"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing"

君のいない未来がただ大きな闇に見え死んでしまえば生きなくていい

 そんな事ばかり考えてた穏やかな月明かりに

『Holy Ground』 (Garnet Crow)

A future without you is covered with darkness, so I might as well die,

I was thinking beneath the gentle moonlight 

"Holy Ground" (Garnet Crow)

Considering I prefer short stories, I find it quite a feat myself I've actually read two of the three longest Japanese detective novels (one of which should still be the world's longest one, too) Now I only need to read Miyabe Miyuki's Mohouhan ("Copy-Cat Crime") to complete the series!

It feels like I read Ayatsuji Yukito's Kuronekokan no Satsujin just a while ago, but it's actually been half a year already. So it was time to read another entry in Ayatsuji's Yakata series. Ankokukan no Satsujin ("The Darkness House Murders") brings us to another mansion full of secret hallways and other trickery. The titular Darkness House, a grand mansion with four distinct wings and a tower, stands on a small island in the middle of a lake deep in the mountains of Kyushu and is inhabitated by the wealthy, yet mysterious Urado family. Chuuya, a young student is invited by his friend Genji, son of the current head of the Urado family, to spend a few days in the Darkness House, as are some other relatives and family friends. Those days Chuuya spends at the mansion however, are strange. The house itself is definitely not making Chuuya feel comfortable, as it has no windows and is mostly covered in darkness, but Chuuya also comes across a stranger falling from a tower, Genji's slightly deformed sisters, a legend about mermaids in the lake and, the mysterious Banquet of Daria, a special dinner named after the wife of the first head of the family. And it all ends with murder. Several murders, of course. What is the secret behind the Urado family and the Darkness House, and can Chuuya make it out alive?

First thing I have to say about Ankokukan no Satsujin. It's long. Very long. Too long.　It's not as long as Nikaidou Reito's Jinroujou no Kyoufu (probably still the world's longest detective novel, or at any rate the longest locked room mystery), I think, but it comes close. Even more important however, is that Ankokukan no Satsujin feels long. I read the original publication, which consists of two books of 600 two-column pages, but nothing of interest happens until the end of the first book (and the second book doesn't improve much on that, to be honest). The start to corpse time is ridiculous and the worst I've ever seen. Compare to Jinroujou no Kyoufu, 1) stuff happens all the time and 2) the length is actually used to its full potential. Here, it feels like the story could have, and should have been told in half the amount of pages.

But the story feels long not only because of physical reasons, but also because of the way it is written. Half of the story, Chuuya is confronted with events that are only enigmatic to him, because nobody bothers to tell him anything. The meaning of the Banquet of Daria? The secret behind the mausoleum in the garden? Genji's amnesiac past? Chuuya has some valid questions, but everybody just says 'we'll tell you later', which they do, just eight hundred pages later. Part of it is of course build up, the fear of everybody but the protagonist=reader knowing something, but it shouldn't be done the way it is done in Ankokukan no Satsujin. I recently watched Another, the series based on Ayatsuji Yukito's novel, and it had the same problem, with everybody refusing to tell the protagonist anything, despite knowing the answers to most questions. It is a very artificial way of stretching things, like...talking...in...a...dot...dot...dot...style.

The atmosphere of Ankokukan no Satsujin is basically horror, a style Ayatsuji often dabbles in but usually not in this series. The house is brilliantly described as a real place of darkness (literally). The truth behind the Urado family is also surprising, in the sense it wasn't the kind of setting you'd expect if you have read the Yakata series up until now (I'd have totally expected in a Nikaidou Reito story though...). Not a bad thing per se, but I am not sure whether I like it in this particular series. It's different, for sure.

As a detective novel, Ankokukan no Satsujin has one or two moments that really shine, but there are also a great number of moments that felt very predictable. The basic pattern Ayatsuji has been playing with since the first novel in the Yakata series is also present here, so the reader won't be that surprised when that narrative element reaches its conclusion. On the positive side of things, Knox might have not been too keen on secret hallways, but Ayatsuji makes the use of secret passages a great, and fair, part of the deduction process. There is also a fantastic blind spot introduced in the novel and while I am not that big a fan of this novel, I have to admit that this blind spot is worth remembering. 

Ankokukan no Satsujin is the seventh novel in the series, but feels a bit different from the other novels (mainly refering to Jukkakukan no Satsujin, Suishakan no Satsujin, Meirokan no Satsujin and Tokeikan no Satsujin). Yes, there is a closed circle situation and a house full of secret hallways, but there is also a distinct horror-like atmosphere throughout the novel not present in the rest of the series. The scale of the story is also different, from the page count to the size of the Darkness House. However, Ankokukan no Satsujin also turns out to be a very important part of the whole mythos of the series and does not feel as 'detached' as Ningyoukan no Satsujin.

All in all, a hard one to judge. Ankokukan no Satsujin forces you to wade through hundreds of pages (literally) to find something good, but there it is there (if you can survive that long). But this entry is quite important to the story of the whole series, so one shouldn't skip it /choose for not reading it. Does it offer enough good for the bad? Not sure, actually. I don't regret having read Ankokukan no Satsujin, but I certainly wouldn't recommend people to start with this novel; it really has to be read as a part of the Yakata series, or else you won't get enough out of it.

Original Japanese title(s): 綾辻行人　『暗黒館の殺人』

Recipe for my Love

"Let's split up gang!"

"Scooby Doo, Where Are You!"

Three notes: 1) Post 400! 2) Yes, I should post more often. And 3) I switched computers, with a slightly different keyboard, and I keep mistyping stuff because every key is slightly further away / gives slightly less feedback then my fingers are used to. So there is a chance this post has more typos than usual (and 3.5) yes, still too lazy to proofread).

I can't exactly remember what the first mystery series was I've seen/read, but seeing as it has to be either Columbo, Poirot or Scooby Doo, Where Are You! and the latter is a cartoon, so I'm guessing it's the latter. For Scooby Doo, Where Are You! is really an awesome mystery series! And I don't even mean that sarcastic. Sure, it might be formulaic, but that is not a bad thing per se. For example, I love the way every episode features someone basically reenacting (urban) legends to scare off people; I am pretty sure that's where my love for the mitate trope in mystery fiction comes from.

In fact, my strange love for Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata series with its creepy mansions with secret hallways? My love for Edogawa Rampo, his Shounen Tantei Dan series with kid detectives and criminals dressed in silly suits and outlandish plans? I suspect that's Scooby Doo  there working somewhere in my subconciousness.

Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated has the same basic premise as the original series: a group of four teenagers and their dog solve mysteries. Fred, with a bizarre love obsession for traps, rich Daphne who has a crush on Fred, smart Velma, who is having a secret relationship with Shaggy, who in turn has troubles choosing between Velma and his dog Scooby. Their town, Crystal Cove, always seems to be under attack by some kind of monster or other supernatural phenomena, which always turns out to be the doing of some person with the most ridiculous motives and gadgets. The town actually thrives on the tourism lured by the supernatural however, so people aren't really grateful when the Scooby Gang once again prove the New Monster of the Week is actually just human. During their adventures, the Scooby Gang discovers there was once another detective group of four teenagers and an animal mascot, who disappeared from Crystal Cove twenty years ago. Taking the name of their predecessors, the new Mystery Incorporated sets out to discover what happened to the original group.

Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated is basically a Scooby show for the Buffy-generation. An episodic structure, but with character development and a story arc to connect everything. It's also a very meta-concious series, making references to, and parodying many horror movies, pop culture and of course the long (and sometimes) troubled history of the Scooby Doo franchise. And it works. Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated does everything right and does it amazingly.

The Scooby Gang might still unmask a villain dressed in silly clothing every episode, but the story arc really changes everything for the Scooby Doo franchise. Each episode brings the Scooby Gang a bit closer to the truth behind the mystery of Crystal Cove and the disappearance of the original Mystery Incorporated, so it's very easy to fall in the okay, I've been watching over an hour now, but just one more episode... trap. Crystal Cove as the main setting, and an extended cast of secondary characters (including the parents of the Scooby Gang!) all add something new to the franchise and I am almost surprised the series could have lived without those elements for so long.

Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated is a great series on its own, but it really shines as a parody / tribute to all of Scooby Doo. The series starts out as a sort of sequel to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You! series, with clear references to the monsters that appeared in that series (there is even a museum starring all the unmasked monsters!). But it goes further than that. In the original series of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, people went through ridiculous troubles (dressed in just as outlandish clothes) to scare off people from the treasure of the week. Mystery Incorporated! takes it up a notch, with some criminals making use of military-class technology and wrecking half of town for the most trivial of reasons. Scooby Doo was of course never a realistic series, but taking this to the extreme does not hurt the series at all. The tongue-in-cheek way to make fun of the franchise is simply hilarious, with a simple example being every episode ending on a variation on the famous I'd have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

And occasionally they throw a curveball. There were episodes that actually surprised me, something I'd never expected from a Scooby show. From an episode that is drawn in the old style and serves as a tribute to a number of old Hanna-Barbera series to an episode that actually subverts the standard formula in the most surprising way; the whole series is great, but there are some moments where they decided that 'just awesome' wasn't enough and they had to go one step further.

Of course, even if you don't catch all the references, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated is still a solid series. Children who watch it now, will probably see it like when the first generation of viewers first watched the original series, while the older generation will see what a loving remake/reconstruction/parody Mystery Incorporated is.

And to bring it back to Japanese detective fiction and what I wrote in the introduction, isn't Scooby Doo really the closest thing we have to Rampo's Shounen Tantei Dan / Akechi Kogorou series? A highly formulaic series starring children solving mysteries, with 'monsters' turning out to be mere humans / the Fiend with Twenty Faces (spoiler: it's always Twenty Faces) using trickery / stage magic / unlikely technoogy. Houses with hidden hallways and other secrets? The many monsters seem closer to the Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo series, but names like The Black Lizard, the Clown from Hell, the Vampire were first featured in Rampo's novels.

Anyway, I definitely recommend any fan of the original series to try Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated. It's an excellent series and sometimes, a mystery series can sometimes work just as well without bloody murder, locked room mysteries and supercomplex deductions.

"Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle"

Don't judge a book by its cover

 
So I noticed that the next post will be the 400th post. Well, actually, the 401st post, because I have removed one post for sinister reasons I will unveil when all the planets are aligned and planet X has appeared, but let's keep things simple. 400. They weren't all about detective fiction, but still, I certainly hadn't expected I'd write this much nonsense when I first started. Oh, and this post, this won't be about detective fiction either. Not really anyway.

Because I will be just posting some covers of books I like. But first, a bit about Japanese publishing. Usually, a cheaper pocket version, a bunkobon, is released some time after the initial release of a (hardcover/larger sized) book. I tend to buy those, as not only are they cheaper, but they are just better designed in my opinion. These size of these books mean I can actually slip them in and out of my coat pockets easily, which is a godsend when you like to read in the train/at the station. These books are even small enough I can hold in just one hand, and having trained my monkey paws I can also flip the pages with the same hand I'm holding the book in (for when the train is really busy and you can't seem to get one arm near the other). Also, unlike most books published outside of Japan, the bunkobon has an uniform size, which mean they stack better, and more importantly, I can use custom bookcovers!

Bookcovers are usually used to prevent other people from seeing what you're reading, as well as add a bit of protecting to your book. I was a bit sceptical at first about bookcovers, but my bookcover prevent books from slipping out of my hands because of the cloth material, and it has a built in bookmarker, for when they forget to give me one. And it's cute. Bookcovers only work when there is an uniform size for books (or else you'd need to have covers for different kind of sizes of books), which for some reason publishers don't seem to think useful outside of Japan.

Of course, there also times when you want to show the cover of the book you're reading. The following covers are some of my favorite ones I've come across the last few years.

Yokomizo Seishi truly made it big after the movie-boom in the late 70s, which was coupled with re-releases of his novels as bunkobon. And they feature fantastic covers. I assembled the clean artwork for some of his novels above, but you can feel the typical dark and sinister Yokomizo Seishi atmosphere from those covers.

The Kodansha Box imprint features softcover books in a cardboard bookcase for a premium price. I don't actually think they are that neat, but the Revoir series by Van Madoy feature some great cover art! I have the bunkobon of Marutamachi Revoir, but I have to admit that I actually regret not having bought the (almost twice as expensive) Kodansha Box release.

These covers for Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata (house) series showcase the titular houses by (fictional) architect Nakamura Seiji, who loves putting things like trap-doors and secret hallways in his creations. His houses also tend to be a focal point for evil and murder and these covers really capture the dark atmosphere of each of the houses.

I also love retro(-feel)-covers, and these covers for Anthony Berkeley's novels are just great! Not more to add to that. In fact, a lot of Tokyo Sougensha's covers are great!

So for some reason, Japan's the only place a complete collection of Hoch's Sam Hawthorne series is available. And I absolutely love these covers also of publisher Tokyo Sougensha, as they convey the 'feeling' I have with this series. The series might be about a lot  of murder, but it is always told in a warm way by the narrator Hawthorne, which is reflected in these bright, warm covers. Much better than the covers of the first two books published in the States in my opinion.

And some more retro-covers, but this time of Edogawa Rampo novels. The Shounen Tantei Dan series has some great artwork of children's literature that just scream Shouwa period.

And ending with these covers is mostly because I have no idea what is going on with these covers for Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series. Is that a clown? A hand-face thingy? A face-staircase? An attempt at human transmutation gone horribly wrong? These covers aren't even related to the contents of the books! Nightmare fuel!

And that was today's I-didn't-really-do-my-best-post. Note though: these aren't all of my favorite covers, just the ones I could think of, and I just grew tired of searching for covers online after a while. Maybe something for a follow-up post.

『完全犯罪に猫は何匹必要か？』

「この本は、ネコの手の届かないところに保管してください。殺人をたからむ恐れがあります」

 『キャットフード 名探偵三途川理と注文の多い館の殺人』

"Keep this book away from cats. They might be planning a murder"

("Cat Food - Great Detective Sanzunokawa Kotowari and the Murders of the House with Many Orders")

When I was in Kyoto last year, I lived in a dormitory for international students. I think I've seen my neighbour only once, and that was not in before our rooms, but in a class we happened to take together. After a bit of talking, we suddenly discovered we had lived next to each other for over half a year without ever meeting once. As I lived at the end of the corridor, I had only one neighbour inside the dorm, but I also had three stray cats living somewhere near my room whom I saw/heard quite often. Actually, I probably saw those cats more often than other people in my dorm. They were quite popular too, with children always creeping into the bushes to play with them (which was a bit creepy actually; those kids always popped up from a little shrine in front of the bushes... almost as ghosts). Anyway, those cats were good neighbours. Of course, they might also have been evil cats keeping an eye on me.

I loved Morikawa Tomoki's Snow White, and with his third novel out this week, I had to sneak in his debut work with the overly long title Cat Food - Meitantei Sanzunokawa Kotowari to Chuumon no Ooi Yakata no Satsujin ("Cat Food - Great Detective Sanzunokawa Kotowari and the Murders of the House with Many Orders"). Four high school students have won a free stay on a resort island. What they don't know, is that the whole island is a trap set up by... cats. Evil cats. Evil cats who try to take over the world. The world of processed cat food that is. For these cats have come up with a new product for the nouveau riche of the cat-world: cat food made out of human flesh. The four students are the ingredients needed for the first test run of the factory. Of course, this wouldn't be possible for normal cats, but the brains behind the Pluto Meat Company are a group of transforming cats, who can change at will into about everything (humans amongst others). One problem though: Willy, another transforming cat has taken the place of one of their ingredient-humans, but they don't know which of the four is Willy. While cats are allowed to kill humans, they can't just kill other cats (that would be illegal) and thus starts a clash of deductions, with the cats of PMC are trying to figure out which of their ingredients is Willy, who is desperately trying to save everybody without blowing his cover.

Snow White featured a battle of the wits based on a fantasy setting (magic mirrors) and it worked out great there, and the same can be said of Cat Food (I am not going to use the full title). Transforming cats might sound a bit unfair, but there are clear rules (the cats can only change to objects / persons of a certain size, they have to obey the 'cat-laws', the human ingredients have to be processed into food, so they can't just blow up everyone and the island...), so in the end, Cat Food works out as as you would expect from any good deduction battle story. The first part of the story is centered around Willy trying to figure out a way to get everybody of the island safe, while the cats are spying on the humans in the hopes of discovering who Willy changed into. In the second part of Cat Food, Pluto, the leader of the evil cats, asks for the help of her owner, the unscrupulous, yet brilliant great detective Sanzunokawa Kotowari. He agrees in helping finding out which of the humans is Willy (and thus agrees in helping the cats making cat food out of the other humans).

The story consists of several confrontations between Willy and the other cats and Sanzunokawa, with each time one side trying to outsmart the other. The point of view constantly jumps between these two sides and while the reader is shown some of the thoughts/plans of either side, you never really know is going on until the confrontation is over and that is, similiar to Snow White, the best point of the story. You just never know who is going to win each confrontation and the great tempo with which these battles follow each other keeps the reader hooked to the pages.

It's also a fun novel. The whole idea of evil, transforming cats is alluring (and probably not very far from reality...), but the narrative is also always written in a light, humorous tone that works wonderful with the fantasy setting. Considering the basic premise, this could also easily have been written as a horror-mystery novel (the whole humans being made into cat food premise offers enough material for that)... but it's just funnier to read about cute evil cats planning our demise, rather than actually evil and scary cats planning our demise.

Cat Food is a really short novel though, even shorter than Snow White I think. It's great fun while it lasts, but that's not very long and considering Cat Food is released under the prizey Kodansha Box imprint (softcover novels with a sturdy silver cardboard box), I can't really recommend the reader buying this new / for the set price. The same holds for Snow White, but that one actually has a neat thing going on with the box design, while Cat Food's box is... just a grey box (Van Madoy's novels are also published under this imprint, but are much longer).

The setting of  Cat Food - Meitantei Sanzunokawa Kotowari to Chuumon no Ooi Yakata no Satsujin alone makes it worth reading. It's lighthearted fun mystery, but it does leave you wanting for more. Both because it's just plain addicting, but also because it's a bit lacking in volume.

Original Japanese title(s): 『キャットフード 名探偵三途川理と注文の多い館の殺人』

UN-GO

Two's company, three's a crowd

With more and more English-language blogs on detective fiction popping up, I always hope more on Japanese detective fiction appear... but it never happens. I'll just keep waiting.

During the Second World War, the narrator (a writer) had been staying at his friend Utagawa Kazuma's family mansion. Now two years after the war, the narrator is once again invited to the Utagawa mansion, together with a group of other artists who had been staying there too during the war. However the narrator is relunctant to go, because there are bound to be troubles. Among the guests are: three men, all vying for the hand of Kazuma's sister. Kazuma's wife's ex-husband. Kazuma's ex-wife and her current husband. Another couple of which the wife is in love with Kazuma. And complex human relations is just half of the problem. A threatening letter has been sent to Kazuma, while another letter asking for a detective's help signed by Kazuma was sent, even though he denies having written one. And the day all guests are gathered, a murder happens. And then a second. And a third. But what is the motive behind these seemingly disconnected murders in Sakaguchi Ango's Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken ("The Non-Serial Murder Case")?

A classic scene: the detective (most probably Poirot) gathers every suspect in the drawing room and states everyone in the room had the motive for wanting to have killed the victim. It's only after extensive fingerpointing that he moves on to the real suspect. In Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken, this method would have been a bit troublesome because this novel works, and in a way fails, because everyone has a motive for something.

This works at one hand, because the main problem of this novel is the mystery behind the motive(s) behind the many murders. Is it a serial murder case all done by one and the same person? Or a non-serial murder, with multiple murderers working at the same time? Just as you think you found a pattern, another murder pushes your ideas towards a different direction, keeping you on your toes all the way to the conclusion. You can't accuse Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken of being boring, or at least not after the first murder.

But the story also fails on the other hand, because it is too complex at times. By which I mean, what the heck are all these characters doing in this story?! There are way too many characters here, who are all interconnected. A is married to B but in love with C who is love with D who hates B and E but like F etcetera. So A might have motive to kill C and D, but not E and maybe F. And B might want to kill A, C and D but not F, but.... I didn't count them, but according to Wikipedia, 29 persons, including the servants, are running around the Utagawa mansion and that is just... confusing. Especially with the ridiculous relations between them. Even if you consider that fact that people get killed off rather easily and fast in this novel,Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken overdoes it. There is no correlation diagram in this novel, but I advice people who are going to read this to make one yourself: it will save you.

Also, most characters are absolutely horrible and it makes no sense at all for them to all be at one place. When you read a detective, you won't be surprised when it turns out that everybody had a motive to kill the old man, but you might wonder why the old man allowed all those people who hated him to gather at one place, right? Here we have the Utagawa mansion, where everybody is having an illicit relation with somebody else, or at the very least hoping to have one and they are all artists, which is usually used as another word for 'unpredictable', 'crazy' in these kind of books, so of course something is going to happen. But it is a riddle why all these people would gather here on their own free will! Most of the time, I couldn't care less about who died, as nobody appealed to me. Which is rare.

Oh, and for those interested in linguistics and the Japanese language, this is another of those books where the use of words like kichigai (madman) and semushi (hunchback) is still intact: they are not allowed to be used on TV anymore (political correctness and stuff), but you still occassionally come across them in novels.

Overall, Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken is an okay story. I really did like the main problem, but the book does suffer from misuse of characters. In the Touzai Mystery Best, this book ranked 19th. I certainly wouldn't rank it higher, but it indeed has it's good points. Also, for those interested in Sakaguchi Ango, and not-literate in Japanese, the animated series UN-GO (Ango) is based on his mystery works and available for streaming on websites like Crunchy Roll.

Original Japanese title(s): 坂口安吾 『不連続殺人事件』

And On the Eighth Day

「だが、殺人者が、君を殺しにくる可能性もある」

私は最悪の事態を危惧した。

「だったらその時には、黎人宛てにダイイング・メッセージを残しておいてあげるわ。あまりむずかしくないのをね」

『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

"But the murderer might come to kill you."

I feared the worst case possible.

"In such a case, I'll be sure to leave you a dying message. An easy one."

"The Tragedy of Saint Ursula Convent"

You would almost think I read Nikaidou Reito's Nikaidou Ranko series in the weirdest order possible on purpose, if you look at it closely. The following list is of the books I've read of the series so far:

(1) Jigoku no Kijutsushi | The Magician From Hell
(2) Kyuuketsu no Ie | House of Bloodsuckers
(3) Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki | The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent
(4) Akuryou no Yakata | Palace of Evil Spirits
(5) Yuri Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Lillies
(6) Bara Meikyuu | Labyrinth of Roses
(7a) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Deutsch Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Germany
(7b) Jinroujou no Kyoufu  - France Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - France
(7c) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Tantei Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Detective
(7d) Jinroujou no Kyoufu - Kanketsu Hen | The Terror of Werewolf Castle - Conclusion
(8) Akuma no Labyrinth | The Devil's Labyrinth

And for some reason, I've read the books in the following order: (2), (6), (7a), (7b), (7c), (7d), (8), (1), (4), (5), (3). The only books I've read in order are Akuryou no Yakata and Yuri Meikyuu, and Jinroujou no Kyoufu (the individual books of this story have to be read in order, except for maybe 7a and 7b). Akuma no Labyrinth I have read in relative order, after Jinroujou, but in terms of publication history, I still didn't read them in order and chronologically  Jinroujou and Akuma no Labyrinth are set the other way around, just to make things even more confusing. For many series, this isn't really of importance, but Nikaidou Reito has the habit of refering to his earlier books /  adventures, so it is actually better to read them in order. That's why I am stuck in Ayatsuji Yukito's Yakata series at the moment however: the one I'm reading now is almost as long as Nikaidou Reito's Jinroujou no Kyoufu. Which is very, very long.

Brilliant and beautiful detective Nikaidou Ranko (and her brother Reito) return in Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki ("The Tragedy at the Saint Ursula Convent"), where they are asked by the head of the Saint Ursula Convent to solve the mysterious death of a student one year ago. The girl had been found dead at the foot of a tower and because the door to the room where she had spent her last living breath was locked from the inside, the incident was considered a suicide. Of course, the police conveniently ignored the fact that there were definite signs that she was attacked by someone there. And that around the same time, a headless corpse was found hanging upside down near the convent. And there was something with a strange message the victim left behind. Anyway, something strange has been going on in and it is up to our dynamic duo to solve the arcane mysteries of the Saint Ursula Convent.

Jigoku no Kijutsushi was an interesting take on Edogawa Rampo's novels, Jinroujou no Kyoufu is the world longest locked mystery story and Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is... chaotic. A locked room mystery and a headless body and a secret code can work together in theory, but the individual elements aren't very strong and while they work better together (as often in such stories), the complete picture is still not nearly as entertaining as Nikaidou Reito's other books pre-dating Jinroujou no Kyoufu (and he moved towards somewhat... stranger places after Jinroujou no Kyoufu). I do have to note that most of Nikaidou Reito's novels are absolutely packed with detective fiction tropes (c.f. my review of Akuryou no Yakata), which usually works out OK (although, sometimes just barely). It works this time, but Sei Ursula Shuudouin no Sangeki is the weakest link of Nikaidou's Ranko novels up to Jinroujou no Kyoufu.

The locked room problems are better suited for a short story for example and the actual discussion about the headless body, which even in Japanese detective fiction is usually not a convention used just for fun, takes no more than a couple of pages (of a 600 page novel). Nikaidou tries to string everything together by presenting everything as a mitate murder (naturally after the bible, considering the setting of this story), but it is hardly convincing, because the way the murders are supposed to be mirroring biblical events is really weak. No way a reader is going to figure out that before Ranko points out the fact, and even after the reveal, the reader still won't be convinced it is a mitate murder, because it's barely related!

The setting of the convent is used mostly in a very predictable way. Creepy atmosphere, secretive nuns, secret rituals and stuff, considering Nikaidou has always used a lot of esotoric history and conspiracy theories in his novels (Jinroujou no Kyoufu had the Spear of Longinus and Nazi-Werewolves, Akuryou no Yakata witches etc.), so you can guess how Nikaidou uses the convent. The ending does bring something interesting, but it is more of an extra than really part of the detective plot.

I have to admit that I read this book in a record speed though. As a whole, the plot... well, I certainly won't say this is gold material, but by keeping throwing all these elements at you at a steady pace, Nikaidou does keep the reader hooked for most of the book. It's definitely written as entertainment, and I have to admit that it mostly works as such. The whole outshines the individual parts and while not a classic, it's not really horrible (not really praising it either). If you like Nikaidou Reito and can get Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki for cheap, it's an okay read, I guess. I mean, I paid more for Nikaidou's Zouka Hakase no Jikenbo and that was absolutely horrible. I wouldn't recommend reading Nikaidou Reito starting with Sei Urusula Shuudouin no Sangeki though.

Original Japanse title(s): 二階堂黎人　『聖アウスラ修道院の惨劇』

Ten Days Wonder

"But while you are doing this important and rewarding work, Mr. Queen, I ask you to keep in mind always a great and true lesson. A truer lesson than the one you believe this experience has taught you."

"And which lesson is that, Professor Seligmann?" Ellery was very attentive.

"The lesson, mein Herr," said the old man, patting Ellery’s hand,"that is written in the Book of Mark. There is one God; and there is none other but he."

"Cat of Many Tails"

In a world where everybody is talking about the upcoming PlayStation4 and XBox One, the one thing that left the greatest impression me this E3 was the inclusion of the Villager in the new Super Smash Bros. Villager!? [/not related to detective fiction at all]

Norizuki Rintarou's Futatabi Akumu ("The Red Nightmare, Once Again") starts with introducing us to Hatanaka Yurina, an idol who has been on the rise lately. She has managed to secure her own group of fans despite still being a minor star in the world of idols and she is rumored to be the main actress in the next movie of a famous director. One night, after a late night radio broadcast recording, Yurina is attacked by a lunatic fan in a storage room of the broadcasting studios and stabbed in her stomach. Or least, she is sure she was stabbed, but when she came to, she found herself to be alive. Not sure what happened, Yurina seeks the help of Inspector Norizuki (and his son Rintarou), but things become messy when they discover that in the park outside the broadcasting studios, a man was found stabbed to death. Indeed, the man Yurina thought had killed her. Was it Yurina who killed the man instead of the other way around?

A difficult book to recommend, mainly because it more or less requires you have have read Yuki Misshitsu and Yoriko no Tame ni and it would also be very nice if you have read Ellery Queen's Cat of Many Tails (and having read Ten Days Wonder would also be to your advantage). Of course, you could go straight for Futatabi Akai Akumu without any knowledge, but you will be spoiled to crucial plot points of all those books. So I really recommend you doing your homework before you start with Futatabi Akai Akumu.

I've mentioned it many times now, but Norizuki often addresses what he calls Late Period Queen problems in his novels. To quote myself:

Norizuki is also a Queen-reseacher who specializes in what he calls 'the Late Period Queen problems': meta-problems concerning the role of the detective in fiction, as addressed by Queen himself in many of his later novels. To reduce it to two main points: the detective (and the reader) can never say with absolutely certainty that he has access to all of the hints and clues that lead to the truth. Except for the (meta) explanation that the writer at one points abritrary decides that the story should end and thus isn't going to offer any new hints. So the solution the detective offers at the end of a story can never be guaranteed to be correct. The second point is that the detective himself is not a omnipotient figure with no relation to the murder drama: his presence alone already has presence on the actions of the other players of the tragedy and who is to say that the real murderer hasn't calculated for the interference of a detective through the use of false hints?

Futatabi Akai Akumu deals with the second point: at the start of the story Rintarou has severe trauma about how he (mis)handled the case in Yoriko no Tame ni, wondering whether things wouldn't have turned out better without his interference. As a result, he's lost most of his self confidence (and he's also suffering from a writer's block). Rintarou initially does not want to get involved with Yurina's case, but with some urging from his father, he finally tries to get over his problems. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the angsting detective (I already noted that in my Cat of Many Tails review) and it can become a bit too heavy at times if you're just looking for bloody murder. Good material for those interested in postmodernism though.

The plot of Futatabi Akai Akumu is not particularly clever. The main problem is about figuring out what happened to Yurina that night and who really killed the victim and while the puzzle itself is okay (very Gyakuten Saiban-esque, I have to say), it definitely is not strong enough to carry a complete novel of 500 pages. It might have been better for the main 'trick' to have been used for a short story in my opinion. Okay, there is another subplot that has to do with a murder that happened in Yurina's past to help the book fill its pages, but the solving of that murder is based solely on intuition and the solution is just dropped on the reader. There are also some parts where characters have long monologues about subjects that don't seem particularly related to the main topic, their function seem to be little more than boring padding.

For example, the fact Yurina is an idol provides a legitimate reason to insert segments commenting about Japanese idols, which I really think is an interesting topic on its own. But it has to relate to the story. A list spanning ten or so pages just summing up the major events related to idols (who debuted when, what singles came up etc.) is a) not a story, and b) not related to the main problem at hand at all! It's always a fine line you have to walk when including 'extra' information in a story and I can understand why a writer wants to show he did his homework for a story, but I personally didn't like how it was done here (might be different for another reader though).

Futatabi Akai Akumu is a book I find hard to recommend. It has too many requirements, and I don't really like its themes.If you liked Yoriko no Tame ni though, you're probably going to like Futatabi Akai Akumu though. The heavy atmosphere of the Angsting Detective and the intuitive mode of detecting are similiar and the stories are directly linked. I definitely liked Tasogare a lot more though, which was a very different kind of detective novel with its many logical deductions, despite being the same series.

Original Japanese title(s): 法月綸太郎　『ふたたび赤い悪夢』