「見た目は子供、頭脳は大人。迷宮なしの名探偵」

"He is the Napoleon of Crime, Watson, the organiser of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected in this great city...",
"The Final Problem"

While it's always fun to see a master detective solve 'normal' crimes, we all know that things get serious when a master detective is pitted against a master criminal. We all know what happened with Holmes in his battle against Moriarty (but he got better). Or the battles of Holmes (or Sholmes) and Arsene Lupin. In more recent years, Tantei Gakuen ("Detective Academy Q")'s Q Class has been fighting against Pluto, an organisation that sells perfect crimes to would-be murderers. Tantei Gakuen Q's Pluto was a logical evolution of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of Young Kindaichi")'s Puppeteer from Hell, a consulting murderer who came up with perfect crimes for his clients.

I was actually very surprised to see that the master criminal was the main theme of Nikaidou Reito's Akuma no Labyrinth ("The Devil Labyrinth"). Going by the title, I was expecting some kind of trick with a building or something like that. Especially as this book was written after Jinroujou no Kyoufu ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle"). But no. Akuma no Labyrinth is the story of the first skirmishes between master detective Nikaidou Ranko and master criminal Demon King Labyrinth. And yes, calling yourself a labyrinth is kinda strange. Calling yourself after a structure. A name like Puppeteer from Hell is scary. A labyrinth is a bit... abstract. And yes, I know that the term meikyuu-iri (lit.: inside a maze) means unsolved cases and that Demon King Labyrinth refers to that, i.e. his crimes can't be solved, but still. It's a really abstract name. Like calling yourself the Demon Archway or something.

But I digress. Set just before the events of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, Akuma no Labyrinth is split in two distinct parts, much like how Arsene Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes was basically two novelettes strung together. In the first story, The Mystery of Sleeping Limited Express Asakaze, a magican called Demon Satan is sent a threatening letter by Demon King Labyrinth, saying he is not worthy to carry the name of Satan. Just to be sure, Demon Satan's agent arranges for a private detective to accompany him on his trip from Tokyo to Fukuoka on the sleeping limited express Asakaze. It was for naught though, as 1) Demon Satan disappears from his room, 2) the dead body of his assistent who had been standing on the platform when they took off is found inside the room, 3) and all that in a triple locked environment; inside a moving train, inside a locked room, right under the nose of the private detective! The police ask Ranko for her help (who had received her own warning letter of Demon King Labyrinth by now), thus beginning the battle between Ranko and Labyrinth. A locked room using a trick I have seen before, but executed well mostly, except on one little point, which was passed over all too easily, in my opinion. I might want to check with a train-expert fan, but it sounded a bit too easy.

The battle continues in The Secret of the Glass House, which was like an Edogawa Rampo story, with too much strange happenings in a short time period. First the search of an abandoned mansion which seems to be an old hide-out of Labyrinth. A couple of Scooby-Doo secret doors and underground hallways lead to something which seems like a clue to Labyrinth's plans. And a lot of dead bodies. And then an intermezzo of a man discovering a cave holding frozen statues of naked dead men (think Kurotokage ("The Black Lizard")). And finally a locked room murder in a house of... well, mainly glass. Which was way too easy to solve. Other aspects of the mystery were impossible to solve on the other hand and Ranko's 'deductions' really came from nowhere. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this was intended as an homage to Edogawa Rampo.That is the only explanation for the cannibal appearing.

And then it stops. Without a real conclusion. It seems like Nikaidou intended Akuma no Labyrinth to be a series-opener or something. As of now, we only have vague hints about who/what Labyrinth is and a lot of foreshadowing. As of now, this is really nothing more than just a teaser and we don't even get any real developments in the conclusion of the book. It's entertaining stuff, but it feels a bit incomplete. I guess I'm expected to read the rest in following books.

The introduction of a nemesis to Ranko is kinda... surprising though. I can't remember the last time I saw a master-detective/master-criminal show-off in a novel. Often enough in manga and movies, but in a novel series? On the other hand, seeing how Jinroujou no Kyoufu ended, it was not totally unexpected, I guess. You could say Nikaidou was just building on some themes introduced there. And yes, it's sorta cheap to set this book before the events of Jinroujou no Kyoufu, because it allows Nikaidou to write on with Ranko. No, she doesn't die there, or anything like that at all (so stop the guessing or saying I'm spoiling things), but it's significant that Nikaidou chose to set this book (and I guess subsequent books with Labyrinth) before Jinroujou no Kyoufu.

I'm reading my Nikaidou books in the worst order possible though. I still haven't read the first Nikaidou Ranko novel yet (yes, I have it), but I pretty much have read her greatest cases already and it seems that continuity in this series is actually slightly relevant.

Oh, and the reviews (yes, plural) for the following few days are of gasp! Western books.

Original Japanese title(s): 二階堂黎人 『悪魔のラビリンス』

「どうか私とワルツを」

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

「あの娘のまえには多くの男の血が流されるであろう。彼女は女王蜂でる」

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

「ばんなそかな」

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

"A Pocket Full of Rye"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nevermore, I hope.

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

『DRINK ME』

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

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

『『アリス・ミラー』殺人事件』

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

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

"'Alice Mirror Castle' Murder Case"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

「汝夜歩くなかれ」

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Tragedy of Y

「恐らく、ダイイング・メッセージだと思いますが」

耳慣れぬ言葉にとまだった

「ダイニング、何ですって？」

「ダイイング・メッセージ。死に際の伝言ということです。」

『一の悲劇』

"It was probably a dying message.’

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

"Dining what?"

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

 "The Tragedy of One"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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