Sea You, Sea Me

" You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there"

"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

Honestly, the water color covers of the pocket reissues of this series are so much better than the original comic-like covers...

Tanabata "Kick" Kikuno miraculously managed to (help) solve two major cases soon after her posting to the Homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, even though she was just intended to be a "pretty face" and now the attempt to mix her up in an international scandal failed, some people above her in the command chain are becoming very nervous, as at this rate Kick might climb the career ladder faster than them. Kick's boss Fushimi advises her lie low for a while and tells her to take a holiday. She decides to go to Hachijou-jima, and even Chika and Ryou (her former fellow members of the idol group Blue Sky G) as well as her current colleagues Higashiyama and Shinkai "Angler" Yasukimi decide to fly over for one day to fish together. It's not fish they find at sea though, but an old boat floating around with a decapitated head. Holiday becomes work as they quickly notify the local police. Based on the currents, it appears the boat came floating from Kikakujima, a small island nearby with about three hundred inhabitants. Kairyuuji Shinji, the younger brother of the current mayor whose family has ruled the island for generations, had already been reported missing and the decapitated head is indeed identified as Shinji's. Because Shinji's body is still missing and it's determined Shinji was on the island until his disappearance, it's decided to set up an investigation HQ on Kikakujima and because the islands around here still fall under Tokyo jurisdiction, Kick's unit is sent to the small island to find Shinji's body and catch the murderer. 

It doesn't take long for them to find Shinji's body inside the cabin of one of the fishing boats of the ship graveyard on the other side of the harbor, but the cabin is locked with a chain and padlock from the inside, meaning that the only one who could've locked the door was... Shinji's dead, headless body. This notion of a body rising to lock the door reminds some people of the rumors surrounding Kikakujima: just two generations ago, the islanders lynched a doctor who was said to be conducting human experiments in search of the secret of eternal life on this island, giving the island the nickname Mad Science Island. But while Kick and her team look for clues, more murders occur that seem to have an impossible angle, like Kick and Higashiyama witnessing a burning woman falling into the sea, but when they fish her up, they find she was stabbed hours earlier! With administration ready to demote Kick the moment she makes a mistake, the only option left for her is to solve the case and catch the killer in Katou Motohiro's Kikagakujima no Kioku - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! ("Memories of Mad Science Island - Those Who Make The Arrest Win!" 2019).

This third novel in the series about the former-idol-turned-police-detective Kick by Q.E.D. and C.M.B.'s Katou Motohiro is set immediately after the second novel, and it definitely pays to read these novels in order, as the subplot of Kick's management superiors trying to find some excuse to get her away from Homicide is directly tied to what happened in the second novel, and continues here. I first read the second book in this series, Quantum Man Kara no Tegami - Tsukameta Mon Gachi!, which I thought was the best complete work of Katou I had read until now, more enjoyable than his better known works Q.E.D. and C.M.B.. Kick as an underdog character was infinitely more interesting than Touma and Shinra in Q.E.D. and C.M.B. respectively. The real Holmes character in this series is the data analyst Shinkai "Angler" Yasukimi, who acts as a kind of armchair detective because he usually solves the cases based on the mails Kick sends him. Because of this, Kick might initially remind the reader of the female sidekick characters n Q.E.D. and C.M.B. due to her athletic talents, but she's actually quite intelligent and more often than not, she'll solve a large part of the mystery on her own. She's therefore much more fun to follow, being not as brilliant Touma and Shinra in Q.E.D. and C.M.B., but still able to move the plot with both her mental and physical abilities. The political plot surrounding Kick's position are also naturally woven into the mystery plot, which is really entertaining: her bosses want Kick to fail and are ready to jump on every mistake and even use the media to get her out of Homicide, which at times limits the moves Kick can make, which ultimately influence how the plot develops. It's a great way to incorporate Kick's personal story to the ongoing series of murders, as sometimes the murderer sees an opportunity that basically only exists because Kick can't move around freely without worrying about her job.

Kick's position as a protagonist different from the girl sidekicks we see in Q.E.D. and C.M.B. is also noticable in this book, with "Angler" only popping up once in a while on the island, while most of the plot of Kikagakujima no Kioku revolves around Kick's investigation. After the discovery of the locked room in the abandoned fishing boat, suspicions arise that the murderer may be focusing on the members of the Kairyuuji family, the de-facto rulers of the island. In the past, Kikakujima used to be a penal island and the Kairyuuji family acted as the island chiefs, but even now, the islanders all accept Kairyuuji Mitsugu was the mayor, like his father before him. While the island is quite small, there has been a small influx of outsiders lately because they're digging for precious metals in the sea, with lots of people taking the ferry to and from Hachijou-jima daily, so the investigation into Shinji's murder isn't going as smoothly as you'd expect on a small island. The two previous novels were distinctly urban, so it's interesting to see how this series now tackles the Yokomizo Seishi setting of an isolated community, while still being firmly set in a contemporary setting. The book focuses a lot on Kick's digging into the family history and the interpersonal relations of the current members in search of a motive and this aspect combined with the small island with a secret history (there's also a neat map!) definitely reminds a bit of the Kindaichi novels.

When it comes to the individual murder mysteries of Kikagakujima no Kioku, most of the concepts are perhaps a bit simple when viewed seperately. The locked cabin on the fishing boat for example is solved very easily by "Angler" early on in the story and while the following murders on the island (yes, more and more murders occur) usually have an unexplicable element to them initially, these minor mysteries about the murders are usually cleared up fairly soon. Kikagakujima no Kioku is therefore much more enjoyable seeing everything come together, as while the seperate parts don't surprise the reader too much, it's the story that's created with all of those concepts that makes this book a perfectly enjoyable entry in this series: there are a lot more twists and turns than you'd initially expect and the book also makes great use of the island setting to present a story that is at one hand very familar in detective stories (as said, the isolated community setting), but it's also a story that actually uses the characteristics of this specific setting to make the mystery plot possible in the first place: the story wouldn't have worked the way it did had it been set elsewhere. The book eventually builds up to a nice confrontation with the murderer where it's revealed a lot more was going on than appeared at first sight, and it also manages to hit those typical human drama elements you see more often in Q.E.D. and C.M.B. than in  Conan or Kindaichi Shounen.

Kikagakujima no Kioku - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! was thus another solid entry in this series and I think that on the whole, it's still the series by Katou Motohiro I manage to enjoy best overall. This entry on one hands builds on the subplot of the previous novels, but also brings something completely new by moving Kick and her unit away from the metropolis to a tiny island, bringing the type of story I hadn't expected with this series. While the mysteries taken seperately are not mindblowing, the overall story told is entertaining and manages to captivate the reader, so if you pick up this book, you're sure to have a good time.

Original Japanese title(s): 加藤元浩『奇科学島の記憶 捕まえたもん勝ち!』

A Break in the Chain

"Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently. “I can't make bricks without clay."

"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

You know, I like the watercolor-esque cover art for the bunko pockets better than the original covers.

During high school, Tanabata Kikuno was active as one of the three members of the local idol group Blue Sky G. Soon after the release of their first single however, their lyricist passed away: the elderly Takemoto was a very beloved industry veteran, but he had never written the text for a pop song before, but he was surprisingly fond of Blue Sky G and of course Kikuno paid her respects at his wake. When she accidentally overhears Takemoto's attorney discussing with a police detective that Takemoto's death was a murder, she can't help but get involved, and with the help of the mysterious young man who accompanied the police detective, Kikuno managed to clear up the circumstances surrounding Takemoto's death. This experience drove her to enter the police academy after Blue Sky G was disbanded and she finished high school, and a few years later, she has become a full-fledged police officer of the National Police Agency, who even has gained a reputation of sorts: the manner in which she managed to utterly destroy the Self Defense class teacher earned her the nickname Kick. To Kick's great surprise however, she finds she's appointed to the Homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, even though she's just a rookie. 

The Homicide division is the "face" of the Metropolitan Police Department and usually, only the best of the best are scouted into the division, but after a while Kick realizes why she was posted there: as a former idol, she's just to be a pretty face and to be used as a PR resource. Kick is determined to show that she's truly suited for the job and gambles everything on her first murder case, figuring that if a rookie like her can accomplish significant on her first case, the people above are sure to look at her differently. She's not alone either, for she's getting hints from two curious people connected to the investigation into the murder of a woman who was pushed off her balcony after an assaillant made his way into the appartment and locked her husband up in the closet. Kusatsuji Renzou is a criminal psychologist who has been assisting the police as an advisor and has solved a few impossible murder cases in the past. While he can be a bit eccentric and hardly speaks with people, he seems to get along with Kick and gives her some valuable hints at time. And while Kusatsuji appears at the crime scene from time to time, Kick's encounters with Shinkai "Angler" Yasukimi are usually at HQ. Angler is a data analyst who double-checks all the internal case reports for mistakes, and while the manner in which he points out all the mistakes and incongruencies in these reports are far from polite or educational, Angler has been able to solve cases simply by noticing small mistakes in the reports written by the detectives on the scene. As a rookie, Kick's reports of course have plenty of mistakes for Angler to jump on, but even Kick realizes that Angler is not just being a nuisance, but that the mistakes he points out are indeed often vital points in the investigation. With the help of these two minds and her own guts, Kick's out to catch her first killer in Katou Motohiro's Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! Tanabata Kikuno no Sousa Houkokusho ("Those Who Make The Arrest Win! - The Investigation Reports of Tanabata Kikuno", 2016).

After starting with Katou's mystery manga Q.E.D. and C.M.B. irregularly two years ago, I also became curious about the novel series he had been writing, and last year, I read Quantum Man Kara no Tegami - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi!, the second novel in the series about the former-idol-turned-police-detective Kick. And the reason I first read the second novel in the series was simply because I had put the wrong book in my shopping basket. I usually don't mind reading novels in a series out of order, and unless I'm following a series 'in real time' I often read books completely out of order. I mentioned in the review for Quantum Man Kara no Tegami - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! that luckily, everything you needed to know was explained in the first few pages, but now that I have read the first book in this series, I have to say I really regret having read these two books in the wrong order. I won't explain this in detail, but the second book does in a way spoil what eventually becomes a significant plot point of the first novel (or at the very least, strongly hints at it). So err, don't make the same mistake and read the books in order.

In the review of Quantum Man Kara no Tegami - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi!, I wrote that I enjoyed the novel, as one complete product, the best out of all I had read of Katou by then. While thematically, it had a lot of similarities with Q.E.D. and C.M.B, including the pattern of an atlethic, impulsive female protagonist paired up with a male detective figure who works in the background, a scientific theme in the form of the Quantum Man and some human drama background, I found the focus on Kick's antics quite enjoyable. I was therefore quite surprised when Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! turned out to be different in style. Whereas the second novel was completely focused on one single case (involving multiple murders), Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! consists of two distinct parts, and even within those parts, the reader is treated to several smaller cases. The first quarter of the novel is focused on Kick as a high school student and her time in Blue Sky G and the mysterious death of their lyricist Takemoto. During the wake at the late writer's manor, Kick learns that the elderly Takemoto had intended to only let one of his two children inherit the manor and all his fortune: the money is needed to pay the enormous inheritance tax involved with the manor, which Takemoto wanted to be preserved. The other child would only get his second home, but that house is in need of a lot of maintenance and would only cost them money. So that's a motive for murder  for the children and their families before Takemoto would change his will. During the wake, Takemoto's attorney tries to get permission from the children to have an autopsy performed on Takemoto to prove it was murder, but they refuse. Kick and the mysterious young man who accompanied the police detective try to figure something out themselves too, when the body of Takemoto has disappeared from the manor. But how could anyone have gotten the body out of the casket without anyone in the room noticing? The mystery of how the body was spirited away is fairly simple, and the whereabouts of the body can be guessed at easily due to a segment that stands out a lot because it didn't serve any purpose but to establish one single, certain fact.

The second part of the novel is about Kick's first murder investigation, but this plot involves a few other minor story elements. For example, at one point, Kick decides to look up some of the old cases criminal psychologist Kusatsuji has solved, and we are treated to what's basically a mini quiz, where Kikuno shortly summarized the (impossible) murder cases and then tells the reader how it was done. If the backstories had been fleshed out more, I guess these ideas could've been used in Q.E.D. and C.M.B too, though only one of these stories can be considered as truly fair to the reader (as in: you are given all the hints in advance to solve it yourself before Kick tells you the answer) and ultimately, these old police reports are just filler. For the most part however, the narrative focuses on Kick's efforts to help out in the investigation of the murder on the woman thrown off the balcony. Most readers will probably have an inkling what has happened, as the case itself is fairly simple, but Katou does do a lot to make the story fairly engaging by pushing Kick in the right direction at set times. Katou basically uses the characters of Kusatsuji and Angler like a sort of Columbo, by making them ask Kick about all kinds of seemingly minor contradictions and small things that don't quite add up, which gives Kick a hint about what's really going on. Because of this structure, there's a proper build-up to the solving of the case and the reader isn't only confronted with all the things the murderer did wrong at the very end of the novel. Katou also tries to go beyond "just another case for Kick" by hiding a larger conspiracy behind her first case, but personally, I thought the "surprise" was telegraphed too obviously, and while overall, I think this book is entertaining in the sense that a lot happens/many cases are discussed, none of the cases that occur really manage to make that much an impression on their own.

I liked what was done with the subtitle The Investigation Reports of Tanabata Kikuno by the way! Throughout the novel, Kick writes several reports about the discoveries she's made and her questioning of suspects, and they are all included in the novel. At first, I thought they were unnessary padding, as they basically summarized the very events we had read about in the preceding pages, so you'd be reading about the same things twice, but Angler does actually pick out a few mistakes or omissions in Kick's reports that eventually help out in the investigation. In my review of the videogame A.I. The Somnium Files, I wrote a lot about the importance of information management in mystery fiction: who knows what at what time determines if and when a case can be solved. While not a major theme of Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! Tanabata Kikuno no Sousa Houkokusho, it does show that even if the protagonist and the reader do learn certain facts, this information that should cause other characters to act can still be lost if it's not properly written or omitted in a report that is shared with others: an example of why information management is so important to a good mystery novel.

While I really liked the sequel, Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! Tanabata Kikuno no Sousa Houkokusho didn't quite manage to make as strong an impression. While the story is entertaining enough and it's a very smooth read, the story set-up with several smaller cases is less engaging, and the individual cases themselves are also rather simple in terms of mystery, with some literally told in just a few pages. Kick's also less active/effective compared to her second appearance, where she's much more fun character to root for. On the whole though, I still like Kick as a character (best Katou protagonist I've read until now!), so I'll be sure to pick up the third volume in the future too, as well as pick up those crossover stories in Q.E.D. iff and C.M.B. at some point. 

Original Japanese title(s): 加藤元浩『捕まえたもん勝ち! 七夕菊乃の捜査報告書 』

Trouble in Warp Space

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 

"Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There"

I don't like doing reviews of the same author in a row, so I'm glad I got to sneak Death Come True in between...

Tanabata "Kick" Kikuno was one of the members of the local idol artist group Blue Sky G as a high school student, but after the trio disbanded, Kick enrolled in the police academy and after graduation she was assigned to the National Police Agency. An attractive former idol in the force was considered to be beneficial to the image of the police, but after the rookie detective managed to solve a murder case with the help of the good men and women of the Homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department and the brilliant police data analyst Shinkai "Angler" Yasukimi, people higher up in the NPA started to get nervous, as they fear the highly popular and capable detective might climb the career ladder faster they can. Attempts are made to undo Kick's posting to the MPD Homicide division, as any successes made there by Kick are bound to boost her career and make things more difficult for others. But it's not only internal politics that trouble Kick, but also international relations. Kick and "Angler" are sent to Boston to protect the Japanese MIT exchange student Sanjouin Haruhiko: as the scion of the Sanjouin clan, who have served for generations as important diplomats, Haruhiko is expected to become one of Japan's most important diplomats in the future. Haruhiko is also friends with Norman Kirk, son of a US senator who is currently on the committee negotiating an important US-Japan trade treaty in the making, and figures in the upper echelons of Japanese politics are convinced that Haruhiko's connections are essential to the negotations.

However, both Haruhiko and Norman's names have been found on a hit list. Some days ago, the body of Norman's bodyguard was found in a car hidden in a state park. There were also clear signs two other people had been killed and buried somewhere in the park, though their bodies have not been discovered yet. In the victim's pocket, the FBI found a letter signed by the "Quantum Man," who swears to avenge "Fiona" by killing the seven people who caused her death. It turns out Haruhiko, Norman and five others formed a little group of friends who regularly used drugs and that their dealer Fiona had been killed during a turf war while she was trying to buy cocaine for them. The Quantum Man apparently blames these seven for Fiona's death. So three of the group are already dead, and the first murder was apparently committed under impossible circumstances: the first victim had entered a large storage unit to retrieve their stash of drugs while the others were waiting outside the only entrance. The others were alerted by a pistol shot and rushed inside the storage unit, but inside they could not find a sign of the murderer. But how could the Quantum Man have shot somebody inside without being seen enter or leave the building and with all exits watched? The investigation in Boston ultimately doesn't lead to new results, but a few weeks later, Kick is shocked to learn that Haruhiko, Norman and the two remaining persons on the list are coming to Japan because of intensified trade treaty negotiations. A succesful murder attempt on the son of a US senator would surely lead to an international scandal and weaken Japan's position in the negotiations, so it's in everyone's interest to prevent any further murders. The whole party stays at a fancy hotel in Tokyo owned by the Sanjouin family, which boasts advanced and effective security measures like a moat and motion sensors surrounding three sides of the hotel grounds, a special VIP building with elevators that can only be operated with a valid room key and an intelligent hotel layout which allows security cameras to cover every inch of the non-private sections of the hotel without any blind spots. And yet the Quantum Man succeeds again! Can this murderer really never be observed directly, but only by proxy through their actions? The higher-ups are willing to make Kick the scapegoat for the blunder, so her only way out is to solve these impossible murders before she's demoted in Katou Motohiro's Quantum Man Kara no Tegami - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! ("Letters from the Quantum Man - Those Who Make The Arrest Win!" 2017)

I've been reading Katou's mystery manga Q.E.D. and C.M.B. irregularly for a while now, but ever since I learned Katou has also been writing a novel series, I've been quite curious about them. The first entry in Katou's Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi! ("Those Who Make The Arrest Win!") series about former idol Tanabata "Kick" Kikuno was published in 2016, followed by sequels in 2017 and 2019. And now you might wonder: "Huh, I can't remember seeing a review of the first novel, but this post is about the second novel..." The answer is: I didn't pay attention and put the second novel in my shopping cart instead of the first by accident. All well. Everything I thought I needed to know was explained in the first few pages anyway, so you can definitely start with the second novel if you wish to do so. By the way, readers of Q.E.D. iff and C.M.B. might remember the character Kick, as she has also appeared in crossover stories there. There's one big Katou-verse going on, and it was actually surprising we didn't see any explicit Q.E.D. references in this novel, given that the first part of the novel is set in Boston and MIT, where Q.E.D.'s Touma lived and studied for some years.

Interestingly, I think of all I've read of Katou until now, I think this novel was the one I enjoyed the best overall, as one complete product. Theme-wise, there are a lot of similarities with Q.E.D. and C.M.B., but I think the balance between the various elements and their variations was the best here. The tone of the novel is a bit comedic of course like Katou's manga series, but there's more. For example, at first the athletic Kick seems to follow the model of the female sidekick figures Kana and Tatsuki from Q.E.D. and C.M.B., but she's given a lot more depth as the narrator of the story and while she's ultimately not the detective-character (that's "Angler") and occassionally out of her depths as a rookie detective, she's a pretty sharp character who is entertaining to follow. And while she also shows off her athletic skills, Kick's antics aren't just physical. Over the course of the story, several people in the NPA try to get Kick kicked out of Homicide and make her the scapegoat of any mistakes made during the operation, but Kick manages to slip away in rather clever ways. These segments make up for smaller, but interesting mysteries that invoke the spirit of the Q.E.D. stories that focus on logical contradiction and human psychology. The manner in which Kick manages to evade demotion after the hotel murder in particular is brilliant: properly set-up and clewed, the solution not only saves Kick, but manages to chase the conspirators into a corner in an amusing manner. It makes Kick a more interesting protagonist to follow than for example Touma and Shinra in Q.E.D. and C.M.B. respectively, as Kick is more of the underdog who still manages to hang on. The underlying storyline of the internal politics inside the MPD and NPA surrounding Kick's posting to the homicide division make Kick's own narrative interesting, especially as it also ties into the overall investigation in meaningful ways.

References to fields of science are of course the bread and butter of Q.E.D. and as Kick's hunting after the Quantum Man in this novel, we find naturally some references to quantum mechanics (Yes, the Cat's here too. Or not). In this tale, the circumstances of impossible murders committed by the Quantum Man serve as a way for Katou to write, in a simple and accessible manner, about some basic concepts of quantum physics. The murderer seems to defy normal physics in any case, as they can enter and leave places under observation without being detected at all, as if they can simply walk through walls. The most surprising ones are the double murder in the hotel, where the murderer manages to enter their victims' hotel rooms and leave without ever appearing on the security cameras and another murder where someone wearing a bulletproof vest is shot in the heart, even though there was nobody standing at the place where the shot was fired. The whole book is filled with impossible murders, though I have to admit I wasn't always as impressed by them. The first one for example is very simple and I don't think the misdirection works very well. In other cases, I can appreciate the basic ideas behind these murders, even if they rely on familiar ideas, but they don't always seem feasible in the context of the story: the murderer must've been one very busy and also very lucky person, as it's nearly impossible nobody noticed anything during all the preparation of the murderer. The Quantum Man is of course unmasked as a normal person who only appeared to have done the impossible, but the things they did do require so much luck, they might as well be someone defying the laws of nature. If it had only been a single instance of these murder plots, I wouldn't have thought too much of it, but when the murderer pulls off things like that one time after another without anyone ever asking questions, it's almost like they're really superhuman.  Reminds a bit of the murderer in The Tragedy of X. That said, I did like how Katou stringed these murders all together to create the illusion of the Quantum Man. And the murder situations themselves are alluring.

The detective-character of this series is the data analyst and former FBI agent Shinkai "Angler" Yasukimi. It's no surprise he reminds a bit of the protagonists of Q.E.D.. and C.M.B., though you see less of him because Kick's the one who's narrating and she has different tasks. I liked how near the end, the discovery of certain object allows Angler to set his trap to catch the murderer: the way he deduces the implications and true meaning of the object is truly clever. The stories I've read of Q.E.D. and C.M.B. don't often feature this kind of reasoning, with a focus on the interpretation of the physical evidence (as often seen in Ellery Queen-inspired mystery fiction), so that was a nice change. Though the rest of the impossible murders are more in the spirit of Katou's other series, with the focus more on looking at the known circumstances from a different angle and reinterpreting what we know already, rather than by finding physical clues or building a case through chains of deductions.  The plots in Katou's mystery manga also involve human drama, sometimes up to the extent that I think having a series detective kinda undermines the story, but here the human drama is mostly reserved to the end and I like the balance much better.

But seen as one complete story, I really enjoyed Quantum Man kara no Tegami - Tsukamaeta Mon Gachi!. It was fun to read, the various impossible murders are strung together in an interesting way through the Quantum Man even if the solutions aren't always as convincing, and while it's not a short novel, plenty of stuff happens here to keep the reader entertained from start to end. I'll definitely also pick up the rest of the series in the near future.

Original Japanese title(s): 加藤元浩『量子人間からの手紙 捕まえたもん勝ち!』