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』