「どうか私とワルツを」

「僕は宇宙から吊革のようにぶら下がる真理を常に鼻先に見ている。こいつを右手で掴んで立っているから、このぎゅうぎゅうの満員電車が右に左にいくら揺れ ても、一向に平気なんだよ。君たちにはこの吊革が永久に目にいらないんだ。ほら、ここにあるのにね」
『ある騎士の物語』

"I always see the truth in front of me, like one of those straps hanging in the train. Because I am holding it in my right hand, I'm always alright, no matter how much this jam-packed train moves left or right. But you never see the strap. Even though it's just there."
"A Story of A Knight"

Once again a book I'm sure I have read partially, because some parts are very familiar, but I never finished any of the stories here for some reason or another. All well, the last Mitarai Kiyoshi book I have here and as I don't plan to buy more books in the nearby future, the last Mitarai Kiyoshi review for the time being.

Mitarai Kiyoshi no Dance (Mitarai Kiyoshi's Dance) is the second short story collection in the series, after Mitarai Kiyoshi no Aisatsu.The stories are still written in the same formula: Ishioka Kazumi tells us about the strange cases he encounters with his roommate Mitarai Kiyoshi, a fortune-teller turned private detective. Like Holmes, Mitarai is a rather eccentric young man (and Ishioka suffers a lot) with a brilliant mind. In recent years, Mitarai has become quite famous, thanks to the books Ishioka publishes about their adventures. Mitarai fanclubs exist and in fact, the last story in this shory story collection, Kinkyou Houkoku ("Report of Recent Affairs") is not a mystery story, but a short essay where Ishioka gives in to the fans' demand and tells about what Mitarai has been doing lately, what he reads, how their apartment looks like etc. Cute for the fans of Mitarai as a person, but I'd rather have a mystery...

But there are of course crimes to be solved in this collection. It starts with Yamatakabou no Ikaros ("Icarus with a Bowler Hat"), a fun story about a question I had asked myself too: what are those doors in buildings for that lead to nothing but air? You know, on the outside of the buildings, you sometimes see doors that aren't connected to emergency stairways or anything at all. One artist thinks it's for a select group of people who can fly. All the pictures he draws contain a man dressed in a suit and bowler hat, flying. He says his wife can fly. And he thinks he himself can fly too. And the police is inclined to think he's right, when one day they find his dead body lying on electric lines hanging high above his apartment. A not too difficult crime, but just very amusing to read because of the developments and because Shimada's grand tricks are always fun to read.

The second story, Aru Kishi no Monogatari ("A Story of a Knight") is the best of the bunch. Ishioka tells Mitarai a story he picked up at a wedding, about the murder of a man many years ago who had betrayed his employees/friends and his own girlfriend for money. The four friends and the girlfriend had the motive. They had a gun in their possession. In fact, the girlfriend was all ready to shoot him. But it was impossible for any of them to have commited the murder: they were miles away and with the heaviest snowfall in times, they just couldn't have made it to the murder scene, even though they wanted to. Mitarai of course solves this crime of the past just by listening to the story. Another of Shimada's grand tricks, a bit unbelievable in the practical sense of things, but oh-so-much fun.

The final story Butoubyou ("Dance Fever") is the weakest story of the three and sadly enough the longest too. Mitarai is asked by an restaurant owner in Asakusa to investigate a tenant, an old man who seems to have the strange habit of suddenly dancing at night. Add in a bunch of other mysterious events (the tenant's son paying a fortune for the room, a murder of an old dentist the same day, and Mitarai becoming friends with some homeless people) and you have a big mystery for Ishioka, but anyone slightly familiar with the classics instantly knows what is going on. But the story keeps dragging on and on and on... The only thing nice about the story is the setting in old Asakusa (also in the opening story Yamatakabou no Ikaros), which recalled old Edogawa Rampo stories.

Two good stories, one boring story and a non-mystery. Not sure what to think about the collection. Buy it cheap and only read the first half of the book? 

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『御手洗潔のダンス』/「山高帽のイカロス」/「ある騎士の物語」/「舞踏病」/「近況報告」

「あの娘のまえには多くの男の血が流されるであろう。彼女は女王蜂でる」

"Love is a moment of weakness that allows someone to hurt you more than you ever thought possible. Men were given the strength to be brutes to women, and women were given love to wreck their revenge"
"Discworld Noir"

And still the Yokomizo Seishi pile doesn't seem to shrink. It's going a lot slower than I'd expected. Even with a book every week it seems like that pile is still as high as ever.

Jooubachi ("Queen Bee") is another of those high-profile Kindaichi Kousuke novels, that often makes the jump to both the small and the silver screen. With a focus on beautiful women, it's not too surprising maybe. As per the will of her mother, Daidouji Tomoko is to move from the island of Gekkintou to her stepfather in Tokyo after her 18th birthday.. Brought up on Gekkintou by her grandmother and her tutor, Tomoko has turned out to be just like her mother: a beautiful woman who manages to capture the hearts of every man around her. She is not a temptress or something like that though, she just has something that attracts men,without herself being aware of it. However, someone seems to have something against her, as several persons close to her receive threatening letters saying she should never leave Gekkintou. For she, like her mother, is a Queen Bee, and the men who try to get close to her will die.

Kindaichi Kousuke is hired to accompany Tomoko, her grandmother and her tutor on their way to Tokyo, and they meet up halfway with Tomoko's stepfather, his son (no blood-relation to Tomoko) and three suitors for Tomoko he himself has selected. What was said in the threatening letters seems to be true though, because already after the first day one of the suitors is found murdered. And he is not the only one to go. The murders in the present seem to be connected with the death of Tomoko's real father, 19 years ago, a picture of a bat nobody has seen and a certain locked room, but is Kindaichi Kousuke able to solve these interlinked crimes in the past and present?

Of course he solves it. Like so often, Kindaichi only manages to solve the crime after dozens of people have died, true, but he does solve the case. Seriously, Kindaichi Hajime might not be very much like his grandfather, but they both have the knack of not being very useful in preventing serial killings, only in solving them afterwards. Even if they have their suspicions, they never seem to actually act on it and well, maybe try to shorten the list of the dead.

For a Kindaichi Kousuke case though, the setting of Jooubachi is pretty different: most of the novel is set in relatively urban spaces (murders occur in a hotel and theater amongst others) and I have to say I was really surprised when I realized not much was going to happen on the island of Gekkintou. I was expecting murder and mayhem before Tomoko could ever leave the island, but when they left the island in like a two-sentence description, I was both disappointed (no island murders?) and happy (at least I don't know what's going to happen). Despite the urban setting though, this novel does feel like a genuine Kindaichi Kindaichi novel with the serial killings, complex family relations, multiple persons with their own agendas working against each other making the mystery that more hard to understand and a lot of scratching of the head by Kindaichi.

The mystery itself though, is not entirely fair, as even though the red herrings were easy to spot and I had set my sight on the right person, there was actually little proof that definitely indicated the real criminal. You sense who it is quite quickly and then you might come up with indications with hindsight, but it would be harder to build a case beforehand, I think. A lot of the backstory was told (too) late in the game too, which is a shame, because I do think this was a very enjoyable book. But don't expect much of the problem of the locked room. The plot runs at a high speed with things happening all the time and it simply never bores, something Yokomizo excels in. Unlike the last two Yokomizo novels I discussed (Yoru Aruku and Yatsu Haka Mura), this novel is written in a third person narrative, and like I thought, this style is much more suitable for the stories Yokomizo writes.

It's a perfectly enjoyable story at any rate and I'm actually pretty curious to the many movie/drama versions of Jooubachi, if only to see who is selected to play Tomoko. 

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史　『女王蜂』

「ばんなそかな」

"Oh, yes,” said Miss Marple fervently. “I always believe the worst. What is so sad is that one is usually justified in doing so."

"A Pocket Full of Rye"

I always try to expect as little as possible of anthologies. Because often, the majority of the stories in an anthology are somewhere between mediocre to outright bad. There might be one or two stories that make the collection sorta worthwhile, but you usually have to fight a couple of frightful dragons.

Futoumei na Satsujin - Mystery Anthology ("Opaque Murders - Mystery Anthology") is probably the most boring anthology I've ever read and not even the big names like Arisugawa, Norizuki and Maya were able to save this anthology. It might explain why I've had this anthology for almost three years now and I only finished it just now. When I first started it, three years ago, I thought my proficiency in Japanese was to blame for not enjoying the stories. I gave up halfway through. But now I've read everything, and even re-read some stories, but the conclusion is that this is just an awful anthology. Halfway through I noticed there was no editor for this anthology and that should have tipped me off. The title is horribly wrong too, as several stories don't even have murders, and this is not so much a mystery anthology, but rather a crime anthology.

Arisugawa Alice's Onna Choukokuka no Kubi ("The Head of the Sculptress") is a Himura Hideo / writer Alice short story, so it's the usual: Himura and Alice are asked by the police for their assistance. The problem? The murder of a sculptress, whose head has been cut off and replaced by the head of a Venus statue. With only two suspects (her husband and the neighbour), this is  a rather small story that gives a reasonable explanation for the decapitation. A decent story, but nothing more than that (and that final clue... I'm sure I've heard it somewhere else before).

Kujira Touichirou's Animal Iro no Namida ("Animal-colored Tears") is the first story in this collection that doesn't actually contain murder. Anyway, it's the narrator's first day at a psychiatrist as the new assistant, but he is quite disappointed when he first meets doctor Namida, the head of the clinic. She is rather ditzy and doesn't even seem to be properly educated in psychology. When the first client of the day arrives and comes up with a story of seeing animals like tigers and mice, the narrator thinks the man should be sent to a mental home rather than treated here, but Namida shows that there is more behind the illusions of this patient. A story that just barely falls under the genre and really not worth reading.
   
Anekouji Yuu's Fukuzatsu na Izou ("A Complex Bequest") is slightly more interesting, with a rookie solicitor having to deal with the problem of two wills: which of the two is to be executed? Add in some references to Oooka Echizen, and we have a story that does actually belong to the genre, but not really an outstanding one.

Yoshida Naoki's Snow Valentine doesn't belong here. At all. Man traveling back in time, wants to change his future. A twist ending doesn't equal a mystery story! And a murder doesn't mean a mystery story per se either, but this is another story without a murder, despite the title of the anthology.

Wakatake Nanami's OL Club ni Youkoso ("Welcome to the OL Club") is heavily inspired by The Moving Finger, as both stories revolve around poison pen letters. In this story, anonymous letters are spread at a big company and a secretary is requested to find the sender of these letters. Too bad most of the deductions made are very much like those in The Moving Finger, so nothing new here. It does offer some ideas though, looking at these Japanese companies with their hierarchy and OL's and human relations as a counterpart to those Marple-ish small English villages.

Nagai Surumi's Omosugite ("Too Heavy") is another of those stories whose inclusion in a mystery anthology can be justified only barely. An OL has some problems with a former lover/co-worker in the stairs and he accidently falls down the stairs. She thinks he's dead and leaves him to be, but it seems he's still alive, even if in critical condition. And then she thinks a lot about killing him or not killing him just to get rid of him and how this all came to be and stuff and then it's really really boring and all.

Tsukatou Hajime's Eden wa Tsuki no Uragawa ni ("Eden is on the other side of the moon") is the only story with a map. My interests were aroused. A visit to a tech company by the two protagonists (who were looking for someone who used to work there) ends in a murder, as they see two men fighting on the roof of the tower opposite them, and one of them suddenly falling down into the pond at the foot of the tower. When they come looking for the man in the pond, they see he is dead, with an arrow in his back. Who shot the man down with an arrow? The solution is a rather surprising one. Maybe because it was part of this anthology, maybe because I'm not familiar with Tsukatou, but the story clearly belongs to the scientific kind of detectives like Higashino Keigo's Galileo series. I wasn't prepared for that. A sorta decent story, if you're into this kind of stories.

Kondou Fumie's Saishuushou kara ("Starting at the conclusion") indeed starts with the conclusion, when a female writer tells that she has just killed her boyfriend, an aspiring actor, and she then explains why.  It's not a bad story, but surely not impressive either.

I had some expectations for Maya Yutaka's White Christmas. His stories have amused me until now, so I had no reasons to do otherwise here. Takeshi and his daughter has invited four men to his cottage to spend Christmas.His daughter doesn't know that Takeshi has relations with all these four men. The four lovers however do know this of each other and they all vie for Takeshi's attention. As he is the center of everything, it shouldn't be too surprising when I see that Takeshi gets killed. A story that ends in a Queenian way with identifying the characteristcs of the culprit and then crossing off suspects and it is easily the best story of the bunch, but that's not saying much. It's a pretty decent story on its own, but I doubt it would rank among Maya's best.

Double Play is surprisingly a crime story by Norizuki Rintarou and not a puzzler. The story is about a murder exchange (you know, I'll kill someone for you if you kill someone for me, it's easier with the alibis and stuff), but the more interesting anecdote about this story is that Norizuki sorta rewrote this story as the puzzler Return the Gift for the short story collection Norizuki Rintarou no Shinbouken ("The New Adventures of Norizuki Rintarou"). I was planning to link to a review, but because I read the book before I started writing reviews, I don't have one on the site. Hmm..

Nevermore, I hope.

Original Japanese title(s): 『不透明な殺人　ミステリー・アンソロジー』/ 有栖川有栖　『女彫刻家の首』/ 鯨統一郎　『アニマル色の涙』/ 姉小路祐　『複雑な遺贈』/ 吉田直樹　『スノウ・バレンタイン』/ 若竹七海 『OL倶楽部にようこそ』/ 永井するみ　『重すぎて』/ 柄刀一　『エデンは月の裏側に』/ 近藤文恵　『最終章から』/ 麻耶雄嵩　『ホワイト・クリスマス』/ 法月綸太郎　『ダブル・プレイ』

『DRINK ME』

「ある金持ちが鏡をほしがっている。依頼が俺のところに回ってきた。それだけのことだ」

「結局あなたたち探偵の存在は、あなたの云 う『それだけ』のものなのでしょう？ シャーロック・ホームズもエラリー・クイーンももういない。彼らが探偵として勝ち得たはずの誇りは、現代において既に失われているのです。姿かたちばかり 彼らに似せた、まるで紙人形のような人たち！探偵たちの終わりを戦争のせいにしますか？時代の流れのせいにしますか？好きなように何かを責めるといいです ネ。でも、これだけは云えるのです。探偵は生きていてはいてかない。死ぬべきなのです。」

『『アリス・ミラー』殺人事件』

"Some rich guy wants the mirror. He came to my place. That's all."

"In the end, 'that's all' is all there is to you detectives, right? Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen are no more. The pride they fought for as detectives, has been lost in the modern age. You only look like them in appearence. Like paper dolls! Are you blaming the war for this ragnarok for the detectives? The change in trend? You can blame whatever you want. But I'll tell you this. Detectives shouldn't be alive. They should be dead.", 

"'Alice Mirror Castle' Murder Case"

I think that Alice in Wonderland is the non-detective novel referenced most often here, but I have to confess: I haven't read the book. Nor its sequel. Nor have I seen the Disney films. All I know of Lewis Carroll and Alice derives from writers like Queen and Arisugawa Alice. If you'd ask me about Alice in Wonderland, I could tell you about how it's an awesome source of inspiration for detective writers, but little more.

And of course, the Alice in 'Alice Mirror Jou' Satsujin Jiken ("'Castle Alice Mirror' Murder Case') refers to Alice in Wonderland. A group of detectives is gathered on the island of Erikajima, all with the same objective: to find an item called the Alice Mirror. They reside in the Alice Mirror Castle, a strange castle with mirror-rooms, doors that seem to appear and disappear and various references to Carroll's work. Their search for the Alice Mirror changes into a game of survival, as they start to get killed one after another. From locked room murders (how did the first victim get through the Alice Door, a very small door? Did he drink the shrinking potion?!) to a murder in a gigantic mirror-room and cut-up bodies, the murderer seems to be a connoisseur of classic murders. Which is also shown by a chessboard, with white chess pieces disappearing one after another every time a murder is commited, until there were none.

My first reading Kitayama Takekuni and it was a pleasant experience. As the main players in the novel are all (fairly genre savvy) detectives, the discussions they have on mechanical locked room tricks are very interesting, almost nearing the philosophical. Because all these chesspieces are so genre-savvy, the novel also clearly messes with the reader on a meta-level, and you always wonder how many levels you have to enter in the 'if Kitayma thinks I think that he thinks that I think...' game. The denouement shows that Kitayama manages to pull off hard to do things quite nicely. The locked room behind the small Alice Door is basically a rather gruesome variation on a very widely used locked room trick, but it was done so wonderfully with the Alice in Wonderland references that it manages to impress. What I liked most though was again how Kitayama (the murderer) makes uses of meta-level knowledge and justifies the locked room murder and the cut-up bodies in a way that works.

Thematically, this novel is very much like Ayatsuji's Jukkakukan no Satsujin, and it's certainly nice to read these two as a set. Discussions of the genre on a meta-level have of course been in detectives for ages, but it's nice to see how it develops as an actual field of study and how modern novels build on the knowledge to explore new realms. Once again, this is not a new practice, but it's a bit more rare to see in modern times. Well, it's a staple of New Orthodox novels, but a more global approach to it would be nice too, right?

The only thing I really, really didn't like was the characters' motivation for participating in the game. You'll probably never ever hear me talk about character motivation here again, but it's one thing to have characters that are brought to life to die (in most detective novels), but to have genre-savvy characters brought to life to die is something completely different. The characters know that they'll probably die if they go to the island to look for the Alice Mirror, but go nonetheless. For the money. I think I'd rather have a more nihilistic approach to accompany the dreamy atmosphere that's present anyway: a gathering of detectives who are destined to die, without all the 'we're in it for the money' justification, and without the utterly weird motive of the murderer.

One of these days I really have to read Alice in Wonderland though... 

Original Japanese title(s): 北山猛邦　『『アリス・ミラー城』殺人事件』

「汝夜歩くなかれ」

「それほど異様な事件なのだから、よってもって由来するところも、遠く、深く、かつ複雑であった。憎悪、貪欲、不倫、迷信、嫉妬と、あらゆるドス黒い要素が、執念ぶかくからみあい、もつれあいながら、それでも辛うじて平衡を保っていたのが、ついに保ちきれなくなって爆発したのが世にも凄惨な、あの殺人事件であったといってもいいだろう。」『夜歩く』

"It was such a strange case, so its origin was complex, hidden somewhere deep and faraway. Hate, greed, infidelity, superstition and jealousy, even though all these dark elements were intertwined and entangled with each other teniciously, somehow balance was preserved, until it could go on no longer and it exploded as this never-seen horrible murder case.", "It Walks By Night"

Another Yokomizo Seishi?Actually, with my current backlog, even if I would read a Yokomizo novel every two days, I could still go on for several weeks...

Yokomizo Seishi's Yoru Aruku ("It Walks in the Night")  has an awfully familiar title, but I don't think it was something to do with John Dickson Carr's novel. Have to admit I haven't read it though and Wikipedia doesn't really help (yes, a summary shouldn't be too hard to find, but I'm somewhat lazy), but I'm just going to assume the story is totally different. Yoru Aruku is not one of those high-profile novels by Yokomizo Seishi like Yatsu Haka Mura, Honjin Satsujin Jiken or Inugamike no Ichizoku, but not as obscure as his short stories. It does feature his series detective Kindaichi Kousuke, even though in somewhat small role. It links in with Yatsu Haka Mura, as Kindaichi Kousuke solves the case of Yatsu Haka Mura on his way back from solving this case. And it's mostly set in the Okuyama prefecture (and indeed part of the "Okuyama Prefecture Period" of Kindaichi Kousuke, the first couple of novels).

Yoru Aruku's story is a peculiar one. Here we have the Furugami family, an old rich family. The Sengoku family has been serving the Furugami family since the Edo period and even now, in the post-war period, they act as financial managers for the Furugami family. The Furugami family consists of Shuei, his stepmother and his stepsister Yachiyo. The Sengoku family consists of father and son Naoki. This house of freaks is just waiting for an incident though, with Shuei, a hunchback, in love with his stepsister Yachiyo, Sengoku Naoki also in love with Yachiyo, old man Sengoku having an open affair with the Furugami widow and also in the habit of swinging old swords when drunk and Yachiyo being an almost conciousless beauty. Oh, and Yachiyo has the habit of sleepwalking (thus the title). Things go wrong when Yachiyo announces she wishes to marry the artist Hachiya, who also happens to be a hunchback.

Naoki calls his friend Yashiro, a detective novel writer, over to the mansion, because he feels something is going to happen. Which does. A decapitated hunchback is found in the annex one night, but who is it? Both Shuei and Hachiya have disappeared, so which of the two is the victim? And how could the murder have been commited in the first place, because the murder weapon, a Muramasa, was kept in a double locked safe (key and combination lock), with Yashiro and Naoki present in the room the whole night! It's just the beginning of it all though, as heads are found and more people are decapitated. Add in some sleepwalking. And finally, great detective Kindaichi Kousuke appears...

Maybe the reason this novel isn't that well known among the Kindaichi Kousuke canon is because it's not completely fair. Just a guess. I wouldn't say it's completely unsolvable, but it keeps hovering above the border of fair and unfair and I totally understand why people wouldn't be satisfied by this book. Especially as this novel was preceded by perfectly fair-play masterpieces. Disappointment is to be expected then.

But like I said, it's not completely unfair and a great deal is indeed perfectly solvable. The atmosphere is top-notch, again, with hunchbacks, decapitated bodies, sleepwalking and cursed swords and stuff; it's almost like an Edogawa Rampo novel with its grotesqueness. The use of writer Yashiro as the narrator is also very similar to Edogawa's writing style, who often used a first-person narration in his books, also by writer characters. Seriously, we're only missing a killer-midget or transvestites (or killer midget-transvestites) here. Heck, my edition (which somehow seems to be published somewhere in the 70's and actually sold for only 300 yen at the time) even has cover art that reminds more of Edogawa's writings, rather than Yokomizo's writings.

Yokomizo used the first-person narrator again with Yatsu Haka Mura, and both these novels feel very different from other Kindaichi Kousuke novels, as you usually follow Kindaichi Kousuke from a third-person perspective. In both these books, Kindaichi only makes short appearences until the denouement and it somehow feels like it's not enough. Kindaichi is not someone like Kaga Kyouichirou or Furuhata who only appears at intervals, he should be in the center of everything! Yokomizo did return to the third-person narrative with the next novel, Inugamike no Ichizoku, which is a much more satisfying book than Yoru Aruku anyway. But Yoru Aruku has its merits and I understand why it's usually seen as one of the B-rank Kindaichi Kousuke novels.   

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史　『夜歩く』

The Tragedy of Y

「恐らく、ダイイング・メッセージだと思いますが」

耳慣れぬ言葉にとまだった

「ダイニング、何ですって？」

「ダイイング・メッセージ。死に際の伝言ということです。」

『一の悲劇』

"It was probably a dying message.’

I wasn't familiar with that word, so was taken aback by it.

"Dining what?"

"Dying message. A message left at the brink of death."

 "The Tragedy of One"

To continue with the series of books that have waited too long: I'm pretty sure I bought this on the first night, maybe the second day I was in Tokyo. Over two years ago. And yes, this summer I'm intend to get rid of my backlog.

I remember that Norizuki Rintarou Ichi no Higeki ("The Tragedy of One") caught my eye in the Ekoda Book Off, because it was just so perfect: a novel by a writer inspired by Ellery Queen, with a title that clearly references Queen's Drury Lane series, of which the first three books are called The Tragedy of X, Y and Z. With the Drury Lane books ranking among my favorite EQ novels, I had high expectations for this book. It starts rather heavy though, with a mistaken child kidnapping. The intended victim was Yamakura Takashi, but his classmate Tomosawa Shigeru was kidnapped by mistake. It seems the kidnapper hasn't realized this though, so he demands that Takashi's father, Shirou, come bring the ransom money. Through unbelievable bad luck though, Shirou isn't able to give the money to the kidnapper and the dead body of Shigeru is found thrown away on a empty lot.

This is just the beginning of the tragedy though, as a hidden past between Shirou and Shigeru's mother (who has become quite unstable by the death of her son) makes things much more complex and add in a locked room murder and a dying message somewhere between the beginning and the conclusion and the reader is presented with a fairly big puzzle to solve.

Most reviews say this book has a very bitter aftertaste. And it does. The story is truly a tragedy (in the good sense of the word), something also accomplished because it's written from the viewpoint of Yamakura Shirou (thus The Tragedy of One -> first person perspective). I don't think I'd seen this earlier in Norizuki's writings and at times I was thinking I was reading something written by Higashino Keigo. The perspective change also resulted in less appearences by Norizuki Rintarou (the character, not the writer). The story also has a lot of developments (A LOT) which was kinda weird to me (as I'm more familiar with Norizuki's short stories, which don't feel as rollercoastery), so it did feel quite different. On the other side, with multiple fake solutions and a dying message, there is no denying this is a Norizuki Rintarou novel.

Norizuki Rintarou is not particularly good at locked room mysteries (as he says himself), but I have to admit he manages to avoid this problem in a very neat way in this novel. It's still a bit far-fetched and maybe something that have worked better in a short story, but this is a fairly creative way to cope with the locked room problem.

Ichi no Higeki is all in all quite good; it's better than Yuki Misshitsu and while I think that many readers will come up with the solution while reading this, it's competently structured and clued and make this at least a safe read with no real faults. Thematically, this book is followed by Ni no Higeki ("The Tragedy of Two"). I do have the book, but as I already listened to the radio drama (I want a full version of the opening theme!), Ni no Higeki isn't that high on the priority list. 

Original Japanese title(s): 法月綸太郎　『一の悲劇』

「だが、今日からは星占いが趣味の犯罪研究家というわけさ」

「ちょっと待てよ。どうして君は今まで黙ってたんだ？もう昨日から今のこと全部解ってたみたじゃないか」　

刑事は言った。

「僕はみなさんと違ってヒマですのでね、せっかくだから、何か面白いエンディングでもやれないものかと考えていたんです。」

『疾走する死体』

"'Wait a second. Why didn't you speak up until now? It seems like you already knew everything since yesterday,' the detective said. 

'Unlike the others, I have a lot of free time, so I was thinking of coming up with some kind of interesting ending for this special occasion.'"

"The Running Corpse"

Ah, the lonely books that reside in my library. Many of them still waiting for the day they are read. Some have been waiting for months, some even for years. Waiting for that one day. Which reminds me, it's been a while since I last read a detective with books/bookstores as a theme.

I'm pretty sure I bought Shimada Souji's Mitarai Kiyoshi no Aisatsu ("Mitarai Kiyoshi's Greetings") about two years ago. I finished it just now. Some parts do seem sorta familiar, so I think I have tried reading it several times before. Anyway, Mitarai Kiyoshi no Aisatsu is the third entry in Shimada Souji's Mitarai Kiyoshi series, released after the excellent Naname Yashiki no Hanzai ("The Crime at the Slanted Mansion"). This is the first short story collection featuring Mitarai Kiyoshi, and also the first time he makes an acts as a real private detective, as he officially gives up his work as a fortune teller in the first story to work as a professional private detective, accompanied by his Watson, Ishioka.

Suujijou ("Number Lock") is set in the last days of 1979, just when Mitarai and Ishioka are preparing to move to Yokohama. Mitarai is asked to assist the police in solving something that seems like a locked room murder:  a signboard maker has been stabbed to death in his workshop, with only two entrances: the backdoor, locked by a combination lock and the shutters on the front of the shop. It seems rather unlikely that the murderer could have opened the (noisy) shutters without the people in the apartment above the shop noticing, but the combination lock doesn't seem forced and nobody but the deceased knew the combination, not even his four employees (who have an alibi for the time of the murder anyway). Mitarai comes up with a rather surprising solution: I didn't like the locked room at all, as it was literally the first solution I came up with, yet the other trick found in the novel was OK, even though it relies a bit on...well, expert knowledge is too strong a word, but surely something that shouldn't be called common knowledge for someone not living in Tokyo. I do like the story though, even that's more because of the story is plotted and how Mitarai acts within the story.

Shissou suru Shisha ("The Running Corpse") is a more like the Shimada I know: a grand trick! How did a man seen stealing a necklace and running out of an apartment on the top floor of the building get on the railway bridge in time just to get run over by the train? Not even a world record holder could have covered that distance in just 10 minutes. Especially not during a storm. Even more more puzzling is that the man was apparently strangled to death before he was run over by the train. Did a corpse just run over to the railway bridge? Shimada presents us with one of his trademark grand, almost grotesque impossible situations that, while not as impressive as his novel-length stories, is quite fun. Also for the Mitarai-on-guitars-scene. 

Shidenkai Kenkyuu Hozonkai ("Shidenkai Research Preservation Assocation") is a lot like Holmes' The Red Headed League or The Stockbroker's Clerk, where a seemingly curious, yet harmless incident is connected to something more sinister. A man called Sekine recalls an incident of seven years ago, when someone looking like the colonel from Kentucky Fried Chicken (and apparantly the head of the Shidenkai Research Preservation Association), paid him a visit at the office. This KFC-man seems to know a dark secret connected with Sekine's family and pretty much blackmails Sekine, but only for one day: if Sekine comes over the Shidenkai Research Preservation Assocation to help them address the pamphlets they need to send out that day , mr. KFC will help him hush the whole thing up. Rather surprised, Sekine agrees to help him with the pamphlets and after a couple of hours of work, his work is done. The two part their ways and Sekine never heard anything about it again. Mitarai who hears Sekine telling this story, of course comes up with a plausible explanation for this strange incident.

Girisha no Inu ("The Greek Dog") starts with the theft of a takoyaki stand and continues with the discovery of a strange note with Greek on it and the kidnapping of a little child and ends in a boat-trip on the Sumidagawa. A rather long story that I don't find too interesting, as the solution to the note is pretty much unsolvable for any normal reader (especially for someone not living in Tokyo!), but the way the kidnappers planned to get the ransom was a rather smart one, again one of those grand tricks that border the bizarre. It's at these times that you realize you're reading a Shimada story, but the story is on the whole not particularly interesting, I think.

All in all a pretty good short story collection, with Shissou suru Shisha as the story the most like the previous two Mitarai Kiyoshi novels with a grand trick. I prefer short stories, but maybe full-length novels are more suited to Shimada's style of plotting.

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『御手洗潔の挨拶』/「数字錠」/「疾走する死者」/「紫電改研究保存会」/「ギリシャの犬」

「六つ墓村？八つ墓村じゃなくて？」

「八つ墓村へかえってきてはならぬ。おまえがかえってきても、ろくなことはおこらぬぞ。八つ墓明神はお怒りじゃ。おまえが村へかえってきたら、おお、血！血！血だ！二十六年まえの大惨事がふたたび繰りかえされ八つ墓村は血の海と化するだろう」、『八つ墓村』

"Do not return to the Village of Eight Graves. Nothing good will happen if return. The Deities of the Eight Graves are furious. If you come back to the village, then.... blood! Blood! Blood! The tragedy of 26 years ago will repeat itself and the Village of Eight Graves will turn into a sea of blood", "Village of the Eight Graves"

We all know The Murder on the Orient Express and I think many of us see it as both a representative work in the Hercule Poirot series as well as an archetype for the Golden Age detective. A closed circle setting, high-class suspects, a murder on a train and a surprise ending. I think many people have such an image of the Golden Age detective and paraodies of Poirot, as well as the genre, often take their cues from The Murder on the Orient Express.

Yokomizo Seishi's Yatsu Haka Mura ("Village of the Eight Graves") (1949-1950) is the Japanese counterpart to Murder on the Orient Express. With three movies, six TV drama serials, five manga, a stage performance, a videogame and audiodramas, Yatsu Haka Mura is the entry in the Kindaichi Kousuke series that is best known to the general public and also the one that is parodied most often. It has the small mountain village, the secluded community, a bit of local flavor through dialects, a long series of murders, a rich family that people look up to, a local legend, the influence of World War II on the lives of said rich family and usually directly connected to some sort of motive. The quintessential Kindaichi Kousuke novel.

The titular Village of Eight Graves is a small village deep in the mountains of Okayama. In the Sengoku period, a group of eight fallen warriors, who had been defeated in a battle, had fled there, hiding in the village with a small fortune in gold with them. One day the villagers killed the warriors to steal the gold, but the villagers never found the treasure. They did get cursed by the eight warriors though, so the murder was actually not really profitable.

What does the curse do? Well, right after the murder on the warriors, other people in the village started to drop dead, culminating in the death of the instigator of the whole incident. Eight deaths in total. It was because of this that the villagers began to worship the eight warriors to calm their anger and that the village became known as the Village of the Eight Graves. Fast forward to 1922, when Tajimi Youzou, offspring of the instigator of the eight warriors murder, became mad one day and slayed 32 persons in the village (a multitude of eight!). He himself fled to the mountains and was thought dead.

And finally, 1948. A young man called Tatsuya is contacted by a laywer, who says that Tatsuya is the son of Tajimi Youzou and that the Tajimi family, now led by the twin grand-grandmothers Koume and Kotake, hopes that Tatsuya will become the new head of the Tajimi family, as his older brother and sister are physically too weak to go on much longer. Tatsuya's grandfather comes to pick up him from Tokyo, but they haven't even exchanged two words when his grandfather drops dead, poisoned. It is the beginning of a horrible series of murders connected with the curse of the eight warriors.

And I'm stopping here with my summary, even though I'm just at the beginning as it's going to be just too long. Too much stuff happens. Secret hallways, underground mazes, the curse of the eight warriors, the mass murder of Youzou, the hidden gold, friction between the rich Tajimi family and a branch family, the fear of the villagers for Tatsuya as the son of the mass-murderer Youzou and more. Suffice to say that it is no wonder that so many parodies go with this book as it's really brimming with things you can borrow.

As a detective novel, it's somewhat disappointing though. While the atmosphere is really great, the plot is not nearly as ingenious as other entries in the Kindaichi Kousuke series like Inugamike no Ichizoku or Honjin Satsujin Jiken. Most murders can be committed by any person, while the one murder with a proper logical clue doesn't point exclusively to the murderer, it only sorta points in the general direction. The story isn't even fair as Kindaichi already has a reason to suspect the murderer at the beginning of the story and thus has access to information not available to the reader. And funnily enough, Kindaichi is not even really needed in the story. He says it himself at the conclusion, but everything had resolved itself naturally anyway and he hadn't done anything. The conclusion consists of Kindaichi telling that he already knew everything but that he wasn't able to do anything the whole time. Well, that's kinda disappointing.

While Gokumontou ("Prison Gate Island"), released two years earlier, is similar in design with a very remote, isolated rural setting, but from what I know, that book has a lot better clued story. So yeah, I'm  disappointed. I really, really love the setting of the story and the atmosphere, but Yokomizo kinda went overboard and little of his originality in tricky plotting like we saw in Honjin Satsujin Jiken is to be found here. 

Because everything resolves itself, the book doesn't really feel like a detective.That's maybe why the famous 1977 Yatsu Haka Mura movie is more a horror movie with a detective element, rather than a detective movie. It does seem that this book is open to a lot of interpretations though. In recent years, it seems that some people read Yatsu Haka Mura as a moe novel, with love interest Noriko and Tatsuya's sister Haruyo as the main subjects of adoration. Which is sorta original.

Oh, and obligatory: The massacre by Tajimi Youzou, based on the very real Tsuyama massacre, in all its bloody glory: 1977 movie version / 1978 drama version / 2004 drama version.

Original Japanese title(s): 横溝正史　『八つ墓村』

『ミュージカル演出家殺人事件』

「どう？さすがに席ついたらテンション上がってきた？」

「全く・・・やっぱりミュージカルは苦手ですね」

「食わぬ嫌いだから。見たら絶対好きになるよ」

「普通に会話してたのに突拍子もないタイミングでうったりするじゃないですか。あれはどうも」

『３３分探偵：　ミュージカル演出家殺人事件』

- "Well? Excited now we're in our seats?"

- "Not at all... I just don't like musicals."

- "That's because you never tried it! You'll love it when you see it!"

- "They just have an normal conversation and then suddenly go around singing and stuff, right? I don't really..."

"33 Minutes Detective: The Musical Star Murder Case"

Books.... Check.
Movies.... Check.
TV shows.... Check
Games.... Check
Radio drama.... Check

Oh, I haven't done stage productions yet!

Takurazuka X Gyakuten Saiban ("Turnabout Trial"). When it was announced that a collaboration between the two would be performed in 2009, I was quite surprised. An all-female musical based on a mystery courtroom battle videogame?

What. Were. They. Thinking.

It wasn't like I had something against the Takurazuka Revue, but it just seemed so... unlikely a combination. Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban is at least a fairly logical crossover, while a live action movie based on the Gyakuten franchise doesn't sound that strange either (I don't really like Miike as the director though). But Takarazuka X Gyakuten Saiban?

What. Were. They. Thinking.

In Gyakuten Saiban - Yomigaeru Shinjitsu ("Turnabout Trial - The Revived Truth"), everyone has become a bit more feminine and they all developed the tendency to suddenly dance and sing, but the premise here remains the same as in the Gyakuten games: a courtroom battle mystery. However, the setting of the story has been changed from Japan to California, with everybody going by their American names (because Takarazuka musicals are supposed to be 'make-believe' worlds for the viewers to escape to, so no musicals are set in modern Japanese society). Phoenix Wright (Nick for friends) is a young lawyer, who takes up the case to defend Leona Clyde, his old girlfriend. She has been arrested for the murder of a Diet member, but with photographs of the deed being done and Leona's own confession to the murder, it doesn't seem like there is much room for doubt. Nick however refuses to give up on Leona and swears to find out the hidden truth. In court! In America!

The musical is mostly based on Yomigaeru Gyakuten (US version: Rise from the Ashes), a chapter which was retroactively added to the original game in 2005. It was written by the creator of the original stories, Takumi Shuu  and a very lengthy addition too, which resulted in a somewhat convoluted story. But it had several interesting ideas too: the same man being murdered twice, at the same time, at completely different places! The Queen-esque double/triple/quadruple solutions piled on each other! The final ace up Nick's sleeve in court! The Blue Badger!

Too bad they cut out all those awesome parts for the musical adaption (so no double murder at two seperate places). I have no problems with the inserted love story (which is probably a must for a Takurazuka musical), but it's so bad to see that a pretty smart story has been dumbed down to this. I understand that much had to be cut to keep the length of the musical in check (so I have no problems with cutting away the middle part of the story), but but the final 'evidence' is nearing the absurd and basically just a very, very bad rewrite of what happened in the original story. A person watching this as a) a Takarazuka fan or b) a normal Gyakuten Saiban fan wouldn't be too disappointed, I think (ignoring people who are definitely going to whine about how the character relations have been changed), but looking at it as someone who not only likes Takumi Shuu's original characters and humor, but also his detective plots, I can't help myself being disappointed with the bad rewriting.

Everyone being played by females didn't feel strange at all actually and the random singing and dancing... was not that intrusive (although I guess calling singing and dancing in a musical intrusive would be kinda strange). I was kinda hoping they would sing and dance in the courtroom during testimonies or something (spoilers! they don't).  I have seen bits and pieces of the sequel musical and that one seemed to have an original story with seemingly more clever tricks, so maybe they improved on the mystery part in the sequel.

Original Japanese title(s): 『逆転裁判　蘇る真実』 (loosely based on 『蘇る逆転』

"A, B, C. We're certainly relying on basics tonight. But proceed."

「全く芝居じみている」　俺はいった　「アガサ・クリスティの世界だな。容疑者を集めて探偵が推理を披露をするわけだ」

「クリスティの世界なら、もう少し話が派手になるでしょう。容疑者も多い。この部屋の壁沿いにずらりといすを並べる必要があるほどにね。しかし容疑者が三人だからといって、犯人を絞るのが楽だというわけでもないのが、捜査の難しいところです」
『私が彼を殺した』

"This is all quite theatrical," I said.  "Like something out of Agatha Christie. With all the suspects gathered and the detective who is going to unveil his deduction".

"This story would be a bit more grand if this was Christie. With more suspects. Enough so we would have needed to line up chairs along the wall of this room. But the difficulty in these investigations is that even with only three suspects, it's not easy to narrow it down to the one murderer." 
"I Killed Him"

The Challenge to the Reader is something I've enjoyed since... always? Dutch comic book readers might remember comics like Inspecteur Netjes (with the legendary "Weet jij het ook?!!" ("Do you know too?!!") - challenge) or even Disney's Sul Dufneus (Shamrock Bones) and Mickey Mouse detective comics, which always ended with a challenge to the reader. Manga like Conan and Kindaichi Shounen do it more indirectly, as the protagonists of both series usually announce when they have solved the riddle (and thus suggest that you should have been able to solve the case too by now).

Higashino Keigo's Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the two killed her") played with this: the novel revolved around two suspects, but it is not made clear the novel itself who the real culprit is: it is up to the reader to deduce it. It works out precisely like a normal detective, with clever hinting and all, but the conclusion just avoids any words that point to specifically to one of the two suspects (using words like 'that person' or 'the murderer' to refer to the culprit in its denouement). You have all the necessary clues in your possession, so solve it yourself. The ultimate challenge.

Kaga Kyouichirou series
Sotsugyou ("Graduation") (1986)
Nemuri no Mori ("Forest of Sleep") (1989)
Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the Two Killed Her") (1996)
Akui ("Malice") (1996)
Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him") (1999)
Uso wo Mou Hitotsu Dake ("One More Lie") (2000)
Akai Yubi ("Red Fingers")  (2006)
Shinzanmono ("Newcomer") (2009)
Kirin no Tsubasa ("The Wings of the Kirin") (2011)
Inori no Maku ga Oriru Toki ("When the Curtains of Hope Come Down") (2013)

Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him") is the spiritual successor to that book and the fifth book in the Kaga Kyouichirou series. Like it's predecessor, the identity of the real culprit is not made clear in the novel itself, instead giving the readers the ultimate challenge: deduce it yourself. The story starts the day before the wedding of popular writer/movie director Honami Makoto and poet Kanbayashi Miwako. A little gathering at Honami's house is disturbed by a woman dressed in white; Honami's former lover Namioka Junko, who now knows that Honami has betrayed her. They get rid of Junko quickly (in the non-criminal way) and preparations for the wedding proceed as planned. The wedding the next day itself is kinda ruined by Honami dying just when he entered the chapel; being poisoned by strychnine. As Junko has committed suicide the day before (also with strychnine), the police at first suspects that the ex had poisoned Honami and then commited suicide as forced love suicide.

Kaga of course doesn't agree with this and finds three persons who had access to the strychnine and the opportunity to switch Honami's medicine with the strychnine-laced medicine: Kanbayashi Takahiro, brother of Miwako who had an incesteous relation with her. Suruga Naoyuki, Honami's manager who was in love with Junko and hated how Honami had treated her. Yukizasa Kaori, Miwako's agent who once had been Honami's lover herself. The murderer is one of the three, but who?

The novel is written from the perspective of the three suspects, switching between them as the plot develops. This makes for some interesting reading, as you actually know that one of the three must be the murderer. So you already know that the narrator=murderer trick is being used. The murderer doesn't outrageously lie to the reader, but just manages to avoid mentioning crucial parts (like saying "and this is when I did it..." or something like that).

The novel ends with the single line "the murderer is you" uttered by Kaga and I can imagine that many people could have missed the solution. I missed it myself, so I had to look it up on the internet to check. It was not as devious as in Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita, which was really well done, but a decent one. It's a bit of shame that the solution hinges on the final revelation by Kaga (so you really can't solve it until the last page and you can never win from Kaga), but with that final clue in your hands, it's actually quite logical and I think I would have solved it if I had re-read the book again (of course, that's easy to say now). It seems by the way that the murderer in the seralized version and the hardback/paperback versions differ. In the paperback version, the novel is followed by a set of sealed pages, which contain hints to the murderer, but I really, really don't want to cut in my books...

And it seems that Higashino Keigo already has an idea to follow up this series of One of the Two Killed Her, I Killed Him with a third part, You Killed Somebody, so I'm looking forward to that!

Original Japanese title(s): 東野圭吾　『私が彼を殺した』

「まァどちらだっていいだろう。新聞語には、首なし美人てことばもある」

「おれたちは新聞屋（ブンヤ）だ。刑事じゃないぜ。白ばかりの中から犯人を探し出すのは刑事にまかしとけ。おれたちは黒の中から、潔白な民衆を救い出そうじゃないか」
『風船魔』

"We're reporters. Not detectives. Leavethe search for the criminal between all the innocent people to the police. We are the ones that save the innocent people from the criminals"
"Balloon Demon"

Last year, in a Japanese movies class, we watched Climber's High. The 2008 movie is about a small local newspaper covering a big plane crash. It's really one of the more interesting movies of recent years, focusing on how a newspaper works, the fight against deadlines, deciding what to report and how and finding out how to outsmart the other newspapers. Add some great acting (Tsutsumi Shinichi!) and you have a really good movie.

It was probably because of Climber's High that I bought Shimada Kazuo's Shakaibu Kisha ("City News Reporter"). Because I can't think of another reason for me buying this. I didn't know the writer, never heard of the book and the title kinda suggested that this would be a social school detective. Even the fact that it won the 6th Japanese Detective Writers Assocation Price didn't really make the package seem any better. The Japanese Detective Writers Assocation Price book series has some great gems, like Honjin Satsujin Jiken and Geneijou, but Kao wasn't that great, so the prize isn't a guarantee for a great book. In the end, I just hoped for the best. And the fact that it was only 105 yen, so it wasn't really worth thinking about.

I turned out to be lucky though. Shakaibu Kisha is a fun little short story collection, chronicling the adventures of the city news department of the Tokyo Nippou newspaper, led by editor-in-chief Kitazaki. He and his underlings are always searching for new scoops, so what do they do when they cover a murder case? Well, solve it before anyone else does of course, and report on it! Shimada drew on his own experience as a newspaper reporter, writing the stories in very dynamic way with many developments. So in a way, the concept is very reminiscent of Leroux' Rouletabille's adventures. Surprising was that these stories are not part of the social school of detective fiction, but true orthodox detective stories with alibi tricks and double identities and stuff. 

Gozen Reiji no Datsogoku ("Prison Escape at Midnight") tells the story of Shibayama, an ex-Yakuza who had killed his superior and was sent to prison for that. He has served his time, but is too scared to leave the prison, as he is sure be lynched by his former gang. The Tokyo Nippou agrees to help him escape (so that they can make a cover story about the gang's activities) and after a near escape from one of Shibayama's old friends (who is ordered to kill Shibayama), the Tokyo Nippou and Shibayama seem to be safe. The next day however, Shibayama's friend is found dead in a river and suspicion falls on Shibayama. The ending is a surprising one, with the Tokyo Nippou going out on a limb to trap the gang's leader.

Yuugun Kisha ("Reporter in Reserve") starts with the discovery of a dead student in a burnt down art academy. The Tokyo Nippou digs around a bit and finds out that the student was involved in several love triangles and that many people had their reasons for wanting her dead. Her autopsy also shows that she was already dead before the fire, apparently being hit on the head. Was she hit by a falling object, or was it foul play? The Tokyo Nippou plays big and reports on a 'mysterious death' and suggests murder, but is very surprised when their biggest rival, the Miyako Times, reports that the girl was just a victim of the fire. Both papers work hard to find out what the truth is behind this case.

In Shimbun Kisha  (Newspaper Reporter"), a new play about murderous mental patients ends in a tragedy when one of the actors gets killed back-stage. The only person with some kind of a motive seems to be the writer of the play, a former member of the troupe who had been sent to a mental institution himself after he had attempted murder on another member of the troupe. He had be been released from the institution some time ago and the director still claims that he was perfectly normal when he left the place, but the director's daughter (and attending doctor at the institute) says that the man still had a long way to go. Tokyo Nippou uses its vast net of informants to locate the man and comes to a surprising conclusion.

Fuusenma ("Balloon Demon") has a wonderful opening scene, when the dead body of a lady tied to balloons floats by the office. Reporters everywhere rush on the roofs to catch a glimpse of the body, hoping to identify her and get a headstart on the others. Who is this woman and why was she flying around the city?

With that many high school detectives, writer-detectives and amateur detectives discussed here, it was fun to read stories about a line of work that actually is related to some sort of detecting. I'm also a big fan of these 'behind-the-scenes-of-a-big-organisation stories. For example, I love Odoru Daisousasen ("The Great Dancing Investigation"), which follows the happenings at Wangan Police Station and the tension between the little precinct station and the Tokyo MPD, offering a view on the Japanese policeforce you normally don't see. Here, the workings of a newspaper (like in Climber's High) were very interesting. It was a bit hard to read though because of the jargon/industry-specific words used by journalists, but I think I might look for more of these journalist-detective novels. 

Original Japanese title(s): 島田一男　『社会部記者』/「午前零時の脱獄」/「遊軍記者」/「新聞記者」/「風船魔」

「ちなみに聞いてみただけです」

「捜査もしていますよ、もちろん。でも刑事の仕事はそれだけじゃない。事件によって心が傷つけられた人がいるのなら、その人だって被害者だ。そういう被害者を救う手だてを探しだすのも、刑事の役目です」
『新参者』

"I'm investigating the case, of course. But that isn't a detective's only job. If there are people who got hurt because of the case, then those people are victims too. Finding a way to help those victims, that's the work of a detective."
"Newcomer"

Hmm, I might as well do these reviews back to back...

Shinzanmono, discussed yesterday, ended in the summer season of 2010, but it was followed up by a prequel TV special early this year. Akai Yubi ~ Shinzanmono Kaga Kyouichirou Futatabi! ("Red Fingers ~ Newcomer's Kaga Kyouchirou Returns!") is based on the novel Akai Yubi ("Red Fingers") by Higashino Keigo and is set two years before the events of Shinzanmono, when Kaga was still working at the Nerima Ward police station.  It's the seventh part in the Kaga Kyouichirou series (Shinzanmono being the eight) and the direct sequel to Uso wo mou hitotsu dake.

Kaga Kyouichirou series
Sotsugyou ("Graduation") (1986)
Nemuri no Mori ("Forest of Sleep") (1989)
Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the Two Killed Her") (1996)
Akui ("Malice") (1996)
Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him") (1999)
Uso wo Mou Hitotsu Dake ("One More Lie") (2000)
Akai Yubi ("Red Fingers")  (2006)
Shinzanmono ("Newcomer") (2009)
Kirin no Tsubasa ("The Wings of the Kirin") (2011)
Inori no Maku ga Oriru Toki ("When the Curtains of Hope Come Down") (2013)

The story starts when salaryman Maehara Akio gets a phone call from his wife Yaeko, begging him to come home at once. When he arrives home, he discovers that the body of a young girl, a second-grader, is lying strangled in his garden. His wife tells him that their hikikomori son Naomi, who had some violent streaks in the past, has strangled the girl. At first, Akio wants to report it the police, but after some pleading by his wife (and an attempted suicide), he agrees to dump the body somewhere else to protect his son. The body is found the next day in a public bathroom and the MPD suspects it's a sexual deviant that commited the crime. However, it doesn't take long before Kaga Kyouichirou zeroes in on the Maehara's. Seeing Kaga snooping around, the Maehara's try to outsmart the police with a big gambit.

While it's not a necessity, an inverted detective is usually more fun if you have at least some sympathy for the culprit. I want to root for the criminal a bit. It was sadly enough practically impossible to do so in this story. The son Naomi, hikikomori or not, is so unlikable that you wonder why the mother (and by extension, their father) do their best to hide his murder (especially if you watch this right after the Shinzanmono finale). Naomi plays games while his parents are doing the upmost best to destroy all evidence, he eats a meal while his father is carrying the body away and freaks out everytime anybody tries to confront him with anything. The mother was horrible too (threathening to commit suicide if her husband told the police about their son's crime) and while I sorta sympathized with the father, the gambit he takes in the later half of the story is just too horrible to accept.

If you have a sympathetic murderer in an inverted detective, or at least an interesting antagonist (a very smart person, someone with a very good plan, or a cop or something like that), than the game between the detective and culprit can be a delight to watch. Here I really wanted Kaga to stop with his psychological games as soon as possible so he could get the kid in jail.

The plot itself is rather straight-forward and is Higashino-style more focused on human drama than the mystery, though he manages to slip a nice plot-twist near the end. The story is a lot more dramatic than Shinzanmono though, which was like a feel-good-story-of-the-week (despite it being a murder investigation).

Furuhata Ninzaburou is already over and I never really got into Aibou ("Partners"), also featuring a detective who likes to 'harrass' people, so more Kaga Kyouichirou series with Abe Hiroshi would be great. How awesome would a series of Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita be!

May 26 Addendum: It seems that Abe Hiroshi is going to star in a 2012 Shinzanmono movie, based on the newest book in the Kaga Kyouichirou series: Kirin no Tsubasa ("The Wings of the Kirin"). Yay?!

Original Japanese title(s): 『赤い指〜「新参者」加賀恭一郎再び!』 based on 東野圭吾 『赤い指』 

「嘘は真実の影」

「嘘には３種類ある。１、自分を守る嘘。２、他人をあざむく嘘。３、他人をかばう嘘だ」
『新参者』

"There are three kinds of lies. 1. A lie to protect yourself. 2. A lie to deceive others. 3. A lie to protect others."
"Newcomer"

I've reviewed books in Higashino Keigo's Kaga Kyouichirou series before, but I actually didn't get to know this character through the books. It was through a television drama that ran last summer, based on the (then) newest Kaga Kyouichirou novel. I only finished watching the series this week though. No, it's not that long, I'm just slow.

Kaga Kyouichirou series
Sotsugyou ("Graduation") (1986)
Nemuri no Mori ("Forest of Sleep") (1989)
Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the Two Killed Her") (1996)
Akui ("Malice") (1996)
Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him") (1999)
Uso wo Mou Hitotsu Dake ("One More Lie") (2000)
Akai Yubi ("Red Fingers")  (2006)
Shinzanmono ("Newcomer") (2009)
Kirin no Tsubasa ("The Wings of the Kirin") (2011)
Inori no Maku ga Oriru Toki ("When the Curtains of Hope Come Down") (2013)

Police detective Kaga Kyouichirou had been working mostly in Nerima ward, but a transfer to Nihonbashi, Ningyouchou makes him the titular Shinzanmono ("Newcomer") in town. And his first big case also concerns a newcomer in Ningyouchou: the murder of Mitsui Mineko, a divorced translator, who was strangled in her own apartment. She had only come to live in Ningyouchou just recently, so who would have any reason to kill her? It is up to Kaga Kyouichirou to investigate what lies behind the Mitsui murder.

You know when in a mystery story everyone seems to have something to hide? And that the detective seems be forced to chase after countless of red herrings before he finally reaches the truth? This series actually turns this idea around and makes it the focus of the story. Every episode focuses on a different suspect who lies to the police. Some might be hiding a terrible family secret. Some might be lying to keep up appearances to their family. Some lie to protect their family. Like Kaga says: people lie to protect themselves, to deceive others or to protect others.

Kaga Kyouichirou is still very much like Furuhata Ninzaburou and Columbo; he picks up little discrepancies and doesn't let go till he has gotten an explanation. Annoying his victim in the process. The difference between Kaga and the others is that the latter two usually close in on the true culprit rather quickly, while Kaga has to wade through a sea of suspects, everyone of them a little pile of secrets. Every episode turns out to be like a short human drama story in which Kaga shows up to reveal why people lie to the police and each other, clearing up many misunderstandings between people. Is Kaga a detective of the heart? No, not really. He is a nice guy and all, but he is out to uncover every little contradiction in the case and it just so happens that most of these contradictions arise from lies made by innocent people. And he does slowly closes in on the culprit behind the Mitsui murder by his meticulous investigation.

An aspect that I really liked about the show was the focus on Nihonbashi, Ningyouchou as not just an background, but as an entity. Shinzanmono tells a story of old craftsman, popular cake stores, ningyouyaki,  and local customs of Ningyouchou. It's a romantic depiction of a small town as an environment with its own personality. You usually see this kind of 'characterization' with popular areas like Shinjuku or Shibuya, but not so much with smaller towns in Tokyo.

I liked Abe Hiroshi's Kaga by the way, even though it was quite different from the books. In the novels, Kaga is like a beast in the shadow; you never get to see him clearly (the books are written from the viewpoint of the suspects) and he always strikes when you least expect him. Here the story follows Kaga, and Abe Hiroshi plays him the best way he can; by playing himself. Inserting a healthy dose of humor in the character and giving him real presence has made TV!Kaga quite different from Novel!Kaga, but not in a bad way.

Once again, Higashino Keigo came up with a story that mixes human drama with mystery in an interesting way. Shinzanmono is not a pure detective, but pretty fun nonetheless.

Original Japanese title(s): 『新参者』, based on 東野圭吾『新参者』

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

「桃色の長いスカートを雪道にひきずっている姿は確かに女のようにも見えるが、その身長は六尺（約百八一・八センチ）をゆうに超えているとおもわせる。したがって、シルクハットで擦れ違う身なりの良い紳士はたちも皆彼女の肩までもない。(...) 擦れ違う人は皆目を伏せ、道をあけるようにしてさっと擦れ違う。擦れ違ってから後ろ姿をしげしげと見ている。まるで灯台である。灯台のような女が、人波の上ににょっきりと立って、それがしずしずとこっちへやってくる。だいぶ距離がつまってので見ると何とホームズさんである」
『漱石と倫敦ミイラ殺人事件』

"The figure dragging her long peach-colored skirt through the snowy path surely looked like a lady, but it seemed like she was well over 1.80 meters long. And so all the fine gentlemen with their silk hats didn't even come up to her shoulders. People passing by left the path open and turned their gaze away. Almost all of them would look back after passing her. She was like a lighthouse. The lighthouse stood out of the wave of people and slowly came closer and closer to me. When the distance was closed and I looked up, the figure turned out to be Mr. Holmes."
"Souseki and the London Mummy Murder Case"

The room is dark. You can make out some shapes near the wall.
>> Look Around
>> You See A Light Switch
>> Use Light Switch
>> The Room Lightened Up

I think that Sherlock Holmes has worked with or against every big name by now. Jack the Ripper, Arsene Lupin, Count Dracula, Cthulhu, Batman, Scooby-Doo, Edogawa Conan.... Usually, I stay away from them though. Most of them aren't very interesting anyway, or not very convincing. I like the Lupin ones for example, but only when I read them with a Lupin-mindset, and not a Holmes-mindset. I can't even imagine how a confrontation between Holmes and Dracula would go.

So I'm not sure why I bought Shimada Souji's Souseki to London Miira Satsujin Jiken ("Souseki and the London Mummy Murder Case"). A crossover between Sherlock Holmes and... Natsume Souseki, eminent figure in the history of modern Japanese literature. At first, this seemed like a very unlikely idea. At least, I couldn't really imagine Souseki as half of a crime-fighting duo. He was more like... the man on some of my 1000 yen bills. It seems however that when Souseki was studying in England (1901-1903), there was a strange incident of him moving quite around a bit in London, changing lodgings four or five times, before he settled on his main lodgings. People have wondered why he moved that much. And here that mystery is finally revealed.

Souseki to London Miira Satsujin Jiken is a parody split in two distinct parts. All the uneven chapters are written by Souseki, while all the even chapters are written by Dr. John H. Watson. The story begins when Souseki decides to consult Holmes at 211B Baker Street, because he has been harrassed by strange voices during his sleep for some time now, every time saying he has to move out of his lodgings. Which he has done now several times. Explaining him moving around London. But it's getting a bit irritating, so he would like for the voices to stop. And who better to consult than that brilliant detective? Holmes quickly assures Souseki that the voices should stop now that he has consulted Holmes. Right after Souseki's visit, Holmes is consulted on a totally different case though: a man has mummified within a single night, within a room which the victim had sealed himself with nails on the door and windows. The victim had been cursed when traveling in China and it seems that the curse has finally caught up with him. As there are few Far-East Asians in London, Holmes decides to ask Souseki's assistance with this case for his expect knowledge.

You'd think that a locked room mystery by Shimada would be more interesting, but the main problem was a very basic one with no real particulars. Well, except for the fact that a man changed into a mummy over the course of one night. And he had a piece of paper with seeminly Japanese writings in his month. And it was a locked room. Oh, and lizard were walking around the room and a Chinese (actually Japanese) armor and a Buddhist statue were also lying around. But no other particulars.

But that didn't really matter, because this story was hilarious. The book is split in two parts: all the uneven chapters are written by Natsume Souseki, while the even chapters are written by Dr. John H. Watson. It's the differences in the accounts of the two that is fantastic. Watson, our trusty chronicler, brings us our familiar Holmes, a brilliant man with fantastic powers of observation and deduction who solves the locked room mystery with his usual flair.

Souseki brings us the story of the madman Holmes, who says things that make no sense at all and who needs a doctor besides him every minute of the day in order to keep him in check. A once brilliant detective who is now mentally broken. Holmes had been receiving treatment for some years now (The Final Problem - The Empty House are cover-up stories), but still hasn't recovered. So he deduces that Souseki is a Mr. Clark (Souseki had taken the wrong hat with him), he walks around dressed like a rather unconvincing woman, suspects Souseki of being Moriarty and he has developed the tendency to scream and become very violent when it becomes apparent that his deductions are wrong. Souseki's depiction of himself differs widely too between the two records; he is received in a normal way by the servants of the house of the victim in his account, while Watson's records show that Souseki was called a Yellow Demon by the butler. Both accounts are of course written in the proper way and Souseki's chapters are pretty amusing, written from the viewpoint of one of the first Japanese persons to visit modernized England.

The locked room was a bit disappointing, coming from a big name like Shimada, but the story is so much amusing that I forgive him. I wouldn't call Souseki to London Miira Satsujin Jiken a masterpiece, but I had a fun time reading this.

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『漱石と倫敦ミイラ殺人事件』