow member in the university's mystery club. She's been trying to get an OK from him, but he's reluctant, saying he's not suited to be a great detective. One day, after a party with most of the members of the club, the members return to the club room, only to find two of the members lying dead at the table: the couple had taken poison together and died. The Romeo and Juliet couple came from fueding families, which is why their fathers were against their dating at first and the two had made up their mind to elope. So why did they commit suicide togehter? But was it really a suicide pact? If only there were a great detective around...

This is an interesting premise for a series, so I'd like to see Shiotani develop this further. It has some parallels with Ooyama Seiichirou's Watson-ryoku, where everyone within the radius of the Watson Force becomes a great detective, but here it's Manami who (unconsciously) can turn a specific person into a great detective, so it'd be cool to see how that'd work out in a series with recurring characters. The story itself is a solid puzzler whodunnit, that follows Queen-esque deductions of determining certain characteristics of the person who could've poisoned the two star-crossed lovers and then determining which of the suspects fits the bill. 

Steam Dragon no Kisou ("The Enigmatic Ride of the Steamdragon") by Kasumi Ryuuichi stars the private detective Kurenaimon who is hired to keep an eye out during the maiden ride of the illustrious steam locomotive C63 0, also known as the Steamdragon. The C63 0 was a  steam locomotive that had been designed, but never built. Decades later used car mogul Aratani Goichi and his two sons (of different monthers) Sentarou and Reiji have used their fortune to build the locomotive and have it run on their own private railway in Hokkaido, a surprisingly large network of rails which was purchased after it became obsolete. Some great train anoraks have been invited to be on the maiden voyage too, but because sometimes such enthusiasts can become a bit too intense, Kurenaimon was hired to keep an eye on things. Reiji has a rather unique train fetish, so he likes to... get naked and meditate to become one with the train, and he has a luxurious carriage all to himself to indulge in his pleasures: it is the very last carriage. Kurenaimon and his friend see Reiji enter his carriage and the two hang around in the carriage before that. When after a while, Sentarou comes looking for his brother, but when they enter, they find only Reiji's head. This is fairly short story, with most of the story dedicated to the set-up rather than the investigation after the discovery of the murder, but it features an interesting train-based locked room mystery with a solution that is just believable enough while also a bit silly when visualizing it. The good kind of crazy!

Aosaki Yuugo's Nawa, Tsuna, Rope ("Cable, Line, Rope") was written especially for an anthology to celebrate Arisugawa Alice's 35th anniversary as a novelist, and is a pastiche of Arisugawa's Writer Alice series. In the foreword featured in this anthology, Aosaki actually says it feels weird to him this story was selected, as he tried to mimick Arisugawa's style the best he could, so did the story win on his merits, or those of Arisugawa? I do really understand why this story would be picked though, as it's a really solid whodunnit. Criminologist Himura Hideo and mystery novelist Arisugawa Alice are assisting the police in the investigation of the murder of a woman, Yasumi Nodoka, who was found washed up on the shore, with clear signs of having been tied. A witness saw a figure carrying something tied up in rope to the waterfront in the night, so it is quickly determined Nodoka had been killed in her apartment and her body dumped in the sea. The motive appears to be a rare trading card Nodoka owned, but is now missing. However, security footage also helps determine the murderer must be someone inside the apartment building, i.e. one of the fellow residents. Because the witness saw Nodoka had been tied up, the police guess the culprit must have thrown the rope that was used away, as it was garbage day for burnables the following day. They examine the security camera footage of the garbage collection site of the building and determine three persons threw away ropes/lines/cables. But which of these three residents killed Nodoka?

This is a very solid story, both as a pastiche and a standalone whodunnit. Aosaki mimicks the style of the Himura stories perfectly with the familiar banter between Himura and Alice and the type of deductions Arisugawa often uses for his stories. As a whodunnit, well, what do you expect of the "Ellery Queen of the Heisei period"? It is a great logical problem, which is solved by logically following all the actions the murderer must have taken based on the evidence and from there, the reader can "easily" determine the identity of the murderer, at least, if they're clever enough. I love the way the story plays with the Japanese language by the way, with nawa, tsuna and the loanword "rope" all refering to, well, ropes, but all just slightly different enough.

Housoubu ni wa Horobasenai ("I Won't Let The Broadcasting Club Fall") is the first time I read a story by Tsubota Yuuya, and it's actually his debut story. The story revolves around a school's broadcasting club, which is preparing for the upcoming sports festival of the school. They have a suggestion box for playlist requests, but one day, they find an anonymous letter from someone who writes they don't like the sports festival and hopes they can cancel it. The narrator is of course not able to do so, but curious to the reason why, he decides to write a letter back to the writer. What follows is a series of short letters between the two, where the narrator tries to determine why the writer wants the festival cancelled. There are some nice clues hidden within this cute story with a bittersweet conclusion, and I really like it as a school mystery.

Dare mo Yomenai ("Unreadable") by Shirai Tomoyuki was written for a shogi ("Japanese chess) special and therefore revolves around the sport: Chiyokura Hinode is a professional shogi player who has trouble getting into the absolute top, but he's now playing one of his important promotional games. It's becoming late with the game still going on, so the game is paused for a moment, with Chiyokura having to write his next move in advance, which is then sealed so they can continue the game the following day (this to ensure Chiyokura doesn't have a full night to contemplate his next move). When he's alone, he's suddenly abducted by a man and a woman. Chiyokura recognizes neither of them, but it turns out he once played a game with the young man seven years ago, when the latter was still a child. Chiyokura had seen potential in the kid, and had given him his business card. Now the young man has grown up to be... not a shogi player, but a member of the organized crime. And he's in trouble, as last night, two "business contacts" were killed, and he is the main suspect. He, his captain and the big boss were staying in a hotel nearby to meet their business contacts, but early this morning, these two contacts were found dead in their villa. The murderer escaped with the car that belongs to the gang and parked at the hotel, and the three of them all have a key, so any of them could have committed the crime... if not for the fact the captain and the big boss have alibis, having been seen by others in the hotel. Because the 'kid' (and his girlfriend) swear he didn't do it, they decided to abduct Chiyokura (who had been playing his promotion game nearby), because Chiyokura is the cleverest man he knows. Can Chiyokura clear the name of his 'shogi disciple' based only on his testimony?

Okay, I have to admit I was first surprised by how this Shirai tale had nothing really gross, grotesque or off-putting in it. Guess that was because it was written for a shogi special. The problem itself is interesting, as we apparently have two suspects with a perfect alibi, and one without one. The solving of this conundrum is cleverly modelled not after physical evidence, but around reading the actions of each character: not in a psychological manner, but focusing on whether each character is taking the most logical action in their situation as we know it, and if not, can we therefore extrapolate something else might be going on? While the "main" trick used by the culprit might therefore not be incredibly surprising, the way they camouflaged it through their actions, and the way Chiyokura manages to unveil this, does make this a great story to read.

Overall, I'd say Honkaku-Ou 2025 may even been the best iteration of the anthology until now, providing variety, but also a very high level of quality. I basically like all the stories included this year, and they all have some clever original set-ups or techniques to use to show off how even within the confinements of the short story, you can do very clever mystery plots. If you have never read these anthologies, I would really recommend this one, not only because it's the most recent, but because it's honestly the one with the most bang for your buck.

Original Japanese title(s): 真門浩平「速水士郎を追いかけて」/ 潮谷験「概念探偵」/ 霞流一「スティームドラゴンの奇走」/ 青崎有吾「縄、綱、ロープ」 / 坪田侑也「放送部には滅ぼせない」 / 白井智之「誰も読めない」