"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』

Whose Body?

"Words are such uncertain things, they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do"
"The Clergyman's Daughter"

Ok, 'guaranteeing' I wouldn't update today was mostly because I assumed I wouldn't finish a book on time. Because I would need a subject to write about. Which usually means I need to read a book. Or watch a movie or something. And I was pretty sure I wouldn't finish anything yesterday.Yet somehow, I managed to finish two books between yesterday and now. Things never go as planned.

Kelley Roos' The Frightened Stiff starts with Jeff and Haila Troy moving into their new garden level apartment. The first day in their new home doesn't turn out too well, as a) they overhear a telephone call in a nearby restaurant that mentions their new address, b) they get home after dinner and discover that someone must have entered their appartment while they were gone and c) a naked dead body is found in their garden the following morning. As if moving isn't troublesome enough.

And I can't be the only one that expected the frightened stiff to turn up in the bathtub when he saw the cover. A skeleton. In a bathtub. It sorta suggest something. And no, I hardly ever read the text on the back of a book. Or else I would have known, I confess.

Major suspects of the murder: the Troys. Well, you can't really blame the police for looking at them with suspicious eyes, as it was their garden where the body was lying. The stiff was also drowned in their bathtub. The Troys suspect that  one of the other tenants in their building must be the killer though and in good old fashion, all of these tenants have something to hide from the Troys and the police. Add in some attempts on the Troys' lives and the mystery of how an apartment room could have been cleared completely from its contents without anyone noticing, and you have a fun little adventure for our pair of wedded amateur detectives.

Have I mentioned already that I love Christie's crime-solving couple Tommy & Tuppence Beresford? The Tommy & Tuppence stories are a delight to read because of the dynamic between the loving couple and it's this fun dynamic that I would like to see more often in detectives. I said as I looked wearily at Meitantei Conan (seriously, the only couple that is kinda normal there is Takagi/Satou there, and that took like 40 volumes?). I don't think the Troys are as fun as the Beresfords, but they are really not bad either (ok, they're quite fun actually). The story itself is really amusing, with a nice little impossible situation that is clued very deviously throughout the story, interesting characters lurking around in the appartment and nice banter between the Troys.

I think the best about this book is how easy it is to just pick up and read. Just start with it, and before you know it you're all caught up in the Troys' adventures and you'll probably won't lay the book down until you're at the last page. It's a very entertaining, well structured and plotted story. I can't really add more to this.

The Treasure Hunt

「謎を掛けられると、人間というのは弱いらしい。だから、推理小説が書店の店頭をにぎわしており、私も生活できているのだ」
『英国庭園の謎』

"Mankind can't say no to riddles. That's why detective novels are livening things up in shop windows and I'm making a living"
"The English Garden Mystery"

Hmmm, I seem to update this blog quite often lately. Too often maybe. I can at least garantee that I won't update tomorrow. And because I don't like making editorial announcements in seperate posts, I'll do it here: 1) I've generously been asked for a guest post at Detection by Moonlight, a blog you should have been reading anyway if you're interested in Golden Age detective fiction. Frequent updating with critical reviews make Detection by Moonlight a delight to read, so please take a look. 2) I had already added a link to the side-bar earlier this month, but you'll also find me blogging about twice a month on Japanese detective fiction at Criminal Element. And now on with today's topic.

Which is Arisugawa Alice's third story collection in his Writer Alice series (as opposed to his Student Alice series). A little book called Eikoku Teien no Nazo ("The English Garden Mystery"). Like the previous two volumes (Russia Koucha no Nazo and Brazil Chou no Nazo), the stories take their cues from Ellery Queen-style short stories. "Clinical Criminologist" Himura Hideo and detective writer Arisugawa Alice once again join forces to assist the police with tough-to-crack cases, all in the name of science and fieldwork. Himura's tongue is still so sharp as ever in his discussions with Alice (Alice: 'Thanks for trusting me with this'. Himura: 'I'd have asked a dog if he happened to be here'), resulting in manzai-esque conversations. It's actually quite refreshing to have someone from Osaka as the protagonist, or more specifically, Kansai as a the main stage for the stories, because most modern Japanese crime stories take place there. Still waiting for a great detective's rise in Fukuoka.

The opening story Uten Kekkou ("No Postponement Even In Rainy Weather") is a decent short story, that reminds of Queen with its long deduction-chain based on a single item (or in this case; the fact that an item isn't there) as well as a dying message-like discussion on the interpretation on what the deceased had said shortly before her death. It's so specifically Japanese though that it's nigh impossible to translate in a way that makes sense to people without knowledge of the language. 

Rindou Kouichi no Giwaku ("Rindou Kouichi's Suspicion") is a rather disappointing story, which any reader would solve the moment the culprit appears in the story. Rindou Kouichi is a writer who for the last couple of years is suffering from a writer's block. Rindou suspects that his family is trying to get rid of him. It isn't likely Rindou is going to write something new, and they might as well kill him to get the royalties from his (still very popular) older books themselves directly. A very simple story that ends almost the moment it begins and the only saving grace is an interesting motive, but not something I hadn't seen before. In a totally different genre, strangely enough. 

Mitsu no Hitsuke ("The Three Dates") is a bit like a lot of Arisugawa's lesser stories, in the sense that it is too ingeneous for its own good. Here Arisugawa Alice himself is questioned by the police, asking him whether he can confirm that three years ago he was with a person in a cafe. This person is the suspect in a murder case, but he claims that at the time, he was in that cafe and had his picture taken with Arisugawa. The final problem is solved by some very specific knowledge, which us mere mortals usually don't have readily in our head. It reminds a bit of Queen's The Glass-Domed Clock, which was perfectly solvable though, but that story too hinged on something that required some specific knowledge. With these stories, it really differs per reader I think whether they feel satisfied with the story or not. 

Kanpeki na Isho ("The Perfect Suicide Note") for example, is another of these deviously set-up stories, but one I feel more positive about. Here a man has killed a woman who had rejected his advances for the xth time now. Not planning to get arrested, he decides to make it seem like suicide, by using a note she had sent him earlier. It was meant to reject his advances ('it's all over' etc.), but by adding two pages (lamenting over the world etc.), he makes it seem like a suicide note. Yet, it seems that his suicide note wasn't perfect enough, for writer Arisugawa holds the key to the mistake our murderer made when making the fake note. Once again a story that hinges on specific knowledge, but it's something I have, something I come across every single day and then I admit it makes sense and that I should have been able to solve it myself. 

Jabberwocky though, is the other side of this story. A madman, who was caught in the past by Himura and Alice, is free again and calls the duo, suggesting something (bad) will happen in the near future. He has the tendency to play the Riddler, i.e. there is a lot hidden within his seemingly mad sayings. The solution is once again so specific that you might get a kick out of it if you know it, but I can't really praise the story. Except for the fact that it has been an interesting read and I learned something out of it.

I had high expectations for Eikoku Teien no Nazo ("The English Garden Mystery"), it being the titular story and a Queen reference and all. Wealthy man gets killed during a treasure hunt he had organized for some friends and family in his English garden. The police, and Himura and Alice, suspect that it has something to do with the treasure hunt. The guests hadn't expected a treasure hunt actually and were quite surprised they got a coded message that morning. The solution is a interesting one, but I don't think it would be possible to do it as well in English, or at least, I'm afraid the solution wouldn't be camouflaged as well compared to the Japanese version. It's a decent story, but way too long considering the contents. Learned a lot about English gardens though.

Arisugawa Alice is a very prolific writer and he had written at least one book a year ever since he began the Writer Alice series (this selection dating from 1997), but it seems that was a bit too much for him; the quality starts to suffer. He's sometimes too ingeneous, he uses knowledge that is just out of reach for normal people, and that makes his stories feel a bit unfair at times. I know he can write gems, so it makes this short story collection a bit of a disappointment. The book's not totally bad and I know Queen can be just as esoteric as Arisugawa at times, but this particular collection has so many of these stories that it's kinda hard to ignore.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖　『英国庭園の謎』「雨天決行」/「竜胆紅一の疑惑」/「三つの日付」/「完璧な遺書」/「ジャバウォッキー」/「英国庭園の謎」