The Time Thief

We could steal time just for one day

We can be heroes for ever and ever 

"Heroes" (David Bowie)

Gorgeous cover!

Earlier this year, I discussed Yuuki Haruo's Salome no Guillotine, a very memorable mystery set in the Taishou era, revolving around a series of murders among artists. It was only after reading the book I learned it was actually the latest entry in a series. In fact, I only realized that after I first opened the book of today's review, and saw the names of the protagonists of Salome's Guillotine on the first page... Yuuki Haruo's Tokeidorobou to Akunin ("Clock Thieves & Crooks" 2023) is the second book featuring the adventures of painter Iguchi Sakuta and his friend and former burglar Hasuno in the late Taishou era, with the handsome Hasuno with his criminal experience of course being the detective, while Iguchi functions as our Watson. Iguchi and his wife are good friends with the loner Hasuno, who after a short career in relieving people of their possessions has now become mostly an upstanding citizen, though the adventures of the two occasionally force Hasuno to make use of his unique talents again. And yes, this is the second book in the series apparently, so I'm reading these out of order and I have no idea how much about their initial meeting is explained in the first book, but in Tokeidorobou to Akunin, they form a great team. The book is technically a short story collection, but the stories do flow from one into the next, even if there's no tight overarching storyline. 

The book opens with Kaemon-shi no Bijutsukan ("The Art Museum of Mr Kaemon"), where Iguchi has a major problem. Long ago, his father had bought an antique Dutch clock which once belonged to the Dutch royal family. When he purchased the clock, he also received a very well-made imitation of the clock, as the previous owner had been scared of theft. When Iguchi's father sold the clock to the collector Kaemon, he gave the imitation to Kaemon. The latter never noticed it, and Iguchi suspects his late father did it on purpose. The elderly Kaemon has not long to live anymore, and has recently had his country house renovated to include an art museum to display the art collection he gathered throughout the years. This would include the Dutch table clock, and Iguchi is afraid fellow art connoisseurs who will visit the museum will realize it's a fake, and that it will become public his father sold Kaemon imitation art. Iguchi and Hasuno visit Kaemon at his house, to see if they could just apologize and give him the real clock, but the attitude of the grumpy old man makes it clear there is only one solution: Iguchi and Hasuno have to break in the museum and swap the fake clock for the real one themselves. What follows is a fun adventure of Iguchi and Hasuno trying to sneak inside the museum, but while they are there, they notice something is off about the museum, but what? This is one of those mysteries where you don't really know what the mystery is until the conclusion, so I can't say too much about the mystery. But I'd definitely say it's a memorable one! The ingenious twist is definitely set-up very well with both physical and psychological clues, and I love the themes (motive) behind this story. Great opening of the book, especially with the banter between Iguchi and Hasuno.

Akunin Ikka no Misshitsu ("The Locked Room of the Family of Crooks") follows Atsuko, the maid of the Minoda family, who live in a large manor in Yokohama. Patriarch Akiyoshi lives in England with his wife, while his four children live in their parental home in Japan. None of the children, all of different mothers, really like their father, nor each other, but money is a great binding tissue, so they all live together. Oldest son Yukimasa one day receives a letter from his father telling him he is returning from England and he has also sent boxes full of furniture back to Japan. It appears his wife died, and now he's coming back, but his father wants his home in England replicated perfectly in the annex of their Japanese home, hence Akiyoshi not only sending back sofas and chairs, but even the doors. Yukimusa arranges for builders to come and construction starts based on the photographs his father sent him. One night however, as the maid Atsuko returns, she notices a figure floating in the rooms under construction, and when she peeks through the window, she sees Yukimasa's body hanging from a rope, with his legs resting on the bolted door latch (which was also imported from England). She calls the other siblings, but they can only enter the room by breaking the door down: meaning this was a locked room. At first sight, this therefore looks like a suicide, but when Iguchi and Hasuno visit the place (Iguchi's patron had sent Iguchi and Hasuno to sort out something with Yukimasa), they soon uncover not only that all of Yukimasa's siblings had a motive to kill him,, but they also find clues that indicate this was indeed a murder. But how could the murderer have left the locked room? On a purely technical level, the locked room mystery is not very original perhaps, but the way it ties to the motive is really great! It provides a fantastic reason why such a rudimentary trick was used, and the small unique elements of this locked room, like balancing the victim's feet on the latch, do transform it enough to create a good story. But it's definitely the motive, and the final implication regarding the victim, that makes this another good entry.

Yuukai to Ooyuki - Yuukai no Shou ("Abduction and Heavy Snow: Abduction") and Yuukai to Ooyuki - Ooyuki no Shou ("Abduction and Heavy Snow: Heavy Snow") is a two-part story, each focusing on a different mystery. In the first part, Hasuno asked to come disguised as a salesman to Iguchi's sister-in-law's place. When he arrives there, he learns Iguchi's niece Mineko has been abducted and a ransom note has been left in their letter-box. They ask Hasuno for advise, but the latter soon notices several odd points about the ransom note, leading to a surprising conclusion regarding why Mineko was abducted. The story then deals with the drop-off for the ransom, which is done by Iguchi's father-in-law, while Hasuno and Iguchi, in disguise, try to spot the abductors. Again, Hasuno quickly sees through the trickery of the abductors and soon the two are on their way to save Mineko. This chapter is the most adventurous of the whole book, I think, with a good deal of suspense as Hasuno slowly deduces the bigger story behind Mineko's abduction simply based on the instructions in the ransom note. The trick regarding the ransom money drop-off is fairly simple, but it's basically just a set-up to lead into the second part of the story. There we follow the story first from Mineko's point of view, as she finds herself abducted by a group of men. In the night, she's taken by one of the leaders to a hut outside and thrown on a hay bed: Mineko fears the worst and is knocked out by the man. When she wakes up however, she finds that man stabbed to death lying next to her. It is at that time her uncle arrives together with Hasuno, having found out where she was being held, but they have two problems: one is that their car broke down and even if they try to get away on foot now, they'll probably be caught by the rest of the gang in the house next door. The second problem is that the only footprints leading to the hut are those of the dead man, Mineko and Iguchi and Hasuno who arrived just now, meaning the only person who could've killed that man is Mineko. While Mineko has no recollection of killing the man, and Iguchi and Hasuno also don't believe that is the case, who then did kill the man, and how? While it might be hard to guess the details of how this was done, I think the general idea behind the locked room is probably fairly easy to guess, even if it can be a bit tricky figuring out the exact timing. The story then ends in a kind of reverse Home Alone, where Iguchi, Hasuno and Mineko try to round up the whole gang themselves, which results in some funny swashbuckling scenes.

Iguchi, like many of his fellow artists, has found a patron in the art-loving businessman Harumi. In Harumi-shi no Gaikoku Tegami ("Mr Harumi's Letter from Abroad"), Harumi asks Iguchi for some help, or to be exact, he needs the help of Iguchi's friend Hasuno. Not because Hasuno was a burglar, but because Hasuno also knows languages and Harumi needs a translator. His wife passed away some time ago, and he only now got around to sorting out her possessions, but he came across a strange letter from France, even though she did not have any friends there. Hasuno translates the letter, which is sent by the nephew of Marcel Champlain, stating he writes on behalf of his recently deceased uncle, who implored him to write a letter to Japan to express his thanks, and love to Ms Harumi. Harumi has no idea who this Marcel Champlain is, and asks Iguchi and Hasuno to figure out who he is and what his relationship was with his wife. The two dig into the history of Harumi's late wife, which is rather complex: Harumi's recently deceased wife was actually his second, and his first wife was actually her twin sister, who also passed away early, and there was another older sister too. The precise relationship between Harumi and his wife and sister-in-laws is rather complex and can make this story a bit confusing, and again, this is the type of mystery you don't really know was even present until it is explained to you, though I do like the truth Hasuno eventually uncovers, and it gives a very sad, but memorable meaning to the letter sent on Marcel's behalf.

In Mitsukawamaru no Ayashii Bansan ("The Alluring Dinner on the Mitsukawa-Maru"), Iguchi, Hasuno and fellow artist Ootsuki find themselves on the ship Mitsukawa-Maru, as representives of Harumi. The Mitsukawa-Maru recently returned from India, but ran into trouble just off the coast: while the ship itself is in no direct danger of sinking and the crew safely returned to the mainland, it will take a few days before the ship itself can be pulled free. However, the ship was carrying a unique cargo: two tigers.... which are going to be served at dinner. Hirokawa Koutarou, the owner of the ship, also runs a shady secret club where the members can enjoy strange things, which is why he had planned a dinner party with tiger meat. Due to the ship's troubles however, he has decided to hold the party on the ship itself now, with the invitees being brought especially on the Mitsukawa-Maru as it lays off the coast.  While one tiger has already been prepared, the other is bit more troublesome: the ship's troubles led to one tiger cage being broken, and now that tiger is running free in two connected rooms in the hold. Terue is Hirokawa's maid, and she's on the ship too to take care of her boss' guests, but she comes across the dead body of one of them! She reports to her boss, but when they return to the place, the body is gone, and her boss is not really believing her. Hasuno and Iguchi however have reason to believe Terue might be right, as the victim was a reporter on the trail of a serial killer, who might be one of the other guests, and they start poking around and looking for the body. This is by far the longest story of the bunch, offering a closed circle mystery with unique elements like a friggin' tiger in the hold, but I feel this story was way longer than it needed to be, and even felt a bit tiring after a while. Hasuno and Iguchi are already aware of much of the background story by the time the story starts, so the reader is always at a disadvantage, and unfortunately, this story has no floorplan even though the characters move around a lot on the ship. Eventually, Hasuno deduces who the murderer is based on the actions they took, but to be honest, the whodunnit wasn't nearly as impressive as the whydunnit. At least, the whydunnit regarding the direct motive for the second death and the implications of that death was absolutely great, and I would perhaps have preferred a story focusing solely on that.

Houseki Dorobou to Okidokei ("A Jewel Thief and the Table Clock") brings up back to the Dutch table clock from the first story. Iguchi receives a letter from the (son of the) previous owner of the clock, who hopes to buy back the clock. Iguchi has two major problems: due to the conclusion of the first story, Iguchi is still in possession of the clock, even though it belongs to Kaemon and two: the clock was stolen. He had kept it wrapped up in a cloth in the bedroom, but for some reason someone stole the clock, and just the clock, with nothing else in the bedroom being disturbed. This was also only one theft in a series of thefts among friends of his wife: several rubies have been stolen, but all under nearly impossible circumstances: for example, one friend had a bracelet with a ruby embedded in it, and hidden it within an orange cloth, put in a box with many other wrapped up cloths, but the thief managed to steal only the one with the bracelet in it, without opening the other cloths. In another theft, the thief stole a ruby which had been put on a dress, but there had been four identical dresses, with the other three having very well made imitations, so how could the thief so quickly found the real ruby, not even having to touch the other three dresses? While the tricks behind each of these cases is fairly simple, I do like how some of them are connected, leading to some nice synergy moments: the explanation for the ruby on the dress theft for example is pretty clever on its own, but it also gives a great explanation for how the thief managed to find the antique clock in Iguchi's home. While I don't really think this is a very memorable story (I think I had expected it to connect a bit more strongly to the previous stories), it's an okay one, and it also leads directly into the events of Salome's Guillotine.

Overall though, I did really enjoy Tokeidorobou to Akunin. I think Yuuki Haruo especially excels in coming up with cool motives that not only are memorable, but they also often naturally lead to the core mysteries of howdunnit or whodunnit. I already noticed that in Salome's Guillotine, but as a short story collection, you of course see more instances of that here. The banter between Hasuno and Iguchi is also fun, and while some of the stories can become a bit darker, there is usually a slight comedic tone to them (the two stories told from the maid's POV for example have some funny moments where they lament having to work for their employers). So another recommended read! I should probably read the first book too...

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央『時計泥棒と悪人』: 「加右衛門氏の美術館」/「悪人一家の密室」/「誘拐と大雪　誘拐の章」/「誘拐と大雪　大雪の章」/「晴海氏の外国手紙」/「光川丸の妖しい晩餐」/「宝石泥棒と置時計」

Against the Rules

Thou shalt not kill.

"Exodus" (King James Version)

It took me longer than I like to admit to realize this cover was an island in the sea.

Oomuro Rie was quite fond of her uncle Shuuzou. Shuuzou started out with great successes on the stock market, and used his fortune to invest in other businesses that only resulted even more money. The small island he owned, was one of the ways in which he managed to use the money he had at his disposal.The island holds a larger two-story house, and five smaller bungalows, and when she was small, Shuuzou would invite her parents and their children to stay there on the island for holiday. The last few years however, she hadn't really seen her uncle, so the news her uncle had died in a traffic accident came as a shock. As he had no other relatives, Rie's father inherited from his older brother, though the size of the inheritance wasn't as big as it once had been. The island was of course also part of the inheritance, but when the president of a small leisure company contacted Rie's father about wanting to buy the island to develop into a resort, her father was quite positive to the offer, as it's kinda inconvenient to own a small island. They agree to have a look at the current state of the island and the buildings there together, as even Shuuzou himself hadn't visited the place the last five years. The president of the leisure company was friends with Shuuzou, and coincidentally, Shuuzou also knew presidents of a real estate agent and constructing company, who also want in on developing this project, so they and their assistants come too. Rie too wants to come along, as this might be the last time she can see the island of her memories, and as she didn't make it into college this year, she still has time now as she studies for her entrance exams. Ultimately, nine people make their way to the small private island, which can only be accessed via a small pier. When they arrive at the island, they find the buildings to be in pretty good shape, but to their surprise, they find that one shack is filled with explosives, hooked up to a system communicating with a smartphone. The bungalows are all locked, but also seem to be holding bombs. It seems someone has been on the island making these bombs for some reason, but because Rie's father can't be sure his brother is not involved at all, he wants to sleep over it one night before they call the police.

The following morning however, one of them is found dead down the cliff of the island, but more importantly, there is a note addressing all surviving eight of them: in it the murderer says they have taken the smartphone that controls the explosives on the island, and that they will detonate the island, killing everyone, unless the rest will follow the ten rules stated in the note. The ten rules range from everyone having to hand in their smartphone and keep them together in a sealed bag to not contacting the police or the outside world, extending their stay to a full three days and most importantly: they are to not even try to figure out who the murderer is, or they will all die. Can the eight survive their stay on this island while following these hard rules in Yuuki Haruo's Jikkai ("The Ten Commandments", 2023)?

Hakobune ("The Ark", 2022) was the first time I ever read anything by Yuuki and it was easily one of my favorite reads of 2023, so when I learned that soon after reading that book, Yuuki released another book with a similar, Bible-inspired title, I of course was more than interested in the book. I wonder what the next book will be! Revelations? The Tower of Babel? Resurrection? The Parting of the Sea? The potential! Besides the title, Jikkai is not connected story-wise to Hakobune by the way, so you can read them in any order.

* September 2024 edit: Okay, so I read Jikkai last year, and also wrote this review then, but I had a long queue of reviews waiting so the post got delayed until today... but earlier this year, I also reviewed Yuuki's (excellent) Salome's Guillotine: I read it soon after its release date, so I decided to push that review up ahead. While that book also has a title from an episode of the Bible, it is in fact part of a different series.

While Jikkai s basically a closed circle mystery in a very familiar form (an island!), the concept of the "ten commandments" laid upon the survivors is interesting, in theory. The final rule, that forbids them from trying to investigate the murder and learn who the murderer is, makes for a catchy marketing slogan, but the rest of the rules are far more practical, like not allowing them to use their phones unless observed by everyone else, or the rule where nobody is allowed to be with someone else for longer than thirty minutes, after which a five minute cooldown period must follow where you need to be alone. It is clear from the way the rules are laid down, the murderer must be one of the surviving eight: the rules only benefit if the murderer is among them, allowing them to control the rest and not have them solve the mystery, without having to reveal to the rest who they are. They also soon realize the murderer has probably set the explosives to go off unless they reset the counter every thirty minutes, meaning the five minute cool-down period is used to reset that counter, making it more difficult for the rest to do anything to counter the murderer. Due to these rules, the first half of the book might feel more like a suspense novel than a detective novel, as obviously, Rie and the other innocent survivors don't dare to do anything that goes against the ten commandments, and so they can't investigate the body or even ask about each other's alibis, something that would usually be done right away in a novel with a similar setting.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when the rules were actually introduced, because just based on the marketing slogan, I had expected something else. I guess I had expected something more game-like. The rules are very practical, but at the same time, because we know the murderer has to be one of the eight survivors on the island, they seem a bit inconvenient. How is one person going to keep track of the other seven innocent people on the island as they roam about and occasionally talk with each other? The rules don't forbid that, and it's not like the murderer has tracking tech or anything. Rules like "don't be in each other's vicinity for longer than thirty minutes" make more sense in a setting with more technology present. I was honestly first expecting something more Battle Royale-esque, or something like the Future arc of Danganronpa 3, where everyone had bombs attached to themselves, which would detonate if they violated a personal forbidden rule which was different for everyone. Here many of the rules were just so specific "Place this here, put that away", instead of rules that would be important to remember the whole time, which made the whole concept feel less impressive than it could've been. Ultimately, the only rule that mattered really was the one of not trying to find out who the murderer is, with the rest just being offshoots of that to ensure they wouldn't.

As the survivors wonder why the murderer told them to wait for three days, after which they are allowed to contact the police, the days pass by, but more people are killed. The murderer leaves more notes, telling the others that the new victims were only killed because they violated the rules and that the rest don't need to worry if they obey the rules, but of course, the others aren't really able to enjoy the holiday feeling on the island now. Because they are not allowed to investigate or basically even discuss the deaths, in fear of being bombed, the story offers, ostensibly, only minimal clues to solving the mystery, which is course also what makes the story interesting mystery-wise. That said, it's not like the story is completely devoid of clues, and there are a few things discussed shortly that serve as clues, before they are shut down in fear of the killer, but some notes, like the question why the murderer doesn't just command the others to destroy all clues for the murderer or else they will be blown up, is a very fair one. Of course, a lot of these minor questions would normally be developed more in discussion, but that's not possible here, so the questions linger a bit longer until they are picked up at the end again.

And as a mystery novel that tries to give you very little clues while being fair and giving a justification for why there are so few clues, Jikkai is surprisingly fun. Some things that are done here, were already done in Hakobune and I also think they were done better there, but the type of deductions presented here are still quite enjoyable: as in Hakobune, the deductions revolve around Queen-esque logic, focusing on the state of physical clues and the actions performed by the murderer as seen by the state of the scene of the crime, and there's a segment surrounding foot marks that is very interesting: regarding a late murder, the killer finally does order the rest to erase the tracks left by the murderer on a wet field, but for some reason, the murderer already did that for the victim. Why did they erase the victim's tracks themselves, but didn't erase their own? The deductions here are fun, and certainly also part of what I liked so much abotu Hakobune. In terms of the identity of the murderer, and also the whole motivation for why the murders were committed, and also the (barely existant) backstory to the explosives, I have to admit I felt less convinced. A lot of these aspects are barely justified in the narrative, and you keep wondering whether there wasn't some other way (some less convoluted way) to get things done...

Overall, I think Jikkai is a fun, and exciting mystery novel: it is suspenseful, it is mystery-wise interesting because it actively gives you a reason why there are few clues, and thus also challenging you to get as far as you can with the few clues you do have, but some elements are rather rushed, and ultimately, I think a lot of what Jikkai does, was done better in Hakobune. In fact, I would have totally expected these two books being released in reverse order, as Hakobune feels like the upgraded version of Jikkai. Anyway, I do hope Yuuki will continue with this Bible-themed series, as even if this book wasn't as good as Hakobune (which I thought was exceptionally good), I still had fun with it.

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央,『十戒』

The Hand of God

"The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death."

"Salomé"

I have to admit, I had heard of the term "Dance of the Seven Veils" before, but never knew it came from Salome!

Set in the Taisho era (1912-1924), Yuuki Haruo's Salome no Guillotine ("Salome's Guillotine", 2024) starts with the Dutchman Cornelis van Riemsdijk receiving a letter from the Japanese painter Iguchi Sakuta. Van Riemsdijk hails from a prominent family in the Netherlands, but during his father's generation, the family had some financial problems, forcing them to sell some of the art they owned. An antique table clock Cornelis was fond of had been sold to Iguchi Chuujirou, a Japanese friend of Cornelis' father. Cornelis later became a succesful investor, and now many years later, hopes to buy the table clock back from Iguchi Sakuta, the grandson of Chuujirou. Iguchi doesn't own the clock himself anymore, but is able to contact the current owner and arranges for the clock to be sold back to Cornelis van Riemsdijk during a visit to Japan. To discuss things, Van Riemsdijk visits Iguchi, who has his friend (and reformed burglar) Hasuno interpret for him. During his visit, Van Riemsdijk asks to see some of Iguchi's own art, and stowed away in his atelier, Van Riemsdijk is surprised to see the painting of the back of a woman in an orange dress. To Iguchi's great surprise, Van Riemsdijk tells him he has seen a painting with the exact same composition in the United States recently. Iguchi has never publically revealed this painting, so he doesn't understand how this could be, until he learns the other painting was found among the belongings of Yanase, a wealthy art collector who disappeared to America a few months ago: while Iguchi wasn't too close to Yanase, a lot of the other artists in the artists' assocation Iguchi belongs to did know the man well, as Yanase often borrowed money to artists in need. Iguchi then remembers that while he had been working on his painting, he had one day invited the members of the artists' association to his home, and that was the only time anyone could've snuck inside his atelier to take a look at his painting and plagiarize it. But why would anyone do that? Another mystery is the fact that behind scandalous pictures of a woman were found hidden in the frame of the plagiarized painting in America. Van Riemsdijk does like the painting however, and says he'll buy the painting if Iguchi can prove his painting is the original, and that the other is the plagiarized one.

Iguchi thus suspects one of his fellow artists must have plagiarized his painting and starts poking around together with Hasuno and his niece Mineko, an indepedent girl growing in modern Japan. It is at this time, Iguchi learns some of the members of his artists' association are involved in the forgery of art pieces. Suspecting the plagiarizing painter might be one of the forgers too, he tries to learn who they are, but then the investigation into that of theft, changes to one into murder: first Mineko happens to witness the murder of a woman in an abandoned shack in the outskirts of Nakano, soon followed by the murder on one of the artists outed as a forger. What binds these two deaths together, is Oscar Wilde's Salome: the woman Mineko saw, was dressed as Salome and the murdered artist's body was positioned in a manner to invoke King Herod. While Iguchi and Hasuno continue their investigations, more murders occur, but how are the plagiarized painting and the murders all connected?

I have to admit I was surprised when I first learned of the title of this book. In 2022, Yuuki Haruo published the excellent Hakobune ("The Ark") and in 2023, he published another book with a biblical theme: Jikkai ("The Ten Commandments"). I had expected this year's book to be something like Revelations, so imagine how puzzled I was when I saw the third book was... based on a play based on an episode from the Bible. I read Jikkai last year by the way and already have the review written and scheduled to be published in a few months, but as Salome's Guillotine is a fairly recent release, I decided to post this review first. That doesn't really matter story-wise by the way: while the three books all have biblical inspirations, the stories themselves are not connected at all (Salome's Guillotine isn't even set in the modern day, like the other two books). 

Pre-publication edit: Oh, and between me finishing this book and this post being published, I also learned that Salome's Guillotine is in fact not even the first book starring the pair of Iguchi and Hasuno! After reading this book, I picked another book by Yuuki from the to-be-read pile, which to my surprise starred the painter and burglar too. Turns out Salome's Guillotine was the third one already. So once again, I managed to read a series out of order...

Both Hakobune and Jikkai had very clear and easily understandable story concepts, the first about a group of people trapped in an underground shelter, and the second about people trapped on an island and being controlled through a set of rules, but Salome's Guillotine is very different. I have to admit at first I wasn't too charmed by the somewhat chaotic way the plot unfolded: the initial mystery is "finding out who the plagiarizer" is, but then we learn about forgeries, and then we have a plotline about Mineko just wandering about and stumbling upon a murder scene: a lot happens in the story of Salome's Guillotine, but often scenes seem to come out of nowhere, and the connection between one scene and another sometimes seems non-existent, with some events feeling incredibly random (the Mineko part for example). Even the obi (the strip of paper Japanese book often have with some marketing slogans on it) has trouble presenting a clear story, saying the book is a tale of "The death of a brilliant artist, the secret of a stage actress, cases of plagiarism and forgery and mitate murders (murders made to resemble/themed after something)." Compared to the very focused storytelling of Hakobune and Jikkai which you could explain with one sentence, Salome's Guillotine just felt disjointed. That said, it did invoke the feeling of a Taisho/early Showa-era detective novel like Edogawa Rampo would write, with mysterious or adventurous events happening in rapid succession to tell a more sensational type of story and considering this book is set in that period, I assume this storytelling style was chosen intentionally, but depending on the reader, it might feel like it takes a long time before the story starts to really focus. At the same time, this story is far more open than Hakobune and Jikkai, being set in the city of Tokyo and spanning a far longer period, so it doesn't feel so claustrophobic, and I did like that a lot, as you see more characters going about doing their business.

What is interesting is that mainly Iguchi and Mineko do try to present a lot of deductions and theorizing throughout the novel despite the seemingly disjointed events, (Hasuno is more the "I'll tell you when I am sure" type). Because so much happens, their deductions often focus on specific events, allowing for different types of deductions. We have some segments that rely on physical evidence and Ellery Queen-style of deductions, focusing on questions how people would use certain objects. Other parts, we see the detectives focus more on matters like the alibi of each suspect, or in some cases, even the psychology of the suspects. None of these parts usually allow them to point at one specific suspect with absolutely certainty, which can make these reasoning parts feel a bit "useless", but overall, the book does a good job at keeping the mystery reader engaged as it does attempt to show the reader how each part could be a part of the (admittedly rather large) picture.

Halfway through the book, I felt Salome's Guillotine was really the kind of book that could stand or fall depending on the conclusion and how it'd tie everything together, but I was already relieved when I arrived at the start of the conclusion and realized based on the page count Yuuki was going to use almost twenty percent of the total page count to explain everything. And he really did manage to present a great conclusion to the story! Books with such long denouements often tend to be in the Ellery Queen school, as they go over every event, presenting long chains of deductions and showing how each event serves as a clue to the solution, and this process usually ends up being the main focus/the most impressive part, but that's surprisingly not exactly the case for Salome's Guillotine. While it still utilizes some of these Queenian chains, the most memorable aspect of this book is absolutely the motive for the murders, and the way the motive forms the connecting tissue to all the seemingly disjointed events that occured throughout the story. It is a brilliant motive that seems so obvious in hindsight as it is dangled right in front of you throughout the whole novel, but at the same time hidden expertly, making so much of the events feel random at first. What is also impressive is that the motive is proven through Queenian deductions, something you don't really often see. While I think the underlying cause for the motive of the murders does require some guessing on the part of the reader, overall, Yuuki did a really fantastic job of explaining everything through motive.

And it also makes the very end of the book feel even more gruesome. The book's title Salome's Guillotine gains a whole new meaning once you make it to the end...

Salome no Guillotine is definitely one of the more memorable reads of this year. While the story is not as straightforward as Hakobune and Jikkai, the book offers an interesting adventure set in artsy circles in the Taisho era. While the book feels a bit chaotic at time, it all comes together in a surprisingly, but extremely satisfying manner just in time before the blade of the guillotine comes crashing down. 

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央『サロメの断頭台』

Taken at the Flood

“And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."

"Genesis" (KJV)

Finally moving away from short stories!

Shuuichi is meeting up with his old group friends of his university outdoor activity club for the first time in a few years since they graduated, but because something awkward happened between him and one of his friends, he decides to bring his cousin Shoutarou along too. One of the friends, Yuuya, tells the group about a strange underground complex he discovered when he was in this same area half a year ago and he convinces them to have a look at it together. Yuuya didn't quite remember the exact location though, and it takes them a long time to reach the abandoned spot deep, deep in the mountain forest, where their phones of course have no signal. It is already almost dusk when they arrive at the spot, so they have no choice but to spend the night here, which is also true for family of three they happen to come across: they got lost in the woods hunting for mushrooms. Yuuya shows the group a hidden manhole, with a ladder leading down into a cave. Behind a large rock they find a steel door, which leads inside the rather surprisingly large underground complex, which was apparently built within an existing natural cave, following its natural contours. The underground complex consists of three basement floors, the upper two basement floors consisting of one large corridor with about twenty rooms on each floor, and a third basement floor with fewer, but larger rooms, but groundwater has already flooded the third basement floor. In one of the rooms they find a building plan, and the group learns this secret underground base is called The Ark. Shoutarou and Yuuya share the same suspicions about the place: it was probably an underground hideout built several decades ago by either revolutionaries or some shady cult, though it has been abandoned for a long time, and Yuuya notes nothing has changed since he first came across this place. Fortunately for the group, there's a working generator in the Ark, so they have electricity and lights in here, and are for example able to keep their phones charged, even if they can't communicate with the outside world. As they explore the rooms in the Ark, they not only find a communications room with monitors connected to security cameras aimed at the manhole they came in through and another emergency exit (though that one connects to the flooded third basement floor), they also find a lot of supplies and tools left by whoever used this building in the past, including mattresses and blankets, so Shuuichi, Shoutarou, his friends and the family of three are able to spend the night in the Ark in relative comfort, and it's at least better than having to camp outside.

Of course, that is until in the early morning, they are forcefully awakened by an earthquake. While fortunately, only one of them is lightly hurt by hitting her head, they soon learn they are in a desperate situation: the large rock which had been sitting in front of the steel door leading back to the ladder has been moved by the earthquake, blocking the door! When they go to the second basement floor beneath the entrance and the rock, they find the rock is actually attached to a pulley system, which can be operated by turning a wheel in that room: Shoutarou suspects this was a security measure of the Ark's original users. In times of trouble, they could use the pulley system to first pull the rock towards the door to barricade themselves. Closer examination of the system shows they can actually pull the rock through a hole down to the second basement floor: this was probably designed like that so if the first door was breached, they could pull the rock down one floor below and then block the door to this room, where theres's not only the pulley system, but also the ladder leading down the currently flooded third basement floor. But because the pulley system has to be operated manually, this means the person turning the wheel will be locked up in this room, as the rock will then block this door. But not only is the third basement floor now flooded, the earthquake has caused the water level to slowly rise, and in just about a week, more of the second basement floor will be flooded, which will render the pulley system unusable. This means one of the ten people here shall have to "sacrifice" themselves to save the others: they will have to operate the wheel and pull the rock down to the second basement floor, opening the steel door outside, but locking themselves in the room below. But not only is the water level rising, due to the isolated location of this base, the fact they don't know exactly where they are and there's no phone signal, and it's unclear how long it'll take them to make it back to the civilized world because who knows what the earthquake has caused or whether new earthquakes will occur, it is not certain that the others will be able to get help in time for the person left behind. It is during this stressful time one of them ends up dead: Yuuya is found strangled in one of the rooms while they were all looking for tools that might be useful. Nobody understands why Yuuya was murdered, but they realize that if there's one person who should sacrifice themselves and put themselves in danger in order to save the others, it's the person who just killed someone. But can they figure out who the murderer is in time while imprisoned in this underground base, and can they convince the murderer to repent for the murder and help the others? The deadline is about one week, but the clock is ticking faster and faster in Yuuki Haruo's Hakobune ("The Ark", 2022).

I have never read anything by Yuuki before, but Hakobune caught my attention because it managed to rank into the various major best mystery book rankings for books released in 2022 (technically late 2021 - late 2022), taking first place in Bunshun's Mystery Best 10, second place in the Honkaku Mystery Best 10 and fourth place in Kono Mystery ga Sugoi 2023 among others. The description also sounded interesting, with an underground closed circle situation and the people being forced to find the murderer because they need them to sacrifice themselves to save the others. I also happened to catch people saying here and there the logic behind the solution of the mystery was memorable, and as a big fan of logic-focused mystery stories, I of course had to read this.

So I went in with pretty high expectations, and yeah, I was not disappointed! Though I have to say, this was also because I had heard people saying that you had to be prepared for a very artificial closed circle situation, a very forced way to put the characters in their specific predicement and that's really true. You can easily tell that the whole deal with the underground complex, and especially how the pulley system is set-up with a rock and how the one operating it will have to stay in that room with a rising water level is all just there to put the characters in a very desperate situation, but at no time does it ever feel really natural. Of course, mystery fiction is often incredibly artificial, and not seldom, the curious locations or characters just scream out loud they only exist to faciliate a specific mystery plot, but in the case of Hakobune, I have to say the Ark really feels like one big plot device. You don't really learn much about the Ark itself throughout the book, only that it exists and theories about why it is built the way it is. Also: the dimensions of the Ark are a bit wacky. The whole thing is built inside a natural cave, but still, it's an underground complex with corridors, stairways and rooms (with working electricity), so it can't be that spacious, and yet people can wander around the complex without others really noticing them or hearing them walking around, which is really weird. More murders occur in the book besides the initial one with Yuuya, but while you could argue the Yuuya murder was feasible because nobody expected people to be murdered and they were walking in and out of rooms to find tools, it's extremely odd people could go about relatively silently in this underground base once everyone was aware a murderer was among them. The corridors and rooms really have to really big for that to work, though this complex is supposed to be built by some fringe group. So you do need to accept some things for this book to work.

But when it works, it works! Because they have to choose one of the survivors to operate the machine and pull the rock down, they all believe it's the murderer who should do that (because they have already taken a life; the least they can do is help the others). But as they're cut off from the outside world with limited resources at their disposal, Shoutarou is very fixated on the point of making an air-tight case based on logical reasoning, because there's not really much else they can rely on, being locked up underground. By proving beyond any doubt who the murderer is, they hope to convince the murderer to do the "correct" thing to make amends, while meanwhile, Shoutarou also stresses the fact they are not looking for a scapegoat or trying to pin the crime on the easiest person: they need to know for sure for themselves who the murderer is, or else they'll force an innocent person into locking themselves up in a flooding room and they could potentially cause this person's death if they don't manage to return in time after escaping through the steel door and up the ladder. This does make the first part of the story a bit slow, as there aren't really many usuable clues available yet, and all they can do is wait as the time limit approaches (which does lead to some parts where almost a whole day passes without anything really happening, so it feels a bit hasty at times).

But thing starts to become tenser once you're past the halfway point, with more murders happening and of course the stress slowly building as people start to clash with each other (which is also partially because you also have the family of three who are "outsiders" to the other people), but also long-time feuds starting to flare up. The second murder is especially gruesome, but it is also basically the starting signal for the detectives to really begin their work, as we finally have clues and situations that allow us to make meaningful deductions about the murderer, about how they committed the crime and how their actions will, in a logical manner, eventually lead us to their identity. This culminates in a fantastic denouement scene, just before the deadline as the water keeps on rising. The logical chain used to point out who the murderer is, is quite impressive. While in terms of "events", I'd say there happens less than you'd expect initially and it's not a very long book at any rate either, but there are surprisingly many hints and clues spread throughout the narrative, and some of them are deliciously clever. Objects the murderer used, places they must have visited, all of that is stringed into a surprisingly solid chain of logic, eventually pointing to one and one character alone as the murderer. When it comes to the strenght of the reasoning pointing towards the murderer, I'd say Hakobune is a really strong novel, and definitely a recommended read for those who like Ellery Queen-like mystery novels with long chains of deductions based on the physical evidence and what they say about the actions of the murderer. The way a small hint first leads to a seemingly innocent observation ("Okay, so that clue means the murderer did that. So what?") but then snowballs into something more important until you have a really big indicator of the identity of the murderer is great and I also like how the deduction revolve around certain objects you seem far too seldom in puzzle plot mysteries even though they are so common. The way they are used here is very natural, but cleverly done, and therefore very satisfying. The big climax, after the murderer has been denounced and they are asked to pull the rock down and lock themselves up for the time being so the others can escape and find help is also great, and actually also form a small mystery narrative on their own, as more cleverly hidden clues are used to facilitate this great escape epilogue. The epilogue was certainly the cherry on top of a very cool mystery novel.

But you do have to roll with the initial artificial set-up of Hakobune for it to work. If you can get to that point, you're treated to a very impressive closed circle mystery novel that has a very memorable chain of deduction at the end denouncing the murderer in this unique, almost absurd situation. I can definitely see why it ended up so high on many of the major annual mystery rankings, as it is not only a great mystery novel, but the tense underground closed cricle situation also allows for some cool drama, and it never overstays its welcome. The book definitely has made me curious to Yuuki's other books, so I might explore those in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 夕木春央『方舟』