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.

The Lamp of God

Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God's good earth. 

"The Lamp of God"

Kitayama Takekuni is an author discussed on this blog and that is usually in his role as a writer who specializes in locked room murders with a mechanical trick behind them. If you look at his work in the Danganronpa Kirigiri novels, as well as the Danganronpa and Rain Code games, and of course his Castle series, and the adjecent novels Alphabet-sou Jiken/The Case of Alphabet (2002) and Gettoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Moonlight Manor Murder Case" 2022), you'll quickly recognize his knack for inventing original and usually bombastic mechanical tricks to his locked room murder situations, almost like he's playing a round of The Incredible Machine. The first installment in the newest Castle book, which started its serialization in the summer, too promises to be another show his inventive mind.

But before that, we have a different kind of impossible mystery to discuss in regards to Kitayama. Late September saw the release of his newest short story collection Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God", 2025), which collects five stories set in different times and about different people, but all connected through one theme: the impossible disappearance of houses. In each of these stories, Kitayama pulls off the magnificent feat of making a whole building, or in one case, a while city disappear without leaving a trace. This might be the very first mystery short story collection that is built completely around this trope in the genre, and in fact, on the obi the editor of the book mentions how the mere suggestion of Kitayama to write such a collection caused them to feel dizzy. But Kitayama certainly managed it, and the result is a fine example of short mystery fiction.

The first story was originally published in 2004 and is titled 1941-nen no Mauser ("A 1941 Mauser") and starts in 1986, in an old bar in Leningrad. A hunter has ventured to visit this bar, named Heroes, because many old veterans who fought in the Second World War still visit this place: our hunter looks up to the military life and hopes he can become a sniper one day, so he hopes to chat a bit with the war veterans. One of the veterans, a former sniper, tells the man about a strange experience he had back in 1941, right in the middle of the war when the Nazis were entering the Soviet Union. The Nazis were also after treasures, and one of those targets was the Glass Room, a "sister" to the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace. As the name would suggest, the Glass Room consisted of beautiful glass and crystal ornaments and was worth a fortune. The Nazis were planning to move the valuables out of the room, but such an operation would take days due to the delicacy of the treasures inside. The Red Army therefore decides to install a two-man sniper unit at a place overlooking the manor faraway: they could easily take out any Nazis attempting to steal the Union's treasure, especially as the Nazis could only transport the treasures out during the day, meaning they don't even have to watch it overnight. The two men brought to an impromptu watchtower, which allows for a good sight on the manor. They spot a Nazi soldier on the rooftop, but don't take any action. When the sun sets, they move to their camp and return to the watchtower the following day, only to find the whole manor missing. Did the Nazis steal the whole building in one night, or something else going on.

This is a great opening story: like the other stories in this volume, it makes great use of the historical setting, both for the atmosphere, but also in terms of how it relates to the mystery, for example when it comes to clueing. While the story is fairly short, Kitayama manages to go over a lot of the "likely" theories that would explain the impossible disappearance and discard them for various reasons, from practicality problems to some "solutions" simply not making any sense to do in the first place. The way Kitayama manages to use a certain clue to both discard a likely theory, but also use it as a definite clue to point to the true solution is really great. The trick itself is grand, as you might expect from Kitayama. It's nuts in terms of how feasible it is in real-life, but it is thematically very fitting. You could easily imagine this trick being used for a "minor" disappearance, but it wouldn't be Kitayama if he didn't use it on something as grand as a whole building.

The title story Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God") goes one step further, and is about the disappearance of a whole city! A not-so-lucky gambler strikes up a conversation with someone at a bar who challenges our gambler, promising to pay out some money if our gambler can come up with a mystery our challenger  can't solve. The gambler himself doesn't even need to know the answer himself, as long as it's a mystery that occured in real-life in relation to himself. The gambler recalls the mysterious experience his grandfather had in 1930: unlike his grandson, his grandfather George was a great gambler: a well-honed sense of memory allowed him to win often at cards and other games and while he had to be careful, he managed to slowly amass enough money to allow him to leave his hometown and try his luck in Las Vegas. He knew the casinos there were careful for people like him who could memorize cards, so his idea was just to make one single strike that could set himself up for life. As he explores the various games, he happens to overhear some high-rollers, who talk about an exclusive invitations-only bus leaving in the early morning for a secret location. George quickly deduces the bus will bring those guests to a special casino with higher stakes and payout rates. He sneaks in the luggage compartment of the bus the following morning and an hour later, he finds himself in a secret city built in a kind of basin. He manages to win some money and decides to steal a bike to get out of town quickly before they realize he's not an invited guest, but soon after he's out of town, his bike breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a small cabin. When he wakes up the following morning however and looks back.... he finds the whole city missing, and a mysterious light shining down at him. The whole experience makes him feel dizzy. The next moment, he wakes up at the airport, with some pocket money and a ticket for the first flight out of town in his pocket. What happened here?

The title of the story is of course inspired by Ellery Queen's The Lamp of God (another impossible disappearing house story) and the divine light George sees is a vital clue in this story too, but otherwise, there's not much that ties these stories together.This is a story with a great atmosphere though and we also have a Kitayama who's great at snubbing out the solutions you're likely to think of first with both physical evidence and otherwise logical arguments against them. While these stories are all fairly short, usually consisting of 5 segments of which only the middle ones are dedicated to the mystery, and the first and last sections to the framing story, Kitayama always manages to discuss multiple theories, which is pretty impressive. I think the build-up and the atmosphere of this story is great, but depending on your background, the solution might be a bit easier to guess than for the average Japanese reader. I like the story a lot, but certain references did nudge my mind towards a certain theory early on, which proved to be right. Which is a bit of a shame, because it makes me feel like I solved it partially not based on the clues, but just on random knowledge. Which is perhaps a thing here, the solution is definitely better more memorable than the actual path to the solution/the clues.

The third story I already discussed last year, as it was included in the anthology Honkaku-Ou 2024 ("The King of Honkaku 2024"). I refer to that review for my thoughts on the Poe-inspired Mikansei Gekkou - Unfinished moonshine ("Unfinished Moonshine"), but it is cool to see how that story too is part of the "historical setting" theme of this collection.

Fujiiro no Tsuru ("Lavender Cranes") is a story set in three different ages, focusing on three impossible disappearances of buildings. All stories focus on a female member of the Fujiwara clan who possess enigmatic abilities and the young men they protect in their respective ages. In the Heian period, in 1055, while a young male heir of the Fujiwara clan is on the run, a shrine maiden manages to make a whole shrine standing on top of a mountain disappear. In 1999, a young man who lost the ability to play the violin visits the countryside, where a girl preparing for a local festival spirits a shrine on a hill away. And in 2055, a woman of Japanese descent who is a member of the clan running FUJIWARA Industries is suspected to be involved in making a whole military fortress disappear. What binds these three mysteries across the ages? 

A mystery that is somewhat reminiscent of Rurijou Satsujin Jiken (The" Lapis Lazuli Castle” Murder Case): while they don't talk about reincarnation here, the fact we have similar characters appear across multiple ages in a kind of star-crossed destiny manner, and have them deal with similar mysteries of course rings some bells. This is a story, where the atmosphere wins it from the actual trick behind the disappearances: while the trick, which is basically the same across all ages, is one you can understand on a theoretical level, it becomes a bit fantastical when you have to imagine it being used for real. However, because there's a somewhat fantastical atmosphere in the first place, with the story jumping between the ages and presenting a similar disappearances in different contexts, it does work here.

 Synchronicity Serenade is a story originally written for this collection and deals with a reporter who has a recurring dream of an ash-white house, which is then swallowed by the fog and disappears. He mentions it on social media, and is suddenly contacted by a professor, who says he's been having the same dream, and that there are others too who experience the same. He invites the reporter to join his workgroup, as the professor has been researching this phenomenom, but while the reporter initially thinks it has to be fake, he slowly starts to have doubts when the professor shows him a picture of the very house he had been dreaming off. The professor even has an address, so the reporter decides to investigate the house himself to learn why he's been having these dreams, but can he reach an answer?

This is a somewhat different story, as it's set in the modern time and we don't really have an impossible disappearance: it only disappears in the dreams, and the investigation is more focused on why they are having these recurring dreams, and whether the professor is really investigating these dreams or not. The whole story has a somewhat dreamy feeling to it because of that, and while I think the final solution presented is interesting on its own and fits the vibe of the tale, I think the false solution presented earlier feels more in-line with the other stories in this collection.

These were the five stories included in this book, but if you buy your copy of Kami no Hikari via the stores of Kinokuniya within a certain period, you actually get another extra story. At least, your receipt is extended to include an original illustration by Kitayama himself celebrating the release of the book, and a QR-code that leads to another Kitayama story about an impossible disappearance. The story Sayounara, Usagi-dan ("Farewell, Bunny Gang") was originally published in 2011, in issue 49 of the magazine Mysteries! and it was meant to be a farewell to the black bunnies that had been featured on the cover of the magazine for quite some years. Kitayama had been a fan of the illustrations, so he wanted to give them a grand farewell, which involved him reimagining the bunnies as a gang of children without parents, who act as phantom thieves while wearing bunny masks. Hot on their trail are two other children, a sister and a brother, who are great detectives. The tale starts off with the Bunny Gang pulling off another heist succesfully and the narrating bunny gang member announcing their next heist will be his last, as he's too old to remain in the gang. Their next taget turns out to be an entire building, but can the detective siblings prevent such an audacious heist?

This story has been described as a hidden Kitayana masterpiece, and indeed, it's much better than one would expect as a playful farewell story to some magazine mascottes. The story is fairly short, but withi that limited amount of space, Kitayama manages to set-up the whole fictional world of the Bunny Gang, our narrating bunny and the two detective siblings, and also set-up two impossible crimes: one in the in media res opening scene and the main mystery of the disappearing building. The solution of the latter is as grand as Kitayama can get, but it's a bit easy to guess and I have seen another impossible building story that uses the same basic foundation (but with a very different outcome). The first one is the kind of impossible theft you could imagine Lupin the Third of Kaitou KID to pull off and is pretty fun. But I honestly don't understand why this story isn't included in the Kami no Hikari collection properly. While I get it's a bit different in terms of atmosphere, as this is cartoonier than the historical, realistic settings of the stories in the collection and perhaps the story works better with the context of them being Mysteries! mascottes, but still, it's a damn fun story that should be in a proper collected release.

At this point, you can guess what I am going to say here: yes, Kitayama Takekuni's Kami no Hikari is definitely worth a read. It's unique as a collection focusing on disappearing buildings and while some of the solutions to these mysteries feel a bit more fantastical than others, I think these stories are worth a read, as they are all really solid stories, with great set-ups and fantastic atmosphere. If possible, I'd also recommend you to purchase a copy via Kinokuniya in Japan to get the bonus story, though this might only be applicable for physical copies and bought at the physical stores themselves (as I got the code printed as an extension to my receipt). 

Original Japanese title(s):　北山猛邦『神の光』:「一九四一のモーゼル」 / 「神の光」 / 「未完成月光 Unfinished moonshine」 / 「藤色の鶴」 / 「シンクロニシティ・セレナーデ」/「さようなら、ウサギ団」

Case for Three Detectives

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

"I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"  

I know I haven't been keeping up with my video game reviews lately, partially simply because I have found it more difficult to find the time to play games, and when I do finally finish them, I forget about writing the review. So err, Staffer Case review, I'll get to it one day!

And yes, I did also play Toshi Densetsu Kaitai Center, or as it's better known outside of Japan: Urban Myth Dissolution Center. I had of course already played the Wakaidou Makoto games by the same developer in the past and reviewed them here, so I been looking forward to playing Urban Myth Dissolution Center when it was first announced, and I did get it on the release date. Long story short, I loved the game overall, though it's definitely a game that was better in atmosphere and mood than the actual gameplay, which can be very tedious and repetitive. The game has been well received in Japan, with a lot of merchandise being produced, the series seeing a manga adaptation and a novel adaptation and it also won a Japan Game Award earlier this week.

Anyway, I have been really into the game, so I had been looking forward to Toshi Densetsu Kaitai Center - Danpenshuu (2025) or as the cover also says: Urban Myth Dissolution Center - Collection of Fragments, which released last week in Japan. While there is a "straight" novelization of the game events available too, Collection of Fragments is a short story collection by five different authors, each presenting a completely original story. These stories are "fragments" set before, during and after the events of the actual game, so fans of the game who long for more material, should defnitely look into this book. For those who haven't played the game, the basic premise is that there is a shady organization called the Urban Myth Dissolution Center, a kind of detective agency specializing in abnormal occurences that are related to urban legends. The center is led by the enigmatic Meguriya, an absolute nerd for all things urban legend, but also cunning and manipulative in the way he controls his employees. The center has two "field workers": Jasmine, who provides transport and support and recently hired (duped) Azumi, a college student who has a weird ability that allows her to see ghosts of the past, a power that proves useful in solving the cases she and Jasmine investigate under the supervision of Meguriya. One warning however is that this book is best played after playing the game, as it does spoil certain key events and character reveals of the game. Also: you play the game from the perspective of Azumi, but the three stories of the five that focus on the center, are told from the POV of Jasmine, and because of that, certain things you only learn later on in the game, are revealed right away to the reader (as obviously, Jasmine herself would know about herself). So reader, be warned.

The first story, Ten wo Tsunagu Mono ("Those who Connect the Dots") is by Van Madoy, who mentioned on Twitter (what doesn't he mention on Twitter) that he did his best to make sure it was a proper puzzle mystery story. His story is set soon after the first case in the game, and starts when Azumi and Jasmine are asked to investigate a fried chicken restaurant's security footage, which for some reason has been leaked on the internet. The footage is of the owner closing his shop, but after the shop's closed, a mysterious animal-like creature walks by, sparking rumors of genetically modified chickens being used in the shop. As Azumi and Jasmine investigate the rumors and the footage however, they learn there's more behind this case than meets the eye. Of all the five stories in this collection, this is definitely the most orthodox mystery story. Because the story is told from the point of view of Jasmine, the story feels different from the game: important segments in the game where you'd play as Azumi and solve certain mysteries, happen off-screen while Jasmine is relaxing in the company van, and things like that, but overall, the mystery is decently constructed (though a bit obvious) and while the identity of the mysterious creature is a bit silly, it kinda works in this world, considering the theme of these games and the use of the social media aspect of the game in this story is pretty clever.

Shikku suru Bourei ("The Racing Phantom") has Jasmine and Azumi investigate a famous urban legend: the headless motorcycle racer! A video of an influencer has been gaining views lately, as the image of a headless motorcycle racer was spotted in the background, and more witnesses claim to have seen this racer on the mountain roads. Is this headless racer really a ghost, or is it the handiwork of a man? This story by Tsukinami Kira is very faithful to the atmosphere of the game, following the same structure of Azumi and Meguriya first determining what the urban myth is they are dealing with and the subsequential dissolution of the myth, and also includes the social media investigation aspect of the game; while the Madoy story use the social media aspect in a more clever way, the use here feels more like the game. While the trick behind the racer itself is not super surprising, I think as an Urban Myth Dissolution Center story, this one was by far the most succesful at providing "more content like the game." 

Ki no Mori, Tatariishi ("The Forest of Taboos, The Cursed Stone") by Miyamoto Mirei and Hibe Seika's Shinrei Flamenco ("Ghost Flamenco") both focus not on the center trio, but on fan favorite characters, going by all the fanart on social media: in the former story, we see the influencer Kinoko and Yamada Gasmask go on a camp together, while in the latter, we follow a certain tour guide soon after he returns to Japan after living abroad, and his experience with a ghost haunting the place he lives at. The first is barely a mystery story, but the tour guide story is actually a pretty fun, if predictable horror-mystery story that is also genuinely funny. 

Tomariki ni Kyuusoku wo ("To Perch") by Okita Yoshihito is set some months after the climatic finale of the game, so even more spoiler warnings here. The story once again opts to follow Jasmine, who this time is on her own as she's hired to help transport the young child of a high-ranking official to a safe place. The boy however claims he saw a ghost. Jasmine has no powers unlike Azami and Meguriya, so she doesn't feel like she's the right person to be doing this, but the reader soon learns she can certainly hold her own when t comes to investigating seemingly supernatural cases. The case itself is not super exciting, but it proides an adequate explanation to why the boy saw a ghost. While the story is set after the main game, it works perfectly as a bridge to the epilogue of the game, so definitely recommended reading for those who like Jasmine as a character.

Overall, I'd say Collection of Fragments is a pretty fun read... if you're a fan of Urban Myth Dissolution Center. It does the bare minimum to explain the basic setting/characters of the game, but on the other hand, it is not afraid to spoil certain twists of the game early on, so it really knows it audience. This also means the mystery plots are not that complex, as they were not like that in the game either. In that respect, I do think Madoy wrote the most complex one (even if on a scale, it's still fairly simple). The second story is the best Urban Myth Dissolution Center-esque story though, and the one you must read if you long for more of the type of stories you played in the game.

While I am at it, I wanted to very briefly discuss two other game-related stories I read earlier this week: they are so short they don't really warrant their own post, so I might as well talk about them here. The first one is Kamaitachi no Yoru: A Novel (Night of the Sickle Weasles - A Novel", 1995) by Abiko Takemaru. This was a completely original novella included in the Kamaitachi no Yoru Official Fan Book and acts as another "variant" of the basic story of the first and very influential Kamaitachi no Yoru game on the Super Famicom, a game that plays as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and which revolves around a murder that happens in a small lodging house that has been snowed in. Abiko was the original writer of the game, and so it's only fitting he wrote this extra scenario, which again revolves around murders happening in the pension Spur. The story is presented as a Guess-the-Culprit scenario, with seperated "problem" and "solution" parts and a Challenge to the Reader, but the story is fairly short and Abiko spends a lot of time focusing on the clues necessary to solve the mystery, making it too obvious what the main trick is about. This scenario was included in certain later ports/remakes of the game (I believe the GameBoy Advance port, as well as the PS Vita remake), but it's not something you're really missing out on if you happen to have a different version that lacks this story. Interestingly, this novel is actually printed "backwards" in the Kamaitachi no Yoru Official Fan Book: if you start from the normal "front" cover, you get all the fan-oriented content like interviews and things like that, if you start from the "back", you simply start reading Kamaitachi no Yoru: A Novel. 

The other story I wanted to discuss is Kitayama Takekuni's Choutantei no Narikata - Halara Nightmare no Baai, or How To Be A Master Detective: A Halara Nightmare Case, which is a short story Kitayama wrote for the enhanced release of the game Rain Code (Rain Code +), with Halara being one of the master detectives who works with game protagonist Yuma as they investigate the curious incidents in the Kanai Ward. This story is set in the past and starts with Halara being transported in a prison van. They infiltrated the prison in search of missing mafia money, but things went wrong, and now Halara's being treated like a real prisoner. An accident later means an escape not only for him, but also for the other inmates who were being transported. It's snowing heavily outside though, so they seek shelter, but when they arrive at a little cabin, they find the murdered body of another fellow inmate who was being transporte. Who is the killer? The story is fairly short, but I think Kitayama did a great job at presenting a story that builds on Halara as presented in the game, but used in a way the game couldn't do. I was actually surprised by how neatly he pulled it off. If you already have vanilla Rain Code, I wouldn't say it's worth upgrading to Rain Code + just for this story, but if you can read it, definitely do!

I didn't really manage to write too deeply about the mystery plots of today's books, but the main theme is the same for all three books: these books are definitely meant for the people who have already played the games they are based on, so don't even consider reading them if you haven't played them. Of these three, I think the Urban Myth Dissolution Center and Rain Code ones do have interesting points about them that make them worth a read, while the Kamaitachi no Yoru story fails to add something substantial or original (and you can actually play it in game form in certain versions of the game anyway).

Original Japanese title(s): 『都市伝説解体センター　断篇集』:円居挽「点を繋ぐ者」/月並きら「疾駆する亡霊」/  宮本深礼「忌の杜、祟り石 」/ 日部星花「幽霊フラメンコ」/ 尾北圭人「泊まり木に休息を」 

我孫子武丸『かまいたちの夜　A Novel』 

北山猛邦『超探偵のなり方 ハララ＝ナイトメアの場合』