「迷宮のように巡る世界で、変わらない想いを君に」

「もちろん、その可能性は多いにあるでしょうね。あのお手伝いさんはどうか分からないけど、僕やあなたも含めて、クイーンのあの作品を読んでない人間なてここにはいないでしょうから」

『迷路館の殺人』

"That is very much possible. I don't know about that maid, but there is not a single person here who hasn't read that famous novel by Queen"

"The Labyrinth House Murders"

Spending an entire night (and the morning) casting current members of the Mystery Club in the roles of the characters in Jukkakukan no Satsujin. Weird, but fun. Oh, and I can't divulge too much about this as this is something private of the Club, but do people really think that there are actual great detectives here when they see Kyouto Daigaku Suiri Shousetsu Kenkyuu Kai ("Kyoto University Detective Fiction Research Club", the official name of the Mystery Club)? Hey, this isn't the Koigakugo Academy Detective Club!

But now for something completely different. Or not completely. I mean, in the end it's all detective-fiction-related...

Meirokan no Satsujin ("The Labyrinth House Murders") is the third novel in Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata series, which features amateur detective Shimada Kiyoshi and the mysterious buildings built by architect Nakamura Seiji. The titular Labyrinth House is an underground mansion, inspired by the myth of the Minotaur. And by inspired, I mean that the mansion is actually a labyrinth. The owner of the mansion, mystery writer Miyagaki Youtarou invited his four disciples, his editor (and wife), a critic and mystery fan Shimada Kiyoshi to his mansion for a special event, but he is found dead when they arrive. A recorded tape however tells them that he hopes that his disciples will improve their works and challenges them in writing a detective story within five days after his death, under the condition that nobody leaves the mansion until then. Their stories have to be set in the Labyrinth Mansion and they themselves have to appear as victims within their stories. The winner, determined by the editor and critic, is to inherit the whole fortune of Miyagaki. However, the four disciples are killed one after another and what's more surprising, they are all killed according to their own stories!

One year later, a novel is written based on the murders that happened in the Labyrinth House and a copy is delivered to Shimada. One of the persons connected to the case wrote the novel, but who? And why did he/she write down the horrible events that happened in the Labyrinth?

People who have been following this blog for some time, might know that I have a weakness for 1) Greek mythology and 2) meta-mystery, especially featuring writers, editors and fans. You might infer my reaction to Meirokan no Satsujin based on the summary above. Writers get a free bonus point with me whenever they employ any of these tropes, but Ayatsuji's third novel is also very good even without those bonus points.

First of all, the story-within-a-story framework is excellent. The story starts with Shimada receiving the book based on the murders in which he acknowledges that one of the persons involved wrote the novel, followed by the novel itself. Shimada thus challenges the reader (us), to not only solve the murders that happen within the story-within-a-story, but also to find out which of the characters that appear in the micro-narrative is in fact the writer. The two-dimensional narrative is something Ayatsuji likes a lot (c.f. island-mainland in Jukkakukan no Satsujin and past-present in Suishakan no Satsujin), but I think it works the best here; the integration within the whole narrative feels the most natural, compared to how it appears in the previous two novels.

Spoilers for Jukkakukan no Satsujin and Suishakan no Satsujin (select to read):

It was obvious from the start with the previous novels that Ayatsuji intended to fool the reader by using the two narratives, i.e. implying existing relations between the narratives or denying them. Which made solving them rather easy. By starting with saying that there is something fishy to the document in Meirokan no Satsujin, we at least know that Ayatsuji is going for something slightly different here.

End Spoilers 

Four disciples who are murdered according to their own stories and a labyrinth as the location for those murders. Yes, this novel is packed with thrilling events. It is a really exciting read, especially as any detective story gets more exciting when it is a genuine closed circle situation. Which this is, as the keys to get out of the Labyrinth House disappear early on in the story. The closed circle is once again a much-used trope of Ayatsuji, although this time it is not as natural as in Jukkakukan no Satsujin. But the setting! Just imagine being locked up in a labyrinth with a murderer on the loose! Ayatsuji is quite good at writing easy-to-read, but very exciting stories and this is no exception. I have to admit though, that at times it almost feels too much is going on. A locked room murder, a dying message, the labyrinth, the murders made to resemble the stories the disciples were writing... It almost feels like overkill, especially near the last half of the story-within-the-story, as events follow each other rather rapidly.

The murders made to resemble the scripts, as a plot-device, is fun to read though. One day, I will come up with a better English term for the Japanese mitate-satsujin than 'resembling' murder, but until that day, I will always refer to this older post. The previous two novels, despite obvious differences in characters and setting, were actually very similar in an abstract way, also looking tropes in use. The 'resembling' murder trope here thus feels quite 'fresh', even though it is an often employed trope within Japanese detective fiction. The motive for the resembling murders here is a lot more amusing than the motives you usually in detective fiction though and what is even more interesting is that Ayatsuji actually plays with the common motives, acknowledging them as legit, but also going one level deeper with the trope.

I also liked how the mansion built by Nakamura Seiji actually appeared to be a really menacing location within the story. In Jukkakukan no Satsujin, Nakamura Seiji as a person seemed of more importance than the titular Decagon House, while the Water Mill House of Suishakan no Satsujin, admittedly worked as a creepy setting (and it gave us a creepy discovery-of-the-corpse-scene!), but it never felt threatening as an object on its own. The claustrophobic Labyrinth House with an actual labyrinth inside it and references to Greek mythology however is really impressive as a location and much more fitting to be mentioned in the title.

And of course, the genre-savviness! I still like the meta-conciousness of Jukkakukan no Satsujin more than this novel, as the discussions there feel a lot more natural / realistic to me. This time, most of the genre-savviness and meta-talk derives from Shimada himself. The contents themselves might be as entertaining as always, but these kind of things just feel more natural when spoken by a member of a Mystery Club. Yes, this is a totally personal feeling, but hey, opinions on novels are based personal experiences.

So short story, I like this novel. A lot. Which makes it very alluring to move up the other books in the series up in my reading pile...

Original Japanese title(s): 綾辻行人 『迷路館の殺人』

「突然の雨に降られるときだって焦らずに晴れを待とうよ」

「レールの上を走れる電車は走らない電車よりもいい電車」

『クビキリサイクル』

"A train running on rails is better than a train not running at all"

"The Deheading Cycle"

Rewatching Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target and Detective Conan: Lost Ship in the Sky with people of the Mystery Club didn't change my opinion about the movies, but it sure was fun to watch those movies with foreknowledge, which led to amusing comments and shared feelings. The sounds of sorrow and pain when inspector Megure first appeared in The Fourteenth Target were priceless. Oh, and people who remember every person in the keyholes at the back of every volume are amazing. And never underestimate the international power of Super Smash Bros.

Anyway, I was surprised in the weekend by the sudden early release of Conan 76, but I had also forgotten that the first volume of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo ("The Casefiles of Young Kindaichi") was also released last weekend. First volume, you ask? Surely I reviewed it earlier this year, you say. Or you might even point out that the first volume of the series was released quite some time ago. 20 years to be exact.

Which would all be correct. But to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series, publisher Kodansha actually commissioned a new serialized series, as opposed to the short limited series of the last couple of years. This means that like Conan, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo now has regained a regular publishing schedule without a planned conclusion. This is also reflected in this new release of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: it is branded as the first volume in the 20th Anniversary series and like the old serialized series, stories are spread over multiple volumes, unlike the one-shot approach (one or two volumes containing a complete story) of late (something like this). The brand name suggest that this serialization might only run in this anniversary year, but who knows, it might continue for some years like the original series too!

Kindaichi Hajime's return to the world of regular serialization starts with Hitokui Kenkyuujo Satsujin Jiken ("The Human Eating Lab Murder Case"), which brings us back to familar grounds (especially compared to last year's adventure, which was a bit different). Hajime and Miyuki go visit an old middle school friend of theirs, Midorigawa Mayu, who is now the (very young!) head of a research laboratory. The lab is located in Hitokui Village, also known as Nostalgia Village, because it is like times stood still in this village. From the buildings to the cars and the public phones, everything seems it is from the post-war Showa period. In fact, the town actually manages to attract tourists because everything is still so well preserved.

Mayu invited Hajime and Miyuki to ask them for help in solving a code her father left her before he commited suicide many years ago, when he was the head of the lab. It seems that the laboratory has a strange history related to suicides: the suicide of Mayu's father was one in a series of several suicides and suicide attempts and this would hardly be a Kindaichi Shounen story if the suicide chains wouldn't start again, right? Someone jumping off the building, another hanging himself inside a locked room... What is making these people commit suicide? Is the location itself, Hitokui Lab, which can be interpreted as Man-Eating Lab, maybe the catalyst here?

As Kindaichi Shounen story, this is really a classic set-up. A visit to a friend that ends up in murder? A isolated location far away from the outside world? Locked rooms and other impossible crimes? Suggestion of the supernatural? It's all here and it feels good. The story is not completed yet in this volume (a major con of publications of regularly serialized material!), so I can't comment too much on the whole story, but it feels familiar. In a good way. I don't familiar in the sense of 'I've seen that trick in another story' or anything like that, just familiar because this is what I expect from the series. Some tricks might seem more suitable to Tantei Gakuen Q than Kindaichi Shounen and the interesting setting of Nostalgia Village is thrown away quickly for more focused view on the the rather bland Hitokui Lab (with a lot of shots of different white research rooms and keys which are kept in all kinds of places), which was a shame. I did find it amusing to see that there was no man running around dressed as a monster this time and that the research laboratory itself was presented as the 'murderer'. That would have been more suitable for a Opera House story!

And now to wait until October for the new volume! Really happy that the series is running regularly again, but I wish I could avoid having to wait for the conclusion of the story...

Original Japanese title(s): 天樹征丸、さとうふみや　『金田一少年の事件簿　20周年記念シリーズ』第1巻

「違います。デートじゃありませんよ！」

I know my heart should guide me, but, 

There's a hole within my soul. 

What will fill this emptiness inside of me? 

Am I to be satisfied without knowing?

 I wish, then, for a chance to see,

 Now all I need, (desperately)

 Is my star to come... 

"Wind's Nocturne", Lunar: Silver Story

Last time a friend said that I had a knack for living in all kinds of places in Japan besides Tokyo. Which is sometimes reflected in my Japanese. I for one loved living in Fukuoka, but there was one moment, one happening that really made me realize that Fukuoka was indeed far away from 'the center' of Japan. Being told that new releases (of books, games, comics) were usually two or three days late in Fukuoka because they have get shipped to the island of Kyushu from the main island of Honshu, was a big shock to me.

So I was kinda surprised to see Detective Conan 76 in the stores here in Kyoto today. Especially as the official release date is actually in two days. Yay for early releases! And to be honest, I had really forgotten that Conan 76 was to be released this month: I am sure that it wasn't that long ago I reviewed volume 75! Doesn't it usually take three months between every volume? Anyway, this also explains the crappy photo of the cover by the way: official scans of the cover, usually found on websites of bookstores, aren't available yet. The newest volume starts off with Nocturne of the Detectives, an interesting story mostly meant to advance the main storyline. Mouri Kogorou and the gang are lured out of the office and when they come back, they find that someone had been impersonating as Mouri in order to procure a key from a prospective client. The imposter commits suicide when he discovers that Mouri is on to him, but Conan suspects there is more to the story than what meets the eye.

What follows is a rather easy and predictable plot surrounding the mysterious imposter and the prospective client, but what makes this particular story so fun is that it clearly poses Subaru Okiya, Amuro Tooru and Sera Masumi as the three candidates for the Black Organisation spy Bourbon. I had hoped on some more hints on who Bourbon really is, but who knows, the denoumement of this particular storyline might turn out to be as surprising as what we saw in volume 42.

The Death Calling Barbeque is a Detective Boys story, so not too interesting. The DBs are invited to a barbeque by a young couple they met while camping a bit earlier. During the barbeque, the couple has a fight and the husband accidently stabs his wife. Or did he? Like many of the DB stories, a short and rather predictable story, with an often-seen misdirection trick. It's also the second story in this volume that focuses a lot on human drama. The last volume also ended in a rather melodramatic tone. Style-change of Aoyama?

The Entrusted Feelings of the Wataru Brothers is one of the human drama stories set at the Metropolitan Police Department stories that you either like or not. Takagi Wataru, who can be called a lucky man because he's dating Satou, or an unlucky man because of all the things he has suffered until now in this series, is once again in a pinch as he has been kidnapped by a person (or persons) unknown. And laid upon a girder with a noose around his neck. Who kidnapped Takagi and why? A story that would work fantastic as a short TV movie, with suspense! and mystery! and human drama! and romance! and stuff, but it feels a bit light here, especially as Takagi has been in too many pinches by now. And it is really never his fault (note: I like Takagi's character and he really should get more lucky breaks!).

An OK volume, as the opening and ending story are suspenseful enough to keep the normal reader interested, but as detective stories this trio is kinda disappointing. Which also explains why this is a rather short review. There is just too little to write about it (in the context of this blog). Hope the next volume is a back to the more classic style of stories.

Oh, and when did Conan change his clamshell phone for a smartphone? And more interesting reviews of more interesting stuff will come... when I actually read more interesting stuff. Hmm. Even the four posts a month thingy is becoming challenging now.

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第76巻

『霊視る（みえる）』

"You enter a room, a street, a country road. You see a figure ahead of you, solid, three-dimensional, brightly coloured. Moving and obeying all the laws of optics. Its clothing and posture is vaguely familiar. You hurry toward the figure for a closer view. It turns its head and - you are looking at yourself. Or rather a perfect mirror-image of yourself only - there is no mirror. So, you know it is your double. And that frightens you, for tradition tells you that he who sees his own double is about to die..."

"Through A Glass, Darkly"

I already said it in my review of Roger Scarlett's Murder Among the Angells: reading English novels translated to Japanese taxing. The inherent difference between the two languages, plus the fact that the original text was already 'dated' English (as in not contemporary English), made for a reading challenge that was distinctly different from reading books that were originally Japanese. And a lot more tiring. So I really wanted to avoid reading more books translated to Japanese. On the other hand, you should imagine the temptation whenever I see translated versions of old (and out of print!) English classics in a neat row at any large bookstore. It's still strange to realize you can get most Queens new here in Japan at any decent bookstore.

Anyway, today's topic: Through A Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy. Because apparently it is going to be discussed at the Mystery Club in a week or two. And because it was available new at the local bookstore. And it is quite a famous novel. And because I should read more McCloy. I think. Actually, this is my first McCloy (my writing has become more chaotic? It's been a while since the last post...). Anyway, young teacher Faustina Crayle is fired from her position mid-term at a girls' school for reasons the head of the school does not want to tell her. Faustina's colleague Gisela von Hohenems fears there might have been a big mistake and confides in her fiance Basil Willing about this affair. Willing discovers that students (and teachers) at the school have been seeing Faustina appearing at places she could not have been unless she could teleport, split herself into two images or something like that. Willing suspects a sinister plot surrounding Faustina and this turns out to be reality when another teacher is found dead, apparently having fallen of a staircase. One student claims to have seen Faustina pushing the teacher of the staircase, but Faustina was in another city at the moment of the accident!

One of the first notes I made while reading this book was "Carr". Because this story feels really like a Carr story, with the supernatural element of a ghost/doppelganger. The novel's theme is also reminiscent of Dorothy L. Sayers' short story The Image in the Mirror, which is actually one of the few Sayers stories I like. There is just something romantic, and horrifying about the theme of doppelgangers and Helen McCloy manages, as far as I can judge from the translation, to convey a really creepy atmosphere even though the prose is quite dry and down to earth. Maybe that is why it feels all the more creepy: everybody tries to think logically about it, but the supernatural events still happen.

There's apparently also a short story version of this novel, which might actually work better for this story, I think. Through a Glass, Darkly is certainly an entertaining detective story, but most of its charm, for me, was derived from its atmosphere, which would have worked just as well, or maybe even more powerful in a more condensed, shorter version. So I might want to try out the short story version in the future.

I was less impressed by the overall trick, but that might be because the solution seemed so obvious. Ignoring the 'supernatural' card, that seemed like the most likely solution. Which might be a problem with a lot of 'supernatural' settings/plot devices in detective novels. As a plot device, there is something magic to the classic locked room though that prevents it from becoming as obvious as the supernatural plot device in Through a Glass, Darkly. Usually. But like I said, the atmosphere is really good and McCloy's plot-structure really manages to support that atmosphere. Personally, I found the ending to be quite interesting too and quite fitting to the tone of this novel, but I can imagine people not being content with the last few pages.

Awful review? Yes, I know. I really should write more often again. By which I don't mean that I write masterpieces when back in a proper writing rhythm, but it would probably be a lot better than this post. Which reminds me, I really should try writing a short story myself this year, as several semi-interesting situations have been popping up in my head lately (of course, solving those situations is another problem...)

番外編： うぁぁー

I usually have some requirements for my posts. They usually have to be of at least a certain length. But this is special.

So Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru, Maya Yutaka and Madoi Ban (Van Madoy) walk into a bar... The beginning of a bad joke? No, it is an accurate description of the welcome party for the new members of the Kyoto University Mystery Circle held last Friday. Apparently, these insanely famous OBs occasionally drop by at parties of the Mystery Club. Or they come to play mahjong. Especially mahjong, it seems. Anyhow, the moment Abiko Takemaru and Maya Yutaka entered the room was just fantastic, with every discussion stopping abruptly. The same of course when Ayatsuji Yukito entered, who came a bit later. Words can not even begin to describe the aura of the table of these OBs in the restaurant. Just sitting in the same room was awesome. Even though we all tried to avert our eyes in fear of blinding ourselves of the light radiating from that table.

And I even had a short chat with Ayatsuji-sensei as he signed my copy of Ningyoukan no Satsujin ("The Puppet House Murders") I luckily had with me (some other members ran out to buy books to get them signed). And there is no greater motivation, nor greater pressure for writing a thesis on New Orthodox detective fiction, than being told by the person who started the New Orthodox movement that he wants to read your thesis when it is finished. Especially if he even mentions you on his twitter-feed.

I guess I have to write a good thesis now, right?

「真相にタッチ、犯人をアウト」

「ぼくは傍観者ではなく、敗北者だったのかもしれない」

『クビシメロマンチスト』

"Maybe I wasn't just an onlooker, but the loser here"

"Strangling Romanticist"

*looks at last sentence of last post*

I guess I should be happy it only took me three days to read my next book. Huh. And I think I should also be happy that I am up to date with Higashigawa Tokuya's Koigakubo Academy Detective Club series now. This series starrring the titular Detective Club is hilarious and while I have to admit that the first novel in the series, Manabanai Tanteitachi no Gakuen, was not without its flaws, I liked it for the humor and the way Higashigawa managed to blend that humor perfectly with a detective plot, even employing humor to mask hints. There is just something charming to the poor members of the club, who try to be detectives but somehow never seem to succeed.

Anyway, so I finished the second novel in the series, Satsui wa Kanarazu Sando Aru ("Murderous Intent Always Comes Three Times"). Akasaka Tooru, who was tricked into joining the club in the previous novel, is still a member of the detective club, naturally accompanied by club president Tamagawa and the Kansai-dialect using Yatsuhashi. It's almost summer and summer + high school means the Summer Koushien baseball tournament in Japan! The Koigakubo Academy Baseball Club is pathetically weak though, and their Koushien Summer is usually over after just one single match. Of course, everybody hopes this changes every year and this time, the Koigakubo team is having a training match with its rival, Hiryuu High School. And yes, with rival, I mean that both clubs are pathetically weak and that they basically fight to not be the worst team. During the match though, held at Hiryuu High's new baseball field, the dead body of the Koigakubo Academy's baseball match is found behind the back screen of the center field! It's up to the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club to solve this murder! Or is it?

Like its predecessor, I feel that this is a funny, yet flawed novel. The biggest flaw: the main puzzle is better suited for a short story. Too much time is spent on investigating the main problem: the coach was murdered the night before the match, but during his estimated time of death, the field was observed from several angles (and naturally nobody saw something suspicious). The solution is admittedly good one (though I think I have seen it in a different form somewhere else before), but it really didn't need that much pages to work as a detective story. In fact, so much attention was spent on it that it became too clear what the solution was! Near the end, a couple of more murders were thrown at the reader, but the pages alloted to them made it very clear that these later murders were not as important as the first.

I do have to admit that Higashigawa threw in a wonderful misdirection trick in the story and that's certainly his specialty: creating gaps between the observations of his characters that result in a misunderstanding on the part of the reader (and the characters). Higashigawa uses this for his comedy (with conversations that don't mesh right), but also to fool the reader and I always enjoy seeing this in his stories. I wonder whether it is easier to make these kind of tricks in Japanese, compared to English for example. There are also some great ones in the Zaregoto series. It is more common to drop implicitly understood parts of sentences in Japanese (i.e. grammatical subjects, objects that have been mentioned before), which makes these kinds of tricks possible, but I don't think they would feel as natural in English.

And I still enjoy the school-setting of these stories. This time, the focus is more on the extra-curricular clubs of the school (there are very few scenes actually set at school), but the characters and the relations between them are all very recognizable (though it's been quite some while since my high-school years) and suit Higashigawa's style perfectly. I do have to admit that I am not interested in baseball at all, so I had some troubles getting into the right atmosphere. I am hardly a fan of football, but I at least have a slight interest in it, which why I did enjoy the setting of Detective Conan: The Eleventh Striker. I guess that Higashigawa Tokuya is a big baseball fan though, as the protagonist of Houkago Wa Mystery To Tomo Ni is also a big baseball fan.

Like I mentioned in the introduction, the Detective Club members try to be detectives, but never seem to succeed. In fact, this is a pretty interesting point, as this also holds for the supplement volume to the series (Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni), which stars the club's vice-president: the various club members are certainly the protagonists of the stories, but the actual (correct) puzzle-solving is usually reserved for someone else. And I don't mean in a Watson-Holmes way: practically anyone besides the members of the club can turn out to be the detective! The Detective Club certainly does its best and it is not like they are completely useless, but yes, most of the time they are not vital to solving the case. It was Ishizaki, the club's supervising teacher who acted as the detective in the first novel and most of the stories collected in Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni, but he is certainly not the only one in the series. The role of main detective in Satsui wa Kanarazu Sando Aru is reserved for a very surprising person and in the end Tamagawa, the detective club's president, makes a sad, yet correct observation that the members of the club were nothing more than onlookers on the match between the detective and the murderer. A very unique position for the series protagonists!

Anyway, once again a funny novel by Higashigawa that blends humor with an orthodox plot, but this story might have worked better as a short(er) story.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉　『殺意は必ず三度ある』

「この世にもしも傘がたった一つだとしても探してキミに渡すよ」

「密室の結論が自殺だそうだ。おれが読者なら本は二つになってるぞ」

幸いなことに、砂川警部は読者ではなく登場人物である。

『密室に向かって撃て！』

"So your conclusion to the locked room is suicide. If I were a reader, the book would have been ripped in two"

Inspector Sunagawa is luckily not a reader, but a character within the story

"Shoot Towards the Locked Room!"

I had originally planned to post this review after Kanou Tomoko's Nanatsu no Ko. The sudden insertion of the Short Short yesterday however, rendered the introduction I had written initially totally unusable. Why change the order? Because I didn't want to stop the posting cycle with a Short Short. Why I don't spread the few posts I do write a month more evenly instead of focusing it all on a couple of days? Because that would make sense.

Misshitsu ni Mukatte Ute! ("Shoot Towards the Locked Room!") is the second volume in Higashigawa Tokuya's Ikagawashi series, a set of stories set in the fictional town of Ikagawashi. It is a direct sequel to the first volume, with all the major characters appearing again. We are first re-introduced to the (mostly) bumbling police inspectors Sunagawa and Shiki, who surprisingly, or as expected, make a big mistake during an attempt to arrest a wanted man. The result: a dead suspect and someone making off with an illegally manufactured pistol loaded with an unknown amount of bullets. A couple of weeks after the incident, the body of a homeless man is found shot through the chest, followed by another big incident at the mansion of the wealthy Juujouji family, with two injured men, one death and the recovery of the pistol. But where did the mysterious assailant disappear to? The only access (and escape route) to the murder scene, a mansion annex built on top of a cliff overlooking the sea, was observed by several witnesses, so the only conclusion is that the murderer must have thrown himself off the cliff into the sea. Or did he? 'Great detective' Ukai and his 'disciple' Ryuuhei have a personal stake in this case and are determined to find out the truth behind the disappearing murderer.

By now I've written quite often about Higashigawa Tokuya's works, so I'll just keep to the short description this time: he writes orthodox comedy detectives. The afterword in my pocket edition written by Sengai Akiyuki describes Higashigawa Tokuya's works as addictive, in the sense that they become funnier/better/harder to resist the more you read them. Which is definitely the case with me. Misshitsu ni Mukatte Ute! works as a comedy detective novel because it builds on the great parts of Misshitsu no Kagi Kashimasu, with great banter between the two duos of Ukai/Ryuuhei and Sunagawa/Shiki and slapstick comedy scenes. The book is probably not nearly as funny without any knowledge of the first novel. That certainly creates a small barrier, but hey, the first novel was fun too, so why wouldn't you read it? In fact, much of the comedy of Higashigawa Tokuya's novels depend on running jokes, so it shouldn't surprise that these jokes also run over several novels.

But Higashigawa would certainly not have been this popular if his only talent would have been to write funny stories. As always, his comedy is partly a devious way to hide his hints to the solution, luring the reader in a false sense of security. Heck, even running jokes are not safe and when you finally realize that a running joke was actually a significant hint thrown at you time after time, well, that hurts. In a good way. This time, Higashigawa also created an interesting non-linear, multi-route deduction map. And I apologize to those who don't understand videogames lingo. Anyway, at the end of the story, we see two different characters following up two different lines of deductions to arrive at the same murderer. While the two deductions are imperfect on their own (so you really need to have read both deductions to understand everything), it is still a refreshing way to look at the case, as both routes do lead to the correct murderer.

An interesting point of this novel was the whole disappearing pistol problem. Higashigawa not only came up with an explanation for the murderer actually having a gun in a country where it is difficult to procure a gun (which is the way it should be anyway...), he also follows up this explanation to its logical consequences. A limited amount of bullets, no use of silencers, experience in handling guns, the fact that the murder weapon is an illegally manufactured gun comes back in several ways in the deductions that lead up to the conclusion and this was really well done by Higashigawa, I think.

Interesting was also the way Higashigawa changed the setting of this novel, compared to Misshitsu no Kagi Kashimasu. The latter was clearly urban, while Misshitsu ni Mukatte Ute! is set in a big Western mansion on top of a cliff. So what did Higashigawa do? He went down the Yokomizo Seishi-route. We don't have ancient spirits of warriors cutting down people, but we do have a trio of wealthy and influential candidate fiances vying for the hand of Juujouji Sakura, the heiress of the Juujouji family (Yes, it's Jououbachi I'm thinking about). Actually, the way Ukai manages to be at the scene during the times the shooting incident happens also seems inspired by Yokomizo Seishi, with Kindaichi Kousuke often coming across murder cases while he is hired for different (less bloody) investigations. It was a funny change of tone, especially as I was so enthusiastic about the urban setting of Misshitsu no Kagi Kashimasu.

And it took me almost a month to finish this book, despite me obviously having fun with it. Why? No idea. I only know it took me two days to read the first 150 pages, afterwards I fell into a slow, slow schedule of reading two or three pages every two days or so for three weeks. And then I decided I really should finish the book last night. I hope my next book won't take this long.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉　『密室に向かって撃て！』