番外編： The Moai Island Puzzle Released

I only just realized I too have fallen in the trap of making announcements of announcements. So err, yeah, the content of today's announcement doesn't really differ from that of the announcement of this announcement.
 

Last month, I announced that Locked Room International would be publishing the first English translation of a novel by Alice ARISUGAWA soon. And now that time has come, for The Moai Island Puzzle is now available (both paper and digital, I think). The Moai Island Puzzle was translated by me, and it is a brilliant puzzle plot mystery that has basically everything: a treasure hunt on an island , a locked room murder, a Challenge to the Reader and one of the most impressive deduction scenes in mystery fiction. Arisugawa is obviously a big fan of Ellery Queen, but I'd say that this is the novel where Arisugawa outdoes Ellery Queen at his own game. If you're in search for a detective novel that celebrates logical reasoning and fair play, The Moai Island Puzzle is what you're looking for. The English version features an introduction by Souji SHIMADA (of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders), penned especially for this release. The book was originally published in 1989 with the title Kotou Puzzle, soon after Yukito AYATSUJI's The Decagon House Murders, and it is widely considered one of the Big Ones of Japanese detective fiction.

The Moai Island Puzzle is part of the Student Alice series. For those interested in the other books: I have a retrospective on the series. Oh, some might think that The Decagon House Murders and The Moai Island Puzzle might be alike, because both are set on islands and are Japanese etc., but I assure you, they are not alike at all. If The Decagon House Murders was Christie, then The Moai Island Puzzle is Queen.

Publishers Weekly gave The Moai Island Puzzle a starred review, and I hope more reviews will follow. My own old review of the original Japanese version can be found at this link (obviously written years before I even knew I would translate the book), and my we-write-English-reviews-of-Japanese-mystery-novels collegues over at My Japanese Bookshelf and In The Threshold of Chaos also have reviews available for your perusal.

Edit: JJ's review of The Moai Island Puzzle can be found over at his blog The Invisible Event. 

Anyway, not only as the translator, but also (especially) as someone who considers the book one of the most impressive mystery novels ever, I really hope the readers will enjoy The Moai Island Puzzle. This is Arisugawa's first release in the English language, but hopefully, it won't be the last.

番外編： The Moai Island Puzzle + The Cold Night's Clearing

No quotes in the introduction of this post? That means service announcements!

Longtime readers of the blog know that I'm a big fan of ARISUGAWA Alice's Student Alices series. I've reviewed all of the books of the series in the past, and I consider the adventures of the student Alice and his merry comrades of the Eito University Mystery Club as one of the most entertaining, and intellectually most challenging mystery series. The books mix young-adult themes with Ellery Queen-like tricky plots, complete with a Challenge to the Reader. In particular, I've praised 1989's Kotou Puzzle  ("The Island Puzzle") on more than one occassion as the book where Arisugawa in fact outdoes Queen at his own game. It has everything: a hunt for a buried treasure on an island with dozens of moai statues, a locked room murder, a Challenge to the Reader, and an incredible finale where the detective, Mr. Egami, points out who the murderer is based on a very satisfying chain of deductions. 

So I'm more than thrilled to announce that after the critical succes of The Decagon House Murders, Locked Room International will be bringing you another Japanese mystery classic: ARISUGAWA Alice's The Moai Island Puzzle is scheduled to be released coming June. And once again, I had the honor of translating the book. The title is slightly different from the original title, but hey, now it's more Ellery Queen-like! Like with The Decagon House Murders, I have to admit I feel a lot easier about praising the book on the blog now (as the translator), knowing that I had already raved about the book as a crazy fanboy in the past already! So not as the translator, but simply as someone who realllllly enjoyed the book, I say: definitely check it out, as it's simply one of my favorite Japanese mystery novels.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, which I hope is the first of more positive reviews to follow. My own review of the Japanese original can be found at this link (written many years before I knew I would translate the book), and my we-write-English-reviews-of-Japanese-mystery-novels collegues over at My Japanese bookshelf and On the Threshold of Chaos also have reviews.

Also, in other translation news: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine May 2016 All Nations Issue (on sale now) features my translation of OOSAKA Keikichi's 1936 short story The Cold Night's Clearing (original title: Kan no Yobare). OOSAKA was a contemporary of writers like Rampo and KOUGA Saburou, specializing in impossible crimes. And I'm almost afraid to say it, but Rampo had always wanted to be published in EQMM, but because of me, both OOSAKA and KOUGA succeeded in that before him... Sorry. Anyway, The Cold Night's Clearing is based on a translation I had posted on my blog earlier, with some additional revising/editing. It's an impossible crime story about a murdering Santa Claus who disappears into the sky....or something like that. Now I think about it, it's not really a story for a May issue of any magazine, though I guess it fits in the "All Nations" theme. Anyway, it's a great story no mater the weather outside. So take a look in the issue if you're interested.

And that's it for the service announcements today

再生 -Rebuild-: the Student Alice series

Readers of the blog might have noticed that I often read books from the same series/authors. I often refer, and build upon what I wrote in previous reviews, but I figured that a single post introducing a certain series might be easier to read. So here, the first post in a series I have called Rebuild, which serve as general introductions to the more lengthy/interesting series I discuss. Expect a short introduction, some observations on characteristic tropes of the series and of course a bibliography list. For more indepth reviews and observations, please refer to the individual reviews.

Student Alice series (Author: Arisugawa Alice)
Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88") [1989]
Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle") [1989] AKA The Moai Island Puzzle.
Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil") [1992]
Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom") [2007]
Egami Jirou no Dousatsu ("The Insights of Egami Jirou") [2012]

The Student Alice series is about the adventures of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC), as experienced by Arisugawa Alice, a Law student of Kyoto's Eito University. Other members include Mochizuki Shuuhei (economics, Ellery Queen fan), Oda Koutarou (economics, hardboiled fan) and founding member Egami Jirou (philosophy, several years overdue for graduation). Arima Maria (law) joins as the first female member of the EMC during her (and Alice's) second year at Eito University. The members of the EMC have a tendency to get involved with mysteries (most of them of the criminal kind), but Egami Jirou always manages to explain everything with his impressive deductive powers.

The series has three major characteristics. First is the setting of students and the mystery club. Like many writers of the so-called New Orthodox movement from the late '80s (which revisited, and reconstructed classic puzzle plots), Arisugawa Alice (the writer) debuted while he was a student and member of his university's mystery club, and these are elements that are mirrored in his own work (compare also with Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakukan no Satsujin). The Student Alice series is often described as young adult fiction, with its focus on student life.Also, the fact the characters are all well versed in mystery fiction is quite important, as they act as a device for discussions on all kinds of mystery fiction, and they can also make insightful observations from a meta-point of view, by refering to famous novels.

Secondly, the novels all deal with closed circle situations. For some reason or another, the EMC members always get involved with murder cases while cut-off from the outside world. Vulcano, island, they have seen it all. It's never 'just' a murder, but there's always another element of danger that drives the story.

Finally, as one can guess from the device of having the protagonist sharing a name with the author, Arisugawa Alice is strongly influenced by Ellery Queen. His novels also have Challenges to the Readers, like you'd expect from the older Queen novels. The deduction style is also similarly very complex, dealing with who-knew-what-when-how-which-allowed-them-to-do-what. Prepare for long deduction chains when you read the novels. Special mention goes to The Island Puzzle, of which the conclusion is an incredible tour-de-force in deduction all based on just one object.

Chronology of the EMC

Chronology is fairly important to the series. A bit more than two years have passed since the start of the series. For example, when we first met Mochizuki and Oda they had just survived their first year at Eito University, but by The Castle of the Queendom, they're already preparing for their graduation.
 
1984: The Eito University Mystery Club (EMC) is founded by Egami Jirou and Ishiguro Misao.
1987: Ishikuro graduates. Mochizuki Shuuhei and Oda Koutarou enter the Economics faculty, join the EMC.
1988: Arisugawa Alice and Arima Maria enter the Law Faculty. Alice joins the EMC.

• 'The Maison Lapis Lazuli Case' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Hard Rock Lovers Only' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Body on the Faded Railway' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• Moonlight Game - Tragedy of Y '88 (1989)
• 'The Ophelia of the Sakura River' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Four Minutes is too Short' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Mystery of the Sealed Room' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'A Twentieth Century Abduction' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Walking on New Year's Eve' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)

1989: Arima Maria joins the EMC.

• 'An Observation regarding Squandering' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• The Island Puzzle (1989)
• Double-Headed Devil (1992)

1990: Final year Egami Jirou is allowed to be enrolled in Eito University.

• The Castle of the Queendom (2007)

As of now (March 2014), four novels and one short story collection have been published. There are also a handful of uncollected short stories. The series is planned for five novels and two story collections, so we can expect another two releases in the future. The final novel will probably deal with Egami's graduation.

Note: Arisugawa Alice (the writer) has two series, both starring an Arisugawa Alice. Also, both of these protagonist Alices write detective stories. And to make things even more complex, each of the Alices writes the adventures of the other Alice. So the Alice of the Student Alice series, writes the Writer Alice series, while the Alice of the Writer Alice series, writes the Student Alice series.

E.M.C. 1988.04-1989.04

「英と大学推理小説研究会と僕は、そうやってつながった」

「瑠璃荘事件」

"And that is how the Eito University Mystery Club and I met"

'The Maison Lapis Lazuli Case'

I lived near a lot of bookshops when I was in Kyoto, a great number of them second-hand bookshops. The most pleasant in my opinion was Furuhon Ichiba, which followed the familiar Book Off formula (but had the advantage of not being located uphill, as was the Book Off closest by), with a big assortment of games and books. But the most interesting was Comic Shock, just across the street with Furuhon Ichiba. Comic Shock was definitely the underdog, with slightly higher prices (overall) and being much smaller. But with more rare and older books, the late, yet long opening hours of from noon to midnight, as well as the amazing habit of wrapping each and every single book they had in plastic, made quite an impression. Every time I walked inside, someone was busy wrapping books in plastic.

And usually, I can't remember where I bought what book (though price tags usually help), but the plastic wrapping tells me that today's book was bought at Comic Shock. And that's my amazing deduction for today. Ahem.

Student Alice series
Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88")
Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle")
Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil")
Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom")
Egami Jirou no Dousatsu ("The Insight of Egami Jirou")

April 1988. 18 year old Arisugawa Alice has just entered the Law faculty of Eito University in Kyoto and is still looking for a club to join. After a little accident, a short talk and the words "Wontcha join us?", Alice finds himself as the newest member of the Eito University Mystery Club. The EMC is a very small club, with just three other members: Egami Jirou (president of the club and long overdue for graduation), Mochizuki Shuuhei (Ellery Queen fan) and Oda Koutarou (hardboiled fan). But the four members have great fun writing / talking about detective fiction, and just hanging out together. And the members also have a knack for attracting all kinds of cases. Maybe not all of a criminal kind, but the members of the EMC (and especially their leader Egami) are definitely not going to let any case go unsolved. Arisugawa Alice's Egami Jirou no Dousatsu ("The Insight of Egami Jirou") collects a series of adventures the members of the EMC had in the academic year 1988-1989.

Egami Jirou no Dousatsu is the first short story collection in Arisugawa Alice's Student Alice series and it took a long time for it to be finished. The book was published in 2012, but the stories were written in a period of over twenty years: the earliest story dates from 1986, while the newest dates from 2012. It is also a notable release, because it is quite different from the other books not just in format (short story collection), but also in atmosphere. Up until now, the Student Alice series had always been about murder cases in closed circle situations. Starting with 1989's Gekkou Game, the members of the EMC somehow kept running into murder cases while isolated from the outside world, be it stuck on an active vulcano, or on an island etcetera. The adventures in Egami Jirou no Dousatsu however happen in open circles, mostly around Kyoto (more specifically, around Eito University) and  have a lighthearted feeling to them (the same feeling the other Student Alice stories also have, before they realize they are cooped up somewhere with a murderer). Yet this doesn't mean that that other characteristic of the series, Queenian logical deductions, is gone.

Take Rurisou Jiken ("The Maison Lapis Lazuli Case") for example, where Mochizuki is accused by one of his fellow housemates of stealing a college note (with notes so good, you're guaranteed to pass the class). It seems that at the time of the theft, the only persons present in the building were Mochizuki and the victim himself (their two other housemates had gone to the public bath), and because Mochizuki had a row with the victim a while back, everyone thinks he stole the note out of spite (and to pass the course). Hoping to prove his innocence, Mochizuki asks his fellow EMC members to help prove his innocence. A chain of deductions built around a lightbulb in the washroom, and a neatly hidden hint form a great start of this collection, even though some of the 'conditions' of this crime do feel a bit dated (then again, it is set in 1988). (and bonus points for being set near where I used to live in Kyoto!)

Hard Rock Lovers Only is a very short story, just a couple of pages long and deals with a very small problem: why did that girl ignore Alice when he called for her, even though they had a nice talk in a cafe just earlier? The solution is simple, just like you'd expect from such a small story. Nothing surprising, just a very simple, very short story.

Yaketa Senro no Ue no Shitai ("The Body on the Faded Railway") on the other hand is a pretty complex story. It is also the oldest story of the bunch, published in 1986 and actually Arisugawa's first published story (Gekkou Game being his first published novel). The gang learns of a mysterious death on the railway tracks during a holiday at Mochizuki's maternal home. There are two suspects, but both of them have an alibi for when the body was thrown on the rails. Being an alibi-breaking story with trains, this story feels a bit like an Ayukawa Tetsuya story, who was actually the editor who decided to publish the story. But it is actually a neat, and fairly realistic modernized version of a pretty famous short detective story, but I won't go in details for fear of spoiling the fun. Also points for the little references of the gang preparing for another holiday in the mountains: Gekkou Game shows that that holiday will go horribly wrong.

Sakuragawa no Ophelia ("The Ophelia of the Sakura River") is the other story that features death, though maybe not murder. Egami Jirou introduces the other three (younger) members to Ishiguro, one of the founding members of the club. Ishiguro works as a freelance writer nowadays, but he needs the brain of Egami to solve a problem from his past. When he was a high school student, a classmate drowned in the river in his hometown. Recently, Ishiguro has been helping a friend, also a classmate from that time, who has been hospitalized. While cleaning the friend's room, he discovered photographs of their drowned classmate, but these were surprisingly made before the body was formally discovered. Ishiguro wants Egami to explain why his friend's got these pictures. The solution is simple, as not only Egami, but every EMC member manage to correctly deduce the solution to this problem. Note also the references to a strange new religion which has its homebase near Ishiguro's hometown ...

Yonpunkan de wa Mijikasugiru ("Four Minutes Is Too Short") is a very fun take on Harry Kemelman's famous short story The Nine Mile Walk. Hanging around in Egami Jirou's room, the EMC members want to play a game. Alice remembers a strange line he overheard at the station's public payphones: "You only have four minutes, so hurry. Don't forget your shoes... No... After A" and the members try to deduce what the meaning is behind this line. Like the original, the deduction session leads to a very surprising conclusion. The story does feel a bit chaotic though, because the deduction session is interrupted by a somewhat long discussion on Matsumoto Seichou's Ten to Sen (with spoilers!), but it does strengthen the feel of just a group of friends hanging together and wasting time by talking about a variety of topics without any direction. Overall, one of the better stories of the collection.

Akazu no Ma no Kai ("The Mystery of the Sealed Room") has the EMC members going on a ghost hunt in a decrepit hospital, which features a 'locked room', i.e a room sealed by supernatural powers. They actually hear a ghost walking around the building, but they quickly figure out it's just a prank of Oda, and the three remaining members chase the 'ghost' down to the little room before the locked room... only to find nobody there. Oda has to have gone inside the locked room, but that door is bolted, and covered up with wooden planks from their side of the door. How did Oda disappear into the locked room? The situation is really fun, with Oda basically challenging the other members to solve his own locked room trick, and the trick is actually pretty neat, though I have seen (a variation of) it before. Most points for this story go to the light-hearted spirit which really fits these characters (too bad they are usually thrown into life-threatening situations).

A cheap painting is stolen from Mochizuki and Oda's professor, and the thief demands a ransom money of no less than a thousand yen (about seven euro, ten dollars) for its safe return. Why steal a worthless painting and ask such a small amount? The professor suspects his brother stole the painting, but he has no idea how his brother could have stolen the painting from his house: his brother left the house completely empty handed yesterday, a fact Mochizuki and Oda (who had been drinking at the professor's house) will also confirm. How did his brother manage to steal the picture (without folding it up or harming it in anyway), is what the professor wants to know in Nijuuseikiteki Yuukai ("A Twentieth Century Abduction"). The solution Egami comes up with is great in its simplicity and it is worked out thematically very well. Not genius maybe, but a really well written story.
 
Joya wo Aruku ("Walking on New Year's Eve")  on the other hand is less well written, in my opinion. Alice hangs out with Egami on New Year's Eve, and what follows is a series of random discussions about mystery fiction and the reading of a guess-the-criminal story written by Mochizuki, which Alice found in Egami's room. So Joya wo Uruku is part random talk, part story-within-a-story, but the guess-the-criminal story is pretty basic (as Egami and Alice both comment) and the random talk is really just random talk. Joya wo Uruku is not a really coherent story, which makes it the most boring to read of the whole collection. Which is a shame, because the guess-the-criminal story-within-a-story format can work, something Maya Yutaka had already shown.

The final story, Toujin ni Kansuru Ichikousatsu ("An Observation Regarding Squandering") is a great Holmesian story, where the members of the EMC want to find out why the old owner of a second-hand bookshop has been so nice to everybody lately: he is known to have been giving away his books for nothing, but also treating people in restaurants. The solution is not really surprising (there's only so much you can do within the length of these stories), but once again, the hints are laid done well and it is a fun story to read. Which is also because this stories features Maria, the EMC's first female member. In this story, the members of the EMC are trying hard to get their first female member and she'll play a crucial part in the (phenomenal) Kotou Puzzle, which is set some months after this story.

What I think of this short story collection in general? Well, it's definitely not as deep as the novels of the same series, that's for sure. Arisugawa touches upon the lenghty deductions chains of the novels in some stories (like Rurisou Jiken and Yonpunkan de wa Mijikasugiru), but for the real deal, you really should read the novels. But Egami Jirou no Dousatsu is definitely 'easier' to read, with a light-hearted touch to everything. Discussions on famous mystery novels are also present in the novels, but these carefree talks between the EMC members definitely work better in their 'home environment' of the university. Egami Jirou no Dousatsu is at its best when it manages to combine the free-style talk of these members and pretty nonsensical problems with deep deduction chains, best done in (once again) Yonpunkan de wa Mijikasugiru.

As an extra, I did like seeing the EMC members actually in Kyoto. The novels always place them in some remote place... Eito University is modeled after Doshisha University and most stories are set in the area around it, and while I myself attended Kyoto University last year (on the other side of the river), I'm also familiar with the neighbourhood there and it's always fun to see a location come to alive like this in my reading materials.

Anyway, Egami Jirou no Dousatsu is an okay short story collection. It's definitely must-read material for those who have been following the series, but I think it also works as a good entry point for the series (despite being quite different from the novels), because the characters come better to life here. The series is planned to fnish with one more novel and one more short story collection, and I am looking forward to more adventures of the EMC members.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖 『江神二郎の洞察』: 「瑠璃荘事件」 / 「ハードロック・ラバーズ・オンリー」 / 「やけた線路の上の死体」 / 「桜川のオフィーリア」 / 「四分間では短すぎる」 / 「開かずの間の怪」 / 「二十世紀的誘拐」 / 「除夜を歩く」 / 「蕩尽に関する一考察」

Reunion, and Turnabout

「予習してきてるやないか。ふぅん、そうか。代表がその野沢公子に替わってから、入信する若い男が増えたらしいな。ミーハーな奴が多い」

「お前は、ふらっとけえへんのか？」

「ふらっときて入信するほど軽薄やないわ。河原町あたりで野沢公子のポートレート付きパンフレットを配ってたら、手を伸ばすやろうけど。代表やなんて事務的でそっけない肩書は似合わん。からかい半分にせよ、マスコミが〈女王〉と奉るのも道理や」

「充分ミーハーやないか。何が〈女王〉や。俺やったら、同じ奉るにしてもエラリー―」

『女王国の城』

"So you also prepared for this? Hmm. I see. But I heard a lot of young men joined the religion after Nosaka Kimiko took over as the representative. Those guys are just into her."

"No way you're goin' to do the same?"

"I wouldn't just join a religion like that. But if they would hand out pamphlets with Nosaka Kimiko's portret on them near Kawaramachi, yeah, I would take them. A title as stiff as 'representative' doesn't fit her. It might be a joke of sorts, but I see why they worship her as the "queen" in the media"

"You're just into her too. What a joke, a queen! The only Queen I worship is Ellery Qu.."

"The Castle of the Queendom"

Everyone been enjoying the last few episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot? I'll probably write something after the last episode is broadcast, but I have to say that I have been mostly pleased up until now. Just two more weeks!

Student Alice series
Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88")
Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle")
Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil")
Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom")

The members of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC) have been involved in several puzzling murder cases, but they could always rely on their club president Egami Jirou to solve the crime and save them. In Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom") however, it's Egami who needs help. Or does he? Egami seems to have suddenly disappeared and the members (Oda, Nobunaga, Maria and Alice) fear something might have happened to him. They find clues that seem to indicate that Egami has gone to the mountain village of Kamikura, the home of the headquarters of the new age religion the Human Species Society. HSS was founded by Nosaka Mikage, who after her encounter with the alien Peripari, started to prepare humankind for the coming of the aliens. The current head of HSS is Nosaka Kimiko, who because of her beauty is refered to as 'the Queen', living in her 'castle' that is HSS HQ. The EMC members eventually find their beloved club president inside the 'castle', but during a tour of HSS headquarters, a guard is found murdered near the 'sacred cave' where Pelipali is to return again. The EMC members naturally want to contact the police, but the brass of the HSS say they want to solve the murder themselves to keep the scandal to a minimum (new religions are always watched with a suspicous eye), and basically hold the EMC members captured inside the 'castle', until the case is solved. Of course, the fact that even more murders happen during their confinement is a bit worrying. It is up to the EMC members to solve the crime and regain their freedom.

Ah, my beloved Student Alice series! Whereas Arisugawa Alice's Writer Alice series can be a hit or a miss series, and is more like his safer, 'steady-income' series, the Student Alice series has always maintained a very high standard as an orthodox detective series. From Gekkou Game on (the first book in the series and also Arisugawa's debut work), the series has been among the best if it comes to being a spiritual successor to the Ellery Queen novels, with beautiful deductive chains leading to the one truth. Jooukoku no Shiro is the last novel of the series for the moment, so I had been kinda 'saving' it, but now I've finally read it. And I was not disappointed.

There are three major characteristics to the novels in Student Alice series; 1) precise deductive reasoning that lead to the identity of the murderer, 2) a closed circle situation and 3) an element of a youth adventure novel brought by the members of the EMC. Let's first look at the mystery of Jooukoku no Shiro. Kotou Puzzle still holds the title of having the most impressive deduction chain of the series (heck, one of the best in the long history of detective fiction, period), but this novel doesn't disappoint either. The process of identifying characteristics of the murderer and see who fits the profile sounds easy, but actually doing it, and doing it in a way that doesn't seem cheap, is another thing and Arisugawa really comes up with a great explanation of how to identify the murderer. It's amazing what one can infer from just one object and it's these kind of novels that really appeal to me in the mystery genre. In Jooukoku no Shiro, the deductions that lead to the murderer are all basically based off one item. This seems similar to Kotou Puzzle, but that had a long, complex single chain of deductions that led to the murderer (X, therefore, Y, therefore Z etc.), while Jooukoku no Shiro has several, shorter deductions that start by looking at the item in question from different angles. Different, but definitely great stuff. And of course, there is a Challenge to the Reader!

The closed circle setting employed here is the most captivating of the whole series, I think. Kotou Puzzle and Soutou no Akuma had closed circle situations because of fairly natural circumstances (geography, weather). The vulcano eruption in Gekkou Game is a natural phenomena, I guess, but it felt so artificial I just couldn't take it all too seriously. Jooukoku no Shiro has the protagonists held prisonor in the Human Species Society HQ, which is actually a lot creepier. It brings elements like questioning whether the HSS has a hidden agenda for holding them captured, and also elements of planning a prison escape. Jooukoku no Shiro is the most dynamic of the series, with the protagonists trying to solve the murder, and trying to regain their freedom. The book is also by far the longest of the whole series, but it never drags.

The setting of a small group confined in a small community with a common religion/belief/goal/characteristic/something to hide is not uncommon (in a variety of genres). I mostly associate it with Yokomizo Seishi and Trick (especially Trick), but who can forget Ellery Queen's little adventure in And On the Eight Day? Original, it isn't, but it can definitely add the right amount of suspense (of us against them) to a genre that can occassonally feel a bit slow.

And the youth novel element comes alive quite good. Because of circumstances, the EMC members were often forced to work seperatedly in the previous novels, so this is the first time we see the whole team (including Maria, who joined in the second novel) acting as a team, reacting to each other and also sharing stories about themselves and their lives as students. In English-language orthodox detective fiction, it seems that (university) students aren't that common a protagonist-type. In Japan however, with the New Orthodox (or New Authentic) school basically starting from university mystery clubs, the student-detective was actually relatively common for a time (just take a look at all the debut novels of the New Authentic school for example). The Student Alice series is the only original New Authentic school series that still has students as its protagonists, but I find it an entertaining setting.

Nothing bad? Well, no. It has the most horrible map of a building I've ever seen. Sure, the precise architecture of the 'castle' isn't needed to solve the crime, but even after finishing the book I still don't know how all the towers and 'flying saucer' buildings are connected...

But in conclusion, a very solid detective novel that should appeal to anyone who likes the genre. There is thrill, shock and suspense, but also a great mystery that shows that pure logic is still the best way to solve a crime. Arisugawa Alice's Student Alice series is definitely one any fan of the genre should try.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖　『女王国の城』

「解けるわけのない問題に悩むなんて、人生の悲哀を感じるわ」

「ひとりでは解けない愛のパズルを抱いて」

"Get Wild" (TM Network)

"Embrace the puzzle of love you can't solve on your own"

"Get Wild" (TM Network)

I tried writing an introduction about okonomiyaki, the Kansai region and detective fiction, but then I realized that the only memorable okonomiyaki scenes in Japanese detective fiction I know are from Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series. Why is that a problem? Higashigawa is from Hiroshima, so his characters usually eat a totally different kind of okonomiyaki. Yes, I like to write randomly about food. Experiences have taught me that little okonomiyaki restaurants run by old ladies are the best, so I'm happy to say I found one in the neighborhood a while ago. Getting treated by my partner-in-dine on the other hand made me feel both happy and guilty at the same time. Hmm. Anyway, the moral behind this story is that okonomiyaki is good. Or something like that. But enough about food (gasp!).

Oh, and as some might have noticed from the sidebar, but I sorta started to use Twitter. Sorta. Not sure what to do with it, so we'll see how that works out. Will probably switch back and forth between English and Japanese.

Apparently, I had already started reading Arisugawa Alice's Kotou Puzzle (The Island Puzzle) at least two weeks ago. Thirteen days of those two weeks were spent on the pages before the first murder and then I finished the book within one day, apparently. Heh. Yes, I like my deaths to happen early in a story. Anyway, back to the book. Kotou Puzzle is the second novel in the Student Alice series, starring the student Alice (male), the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC) and the series detective Egami Jirou. The EMC, originally consisting of just four male students, has welcomed its first female member in the form of Arima Maria. Maria has invited Alice and Egami to her uncle's island for the holidays. The island was originally owned by Maria's (now deceased) grandfather, who was a great fan of puzzles. Before his death, Maria's grandfather actually hid a fortune in diamonds on the island, with the island functioning as one giant puzzle and hint that points to the whereabouts of the treasure. Maria, Alice and Egami arrive at the island to challenge this puzzle, while a great number of Maria's relatives are also visiting the island. The EMC's treasure hunt changes in a murderer hunt though when two of the guests are found shot death in a locked room one night. Oh, and this is an island in a detective story, so yes, there is a storm cutting the island off of the mainland and all other means of communcation are also conveniently destroyed!

I had heard people raving about this book, and I can say that I am all too willing to join those masses. Pretty much everyone agrees that the logic behind Kotou Puzzle is excellent and it really should serve as obligatory literature on constructing logic-based 'guess-the-criminal' stories. Arisugawa is definitely inspired by Queen, but it is a bit different here: early Queen logic is usually based around identifying several characteristics of the murderer and then matching them with what the suspects (i.e. the elimination method). Often seen characteristics are for example whether the murderer was left- or righthanded, certain knowledge the murderer must have had, or access to a particular place or item.

In Kotou Puzzle however, Arisugawa bases his complete solution on one single hint, an item (and in particular, the state of that item).  He then develops that one single hint into a whole train of deductions that clearly show what the murderer must have done, and finally arrives at the one single person that could have. So instead of deducing characteristics for the murderer, Arisugawa here presents the reader with deductions of the murderer's movements (all starting from one single item), that in the end lead to one single characteristic that points to the murderer. And it's awesome. Of course, Queen might be associated with this kind of logic too (especially as his country novels all include a noun, i.e. shoes and hats), but nowhere do we seen Queen develop this idea as fantastic as Arisugawa does here. Arisugawa already did a little bit of this in Gekkou Game, where a little item also served as a crucial starting point of a chain of deductions, but he really nails it in Kotou Puzzle. This is very cleanly written piece of logic that really should be read by all fans of the genre.

For fans of locked room mysteries, or let's say alibi tricks, it seems easier to show what they exactly like of their favorite trope. An ingenious mechanical trick, or something that surprises because of its simplicity, or the fantastic use of human psychology. I am not sure how to do that with logic though, which is something I really like in detective novels (explaining why I like writers like Queen and Norizuki). It is (naturally) a lot more abstract to explain and it's usually a deduction-chain that impresses, making it the more difficult to explain what was so awesome.

Some other detective tropes also appear in Kotou Puzzle, like a dying message and a locked room, but they are subordinate to the actual pointing out the identity of the murderer. The dying message was nothing special and kinda easy to guess actually, but I did like how the identity of the murderer tied in directly to the special circumstances of the locked room. You wouldn't be able to deduce the identity of the murderer based on the locked room, but you can definitely arrive at a satisfying explanation for the circumstances of the locked room murder were so strange if you know who the murderer is (which is what is actually done in the story).

The way Arisugawa develops his deductions from one single hint is also reflected in the other puzzle of this novel: the puzzle that leads to the diamonds. Abstractly seen, the idea behind the two puzzles (treasure hunt / murder) are the same, namely the natural development of a single thought, but the result is quite different. It might not be as grand as the logic behind the murders, but this is actually an interesting puzzle that might have been perfect on its own too (as a code cracking story of sorts).

Were there also elements I didn't like? Well, yes, actually. I wasn't too big a fan of the characters. There were no 17 almost identical students this time luckily, but still, that Maria has one big and complex family! And I am used to reading Nikaidou Reito's novels! The other problem is that the island itself feels very artificial. Of course, a closed circle setting on an island cut-off by a storm and all kinds of 'complex' means of transportation on the island that clearly define the time you need to get from one place to another is sorta a classic within detective fiction, but yeah, the island really did feel like only like a tool for the story, rather than an actual setting. And like I mentioned, I had severe troubles reading this book up until the first murders. Really, the treasure hunt on the island was quite boring, but there was at least a big award at the end for having to wade through the first hundred or so pages.

(And just to make it clear, I've reviewed the first three of the four Student Alice novels at the moment: Gekkou Game ("Moonlight Game"), Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle") and Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil"))

What to read next, what to read next?, he said, while having at least half-a-dozen of half-read books on his nightstand.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖　『孤島パズル』

「月恋歌」

月と太陽なら私は月

君がいれば輝けるよ

「キミがいれば」 (伊織)

If I had to choose between the sun and the moon,

I'd be the moon

I only shine if you are next to me

'When you are here' (Iori)

Finally a review of a Japanese novel again! But first, something completely different.

Or not completely different maybe. As I've mentioned in a couple of posts before, I am studying for a year in Japan at the moment. And I happen to be doing that at Kyoto University, which in turn happens to be the host of one of the best known / respected mystery clubs in Japan. Activities of the club include organizing little deduce-who-the-murderer-is quizes, book discussions and a yearly big publication featuring original stories and commentaries and the club has been around since 1974. Writers like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru and Norizuki Rintarou actually originate this club, which explains why it is so well known to those into new orthodox detective novels.

And I think I am a member of the club now. At least, like Rouletabille said, '"I have eaten all your caviar. I am your guest. I am your friend'. Well, they didn't buy me caviar, but like most clubs the Kyoto University Mystery Club did take potential new members out for dinner, trying to convince them to join their club. Which I wanted to do anyway, so I got a free dinner and I got into a club I wanted to enter in the firt place. And I had a nice chat with people about Japanese detective novels. Which is actually really awesome. Really, really awesome. I don't think I've ever had an oral discussion where I could say that I like Queen-school writers, and having everyone nodding at that. People who have read mystery novels featuring mystery clubs might have an idea of how those conversations go (probably mostly Japanese novels), but it was really like in those novels. I will probably write more about the club later, when I've actually attended to more meetings.

Anyway, among the other new members (and old members), there were also a lot of people who were fans of Arisugawa Alice. Last week I picked up his debut work, Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game  - Tragedy of Y '88"). It is the first volume in the Student Alice series, featuring Arisugawa Alice as a young student at Eito University as the fourth and newest member of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC). The head of the club is the enigmatic student Egami, who serves as the main detective of the series. In this first story, the EMC heads out to camp on Mount Yabuki  during their summer holiday, where they meet three other groups of students (of various universities and clubs) who had the same idea. The 17 people have a great time at the camp site, until Mount Yabuki, which is actually an dormant volcano, has the fun idea of erupting for the first time in 200 years. And that is not all, because with the eruption, people start to disappear at night and they have the nasty habit of being dead, murdered when they re-appear. And what is that dying message "Y" that keeps popping up? How is the EMC going to get out of this mess?

Obviously through pure Queenian logic. Arisugawa's debut work simply screams Queen. It naturally starts with the pen-name Arisugawa Alice, which is also also the name of the protagonist of the story, but the Queenian influence is also obvious from the dying message that seemingly defies interpretation and the closed circle situation mirroring The Siamese Twin Mystery with the forces of nature forcing the groups of students to hide in the forest every once in a while. There are even several scenes where the group decides to search through each others possessions, in the hopes of finding proof of who the murderer is, mirrorring the classic big searches often seen in early Queen novels. And besides these tropes, we have the actual logical method employed by detective Egami, whose explanation of who the murderer is and how he deduced that fact could have fitted neatly in any Queen novel.

What was interesting was that the cover of the edition I own really emphasized the "Y" dying message (as does the subtitle of the novel, by the way), but the dying message definitely fails to carry the whole plot. It is a cool dying message though, reminiscent of one of Queen's more famous dying message short stories, but quite hard to translate to English I think. Arisugawa uses a neat little trick to keep the reader in the dark regarding the meaning of the message (or at least: I was definitely in a blind spot that was a result of that 'trick'/way of writing) and that was really well done. But it is hard to center a novel-length story around one dying message, which explains why the students also have to deal with a lot more mysterious events (and the vulcano eruptions). As a result though, the importance of the dying message weakens. In fact, it is not even the decisive clue that points to the murderer. Which was kinda surprising. It is more a clue that works in hindsight. I can almost see Arisugawa coming with this cool dying message, only to be forced to diminish its role in the story in order to make it work.

This novel actually does feel a bit unpolished, or maybe I should refer to it as signs that this really is a debut work (something a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club also mentioned to me). First of all, you really, really don't need 17 students in a closed circle situation. That is overdoing it. Especially as they are all students. Yes, Arisugawa tries to keep them apart by giving them nicknames and placing them in different faculties and stuff, but seventeen is really overdoing it. Arisugawa might have fun writing them and it might have reminded him of his own experiences as a student, but it does not really work on paper (I was glad someone told me that even Japanese readers have trouble keeping all those students apart). I also had a bit of problems with the pacing. The story does start with an in media res prologue, but it takes long before things actually start, and the whole middle part is kinda slow and not very convincing (yes, it might be dangerous to move on an active vulcano, but it is probably more dangerous to stay on an active vulcano with a murderer. It doesn't take days to figure that out). Finally, there were several subplots and theories refered to which.... didn't go anywhere. Some of them might be considered red herrings, but others might have been addressed in more detail to actually strengthen the atmosphere of the story (the occult moon theories for example).

Anyway, as a debut work, Gekkou Game is not without its flaws, but it is definitely an amusing story written in the Queen-school. It's the second Student Alice novel I read and while not nearly as cool as Soutou no Akuma, I think Gekkou Game is decent enough to start with if you are into that whole reading-in-chronological-order thing.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖『月光ゲーム　Ｙの悲劇 '88』

『Unlucky Men in the Rain』

「空想の翼はますます広がるようですね。まるで、自分が乗った車はとうに崖から飛び出しているのに、それに気がつかずに懸命に運転しているよう」

「お子様アニメのギャグですね。その場合、車輪の下に地面がないことに運転手が気づかなければ、車は走り続けることが可能だ、という約束ごとがあります」

「あなたは気がついてない？」

「前しか見ていませんから」

「下をご覧なさい」

「目的地についてから見ます。そこに地面があれば、途中でも地面の上を走っていたことになります」

『双頭の悪魔』

"You're spreading your imaginary wings even more. It's like you focused on driving a car, without noticing that you have driven off a cliff already"

"You mean like a gag from a cartoon, right? But it's a rule that as long as the driver doesn't notice that he isn't driving on firm ground anymore, the car will continue moving"

"You haven't noticed it yet?"

"I am only looking in front of me"

"Please look beneath yourself"

"I'll look when I have arrived at my destination. If there's ground there, then it means I have been riding on firm ground"

"Double-Headed Devil"

No. Nothing has changed. Even having read Jinroujou no Kyoufu, I still think that 700 pages for a book is quite long. Especially if it takes a long time for people to actually die.

Arisugawa Alice is a familiar name here, but this novel is not part of the Arusigawa novels I usually read actually. Arisugawa has two main series, with me usually discussing the Writer Alice novels. In those novels, criminologist Himura Hideo and mystery writer Arisugawa Alice work together and solve crimes. Arisugawa other main series is the Student Alice series. In this series Eito University Mystery Club members Egami Jirou (head of the club) and Arisugawa Alice (a normal student and aspiring writer) work together and solve crimes. To make it more confusing: student Alice writes the Writer Alice novels, while writer Alice writes the Student Alice novels. So each Alice is just a fabrication of the other Alice.

Yes, it can be quite confusing.

Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil") is the third novel in the Student Alice series (because I never read anything in order, it seems). Events of the previous novel have seemingly made a big impact on Eito Mystery Club member Maria, as she takes a long break from university and goes back to her parents in Tokyo. After a while, she sets out on a trip through Japan, hoping to get over the events and she winds up in Kisara village in the Kouchi prefecture on Shikoku. The mountain village is actually quite famous all over Japan as it's a very queer village:  the wealthy Kisara had bought the village (and named it after himself) as an outer heaven for soldiers artists. Artists were invited to live with him in the village, giving them the chance to cultivate their arts without having to worry about work and money. Kisara himself has died, but his widow still runs the village, with a bit over 10 inhabitants according to her husband's wishes. The village is also very keen on privacy, not allowing anyone to enter. Maria herself just happened to strain her leg just as the inhabitants wanted to throw her out of the village, but the people were kind enough to help her and allow her to stay until her leg healed.

But this was two months ago. And while she had contact with her parents in the beginning, letters and phone calls slowly started to stop, making them very anxious about what's happened with Maria. Her father therefore requests the other Eito Mystery Club members to go to the village and find out what's happening there. The four remaining members, including Egami and Alice, of course want to help. Stuff happens though, and it results in: Egami and Maria get stuck in Kisara Village, with the other EMC members in the neighbouring village, because the connecting bridge collapsed due to a storm. And it's during the same storm that dead bodies are found on both sides of the river!

First thing that I noticed: Egami Jirou is a much more likeable character than Himura Hideo. Whereas Himura Hideo verbally abuses (writer) Alice whenever there's a chance, Egami is much more like a normal person. He is much more like the senior you want to have. I was a bit disappointed though that the EMC members, despite being mystery club members, didn't really talk about detective novels / writers. I don't know about the other Student Alice novels, but you'd think they would talk a bit more like... the students in Jukkakukan no Satsujin or the dialogues Ranko and Reito have in the Nikaidou Ranko series. You know, referencing both famous and lesser-known stories as they investigate the murders. The EMC members aren't dumb (not at all!), but you'd think they'd be more genre-savvy.

Like I said in the beginning, this novel is long. But I have to admit, it manages to keep your attention quite well for practically the whole story. The story develops at a steady pace due to the double investigation on both sides of the river with Egami as the main detective on one side, and the three remaining EMC members on the other side (with Maria and Alice being the narrators for the respective sides). In fact, there are so many developments in this story that Arisugawa didn't insert one, not two, but no less than three Challenges to the Reader in this novel! It reminds a bit of The Greek Coffin Mystery:  the story develops further even after several important plot-details have been revealed by the deductions of the detectives. The difference of course being that three challenges are genuine challenges and not false solutions. The three challenges don't feel gimmicky and actually aren't gimmick and truly fit with the story Arisugawa is telling.

The puzzle-plot is pretty interesting (with a murder in a cave-maze, 'creative artists' as the suspects and a Queen-ish investigation into a letter that has disappeared), but a bit on the easy side, I thought. Arisugawa should have used the myth of the two-headed river-dragon better though. The story as it is though, is still very good and it's not very surprising that (at some time) Arisugawa Alice chose this novel as his own best work (I prefer 46 Banme no Misshitsu released a year earlier though) The logical structure of the deductions on both sides show the Queenian influence on Arisugawa and he certainly manages to come up with a puzzle plot that holds that tradition high.

Like most of the Student Alice novels, this story has actually been made into a movie, a direct-to-VHS release. Can't find any video sources though. But now I come to think about it, this story would make for a pretty entertaining movie.

The writing style in Writer Alice and Student Alice series seem quite different too. Whereas writer Alice can be quite sarcastic in tone (not in Himura's face though), student Alice does feel like a student with his own set of problems. As I have only been reading Writer Alice stories until now, the writing style in this novel feels surprisingly fresh. Maybe switching between the two series is the best way to read Arisugawa? What totally bugs me in both series is the fact both Alices speak Osaka dialect, but don't write/think in it. Why? (yes, I am interested in role language. Probably nobody else cares about this...)

Now to procure the other Student Alice novels...

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖　『双頭の悪魔』