Surely Someday

「凄いや、ラピュタは本当にあったんだ！」 

『天空の城ラピュタ』

"It's amazing... Laputa really does exist!"

"Laputa, the Castle in the Sky"

Have I ever mentioned that my favorite movie is Studio Ghibli's Laputa, the Castle in the Sky? I don't mean animated movie, or movie from Japan. Just my favorite movie of all time. I'll admit that a lot of that is nostalgia talking, but no matter how many times I watch it, the movie never bores me, with romantic elements like air pirates, girls falling out of the sky (literally) and grand castles floating in the sky. I probably watch the movie at least once a year, but I still get all excited when the movie shows the legendary floating island of Laputa for the first time.

Young Luke Triton finds a similar legend in his "Legendary Mysteries", a book on legends from all over the world. The wandering castle is said to be floating in the sky, appearing all over England. And also, right above Luke's head. The castle disappears just as fast as it appeared though, and puzzled by this, Luke hopes his mentor, the famous archaeologist Professor Layton, will be able to explain this mystery to him. However, it appears that more people have seen the castle: Layton is asked by his old friend Andrew Schrader to find out what happened to Thomas McLuhan. McLuhan disappeared while on his way to his family home up in the north of England, leaving only a letter saying he saw the wandering castle and plans to go there. Layton, Luke and Layton's somewhat bumbling friend Jeremy Campbell decide to travel to the north to unravel this mystery in Layton Kyouju to Sayamoeru Shiro ("Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle").

Level-5's Professor Layton franchise is one of the more surprising hits of the last few years, as the games starring the English gentleman professor are built practically entirely out of puzzles and riddles. Sure, Layton and Luke are always on a different kind of adventure, be it investigating a curious village, or being aboard of a spooky Orient Express-esque train, but in the end, it's always about the puzzles. You see that, Luke? That reminds me of a puzzle. You shall not pass! Unless you solve this puzzle! It's too late, I switched on the Doomsday Device! But you can switch it off with a puzzle! I wish the real world worked like this. And despite the games being essentially big compilations of puzzles, they have been consistently extremely succesful all over the world, and have also spawned other media like theatrical releases and novels.

(And while I am describing the games as puzzle collections and thus may sound dismissive, I have enjoyed all six of them. Well, all except Miracle Mask. Sorry. Heck, I even played the spin-off game)

The games consists mostly about puzzles, but the story is basically a mystery story, in a very broad sense of the word. The world of Professor Layton is a steampunk end-of-century England, with a dash of fantasy, so as myseries, the stories are seldom fair to the player, but they are presented as detective stories. One could say that Professor Layton is more about a detective (Layton solving puzzles and mysteries), rather than really being a fair detective story itself. That didn't stop the professor from doing a fantastic crossover game with one of the greatest detective game franchises ever, though.

But back to the Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle. It's obviously a spin-off novel (set after Professor Layton and Pandora's Box, for those interested), written by mystery writer Yanagihara Kei.  The book is aimed at younger readers (children~young adults), something facilitated by the narration by the professor's young apprentice Luke. As a boy's adventure with a bit of mystery, a bit of science fiction and a bit of fantasy, Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle is really amusing.  The professor and Luke act like they do in the games, and the mystery they try to solve (the floating castle), is definitely something that fits in with the rest of the series. It's a fun adventure, and like the games, things keep moving and new story developments are presented to you constantly as other wind up, keeping momentum right until the end. You don't need to have extensive knowledge of the games either to dive into the book (you could even do without easily), so a lot better than something like Danganronpa/Zero (also a spin-off of a game). Like the Layton games however, you shouldn't expect a fair play orthodox mystery: expect science fiction and fantasy-esque twists and turns, but that's part of the package.

And Professor Layton wouldn't be Professor Layton if you weren't presented with a puzzle once in a while. At certain points of the story, the reader is presented with a puzzle like in the games (for example, one early puzzle is a coded message). This is fun in theory, as it feels like one of those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style stories, but you don't actually need to solve these puzzles to continue with the story and they feel kinda artificial in the story. Granted, that's also the case with the puzzles in the games ("Thanks for opening the door. Hey, that reminds me of a puzzle"), but in the games, you have to solve at least some of them to continue. Here you can just turn over a page, and you'll have Layton saying "every puzzle has an answer!" (but not really commenting on the puzzle in detail).

But what am I complaining about? As a Professor Layton novel, and as a children's mystery novel, Professor Layton and the Wandering Castle is quite fun, doing every thing you'd expect from something with the professor's name on it.

 Original Japanese title(s): 柳原慧　『レイトン教授とそまよえる城』

The Blast of the Book

「事件を解く鍵は、名作の中に――」

『ビブリア古書堂の事件手帳』

"The key to solving that case, lies within these literary masterpieces..." 

"The Casebook of the Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia"

Today's post should ideally be read in conjunction with yesterday's review: I wrote them back to back on purpose, because they deal with very similar themes. And a theme I love, by the way.

The 2013 TV series Biblia Koshodou no Jikentechou ("The Casebook of the Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia") is based on a popular light novel series by Mikami En. The story starts with Goura Daisuke's visit to the Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia, in order to sell the collection of his recently deceased grandmother. Amongst the collection is a complete set of famous writer Natsume Souseki's novels and one of them, Sorekara ("And then...") is even signed by Souseki. Or so Daisuke thought. The young but experienced shop owner, Shinokawa Shioriko, quickly discovers the sign is fake, which isn't a very uncommon practice in the antiquarian world. However, she also manages to deduce the existence of a secret in the Goura family which even Daisuke didn't even know of, simply by looking at the collection. Impressed by Shioriko's gifts and her love for books, Daisuke decides to work at Biblia, in order to learn more about books and the people who read them.

Like Kida Junichirou's Used Book Shop Detective stories, Biblia Koshodou no Jikentechou has a lot to do with books and the used book market in Japan. Mikami En, the writer of the original books upon which the TV series was based, in fact has stated that he was influenced a great deal by Kida's book. But there are also big differences. And they work out for the better, to be honest.

In my review of Kida's book, I complained that the stories didn't work really well as mystery stories. This is not the case with Biblia Koshodou no Jikentechou: mystery plots are definitely the main here. Most of them are what so-called everyday life mysteries: nothing as grave as murder, but just things that make you go ?. For example, a sedori (a professional used book buyer) working for Biblia tells Shioriko about the following strange event: he had to leave his bike with a set of used books outside while he used a toilet, but he found that one of his books were stolen. But it was neither an expensive, nor a rare book, and it was the only one stolen from the set. Why would the thief have done that? The problem is simple, and not serious enough to go to the police for, but still, it's strange. The solution to the problem in turn might sound simple, but it is indeed something that seems plausible, something that could have happened and what's more, it is also relevant to the whole topic of old and used books. And so the series manages to be a fun bibliomystery by relating everyday life mysteries with books.

Every episode is built around either a book or a theme, with the mystery tying in with that. For example, there is a story centered around a big Edogawa Rampo collection, and there are obviously numerous references to famous books like Shounen Tantei Dan, but it also makes use of a Rampo-esque trope, the secret code (something Rampo used in his debut work). Other stories may revolve people's desire for books, like the storyline revolving around a maniac who would do anything to get hold of an extremely rare copy of a Dazai Osamu novel (the story that feels most like a classic whodunnit mystery). And while I'll be the first to admit that the mystery of a man selling a Japanese translation of Vinogradov and Kuzmin's Logic without telling his wife is not that not a very interesting example of a everyday life mystery, the series in general does a good job at keeping you hooked the whole episode with a good mix of lighthearted mystery and a dose of bibliophilia.

Kida's Murderer's Items was set in the early 80s, when the used book market was a bit different. Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia is definitely an used bookstore of that generation, being more specialized and with an owner who herself is highly knowledgable on books, as opposed to the bigger chain used bookshops like BookOff. But it is obviously set in the present, so we do see shots of people going to BookOff-esque shops too, and the show makes it clear that small shops like Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia are getting more rare and that they do have to work hard at maintaining a specialized inventory to attract customers. The bookstores in Murderer's Items already started with mail orders, so it was funny to see Antiquarian Bookstore Biblia doing internet orders too though. Some episodes also focus on the workings of bookshops: one of of the better episodes focuses on the disappearance of a book during a closed book sale for used bookshops (to clear out/get new inventory).

At the core though, Murderer's Items puts more emphasis on the extremes some bibliophiles go to: in comparison Biblia Koshodou no Jikentechou, while also containing episodes about bibliophilia, is more about using books (and the stories within) to tell stories about the people who read them. It's a different take on the same book theme, with the latter much more accessible. The books and authors discussed in Biblia are also more famous,  which makes it more fun when you recognize them.

And as for this particular TV adaptation? I wasn't a fan of Gouriki Ayame's role in Watashi no Kirai na Tantei and I remember people complaining about her as Shioriko in Biblia though, but I thought she was okay (not as strong as EXILE's Akira as Daisuke though). I gather the cast was extended a bit in comparison to the original novels, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse (Suzuki Kousuke for example can be funny, as in Liar Game, but here his antics extremely felt out of place). In general though, there's a nice, err.... bookish atmosphere throughout the series that really fits the tone of the stories.

Most of the time, at least. I am not sure why they went with some sorta electro-pop as the series' main theme. That should have been in (once again) Liar Game or Kagi no Kakatta Heya!

In short, I quite liked Biblia Koshodou no Jikentechou. It's a bit lighter on the mystery-side of things in comparison to my usual diet, but for those who love books and bookstores, this series should be right up your alley.

Original Japanese title(s): 三上延（原）　『ビブリア古書堂の事件手帳』

The Book Case

本の探偵　☆　あなたは本を探していませんか？　思い出の本、研究に必要な本、コレクション、何でも探します

『書鬼』

The Book Detective ☆ Looking for a book? That one book you still remember, research books, collections, we will find anything.

"The Book Demon"

About two months ago, it was reported that the biggest used book shop chain in the Netherland had to close all of it doors. I have to admit that I had been using online bookstores more often the last few years, but still, it was often fun to just go through the stores once in a while. I have often written about how I love bookshops in Japan: in fact, one of the earliest posts on this blog is about my first observations of Japanese bookstores. The used book market in particular is huge. This is of course partly because Japan has a highly literate population, which of course leads to more books being read in general. But another important fact is that bunko books, Japanese pocket-sized books which are widely read, are in general much more sturdier than pockets from the US or UK for example. The paper and spines of these books are much better suited for long-term use than their overseas counterparts in my experience, so the state of Japanese used books is usually much better. Add in the fact popular chains like BookOff (who also do CDs, DVDs and games) are practically everywhere and it's very easy and fast to sell books (drop your books at the counter, wait for a bit, leave with money), and you will start to understand why Japan is excellent for people who love to read.

But nationwide used bookshop chains are of course something of (relatively) recent years. And don't get be started on the Internet, it's a lot more easier to find that one book you've always wanted to read now than say, thirty years ago. Furuhonya Tantei no Jikenbo ("The Case Files of the Used Book Shop Detective", which publisher Tokyo Sogen has dubbed Murderer's Items in English) is set in the early 1980s in Jinbochou, Tokyo, the holy ground of used bookstores in Japan. Having quit his office job, Sudou Kouhei has set up his own used book shop in Jinbochou. It's doing alright, but to make a bit of extra money, Sudou starts a Book Detective service: he'll find the books you're looking for (once again, note that this takes place in the 1980s; no such thing as Google or Amazon!). But his work brings Sudou in contact with some of the most fanatic of bibliophiles, to whom book collecting is nothing less than SERIOUS BUSINESS. Armed with publication catalogues and his own experience, Sudou starts an exploration in the world of bibliophilia.

I'll just go with Tokyo Sogen's shorter, yet enigmatic English title of Murderer's Items, even there's hardly murder involved with these stories...

Murderer's Items collects all four stories of Kida Junichirou's Used Book Shop Detective series in one neat volume. The stories were originally published in the early eighties, though this volume was published in 1991. The first three are short stories, while the last might be considered a long novella, or even a novel on its own. All of them deal with bibliophiles or the used book market: the opening story, Satsui no Shuushuu ("Deadly Collection"), is about the disappearance of an extremely rare, privately published book that was thought to be nothing more than legend until recent: the owner of the book had placed it in a library's care (only allowing people to read the book in a public room, observed), but the book had been stolen nonetheless. There were only three people who perused the book, and the owner hires Sudou (in his first job as the Book Detective) to find the book (and thief). This is the most 'detective-like' story of the whole collection to be honest, with an almost impossible disappearance and good-old fashioned alibi checking. But more memorable are the parts where Kida goes on writing about books and used book shops: he tells great stories about the lengths to which some bibliophiles will go to obtain that one legendary book nobody else has: like the title says, to really collect books, you'll need to be ruthless. There is a part in the end where the used book shop part of the story ties in nicely with the disappearance, but to me, it seemed like the disappearance was less important than just presenting a story on bibliophiles.

And that's actually the same for the remaining stories. The detective plots play a minor role, the main role is reserved for used book shops and those who dwell there. As a mystery story for example, Shoki ("The Book Demon") is not doing its job well: the plot makes sudden jumps, threads of plot are tied together in the most unrealistic ways and at times it feels like pages that should have explained a little bit more have been deleted. But as a story about a man who always buys a certain height of books and his legendary den full of books, yeah, it's fun to read. Muyou no Hito ("The Unnecessary Man") similarly has some interesting plotlines about artificial price markings on the used book market, while Yoru no Zoushoka ("The Nightly Bibliophile") deals with the search for a man who was once known for (illegal) publications of adult-oriented material. As pieces on book history, on how the used book market works, what drives bibliophiles, these stories are fun. Kida obviously has done extensive research on the topic, with many, many books referenced and the atmosophere of 1980s Jinbouchou really coming alive within these stories.

Murderer's Items is especially fun if you have a little experience with contemporary Japanese second hand book shops. The used book shops are nowadays very popular with the general public, and there always full with people. Murderer's Items brings us back to a time when used book shops weren't hip, when they didn't have point-systems or catchy commercial tunes and when it was still a very closed world.
 
But as detective stories, the stories in Murderer's Items are a bit boring. Disappointing even. Kida really put emphasis on the biblio-side of the stories, which is not a bad thing per se, but if the mystery plots suffer because of it... The mystery plots, while not masterpieces, could have been entertaining, if only if the division between used-books-plot and mystery-plot wasn't so skewed: developments in the mystery plot always feeling too sudden, and sometimes even unfounded, while on the other hand, tens of pages are dedicated to discussions on rare books. If only some of those pages would have been dedicated at smoothing out the mystery plot...

As a look into the wonderful world of used books and those who read them, Murderer's Items can be quite entertaining. There is something timeless to the crazy world of bibliophilia on one hand, but the used book market as it appears in Murderer Item's is definitely also a thing of the past. As mystery stories though, the four stories collected here are disappointing. In a year from now, I could probably still remember the bibliophilic parts of the stories in this collection, but I'll definitely have forgotten any details about the mystery plots.

紀田順一郎　『古本屋探偵の事件簿』:　「殺意の収集」 / 「書鬼」 / 「無用の人」 / 「夜の蔵書家」

再生 -Rebuild-: the Yakata series

Another Rebuild post, which serves as an introduction post to some of the longer series I discuss here. Links to all related reviews, short introduction, discussion on general series tropes, it's all here. This time, one of the more famous series of contemporary Japanese orthodox detective fiction.

Yakata series (Author: Ayatsuji Yukito)
Jukkakukan no Satsujin (The Decagon House Murders) [1987]
Suishakan no Satsujin (The Water Mill House Murders) [1988]
Meirokan no Satsujin (The Labyrinth House Murders) [1988]
Ningyoukan no Satsujin (The Puppet House Murders) [1989]
Tokeikan no Satsjin (The Clock House Murders) [1991]
Kuronekokan no Satsujin (The Black Cat House Murders) [1992]
Ankokukan no Satsujin (The Darkness House Murders) [2004]
Bikkurikan no Satsujin (The Surprise House Murders) [2006]
Kimenkan no Satsujin (The Strange Masks House Murders) [2012]

Related:
Kirigoetei Satsujin Jiken (The Kirigoe Mansion Murder Case) [1990]
Ayatsuji Yukito Satsujin Jiken (The Ayatsuji Yukito Murder Case) [2013]

Spread all across Japan are the mansions built by genius architect Nakamura Seiji. While all of his creations have different themes, these houses all have two characteristics. One is that Nakamura Seiji loved building gimmicks in his mansions: each of them are full of secret passages, hidden rooms and other surprises. The second characteristic is that his creations somehow always seem to attract death. Violent death. Nakamura Seiji died in 1985 on his own private island Tsunojima, but his legacy would remain lethal: after getting involved with the events in The Decagon House Murders, where a group of students was murdered on the island in a And Then There Were None style, Shimada Kiyoshi tries to learn more about the haunted houses and travels around Japan to see what more evil Nakamura Seiji's creations have led to.

I'll first note that The Decagon House Murders, the first book in the series, is a very important book in the history of Japanese detective fiction, being the first in the so-called New Orthodox movement, which meant a re-, and deconstruction of the classic puzzle plots of lore in the modern age. As this post is meant to be a general introduction to the series, I refer to the review for more details on the meaning of The Decagon House Murders within Japanese detective fiction history. In terms of series continuity however, it might be interesting to note that The Decagon House Murders wasn't planned as a series: Shimada Kiyoshi in particular wasn't created as a series detective and this entry in the series might feel a bit detached from the other novels in terms of style.

And on a sidenote, the word yakata refers to a mansion than 'just' a house, but the titular house in The Decagon House Murders isn't really a mansion (in the grand, impressive building-meaning of the word), but an annex building of the actual, main mansion. This is why I first used the word house instead of mansion as a translation for jukkakukan (decagon house): I just sticked with the word in other reviews to be consistent, although subsequent houses can all safely be called mansions.

As the titles of the books suggest, each book is set around a different creation by Nakamura Seiji. There are two major 'types' of house, which tie in with the creative writing process behind the books. Writer Ayatsuji Yukito sometimes comes up with an interesting-sounding house, after which he thinks of a plot to set in that house (i.e. Bikkurikan no Satsujin). Other times, he comes up with a plot, after which he creates a house to support that trick/plot/story (i.e. Tokeikan no Satsujin). In general, the latter practice leads to houses which are integral to a certain trick in the book, as the houses are created especially to facilitate execution of the plot.

The most important characteristic of the series is of course the plot device of the mansions as a setting. This is highly influenced by S.S. Van Dine's The Greene Murder Case and especially Oguri Mushitarou's Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken (1934), which also features a dark house brimming with secrets and surprises. The horror-like style can be felt distinctly throughout the stories (Ayatsuji Yukito also writes horror conveniently) and it results in each of the houses becoming something like a living entity in each narrative, not unlike the House of Usher. A great number of the novels are so-called closed circle mysteries: in these novels everybody is confined to the titular mansion, with a murderer among them (a bit like Scooby-Doo. A little bit). These mansions also all feature secret passages, hidden rooms and other surprises that would make Knox go utterly mad. One might think for a second that such elements would make a detective story unfair, but because these secret passages are taken for granted in Nakamura Seiji's houses, it's never unfair. Everyone knows they exist, and the way writer Ayatsuji utilizes them is absolutely fair to the reader (for example, the existence of a secret passage itself might come out of nowhere, but not the question of who could have used the passage).

And for fans of the genre who like maps and stuff in their novels, there's always a neat, detailed map of each mansion in every novel!

There is another major characteristic to the series, but this includes major spoilers for the novels, so I'll hide the next part.  SPOILER ALERT!! I REFER SPECIFICALLY TO THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS AND THE WATER WHEEL HOUSE MURDERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (SELECT TO READ):

Most of the novels feature a narrative trick to be springed upon the reader, usually executed through a dual narrative structure. The Decagon House Murders for example had the two narratives of island and main land, while the The Water Wheel House Murders had a past/present narrative. Ayatsuji's narrative tricks are usually accomplished by suggesting either a link between the two narratives, while in reality there isn't, or the other way around. The Decagon House Murders for example made it seem like the island narrative was a closed circle And Then There Were None scenario, while the main land narrative was about finding out the truth behind the events. However, one person from the main land narrative had in fact been traveling up and down the island, posing as another person there, having broken the closed circle. The Water Wheel House Murders made it seem like the narrators from the two past/present narratives were the same, even though there had been a switch. The other novels also feature such tricks (practically all have dual narratives), but the narrative trick isn't always crucial to the main story (sometimes it's just to give the story another surprise twist, but not particularly crucial to the murder-plot).

The Yakata series was originally planned to end with the fourth novel, The Puppet House Murders, but is now planned as a ten novel series, of which nine have been released at the moment.

Note: The novel The Kirigoe Mansion Murder Case is formally not a part of the series, but the book does open with "dedicated to another Nakamura Seiji" and similarly features a mysterious house as the scene of murders, suggesting that the Kirigoe Mansio might also be a creation by Nakamura Seiji.

Note 2: The Ayatsuji Yukito Murder Case is the novelization of a murder play inspired on the yakata series.

Maze

もう二度と迷わないように

その腕を離さないで

『Mysterious Eyes』 （Garnet Crow)

Don't let go of my hand

So we won't get lost again

"Mysterious Eyes" (Garnet Crow)

I write about detective fiction in any type of medium, so I have also quite a number of reviews posted under games and audio drama for example. The most surprising (to me) is still the fact I have a musical tag. Not sure whether I'll ever be able to use that again... Anyway, an audio drama today. And it's not even in Japanese!

Dutch Sinologist Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories are quite famous around the world. An important factor explaining its popularity is probably the fact that van Gulik's managed to combine his expert knowledge on ancient China and its law practices with stories that are also fun to read. The character of the wise magistrate Dee was based on the actual magistrate Di (Dee) Renjie and his (slightly fictionalized) appearance in the detective novel Dee Gong An (see for a more detailed introduction to the series, this older post).

Robert van Gulik's first original book has an interesting publication history: it was actually first published in 1951 in Japan, under the title Meiro no Satsujin ("The Maze Murders"). A Chinese version followed in 1953, but the book wouldn't be published in English (the language the book was originally written in) or Dutch (van Gulik's mothertongue) until 1956: it was known as The Chinese Maze Murders in English, while it was released one year later in the Netherlands with the name of Labyrinth in Lan-Fang (which means the same in English, of course). I am not familiar with the reception history of the book, but I gather it must have been fairly popular, for a radio drama was produced for the Dutch radio waves somewhere between 1957 and 1959: Labyrinth in Lan-Fang was a play in nine half-hour parts, probably broadcast by radiostation VARA.

Labyrinth in Lan-Fang starts with judge Dee being appointed as the new magistrate of the border town of Lan-Fang, one of the strategic points of the empire in their fight against the Uyghur people. Yet not all is well in this town: the population has lost all its trust in the central govenment because of a local usurper, who managed to corrupt all previous magistrates, an Uyghur attack seems imminent and there is also 'normal' work for the magistrate: a case of a widow being cheated out of her legacy by her stepson, a secret hidden inside a painting and a large garden-maze just outside of town, a missing girl and the mysterious murder of a retired governor inside a locked room will also keep the judge busy these first few days of his appointment.

I have read my share of Judge Dee novels, but this was my first encounter with The Chinese Maze Murders / Labyrinth in Lan-Fang. And I liked it! As always, a lot of the enjoyment comes from the way Robert van Gulik manages to bring ancient China alive: from 'big' settings like how the administrative and legal system worked, to little details like daily habits, the food and objects people use, all the Judge Dee novels offer a great look in ancient China, but it never feels 'too heavy': it is perfectly possible, and fine to 'just' read these novels as is.

One of the best elements Robert van Gulik borrowed from Dee Gong An is the story-structure: the judge is always working on multiple cases at the same time (usually three), which is actually quite logically considering he's the highest authority in the district: it wouldn't make sense for him to work on one case at a time. This results in overlapping storylines, which feels quite natural: the findings of one case might be useful to the solving of another, while sometimes he has to prioritize one over another. In most of the Judge Dee novels, these seperate storylines overlap at several points, which is also the case here. In a way, these storylines crossing over make up a Chinese Maze on their own.

And a little bit of sidetracking here, but I recently found out that there are Judge Dee videogames. Well, find-the-object games. But what about a Machi/Detective Conan Marionette Symphony-esque sound novel game, where multiple, seperate storylines intersect and where the outcome of one story, is connected to another? Wouldn't that be an awesome, and fitting Judge Dee game? Just imagine, a game system like that of Marionette Symphony, with the judge, Sergeant Hoong, brawlers Ma Joong and Chiao Tai and trickster Tao Gan each contributing a little in their own way to the investigations!

But back to Labyrinth in Lan-Fang. I usually enjoy Judge Dee stories more as well-structured puzzles, rather than stories with memorable tricks or things like that and I feel the same about this story. Sure, there is a locked room murder, but I felt the solution came kinda out of nowhere. Though I have to note, I think that the storylines of the early Judge Dee novels were all based on actual court records from ancient China (again, this was van Gulik's expertise), so it seems that the trick behind the locked room in this novel was one that was actually used. Kinda creepy if you think about it (and to enter another sidetrack: I remember that a few years ago, there really was a stroller in the attic case in Japan、who was discovered in the end because someone noticed toilet paper was disappearing).

And how was Labyrinth in Lan-Fang an audio drama? The only complaint I have is the length; nine times thirty minutes is a bit too long in my opinion for one story, but besides that, I quite liked it. The combined efforts of Van Gulik's original story, the voice actors and the radio script also did a great job at keeping characters distinct from each other, something that can be quite different when your story is set in a different culture and with so many unfamiliar names. The multiple storyline structure of the Judge Dee stories can be a bit confusing, because it involves of jumping from one storyline to another, but no problems in this adaptation. Oh and I was very happy with the fact that the recording I listened was quite clean, because that isn't always the case with recordings of old radio dramas.

This month featured reviews of Japanese novels based on Chinese novels, Japanese translations of English novels, Japanese novels set in the United States and a too eager Japanese take on two American detective novels, so what better way to finish month than with a review of a Dutch audio drama based on a book originally written in English by a Dutchman, but first published in Japanese?

Original Dutch title(s): Robert van Gulik (original story), "Labyrinth in Lan-Fang"

Mr Short and Mr Long

森へとri ra ra ra

doorを叩く

まい散る風　悲痛な（かなしい）叫び（こえ）が

聞こえぬよう祈りながら

フラリ　フラリ　駆け抜ける

「Marionette Fantasia」 (Garnet Crow)

To the forest li la la la

Knock on the door

Praying I won't hear

The fluttering wind, its sad voice

I keep on running

"Marionette Fantasia" (Garnet Crow)

The return of Short Shorts! Most people probably don't remember this corner, but it's mostly a collection of several, unrelated items. Sometimes I just have trouble writing a full-length review of something: to prevent these reviews from staying in limbo, I just combine multiple of these items in one Short Shorts post. Usually fairly incoherent posts, though today's Short Short is surprisingly following a popular theme: the impossible crime in short story format.

I had always wanted to read John Dickson Carr's famous short story The House in Goblin Wood and because in Japan you can just walk in a bookstore and get a new copy, I did just that. Over a year ago. The collection Youma no Mori no Ie (The House in Goblin Wood) has confusingly the English subtitle The Third Bullet and Other Stories and to make the chaos complete, this collection is not the same as The Third Bullet and Other Stories released outside Japan. Anyway, The House in Goblin Wood deals with the disappearance of Vicky Adams from an observed house, one of the witnesses being Sir Henry Merrivale. Vicky had done the same disappearing act when she was a child and when she returned she said she had been with the fairies. Has adult Vicky gone to the fairies again? The House in Goblin Wood is definitely a masterpiece: short, but expertly designed. It's completely solvable (I did, actually), but the way the story develops within the small amount of pages, the spooky disappearance and the whole truth at the end are presented, fantastic!

This collection also has The Incautious Burglar (Guest in the House), The Locked Room, The Clue of the Red Wig and The Third Bullet, but none of them really impressed to be honest. The Third Bullet in particular felt too long, even though the solution seemed so obvious. The House in Goblin Wood shows that sometimes shorter =  better. The Clue of the Red Wig has a Queenish murder scene: a woman dressed just in her underwear with a wig next to her is found in a little private garden/park. The pay-off is not particularly interesting in the end, but not bad (though I am quite sure I'll forget about this story in just a few months).

Which is an art Edward D. Hoch had mastered. I had already said in my review of the third collection of the Dr. Sam Hawthorne series that I probably wouldn't do full reviews anymore (see the review for more details), which makes it ideal material for this short short. Like a lot of Tokyo Sogen's publications, this volume has an English subtitle, which is Diagnosis: Impossible 4  - More and More Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne and that's the best way to describe it: yes, it's 'just' more impossible problems for the New England town doctor Sam to solve, and yes, the stories are still mostly the same in terms of structure, but heck, they are fun! There is a bit of a running storyline, with Sam hiring a new nurse and all, but it's still about all the mysterious murders that make Northmont one of the scariest places to live.

The Problem of the Haunted Tepee should be mentioned, as it's a crossover story with Hoch's Old West mystery series Ben Snow. An elderly Snow wants Sam to solve the mystery behind a haunted tepee, of which Snow himself had seen its deadly powers. This volume also contains the short story Frontier Street as a bonus story, which too is part of the Ben Snow series. The best story of the volume is The Problem of the Leather Man, where Sam has a long walk with the titular 'leather man' to the next town. They both take lodgings there, but the next morning the man is gone, and everybody, from the people at the lodgings to the people Sam had seen during the walk, say that Sam had been alone. Is the good doctor going crazy? This story takes a plot device I've seen quite often lately (probably just a coincidence), but constructs it in a reverse way, which makes it feel quite fresh. Sam has always been closely related to the crimes he solves as witness, but this time there's not even a crime and it's his own sanity that is being questioned. Quite different from the other stories in terms of development and type of story, something that is quite welcome once in a while.

And that wraps up this Short Short! Again, this corner is mostly reserved for materials I have trouble writing a full post on, so it's fairly irregular. For all I know, it might take once again a year and a half for a new Short Short to appear.

Original title(s): John Dickson Carr  『妖魔の森に家』: 'The House in Goblin Wood' 「妖魔の森の家」 / 'The Incautious Burglar' (Guest in the House) 「軽率だった夜盗」 / 'The Locked Room' 「ある密室」 / 'The Clue of the Red Wig' 「赤いカツラの手がかり」 / 'The Third Bullet' 「第三の銃弾」
Edward D. Hoch 『サム・ホーソーンの事件簿』IV: 'The Problem of the Black Roadster' 「黒いロードスターの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Two Birthmarks' 「二つの母斑の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Dying Patient' 「重体患者の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Protected Farmhouse' 「要塞と化した農家の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Haunted Tepee' 「呪われたティーピーの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Blue Bicycle' 「青い自転車の謎」 / 'The Problem of the County Church' 「田舎教会の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Grange Hall' 「グレンジ・ホールの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Vanishing Salaryman' 「消えたセールスマンの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Leather Man' 「革服の男の謎」 / 'The Phantom Parlor' 「幻の談話室の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Poisoned Pool' 「毒入りプールの謎」 / 'Frontier Street' 「フロンティア・ストリート」

File 4: Music to be Murdered By

Let's post this before I forget it: a new Music to be Murdered by post! A corner where I post music from various detective-related media and crappy art drawn in MS Paint to accompany the tune!

Title: Mystic Antique
Composer: Tsujiyou
Album: Trick Original Soundtrack

Trick is a quirky TV series that started out as a detective series with a bizarre sense of humor, and is now more closer to a comedy-series that takes on the form of a detective series. The first season was a bit more serious/dramatic in tone, and while the duo of Yamada and Ueda exposed psychic charlatans for what they were in each episode, there were also hints that the supernatural really did exist. The opening theme of Trick (also used for the movies and the game) is called Mystic Antique and embodies that supernatural, somewhat strange feeling of the series with its organ melody.

And why did I draw an egg to accompany this song? Well, it's the accompanying opening sequence to this song! How can an egg breaking be a proper opening sequence to a TV series? I don't know. The contents of the egg changes per season/production by the way, the TV seasons have shown different kind of colors, while lately, even more surprising things have popped out of the egg. Mystic Antique is also used as the main theme of the series, and you'll occasionally hear it as the background music to the final denouement scene.There is also a slightly arranged version of this song, titled Antique Mystic.

Original Japanese title(s): 「Mystic Antique」（辻陽）　『トリック　オリジナルサウンドトラック』