『何者』

 「……わからねえな。どんな理由があろうと、殺人者の気持ちなんて、わかりたくねえよ」
『名探偵コナン』

"I don't understand, ya know. No matter what their reasons are, I don't wanna understand what a murderer feels"
 "Detective Conan"

The third and final post in the Edogawa Rampo month series. Because I don't think that planning something for my blog was a good idea. But to be honest, the whole declaring a Edogawa Rampo month was all just to force myself to translate something by Edogawa Rampo. Because it's been a while since the last time I've done that. And the lucky one is 1929's Nanimono ("Who"), which is a very interesting Edogawa Rampo story.

Nanimono is an early story by Edogawa Rampo and probably his final real orthodox detective story. The publication of this story was between the publication of Kumo Otoko ("The Spider Man") and Majutsushi ("Magician") was kinda unlucky, because Nanimono is a very orthodox story without any of the outlandish and fantastical elements found in those stories, and so it wasn't accepted that well by the general public. They longed for more of the dreamy, fantasy-like crime stories (ero guro nonsense) stories written by Edogawa. Seeing this reaction, Edogawa stopped writing orthodox detective stories like Nanimono and D-Zaka no Satsujin Jiken ("The D-Slope Murder Case") and concentrated on writing his more pulpy stuff. So Nanimono is a turning point in Edogawa Rampo's writing career. Which is a shame, as this is one of the few stories Edogawa Rampo himself was pleased with and it was also quite well received by detective critics in Japan at the time.

I doubt I will ever translate something as long as this any time soon though. It's the longest story I have translated here yet and to be very honest, I don't feel very pleased about the translation, but it's readable. Enjoy Edogawa's story, and not my sleepy English-with-definite-elements-of-Dutch-and-Japanese-mixed-within.

何者

著者：江戸川乱歩

Who

Author: Edogawa Rampo

A word from the author

Even though the guilty party is right in front of the eyes of the readers from the beginning on, the readers don't know who it is until the very end: this has become one of the rules to orthodox detective novels. I've tried to comply to this rule as best as possible. Alert readers might figure out the guilty party halfway through this story. People who aren't used to reading detective novels, might not find out until the end. I have tried to write this story with this in mind. Please read this as a game of wits, where you are the one who has to solve the case.

Jiji Shimbun (evening paper). Shouwa 4 (1929): 19 december, 24 december.

「すべての謎が一本の線につながる」

「探偵小説の根本興味はパラドックスなりと感ず。インポシブル興味とはパラドックス（思想の手品）のことなり」
「探偵小説に描かれた異様な犯罪動機」

"I feel the fundamental fun in detective novels is the paradox. The fun in the impossible is the paradox (a magic trick of the thought)" 
"The Peculiar Criminal Motives Discussed in Detective Novels"

Second post in the Edogawa Rampo month! And yes, I am a bit late, but that was planned. Sort of. I have decided this is the last time I'm going to plan something for my blog.

So, the plan was to discuss the more orthodox side of Edogawa Rampo this month, right? The fact that he himself has written very few orthodox detectives might seem a problem, but it actually isn't. Because even if Edogawa didn't write many orthodox detectives himself, he sure has written a lot about them. He has especially published many essays on them in the post-war years.

And Edogawa's most important essay collections are surely Geneijou ("The Illusion Castle") and its sequel Zoku Geneijou ("The Sequel: The Illusion Castle"). The first one comprises of essays published between 1946 until 1951, while the sequel was published in 1954. And they're both treasure chests full of information.

And today, I will discuss just a little part of it. Because reading too much of this stuff in just a couple of days is just too much for my head. There is just too much interesting information. The last two days, I've been having fun with a certain part of Zoku Geneijou, namely a series of essays on tricks used in detective novels.

Apparently, Edogawa Rampo took notes whenever he was reading anything crime related. Notes on what kind of tricks the murderer (or detective!) used in the story. Notes on motives. Notes on real crimes. And inspired by The Locked Room Lecture in Carr's The Hollow Man, he wished to write a book on all tricks used in detective novels.

Of course wishing isn't going to bring you far, and because he states his notes were incomplete (he didn't have much on Japanese detective fiction, for example) and he didn't want to re-read everything again, he never got to writing that book. But he did the next best thing: he wrote a series of essays based on his (incomplete) notes and these essays are the most interesting part of Zoku Geneijou.

The first essay to actually discuss tricks in detail in the collection is The Peculiar Criminal Motives Discussed in Detective Novel. Which is indeed on what it says in the title. Edogawa identifies four major categories: emotional crimes, crimes for profit, crimes commited because of some abnormal psychology and crimes for ones beliefs. Within every category, he has many subcategories (for example: inferiority complex under emotional crimes), many of them accompanied by some example. Most of these examples are from British or American novels.

And the work Edogawa has done is fantastic! While the essay is a bit on the long side, it's a very interesting one and it strengthens his argument that motives are indeed a sort of trick an author might use for a detective novel. I for one am not a reader who pays much attention to motives, but this essay surely has made me rethink my position on that. I am not sure though whether crimes for ones beliefs are to be considered a different category from the crimes commited because of an abnormal psychology.

But the best essay is certainly A Categorization of Tricks. Which is also what it says. It's too long to translate (though I'd love to do it sometime!), but the contents are as follows:


I Tricks concerning the criminal (or the victim) as persons

A. One person, two roles
1 The criminal disguises themselves as the victim
2 An accomplice disguises themselves as the victim
3 The criminal disguises themselves as one of the victims
4 The criminal and victim are the same person
5 The criminal disguises themselves as a third party to attract suspicion
6 The criminal disguises themselves as a non-existing person
7 Substitution (two persons, one role; two persons, four roles)

B Unexpected criminal (besides the One person, two roles trick)
1 The detective is the criminal
2 A judge, policeman or prison warden is the criminal
3 The one who discovered the crime is the criminal
4 The narrator is the criminal
5 A child, or an elderly is the criminal
6 A handicapped person, or an ill man is the criminal
7 A corpse is the criminal
8 A puppet is the criminal
9 An unexpected number of persons is the criminal

C The criminal erasing himself
1 Faking being burned to death
2 Other fake deaths
3 Transfiguration
4 Disappearance

D Strange victims

II Tricks concerning evidence of the criminal having entered and left the crime scene
A Locked room tricks
1 The criminal was not inside the room at the time of the crime
a A mechanism placed inside the room
b A murder commited from outside through the window or some other opening
c Setting things up so the victim inside the room dies
d Suicide made to look like a locked room murder
e Murder made to look like a suicide
f  A non-human criminal inside the locked room

2 The criminal was inside the room at the time of the crime
a A door-mechanism
b Making it seem like the crime was commited later than actually was
c Making it seem like the crime was commited earlier than actually was (a fast murder commited inside the room)
d The simple method of hiding himself behind the door
e A locked room in a train

3 The victim was not in the room at the time of the murder

4 Escape from a locked room

B Tricks concerning foot tracks

C Tricks concerning fingerprints


III Tricks concerning the time of the crime

A Time tricks using vehicles

B Time tricks using clocks

C Time tricks using noise

D Time tricks concerning the seasons or other natural phenomena

IV Tricks concerning murder weapons and poisons

A Tricks concerning murder weapons
1 Unexpected sharp instruments
2 Unexpected bullets
3 Electrocution
4 Beating to death
5 Death by pressure
6 Strangulation
7 Falling to death
8 Drowning to death
9 Murder using animals
10 Other remarkable tricks concerning weapons

B Tricks concerning poison
1 Oral poisoning
2 Poisoning by injection
3 Poisoning by inhalation

V Tricks concerning hiding persons or objects

A Hiding a corpse
1 Hiding for a period
2 Hiding forever
3 Deception by moving corpses
4 A corpse without a face

B Hiding a living person

C Hiding objects
1 Jewels
2 Coins, gold bars, bills
3 Documents
4 Other objects

D Substituting corpses or objects

VI. Other tricks
1 Tricks concerning guns
2 Optical illusions
3 Illusions concerning distance
4 Misunderstanding of the chaser and the one being chased
5 Murders commited very quickly
6 A murder commited in a mass of people
7 "The Red-Headed League" trick
8 "The Two Rooms" trick
9 Probability crime
10 Crimes commited by making use of one's profession
11 Tricks concerning legitimate self-defense
12 Tricks concerning double jeopardy
13 Tricks with the criminal witnesseing the crime from far away
14 Nursery rhyme murders
15 Murder following a script
16 A letter from a deceased person
17 A maze
18 Hypnosis
19 Sleepwalking
20 Amnesia
21 Remarkable stolen objects
22 Murder exchange


VII Categories of secret codes
A Tally code

B Orthography

C Allegoric codes

D Displacement
1 Normal displacement
2 Mixed displacement
3 Insertion
4 Windowing

E Substitution
1 Simple substitution
2 Complex substitution
a Codes using a square
b Codes using a ruler
c Codes using a circle
d Codes using a calculator

F Mediation

VIII  Peculiar Motives

A Emotional crimes
1 Romance
2 Revenge
3 Superiority complex
4 Inferiority complex
5 Flight
6 Other crimes


B Crimes for profit
1 Inheritance
2 Tax evasion
4 Protecting one's life
5 Protecting a secret

C Abnormal psychology
1 Homicidal mania
2 Murder as art
3 Electra complex

D Crimes for ones beliefs
1 Religious crimes
2 Crimes for ideology
3 Crimes for politics
4 Superstition

IX Tricky hints for detecting crime
A Physical clues
B Psychological clues

Yes, it's quite comprehensive. Most categories are of course accompanied by short examples and explanations. It was using this scheme, that Edogawa wanted to write a complete book. While every category is discussed briefly in this essay, the original plan was to discuss every category in detail. I don't have to mention the Motives essay anymore, but the essays that follow this essay, Ice as a Murder Weapon, Bodies without Faces and Hiding Tricks are clearly expansions on what is discussed in the Trick essay. While I understand Edogawa not wanting to read everything again, it's still a shame he never 'finished' this work. Just imagine what a wealth of information this would have been! It's like a TV Tropes solely on detective novels!

Of course, it's a bit spoilerific on tricks (though he usually avoids actually naming the titles), but for someone who enjoys the puzzle-element of detectives, this is a must-read. For the English reader, a follow-up essay to this one ("An Eccentric Idea") is available in The Edogawa Rampo Reader.

I'd love to know whether there is a more recent index of tricks like this available somewhere! I myself don't feel much for re-reading everything I've read until now, mining for motives and tricks, but there has to be someone who is making such a database right?!

And the next posts will be translations and I hope to finish one for next weekend, but not sure if I'm going to make it.

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『幻影城・続 』「探偵小説に描かれた異様な犯罪動機」/「類別トリック集成」

"And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

「あー、変幻自在のあいつ・・・」
『妖怪博士と少年探偵団』

 "Ah, that ever-changing one..."
"Monster Professor and the Boys Detective Club"

This is the first time I've actually really planned something for my blog. January is Edogawa Rampo month here. Despite Edogawa's reputation as the father of the Japanese detective novel, most of his works are actually of the unorthodox, erogurononsense kind that aren't detective stories, but this month I'll focus on Edogawa's orthodox side, which is mainly found in his earlier works and his essays. So expect translations of stories and essays and other stuff this month. And behind the screens, one can expect a lot of last minute changes in topics. Heck, I actually planned a translation to start Edogawa Rampo month with, but I have been slacking. So this week I start with something I had planned for later. Which also kinda falls outside Edogawa's orthodox works and his essays. Nothing goes as planned.

I've written about Edogawa's Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boys Detective Club") series earlier, but I've been wanting to expand on that for some time now. As someone who has been interested in the great art that is detective fiction since childhood, I still have a soft spot for detective fiction for children. I of course grew up with Scooby-Doo Where Are You, I have most books of The Famous Five and I have to admit, I still read the Mickey Lost 't Op ("Mickey Solves It") comics in the weekly Donald Duck magazine with great interest (the older ones with Sul Dufneus were better though...).

Nowadays, quite a nice collection of literature can be found on Edogawa Rampo in English, but most, if not all, of these focus on his formative years, or his onorthodox side. The fact that more than half of his writing career was spent on writing children's detective stories, seems to be either forgotten, or carefully hidden from the public. The Shounen Tantei Dan series however is a series that has a lasting influence on Japanese culture, always returning in a range of different forms, be it a movie, a TV series or even reprints of the original books in recent years.

The Shounen Tantei Dan series effectively begins with 1936's Kaijin Nijuu Mensou ("The Fiend with 20 Faces")'s seralization in the magazine Shounen Club, even though the actually Boys Detective Club, the Shounen Tantei Dan itself doesn't appear in that novel. It does introduces us to the titular Kaijin Nijuu Mensou, a brilliant thief 'who has 20 faces', who focusses on stealing pieces of art. In the first novel, detective Akechi Kogorou and Nijuu Mensou try to defy each others plans. In the first part of the book however, Akechi is on a trip abroad and the one who has to battle Nijuu Mensou is his boy assistent Kobayashi Yoshio (who is more often refered to as the boy Kobayashi). Who is actually quite good at fighting off a genius criminal mind, considering he's just a boy around 10-12 years old.

I have no idea where the concept of a very young detective came from, but I think it's safe to say that at least Kobayashi should be considered a direct descendent of Isidore Beautrelet, from 1909's L'Aiguille creuse ("The Hollow Needle") (Maurice LeBlanc), a young boy detective who manages to make Arsène Lupin's life difficult. 1907's Le mystère de la chambre jaune's ("The Mystery of the Yellow Room") protagonist Joseph Rouletabille is also very plausible as a model for Edogawa's Kobayashi. All of these novels have a young detective battling an experienced criminal mastermind and they actually put up a good, if not fantastic fight.

Kobayashi's performance is of the good, but not fantastic kind. He manages to come quite far, but in the end it's Akechi Kogorou who manages to overcome Nijuu Mensou. But even if Kobayashi didn't win from Nijuu Mensou, he sure did win from the editors at the Shounen Club magazine who weren't sure about Edogawa Rampo, at that time known for writing weird stories, writing for a children's magazine. Kaijin Nijuu Mensou proved to be a great hit with the children.

And kids like to read about kids having adventures, so Edogawa created the Shounen Tantei Dan in the second book of the series (1937). Lead by Kobayashi and sometimes helped by Akechi himself, the Shounen Tantei Dan is a group of elementary school kids who fight crime. Or at least, they try to fight crime. And usually, crime is uncanny close, as Kaijin Nijuu Mensou always seems to target some art object that is owned by a family whose son is in the Shounen Tantei Dan. They do stuff, Nijuu Mensou does stuff, Akechi appears, Nijuu Mensou disguises himself, Akechi unmasks him, Nijuu Mensou flees and rince and repeat. It's really just a fun novel for kids admiring detectives.

While the Shounen Tantei Dan of course remind of Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars, they differ in the sense that the Shounen Tantei Dan isn't just a support group to Akechi, they share the limelight with him as protagonists of the series. And instead of street urchins, these are all well to do kids, but more about that later.

The final book that was written before the war, 1938's Youkai Hakase ("The Monster Professor") revives Nijuu Mensou  (who should have died in the last book), who wants to take his revenge on Akechi and those meddling kids. For reasons I don't understand at all, he calls himself the Monster Professor throughout the story, even though we all know he is Nijuu Mensou, but then again, I'm not a master in disguise posed on taking revenge on a bunch of kids. Once again nothing but plain old fun for children.

After the war, Edogawa Rampo mainly wrote books in this series (and a lot of them too!), leaving both the orthodox and unorthodox detective novel behind him. Which is a pity, but it seems the war, especially war censoring, had had a great toll on his creativity (see the movie Rampo for a bit on Rampo and war censoring, and the movie Warai no Daigaku ("University of Laughs"), based on a Mitani Kouki play, for a humorous take on war censoring).

But it wasn't like censoring had played no part in the Shounen Tantei Dan series though. 1937 was also the year the Ministery of Home Affairs implemented a new guideline concerning children's literature, that severely limited the freedom of writers. Stories couldn't feature elements that would be considered bad for the morale of the country, like too gruesome scenes or even love stories. Edogawa Rampo actually wanted to use the  word kai-tou ("strange-thief" -> "phantom thief") instead of kai-jin ("strange-man" -> "fiend") for his kaijin nijuu mensou, as a clear reference to kai-tou Lupin ("Phantom Thief Lupin" = Arsène Lupin) and make him the protagonist, not the antagonist of the story, but he wasn't allowed to use a thief as the protagonist of the story, neither was he allowed by the editors of Shounen Club to use the character tou ("steal").

Following Washitani (2000) and reading the pre-war Shounen Tantei Dan books as pieces of propaganda is actually quite interesting. The notion that Nijuu Mensou, who is a thief, a man who kidnaps children, who is able to disguise himself from homeless man to idle musician, was a character who essentially represented everything that was considered not good for the war, everything the government wanted to censor, who battles the children from quite good families (and therefore to be the elite of the future) is actually quite interesting.

Matsuyama (1999) looks at the Shounen Tantei Dan from another point, namely of modernization. The members of the Shounen Tantei Dan are all children from well to do families. As mentioned, their families are actually quite often the target of Nijuu Mensou. These children were all part of a new elite in Tokyo, the children who lived in Ginza and Setagaya. People who would grow up to be the next elite, by studying hard and finding good jobs. While people used to inherit their work from their parents, this generation could get places by studying hard and getting in good universities. These kids were the first generation that actually had their own study room and they actually hardly left it, as they had to study. It was actually quite hard to play outside, with gray walls of stone around every house, and the city effectively a maze of asphalt. The scene in Youkai Hakase of Taiji getting lost while following a suspicous man would have be familiar to the readers. Stories like Shounen Tantei Dan and other stories in magazines like Shounen Club, were thus not only propaganda, but one of the few ways to actually "experience" the real world outside their study room for children.

And what a fun 'real world' it is. It must have been amazing to have read those stories in those days! Both Akechi Kogorou and Nijuu Mensou, as story devices, do their best to entertain the children. Nijuu Mensou never really gets dangerous, and the times some trap of his is deadly, Akechi will pop up. And wasn't it nice of Nijuu Mensou in 1938's Shounen Tantei Dan to actually wait till everyone had left the hideout until he set fire to the explosives?!

And of course, the popularity of any given kids' series is visible by the amount of related merchandise. It seems to be able to wear an actual BD ("Boys Detective") badge was almost considered a status symbol by post-war kids, and the kids who didn't get hold of on, would make their own BD badges. The Shounen Tantei notebook also seems to have been quite a popular product. In the '70s, the TV drama BD7 (Shounen Tantei Dan) also spawned its own series of goods (via Same Hat).

Nowadays, Shounen Tantei Dan's influence is mostly felt in Meitantei Conan. The Shounen Tantei Dan in Conan doesn't only borrow its name from Edogawa invention, but many other parallels can be found. For example, Conan's many, many gadgets are actually a modern version of the seven tools Kobayashi carried with him in the first novel. Actually, Kobayashi's tool might be even more effective than Conan's, as one of them was an actual gun.. I hate Meitantei Conan's Shounen Tantei Dan though. Members of the original Shounen Tantei Dan at least  know when they should rely on adults.

In the West, modern remakes of Scooby Doo and even Famous Five have appeared on TV. And while Meitantei Conan may be a sort of a replacement for the original Shounen Tantei Dan, I really wonder how a modern remake would turn out.


Literature of interest:

江戸川乱歩、山田貴敏(2004)「少年探偵団ワンダーランド」『少年探偵団２』小学館
Edogawa Rampo, Yamada Takatoshi (2004) Shounen Tantei Dan Wandarando. In: Shounen Tantei Dan 2. Shougakkan. 

松山巌 (1999) 『乱歩と東京・１９２０　都市の貌』双葉文庫
Matsuyama Iwao (1999). Ranpo to Toukyou: 1920 Toshi no Katachi. Futaba Bunko.

佐藤文昭（編集者）(2007) 『僕たちの好きな明智小五郎』　宝島社 
Satou Fumiaki (editor) (2007) Bokutachi no Sukina Akechi Kogorou. Takarajimasha

谷花 (2000) 「怪人、帝都を席巻す　：　『怪人二十面相』と『少年倶楽部』の地政学」『文学研究論集』 筑波大学比較・理論文学会
Washitani Hana (2000). The Phantom Thief in the Imperial Capital: Kaijin 20 men-so and the Topology of Syonen-Club. In: Bungaku Kenkyuuron Shuu. Tsububa Daigaku Hikaku Ronri Bungaku Kai

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩　『怪人二十面相』、『少年探偵団』 、『妖怪博士』

「結」の章

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.", G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy"

Norizuki Rintarou is an author who has been discussed quite often by now, so I won't bother to introduce him. Even people who can't read Japanese have had a chance to read his work, as his price-winning Toshi Densetsu Puzzle has been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as An Urban Legend Puzzle in the Passport to Crime series. An Urban Legend Puzzle was also my first experience with Norizuki and I have been a great fan of his work ever since. Ellery Queen readers really should at least try this Japanese Queen, as the Norizuki Rintarou stories parallel the Queen stories quite closely.

I especially like Norizuki Rintarou's short story collections, where many of the best short stories of the new orthodox school can be found. I've discussed the first collection, Norizuki Rintarou no Bouken ("The Adventures of Norizuki Rintarou") before, and I might re-read Norizuki Rintarou no Shinbouken ("The New Adventures of Ellery Queen") for a review in the future, but the topic for today the third short story collection, Norizuki Rintarou no Kouseki ("The Exploits of Norizuki Rintarou"). Yes, that title not based on an Ellery Queen novel, but on the Conan Doyle/Carr Holmes pastiche.

And I've actually already discussed two of the five stories in this collection already. Equal Y no Higeki ("Equal Tragedy of Y") was originally written for the anthology Y no Higeki ("The Tragedy of Y"), while ABCD Houimou ("The ABCD Line") was an original story for the anthology ABC Satsujin Jiken ("The ABC Murders"). So I refer to those reviews for more about those two stories.

And while those two stories were obviously written with a certain theme in mind, it seems Chuugoku Kagyuu no Nazo ("The Chinese Snail Mystery") wasn't, according to the afterword. Even if the reader would think otherwise. Anyway, the Queenish title is no coincidence, because what did Norizuki Rintarou discover when they finally broke open the office room of the famous detective writer Kanuma? A room where everything was upside down. Chairs, the desk, the computer, all upside down. And a piece of rope attached to the floor with a loose in it. Kanuma, who should have been in the office, is found hanging from the ceiling in the room beneath the office. Yes, it's Norizuki's take on Queen's locked room The Chinese Orange Mystery. But with a definite snail theme. I've learned more about snails and how they reproduce and stuff than I would ever want to know. In Japanese. But as Norizuki says himself in the afterword, locked rooms are not his forte and while Chuugoku Kagyuu no Nazo isn't really a bad story, it certainly isn't a very strong story either.

Both Toshi Densetsu Puzzle (An Urban Legend Puzzle) and Ishindenshin ("Tacit Understanding and Hanging") follow the same set-up, which is a parallel of how Ellery and Inspector Queen work. In both stories Chief Inspector Norizuki asks his son to help him with some case he is working on and by analyzing the facts and discussing the case, Rintarou arrives at the truth. This armchair/consulting detective model is one I especially like (c.f. the Puzzle Club stories by Ellery Queen) and actually one of the reasons why I prefer short stories (this model doesn't work really well in long stories).

Toshi Densetsu Puzzle is a story, that in my eyes, does almost everything great. The theme of the story, urban legends is a very interesting one and just like with Chuugoku Kagyuu no Nazo, Norizuki gives quite a bit of interesting background information on the theme. The story also proceeds at a nice pace and is just done almost perfect. The one negative point is that the trick of the story can be seen through almost immediately if you are not taken in by the blind spot Norizuki is trying to create. The writer himself confesses it's a rather easy story, but this is overall a great story.

The setup of Ishindenshin is the same, but the story itself is not as interesting. Chief Inspector Norizuki has trouble figuring out a murder on a young woman, who had been hanged in her room in order to make it look like suicide. Working through the many strange points of the case, father and son finally arrive at the truth, but is it a good one? The motive (in particular, the way the motive was set up) was one I hadn't seen before and it was distinctly modern, so I wasn't really prepared for it. A certain leap of thought had to be made if you're not familiar with a certain field, which I didn't really like. I think the main problem was a very sound and interesting one, so maybe I would've liked this story if I actually knew *that* existed.

But Norizuki Rintarou's exploits were overall quite interesting. I am a little disappointed with the lack of bibliophilia this time and most stories seem too strongly connected to other, major works, so it lacks a bit of its own identity compared to the previous collections, but still a solid work that shows that orthodox detectives are still very much alive in this world.　

Original Japanes title(s): 法月綸太郎　『法月綸太郎の功績』/「イコールYの悲劇」/「中国蝸牛の謎」/「都市伝説パズル」/「ABCD包囲網」//「縊心伝心」

Des Pas sur la neige

"Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition--and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. That is what I have been seeking to do--clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth--the naked shining truth."
"Death on the Nile"

Christmas means murder. Well, actually, it doesn't, but I sure associate the winter season and Christmas with murder. Because they are made for each other. A body lying in the middle in a field of snow, with no foot tracks. A group of people locked up in an old mansion because of a snow storm. A murderer who like Santa seems to be impervious to the laws of nature, popping up here and there. Christmas at its best!

So I do try to read winter-themed detectives in this season every year. Fortunately, there are many, many snowy-themed detectives out there. This year, I chose a book by Shimada Souji to be my Christmas detective. Shimada, one of the giants in the modern Japanese detective world, is actually one of the few New Orthodox (Golden Age styled) detective writers who has been translated into English. His The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (originally: Senseijutsu Satsujin Jiken ("The Astrology Murder Case")   is an excellent book. Nay, better than excellent. It is one of those books that any detective fan should read. It does everything right: characterization, setting, the tricks. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders was the first novel to feature the astrologer annex detective Mitarai Kiyoshi (whose family name you unfortunately write as "honorable toilet"). A brilliant, if somewhat eccentric mind. Like most great detectives.

The second novel featuring Mitarai is Naname Yashiki no Hanzai ("The Crime at the Slanted Mansion"). I'll begin by saying this is another excellent book. Not as impressive as The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, but oh so fun. The setting is snowy, snowy Hokkaidou. A strange mansion stands lonely on a clif near the sea. The reason the Drifting Ice Mansion is called strange, is because it is built slanted. Inspired by the Tower of Pisa, the Drifting Ice Mansion actually leans a bit, at the same angle as the replica Tower of Pisa which stands besides it. Everything in the house is bolted to the ground, table legs have been cut off so they don't slide away on the floor. And owner Hamamoto has fun everytime guests trip and fall. 

It is to this place that Hamamoto, a succesful business man, has gathered a small party of guests, mainly comprised of business contacts to spend Christmas and New Year with. But in true Christmas Murder Style (C), nothing stays merry. Christmas marks the beginning of a series of murders, horrible murders. One guests is found stabbed in a locked room, with no footsteps in the snow leading to his door. And for some reason a human-sized doll, which belongs to Hamamoto, is found lying outside in the garden. Was it the doll that running around on the roof , as one of the guests says she saw in the middle of the night? The police arrives at the scene, but they are not able to prevent a second locked room murder the same night. Everyone has an alibi. Except for the doll. A doll named Golem, who according to the store Hamamoto bought it from, was named after the legendary creature because he too is actually a living doll. As the police is able to do nothing, one man is sent for. Mitarai.

Who of course solves the cases brilliantly. I really enjoyed this book. It felt quite Carr-ish, with the locked rooms and of course the doll. Heck, even the Slanted Mansion itself seemed to eminate an aura of evil. A hint of Queen with a Challenge to the Reader. Yet, it somehow missed the stunning -wow- factor of the previous book. Because of how the trick of the locked rooms is done, you'll quickly catch on who the murderer is and how. I don't know how detective writers write their books, but this is one which was clearly built around one brilliant trick Shimada had, who then kept building on it till he had a novel-length book. But because the book hinges on that single trick, an acute reader will see through most of the events as soon as he sees through the main trick.

Which might sound negative, but Naname Yashiki no Hanzai is still an excellent book. The main trick is among the more original tricks I have seen in my life and if I hadn't known this book was first published in 1982, I would have sworn it was a detective actually written in the Golden Age. Especially as this novel is relatively clean (as in: no cut-up bodies like in The Tokyo Murder Case), made it seem like one of the classics of the good old age. A revised version was actually published in 2008, but I picked up the original one. It was cheaper.

I haven't read that much Shimada yet, besides the mentioned two novels I've only read the novellettes P no Misshitsu ("The Locked Room of P") and Suzuran Jiken ("The Case of the Lily of the Valley"), but it seems like Shimada likes a big scale to his tricks. He doesn't use small psychological tricks, he doesn't uses the sleight of the hand, Shimada's stories are full of mystery and big and bombastic and everything nice. Perfect for Christmas. 

Original Japanese title(s): 島田荘司　『斜め屋敷の犯罪』

「ジッチャンの名にかけて！」

「 みんな5年前のままじゃない。やっぱり変わってるんだ・・・そして、これからも・・・・」
『金田一少年の事件簿：雪影村殺人事件』

"Nobody is like they were five years ago. Yes. Everyone has changed... And they will keep changing...",
"The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi: The Yukikage Village Murder Case"

I usually don't discuss manga here. Not because I don't like the medium. Neither because comics don't belong here (because they do!). I deal with detective fiction here, as the site description says in the sidebar, which includes a wide range of different media. Besides books, movies, TV-series and games have also been discussed here. And the alert reader surely has noticed I read Meitantei Conan ("Detective Conan") and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi"). So why are they not discussed here?

Mostly because of the way the medium is set up. Stories are often quite short, which I think is harder to discuss than a single story. Another problem, especially in Conan, is the fact that stories are often spread amongst several volumes, and I don't really like discussing a single part of a story. Yes, I am still thinking about how I'm going to discuss Nikaidou Reito's four-part Jinroujou no Kyoufu ("The Fear of Werewolf Castle"), the longest detective story in existence.

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo though, is slightly easier to discuss though. Most stories since the reboot in 2004 have been longer, two volume stories. The only problem is that scriptwriter Amagi and illustrator Satou produce only two volumes a year. It just takes so long for a new story. But it is better than nothing at all, I guess.

This year's Renkinjutsu Satsujin Jiken ("The Alchemy Murder Case") is once again a rather classic Kindaichi Shounen. The story? Kindaichi is one of the three finalists in a TV programme with a lot of money at stake. These three finalists, together with three TV personalities, are gathered at Alchemy Mansion to shoot the footage for the final strage. The Alchemy Mansion, located on an island (of course!) was once the home of self-proclaimed alchemist, who had disappeared many years ago. As the TV crew make their preparations for the shooting, one of them is killed by a mysterious man dressed like... a man with a mask and a cape (I guess he is supposed to look like an... alchemist). And a sword. A giant sword. More murders occur and Kindaichi has to solve a locked room murder, the mystery of the disappearing murder weapon and prove his actress friend Reika is not the murderer. The elements that make up the bread and butter of the Kindaichi Shounen series.

At this point, I am not expecting new story set-ups in the Kindaichi Shounen series, I'd rather think I'd somehow not like such a change in the series. It's just something I'd expect from the series. So what kind of story did scriptwriter Amagi build with the classic elements? A solid classic story with few real surprises (on a meta level), which ranks among the better stories since the reboot. 2006's Gokumonjuku Satsujin Jiken ("The Jailgate Cram School Murder Case") is still the best since the reboot in my opinion, but Renkinjutsu Satsujin Jiken's use of the location and space for the creation of the mystery reminded me of the better Kindaichi Shounen stories.

The biggest problem I have with this year's volumes is the amount of fanservice it provides. Not the sexual-type of fanservice. But while appearances of him and her and such and so from the series' past can be fun, using it too much just cheapens the experience. It feels like almost every story since the reboot has relied on the nostalgia factor to a certain extent, which is just a shame. Go create new classic characters!

The same holds for Meitantei Conan 70. While I won't discuss it in detail, appearances of both KID and Hattori in a single volume is sort of overkill. Even if both stories are actually quite good. KID's flirt with the Ryouma boom in Japan is kind of entertaining and the Hattori story, which takes its cues from The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes series) and The Inugami Clan (Kindaichi Kousuke series), is one of the more interesting stories of the last few years! But still, using both Hattori and KID in quick succession just cheapens the experience.

And yes, I decided to discuss manga this time because I couldn't keep up with the one-post-a-week rate. It's not really cheating as I abide to the rules! Trying to finish a (snowy) detective novel before the new year though!　

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸、さとうふみや『金田一少年の事件簿　錬金術殺人事件 上・下』/青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン７０』

"But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: 'I do not know...'"

「密室は、今や黄昏だ。密室は滅びだ。この二つの文字は、もはや、人々の追憶の中にしか存在し得ない。だいたい、密室そのものが、密室にせねばならぬ理由を欠いているのだ。そんな密室が、現代に生き残れるはずがない。」，明智小五郎，『名探偵に乾杯』

"The locked room, it is in its twilight years. The locked room is dying out. Soon, it will only live in the memories of man. Locked rooms often lack a reason to be locked rooms. Such locked rooms can not survive in this day and age." Akechi Kogorou, "Cheers to the great detectives"

And then there were none. Curtain for Nishimura Kyoutarou's Meitantei series. And I will stop with the bad puns now. Ellery Queen's Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Simenon's Maigret and Edogawa Rampo's Akechi Kogorou have had their share of fun solving crimes together, but there is an end to all good things. The era of great detectives have passed. People don't read detective stories starring great detectives anymore; they long for hardboiled detectives, the normal man as detective! And so the four detectives slowly fade away from existence. And then Poirot demises. Ragnarok for the great detectives.

At the beginning of Meitantei ni kanpai ("Cheers to the great detectives"), Akechi Kogorou hosts a small memorial party on his private island for their recently departed friend. Guests naturally include Ellery Queen and Maigret, as well as Poirot's dear friend Captain Hastings. But un-invited guests also arrive at the island: a small crew of reporters, dragging along a shaman. A young couple happened to have trouble with their boat and somehow managed to swim to Akechi's island. And the most surprising one: a young man who claims his name is Hercule Poirot Junior. A man who claims he is the son of Hercule Poirot and Cynthia Murdoch.

I put the book away at this point. I was hesitating to continue. The chapter preceding Junior's appearance was awkward enough, with everyone debating on whether Poirot had a love life or not. But someone claiming to be the son of Poirot? Who knows what kind of madness Nishimura would come up with in the following chapters?

Junior says he can prove his story with two things. One: he has a manuscript with him written by Poirot, a critical assessment of the detective story. Two: he has inherited his father's little grey cells. Naturally, Hastings doesn't believe a word of Junior's story and in the end, the party decides to communicate with Poirot's ghost through the shaman, to ask him whether he really had a son.

I put the book away for a second time.

During the seance, a murder is commited. Junior comes up with a great deduction, which turns out to be wrong. Akechi, Ellery and Maigret do nothing. A second murder is commited, in a locked room nonetheless. Junior comes up with a great deduction. It turns out to be wrong. Akechi, Ellery and Maigret do nothing. Rince and repeat for several times. And in the end, Akechi solves everything. And an alternate solution for Curtain is proposed.

Yes, Meitantei ni kanpai is a tedious, awful book. Not only was the whole concept of Hercule Poirot Junior ridiculous, it was executed ridiculous too. Why would someone raised by Englishmen in South-America suddenly start using random French vocabulary because he thought his real father was Belgian? Everytime he said mademoiselle, I asked myself why. The rest of the book wasn't any better either. The locked rooms were awful and just like the previous book, the great detectives were reduced to one single entity, The Old Great Detective, who does nothing except for watching other people do stuff. The great detectives really don't show any signs of having a personality at all and it would hardly have mattered whether there were three great detectives present or one.

This is the only book in the Meitantei series that is written in the first person, by Akechi's assistent Kobayashi. Once known as the boy Kobayashi, he has become a middle-aged men with a daughter. Yes, Nishimura tried to draw parallels with Curtain. But the years and especially Nishimura have not been kind to Kobayashi, as he is reduced to an idiot. The boy who once battled The Fiend with Twenty Faces, the Robin to Akechi's Batman, is now a man who is impressed by Hastings' deductions. By Hastings' deductions!  This book is one out-of-character disaster after another.

The series had a good start. Meitantei nanka kowakunai ("Not afraid of great detectives") really was about four great detectives tackling a case togther, each using their own methods. Meitantei ga oosugiru ("Too many great detectives") was kinda busy, with four great detectives and two phantom thieves outsmarting each other, but the story was still focused on them. But Meitantei mo raku janai ("Even great detectives don't have it easy") and this book don't focus on the detectives anymore. Meitantei mo raku janai ("Even great detectives don't have it easy") is a book that laments the disappearance of the great detectives from detective novels, that sacrifices Akechi, Poirot, Ellery and Maigret for the story. And I am not even sure what Meitantei ni kanpai is. It sorta builds on the theme of the previous book, but kinda rejects it through its solution to the locked rooms. Was is it a vehicle to show the alternate solution to Curtain? If so, Nishimura coud have proposed it without imbedding it into a story. But as it is, the Meitantei series has ended in the worst way possible.