The Mousetrap

愛さなくていいから

遠くで見守ってて

「最愛」 (KOH+)

You don't have to love me

But watch over me from far away

"My Greatest Love" (KOH+)

In general, Japanese publishers have not forgotten the importance of good cover art (I once even wrote a post on that). But I have to admit, I have no idea what is going on in the cover of today's book.

Renjou Mikihiko (real name: Katou Jingo) was a critically acclaimed writer in many genres, who passed away in October 2013. He debuted as a detective fiction writer and he is still fondly remembered for his devilish short stories, as well as his fantastic prose. I reviewed his short story collection Modorigawa Shinjuu in the past, which was a great outing to a romantic Japan of the past. And today, another of his short story collections! Yoru yo Nezumitachi no Tame ni ("Oh Night, For My Mice") is a much-praised short story collection that had been out of print for some years, but was republished recently (in a slightly edited version compared to the first release and with a much worse cover), as Renjou's death probably gave demand a little push. The volume collects nine stories set in post-war Japan, all written in the period between 1981 ~ 1983, with no ties between the stories.

It's also a really, really good mystery short story collection! It ranked 86th in 2012's Tozai Mystery Best 100, but had the volume been more easily available, I think this would have ranked much higher, similar to how Yamada Fuutarou didn't even rank once in the original Tozai Mystery Best 100 of 1985, but then no less than four times (with Youi Kinpeibai, Taiyou Kokuten and Meiji Dantoudai among others) in 2012 when more of his work had been made available. While the nine stories in Yoru yo Nezumitachi no Tame ni are not connected, they do share the same structure and style. That is, basically all stories feature 1) a surprise twist and 2) some tragedy born out of human (romantic) relations. This was also the case for Modorigawa Shinjuu, and while it may seem like Renjou was a one-trick pony, he sure knew how to present his trick in a myriad of different ways.

The twist in Renjou's stories are not unlike those you see in Chesterton and Christie's works: you are presented a certain situation but at the end of the story you realize it was the other way around. It wasn't a V, but /\! He wasn't entering the store, he was exiting it backwards! Well, a lot better than my examples of course, but you get the idea. Most of the stories do feature a criminal plot, but there is always more than seems at first sight. And don't worry, this isn't nearly enough to spoil the experience: I already knew Renjou's modus operandi from Modorigawa Shinjuu and I was still fooled almost every time. And I enjoyed it!

The stories are also always about human relations. Spurned love, old love, unrequited love, revenge, oh my god so much revenge. Somebody will die the moment one person falls in love with another person in Renjou's world. Always. Yoru yo Nezumitachi no Tame ni is an amazing story collection, but it will leave you with melancholic, heavy feelings and even a bit of despair. I read little fiction outside of the mystery genre and I usually focus on tropes / plots, so I seldom mention topics like 'readability' or the quality of the prose in my reviews, but man, Renjou Mikihiko could really write. Then again, he was a pretty allround writer it seems (not just mystery) and it really shows in this collection. It is a mystery collection, but I think this volume has enough to offer to those not into the genre.

The volume starts right away with a bang with Futatsu no Kao ("Two Faces"). An artist is called in the middle of the night by the police, who tells him his wife has been murdered in a hotel room. The artist is baffled. Not because his wife is dead. But because he just killed his wife at home, and buried her in the garden himself. At the hotel, the artist discovers that the body there is probably indeed his wife, so that raises the new question: who did he bury in the garden? The concept of the story is already captivating, but once you realize how extremely well plotted and hinted story is, especially if one considers the fact it's a very short story, you can't help but be amazed by it all. 

Kako kara no Koe ("Voice from the Past") too is a story that can go straight in the Great Canon of Mystery Short Stories. It starts with a letter from a ex-policeman written to his ex-collegue/senior. He reminisces on an old kidnapping case they worked on together, which eventually led to the writer quitting the force. But as he tells his tale, he slowly unravels a most surprising truth behind everything, which makes this easily one of the most surprising and best kidnapping mystery stories I've ever seen.

Kaseki no Kagi ("The Fossil Key") is about a young disabled girl who lives with her father in a small apartment room. The girl's mother occassionally sneaks into the apartment to visit her daughter during the day, but having discovered that, the father decides to change the front door lock one day. The lock is changed in the afternoon, with the landlord taking care of the keys. With the daughter having a nap, the landlord locks the door and goes out for a small errand, but when she returns, she discovers that someone had attempted to strangle the disabled girl. But how did the assaillant get in, as she was the only one with the new lock's door? All the stories were feature some sort of twist ending, but this is the story that keeps giving: it's a twist festa, but each and every twist is fairly hinted and you can never say it came out of nowhere. In terms of complexity of plot, I think this is the best of the collection.

Kimyou na Irai ("A Strange Request") is about a private eye who is first hired by a man to follow his wife, then the wife hires the detective to follow her husband, and again vice versa....By the time you're near the end, you'll have been shown a very strange couple who obviously don't trust each other, and a Philip Marlowe-esque private detective who is used as a ball in the rally game between the two. And when you finally realize what was going on, you hit yourself for not noticing it earlier, despite all the hints.

Yoru yo Nezumitachi no Tame ni ("Oh Night, For My Mice") lends its title to the whole collection, which suggests it's the best, or at least the most impressive one of the nine stories, right? Well, it's certainly a fantastic story and maybe indeed the best. The story of a man bent on vengeance on the doctors responsible for his beloved wife's death (whom he calls his mouse) seems straightforward enough, but not only is the outcome of his vengeance very surprising, the prose of this story leaves quite an impact on the reader. Note that basically all stories are very well-written, but the pain and agony of the narrator of this story in particular feels real, and the melancholic atmosphere that pervades the whole collection is at its strongest here.

It's around Nijuu Seikatsu ("Double Life") that the collection loses a bit of its momentum. The story of a love... square? quartet? two points of the square wanting to kill the other two points is a simple one, but the revenge plan has its original points and the story does feature one fantastic plot twist. But while this is a very good story by most standards, I do have to say that by the standard of this particular collection, it feels a bit lacking. The least impressive story in the collection is Daiyaku ("Double"), which is about a famous actor planning to kill his wife using a body double as his alibi. The story is quite alright as a Doppelgänger horror-esque story, but not even Gladstone Gander could caused all the coincidences come together for the final twist. Especially considering the neat plotting of all the other stories, Daiyaku feels disappointing. Bei Shiti ni Shisu ("Death in Bay City") finally is about a gangster out for revenge having spent six years in prison for a murder he didn't commit (by know you may have noticed that Renjou's relations basically all end in deadly revenge). I found it to be a rather bland story, with a simple plot and set-up, which doesn't go nearly as far as the first couple of stories in the collection.

The final story in the collection, Hirakareta Yami ("Open Darkness"), is quite different from the previous stories: they all relied on twist endings and turning around situations, but this last story is a very conventional whodunit. A gang of delinquent youths ask for the help of their teacher Masa when one of them is murdered during a stay in the villa of one of the member's uncle. Clues seem to point to the victim's girlfriend, but Masa thinks there might be more behind the murder. And there is, but the road from hints to the solution is a bit bumpy. The story has two good ideas, the first one being a hint for the solution, which needed a little bit more attention for it to really work as a fair hint. The second idea is that this story features an extremely original motive for murder, but it's also an incredibly silly motive, at least, in the world of this story (and most worlds). I can imagine that this motive would be a lot more convincing if it was used in a more special setting, but it just doesn't feel right in a normal setting.

There's not much more I can say about Yoru yo Nezumitachi no Tame ni. Ayatsuji Yukito praised this volume as 'a masterpiece collection you must read' and while I think the second half has not as much impact as the first half, the word masterpiece is really the only word that describes that amazing first half. This collection makes it quite easy to understand why Renjou Mikihiko was such a respected writer in the business and as the recent reprint has made this volume available again, I don't think anyone has an excuse to not dive into Renjou's beautifully crafted worlds of twists and romance.

Original Japanese title(s): 連城三紀彦　『夜よ鼠たちのために』: 「二つの顔」 / 「過去からの声」 / 「化石の鍵」 / 「奇妙な依頼」 / 「夜よ鼠たちのために」 / 「二重生活」 / 「代役」 / 「ベイ・シティに死す」 / 「開かれた闇」

Les Confidences d'Arsène Lupin

時の階段のぼりつめると 

キミと出会えるそんな気がして

「時の階段」 (LieN)

When I've reached the top of the stairway of time

I'll be able to be with you, that's what I feel

"The Stairway of Time" (LieN)

I'll admit it right away, the reason I bought this book was because it said Lupin on the cover. Even though I knew it had nothing to do with Arsène Lupin.

In December 1975, the English language teacher Mine Maiko was found dead at the high school she worked at. The discovery of a suicide note closed the case. Until fifteen years, minus one day later. An anonymous tip tells the police that Mine Maiko's death was not suicide, but murder and that her death was connected to "The Lupin Scheme" three students had concocted. With only twenty-four hours to go before the statute of limitations passes, the police wastes no time in tracking and bringing (the now adult) Kita Yoshio, Tachibana Souichi and Tatsumi Joujirou to the police station to hear what they have got to say. And so we are told of three high school students who planned to steal the answers of the end of semester tests fifteen years ago and the shocking discovery they made during their heist. Can the police find out what happened to the teacher before the time limit in Yokoyama Hideo's Lupin no Shousoku ("News of Lupin", 2005)?

Lupin no Shousoku is kinda Yokoyama Hideo's debut novel, and not at the same time. He won the Suntory Mystery Grand Prize in 1991 with this novel, but the book was not published until 2005, many years after Yokoyama's "real" debut as a novelist. By that time, he had already made a name for himself as a mystery writer. Lupin no Shousoku was also adapted as a TV drama in 2008.

While Yokoyama had revised the original manuscript for the 2005 paperback release, I do have to say that I was surprised Lupin no Shousoku read so incredibly well for a debut novel. The two-sided plot (the execution of the Lupin Scheme in the past and the race against the clock in the present) each drive the story forward and the narrative jumps at just the right times between the two storylines to keep you on your toes. The Lupin Scheme plot is exciting on its own, as it depicts how the three students plan and execute a heist, while the present day plot reacts to the information revealed in the Lupin Scheme plot, resulting in new suspects and theories as the story progresses.

I do have to say that the present day plot, where the police only has twenty-four hours until the statute of limitations pass, is the weaker part of the novel. While everyone is yelling that they only have a few hours left to solve the case and all cops with time on their hand (and those who don't too) are working on the case, the reader mostly sees scenes where the supervising police officer is just standing there, listening to the story of the three behind the Lupin Scheme in the questioning rooms. Sure, the cops are listening while looking at the clock and acting nervously, but they are just listening. It's all they can do, I give them that, but it could have been presented a bit more dynamic to strengthen the time limit idea. Standing does not convey haste. Oh, and a bit of trivia: I've read/seen a lot of mystery stories that feature the statute of limitations (both civil and criminal cases), but the statute of limitations on crimes resulting in death was abolished in 2010, so I wonder whether these kind of stories will disappear some day as the concept disappears from the public's mind.

Oh, and this is part of a major plot twist, so I'll keep it vague, but the depiction of a certain characteristic of a certain person... was absolutely horrible. I get what Yokoyama wanted to do, I think, but he could have chosen his wording a bit more carefully...

As a mystery novel, Lupin no Shousoku is entertaining enough: there is some good hinting within the confessions of the Lupin Scheme conspirators and the heist part of their stories is also good. But I always find these kind of stories a bit weak, because it's all based on recollection of events that happened many years ago and heck, I don't even remember things that happened last week in such detail, let alone of fifteen years ago! Lupin no Shousoku does nothing to remedy that and the way evidence at the end turns up after fifteen years, is a bit unbelievable. Nothing game-breaking, but it is something I notice.

Oh, and because I have avoided the topic up until now, even though it is quite heavily promoted: Lupin no Shousoku's plot is also connected to the unsolved, real-life 300 million yen robbery case, which is a popular topic in Japanese crime fiction. But mind you, the Mine Maiko Murder is the main focus, the 300 million yen robbery is just slightly connected.

Lupin no Shousoku is an entertaining crime novel that will satisfy most readers. I have some very minor with the plot, but it's overall a fun heist and whodunit novel.

Original Japanese title(s): 横山秀夫 『ルパンの消息』

Strange Bedfellows

"A true gentleman never refuses the request of a beautiful lady"

"Professor Layton and the Curious Village"

Hmm, the last time I reviewed a detective adventure game on the DreamCast, it didn't end well...

According to himself, private detective Agyou Souma has the worst luck in the world, which always gets him into trouble. And up until now, he has also always managed to get out of it (somehow). His impressive record has made him one of the very few License A detectives working for the IDLA (International Detective License Agency). Souma (he prefers being called by his first name) lives in a shabby detective office however, as he likes to keep the fact he is a license A detective a secret (to keep clients away). One day, his new IDLA contact Maiko puts him on a new job: investigating ghost sightings near the beach. The murder on another IDLA detective who had been put on the job has made a simple ghost story into something much more serious. As Souma starts his investigations in the DreamCast videogame Tantei Shinshi DASH! ("The Gentleman Detective DASH!") though, he also bumps into several other cases, some involving a criminal organization called Outfit and even takes custody over a cute high-tech female android.

Tantei Shinshi DASH! was originally released in 2000 for the DreamCast and a port from the PC game Fukakutei Sekai no Tantei Shinshi ("A Gentleman Detective In An Uncertain World"), released in the same year. The PC game was actually aimed at a mature (18+) audience and included some erotic scenes: these were changed for the home console DreamCast release (though the script still includes quite a dash of innuendo). The game is also one of the few detective games on the DreamCast, which was my reason of purchase, and it appears Tantei Shinshi DASH! is doing alright for the developers: it's by no means a famous game, but it has been ported to a number of platforms and several sequels have been made.

As a detective adventure game on a home console, Tantei Shinshi DASH! plays pretty much like you'd expect it to. You advance in the story by moving between various locations, talking with characters and gathering information. The story of Tantei Shinshi DASH! has its ups and downs. It tries a bit too hard to be hardboiled, edgy and cool, which just didn't work for me. But the cases themselves are also a mixed lot: there is a lot of variety in the sort of cases Souma has to solve in the course of the game, but they are not all as good as another. Early in the game you investigate a ghost sighting, as well as a curious case of a wife who has lost her husband (and everybody says there was no husband in the first place!), but as you progress, you pick up more cases, all somehow connected with a main storyline involving the criminal organization Outfit. None of the cases invite the player to really think though: there are some murder cases, but the game basically tells you what happened if you can just manage to perform the right actions/be at the right place at the right time, without any mental activity asked of the player. The emphasis is laid on following the adventures of Souma.

The "uncertain world" from the original title is also a problem: at first it appears it's a 'normal' world like where we live in, but it doesn't take long for a humanoid android (a cute girl called Mint) to appear, together with enemies that seem to come straight out of the post-apocalyptic world of 20XX. The worldview needs a little polishing. The android plays a very big part in the story by the way, and Tantei Shinshi DASH! also includes elements of dating simulation games and even Tamagotchi pet raising elements. With slightly erotic undertones. As I said, this was originally a game with a mature rating and even though the developers have rewritten/redrawn the scenes that gave it its original rating, it still has a lot of risque shots and innuendo-filled dialogue.

The biggest issue I have with Tantei Shinshi DASH! however is also the most unique feature of the game: there is a time-system that is locked to your movements. Moving from one location to another close by takes half an hour. From one side of the city to the other takes about four hours. After twenty-four hours, it's the next day. You have a certain amount of time to solve each case and you only make advancements in the story by being at the right location at the right time (for example, to talk to character X). So the idea is that you need to always keep the time in mind if you need to be somewhere and you should not walk around too much unneccesary. You can also work on multiple cases at the same time, but this could also result in you being too busy with one case, and not being able to solve another case on time. This is an interesting idea, that is something novels can never do: give you the freedom to experience the story in your own manner/order (within certain boundaries).

The problem is that the game seldom tells you where you need to be at what time. Important characters you need to meet with to advance in the story appear at the most random places and times, without any hint to why they are there at that time. There is often no way you could've known that important character X would be at Y at time Z. It's like the game at one hands tries to limit your freedom by giving you hard deadlines and a time system, while also urging you to go explore because stuff can happen practically anywhere, anytime. Tantei Jinguuji Saburou - Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni (PSX) is also a detective adventure game that also included a time system and deadlines for cases, but that game was much better than Tantei Shinshi Dash!. It was always fair, with no random encounters and more hints to where you needed to go to advance the story. Tantei Shinshi DASH! shows how it can be done in a very bad way.

All in all, I can't really recommend Tantei Shinshi DASH!.  The story is not particularly exciting or amusing (and tries too hard to be cool). But what really hurts the game, is how it works as a game. The way the game should be played (as dictated by its gameplay) and the way the game must be played (because of randomness) contradict each other and result in a game that is just frustrating to play. Games can do a lot books can't do, but at least I still have to come across an example of a book where the system of a book (turn pages around) doesn't mesh with how I'm supposed to read the book.

Original Japanese title(s): 『探偵紳士DASH!』

Back in Time

"So how did you make the connection with the 8:13 which left six minutes earlier?"

- "Oh, er, simple! I caught the 7:16 Football Special arriving at Swindon at 8:09."

"But the 7:16 Football Special only stops at Swindon on alternate Saturdays."

"Yes, surely you mean the Holidaymaker Special."

- "Oh, yes! How daft of me. Of course, I came on the Holidaymaker Special calling at Bedford, Colmworth, Fen Dinon, Sutton, Wallington and Gillingham."

"That's Sundays only!"

"The Railway Sketch" (Monty Python)

When discussing mystery fiction, there are some which you can categorize without major problems, but some which cannot. For example, most people don't bother if you tell him a certain novel is a locked room problem. In fact, many readers want to read locked room mysteries, so they want to know beforehand what a mystery novel is about. On the other hand, you'd hardly want to beforehand that a certain novel features an unreliable narrator, because that gives away the whole trick right away. That's why I do have tags for things like impossible situations or locked rooms but not for narrative tricks. But with alibi deconstruction stories, you have roughly two sets. For some mysteries, you don't want to know that an alibi trick has been used, because it's part of the magic the murderer pulled off. He is safe because nobody suspects he faked his alibi. On the other hand, you have alibi deconstruction stories that often go hand-in-hand with the inverted form: we know whodunit, we know that he used an alibi trick, but now to find out how he pulled it off. With these stories, knowing beforehand that it's an alibi deconstructing story does not lessen the pleasure, I think. But because the spoil-factor can differ greatly per story, I decided not to use a dedicated 'alibi' tag for reviews featuring such a plot.

I am not a big fan of Matsumoto Seichou, the father of the social school (shakaiha) of mystery fiction, per se, but I absolutely love his first novel Ten to Sen ("Points and Lines", 1958). Partly because part of the story is set in a place where I lived for a year, but also because it's a darn fine alibi-deconstructing mystery. Over fifty years since its release, it is still regarded as one of the best Japanese mystery stories of all time. Jikan no Shuuzoku ("Customs of Time", 1962) is the sequel, set four years after Points and Lines. The murder on the editor-in-chief of a transport magazine in the resorts of Sagamiko, Kanagawa sets police detective Mihara Kiichi on the trail of a taxi company owner Mineoka Shuuichi. This man however has an ironclad alibi: in the night the murder took place in Kanagawa, Mineoka was all the way in Kitakyushu, attending the annual Mekari Shinji at Mekari Shrine. The photographs he took of the ritual and more show he was indeed there on that night. But Mihara thinks Mineoka's alibi a bit too well prepared and together with his collegue and old friend Torigai Juutarou of the Fukuoka Police Department, the duo once again tackle a seemingly perfect alibi.

I didn't even know that Points and Lines had a sequel until a few weeks before I read Jikan no Shuuzoku. And in the time between I ordered the book and it being delivered, I thought, why is there a sequel? Points and Lines was a great alibi-cracking story and I liked the main characters, Mihara Kiichi, the diligent and fast-thinking detective from Tokyo and Torigai Juutarou, the wise and experienced cop from Fukuoka, but why reuse the idea of an alibi trick set between Tokyo and Fukuoka, why use these cops again? I read a lot of series novels, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to see Mihara and Torigai again, in a story similar to Points and Lines. I guess I was somewhere scared to see Matsumoto just going for quick cash by writing a book in title a sequel to his bestseller. With these doubts, I turned over the (strangely realistic) cover of the pocket and started reading.

And I was sucked into Jikan no Shuuzoku pretty much the moment it started.

The set-up is very similar to Points and Lines: a murder at one side of the country and a perfect alibi showing the suspect was on the other side of the country, a very sober and meticulous investigation into the movements of the suspect, many many dead ends and the final solution. Jikan no Shuuzoku resembles its predecessor a bit too much at times, but luckily, the main puzzle is quite different. Jikan no Shuuzoku is all about the photographs Mineoka took on the night as his alibi and I can tell you, the solution is probably not as simple as you might think. I have to admit, the moment I read it was about photographs, I thought I had guessed the solution, but Mineoka soon proved my theory wrong. So I went to my next theory. But that wasn't possible either and Mineoka was still safe. And then a third time. And a fourth time. Seldom have I been played so skilfully by a criminal in a detective novel! Every time I, and protagonists Mihara and Torigai, came up with a theory, it turned out to be wrong. Like trying to play chess with someone who was infinitely better than me. A minor point I do want to raise is that the trick is a bit outdated, similar to how the main trick of Points and Lines misses the impact it no doubt had when it was first published. Jikan no Shuuzoku's alibi trick involved some knowledge that was probably common back then, but mostly forgotten now. Of course, that's not a real fault against the story, which was awesome, but still, one should keep it in mind. But overall, Jikan no Shuuzoku is a great alibi-deconstructing story, just like Points and Lines.

A TV special of Jikan no Shuuzoku was broadcast earlt 2014 (with the always strong Kinami Haruka!), but it was quite different from the original story. The setting was changed to contemporary times and I already noted the novel's trick is outdated, so the main alibi trick was also changed quite a bit for the TV special. Personally, I thought the special was a bit of a disappointment. Much of the original's charm comes from the fact the distance Sagamiko - Kitakyushu was so immense back in the day, which made the alibi trick hard to crack, but nowadays the world is much smaller not only because of faster modes of transportation, but also mobile phones and the internet.

In my review of Points and Lines, I mentioned that I had been told that the novel was like a Freeman Wills Crofts novel. I had not read Crofts at the time, but I have now, especially the last few weeks. And yes, Points and Lines and Jikan no Shuuzoku share a lot with Crofts' Inspector French stories. From the sober writing and protagonist detective, to the carefully constructed alibi tricks and the way the plot keeps surprising you with new discoveries and developments, one can find many similarities and I'd recommend readers of Crofts to take a look at Points and Lines (and Jikan no Shuuzoku, if you can read Japanese) and vice versa.

If I had to choose though, I would say that Points and Lines was better than Jikan no Shuuzoku. The latter is not bad, far from it, but Points and Lines just has that edge. The distance between the alleged alibi and the crime scene is further and what's more, it has a more memorable moment with the infamous "Four Minutes" at Tokyo Station (readers of Points and Lines will know what four minutes!). Jikan no Shuuzoku has no such miraculous event and that's quite a shame actually. In Points and Lines, the almost impossible Four Minutes gave a reason for the police to start suspecting the criminal, while in Jikan no Shuuzoku, Lieutenant Mihara only starts doubting Mineoka's alibi because it seems so good. There was absolutely no reason for Mihara to suspect Mineoka of the murder other than his instinct. Which turned out to be right, but still...

Anyway, Matsumoto Seichou's Jikan no Shuuzoku is a very solid alibi deconstructing mystery. It is a bit dated though, but still, a good detective story is a good detective story, no matter when or where it was written, and no matter when or where it is read.

Original Japanese title(s): 松本清張　『時間の習俗』

File 5: Music to Be Murdered by

A year ago, I came up with the corner Music to be Murdered by for this blog, where I introduced catchy tunes from various detective fiction productions (TV/film/games/etc). I had originally thought of it as an easy way to crank up the number of posts, but the last year, I've had no shortage of other review material, so I kinda forgot about the corner. But now it's back!

Title: The Theme of Lupin III '78
Composer: Oono Yuuji
Album: too many to mention.

Lupin III is one of the most beloved franchises of Japanese popculture. It has been around since 1967 and is even now in 2015 still going strong. The series is about the adventures of Lupin III (grandson of Arsène Lupin) and his little gang of thieves. An animated TV series of Lupin III was first broadcast in 1971, but really made it big in 1977 with the sequel series, Lupin III Part Two. It was the theme song of this series that most people nowadays associate with Lupin III. The song is often remixed but The Theme of Lupin III '78 is always the base.
 

And what a song it is! The speedy jazzy tune conjures up the image of fun adventures of a band of suave thieves in the seventies and eighties. I linked to a live performance of the theme, where the song comes even more alive because of the dynamic musicians. Sure, it's a rather loud song for a thief, but hey, it's stylish and catchy!

Music to be Murdered by is still an irregular corner though, so no idea when the next post will appear...

Original Japanese title(s): 大野雄二『ルパン三世のテーマ'80』

Limits of Doubt

思い出だけではつらすぎる　ありえない窓は開かない

本当の鍵はただひとつ　永遠にあなたが待っている

「思い出だけではつらすぎる」　(柴咲コウ)

Left with only the memories is too painful, the impossible window won''t open

There is only one key and you keep it until eternity

"Only the memories are too painful" (Shibasaki Kou)

Now I think about it, a detective story based on memories is pretty cool, but it wouldn't work with me and my awful memory. Sometimes, a miracle happens where I remember things from some years ago (like mentioned here), but usually, I am pretty good at forgetting names / faces / persons / events.

But anyway, have you ever looked back at something that happened to you, or maybe just an incident you saw or heard about, and only realized the full meaning of that event at a later point? Maybe you saw someone strange one day, and only much later realized he must have been the one who robbed the bank around the corner. In a sense, the potential of a perfect detective lies within all of us, and that is the premise of Nishizawa Yasuhiko's Kanzen Muketsu no Meitantei ("A Perfect Detective"). Protagonist Yamabuki Miharu is not a detective. But he has the ability to make everyone into a detective. Miharu has the power to make people talk about little things that bug them, even though he himself, and his conversation partners don't realize that. And as people start to talk about anecdotes, about events they saw years ago, things they heard in other parts of the country, they slowly, but surely start to see the circumstances they had recorded in their memory from different angles. The wealthy Shirakage Gen'emon sends Miharu to the Kouchi prefecture, where his grandaughter is working at an university against his wishes. Something is keeping Rin in Kouchi and Gen'emon hopes that Miharu's powers will help Rin discover what that is.

I have read very little by Nishizawa Yasuhiko and written even less about him on this blog (for such evil reasons as forgetting to make proper notes of a book I had borrowed). His novels often feature supernatural powers, but used in a completely fair way (heck, I once read a book by him where people had psychokinetic powers, and it was still a completely fair and logic locked room mystery!). So Miharu's powers shouldn't scare off people interested in a good mystery as it is not used as an unfair device.

Kanzen Muketsu no Meitantei is best described as a connected short story collection (even though it's technically a novel). While the problem of Rin is the main propellant of the plot, most of the book is actually episodically structured: usually Miharu would meet a random person, have a deep talk with him/her, and his conversation partner would eventually realize a shocking truth lies behind something he/she experienced in the past. The episodes are short mystery stories of the intuistic school: as the conversation partners tell their tales, they slowly notice some inconsistencies in their recollections. These eventually lead to new revelations. While these stories rarely feature hard evidence (and also note that everything is based on memory), the deductions these people make never seem too farfetched and it is quite amusing to see how based on memories of small inconsistencies, people can come up with the most outrageous ideas. Somewhat like a single-man Columbo show, where you think of a 'wrong' crime scene and solve the crime yourself all in your head!

Personally though, I had preferred for Nishizawa to have used this device in an everyday life mystery style. The style of stories based on recollections, on vague memories and resulting deductions seems to me better fitting for the everyday life mystery. In Kanzen Muketsu no Meitantei however, every person who speaks with Miharu seems to have been connected to some crime one way or another (though usually unconciously). What's even more ridiculous is that everybody is eventually connected to the main story. Miharu's let-them-talk power is nothing compared to the mysterious power to only meet important persons over the course of the novel, and extract crucial information related to Rin and the main plot all under the guise of coincidence.

It really thought the mode of deduction in this novel was more suited for everyday life mysteries, so I found the overall plot to be surprisingly dark. If I think about it calmly, Kanzen Mukatsu no Meitantei is not particular much darker than most mystery novels I read, but the method of going into memories and stuff fits stories with just a 'hahaha, so it was that!'-type of plot better in my opinion, rather than 'oh... that was pretty evil and dark and no wonder you were killed'-type of plot (with this novel eventually being the latter). That said, the overall plot is actually well structured, with some cool tricks played on everyone through the device of Miharu's powers. I might have prefered a different approach, but Nishizawa should never be underestimated when it comes to mystery stories.

Kanzen Mukatsu no Meitantei is not a bad story by any standard, and the idea of having every other character but the protagonist eventually turn out to be the detectives of their own stories is really good. I thought the basic premise of the book and the actual plot didn't mesh really well, but your mileage may well vary on that. But too be perfectly honest, I thought that Nishizawa Yasuhiko's Nendou Misshitsu ("Psychokinetic Locked Room!") was better overall, also as an entry point into his novels. 

Original Japanese title(s): 西澤保彦　『完全無欠な名探偵』

Well-Schooled in Murder

「Oh, you were to enter Todai? Sorry, you are going to die.」

『悪の教典 - Lesson of the Evil』

I love Japanese bunko pockets, but they don't really work for novels with a really high page count. I have some pockets that go to around nine-hundred pages (Nikaidou Reito's Akuryou no Yakata and Shimada Souji's Atopos for example), but these are quite difficult to handle. More often, novels are split in multiple (normal-sized) volumes, but that is usually a more costly investment for the reader, as they have to buy two or more books. On the other hand, you can easily drop out after the first volume; I have often seen that people decide to drop a book split in multiple volumes after the first. As a reader, I am still not sure what is best. But that's enough for today's non-sequitur introduction...

Hasumi Seiji appears to be the perfect high school teacher. Not only do his students like his enthusiastic way of educating the English language, but as a homeroom teacher Hasumi has also shown to have a great eye for the 'feel' of his class, solving the various problems his pupils cope with. Hasumi is also well-respected by the rest of the school staff, because of his commitment to the cause and the image of the school. From bullying to 'monster parents' (helicopter parents) and sexual harassment from staff, Hasumi manages to deal with every obstacle that appears on his way of becoming the best teacher of the best class. Hasumi also happens to be a complete psychopath though and not seldom does his idea of dealing with a problem involve rather violent and deadly solutions. And as the academic year progresses, more and more people start to suspect there is more behind the perfect facade of Hasumi in Kishi Yuusuke's Aku no Kyouten, which also bears the English title Lesson of the Evil.

Lesson of the Evil was originally serialized between 2008 - 2010 and won the first Yamada Fuutarou Prize, first place in both the Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! and Weekly Bunshun Mystery Best rankings and was nominated for a heap of other prizes like the Naoki Prize. I first saw the title in the Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! list, but had rather forgotten about it until I attended a lecture of writer Kishi Yuusuke in 2012 at Kyoto University (on the role of violence in the entertainment sector), in which he mentioned this book several times and showed the trailer of the film adaptation by Miike Takashi that released the same year (the movie is also released outside Japan with the grammatically more sensible title Lesson of Evil). As a work of entertainment fiction, this is a pretty big title (there's even a comic version!).

But the first thing I have to say before anything else is: WHY IS THIS CONSIDERED A MYSTERY NOVEL BY SOME? How the heck did this won first place in not one, but two mystery novel rankings?! Setting aside the question of whether Lesson of the Evil is a good read or not: this is not a mystery novel. It's a horror novel. In the broad sense of the word, you can call it a crime novel. But not a mystery novel. The fact Lesson of the Evil won a mystery award is a mystery though. I had suspected something like that having read the description of the book in the Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! guidebook and the film was definitely meant to be bloody horror, but somewhere that it would turn out to be a mystery novel (like Abiko Takemaru's Satsuriku ni Itaru Yamai). It didn't. I think most sources refer to Lesson of the Evil as horror, which is correct, but I just can't understand multiple juries could have considered this the best mystery novel released in 2010!

Aaaaanyway. But as I have read the book and it's not completely off-topic here, still the review. The pocket version of Lesson of the Evil is split in two volumes and I quite liked the first one. The first chapter starts out as any typical school drama. Hasumi learns that one of his students is being sexually harrassed by one of his fellow teachers and helps the victim, while on the other hand manages to convince another hardheaded teacher to apologize to a student he had hit. Standard stuff here. But a third problem involves Hasumi getting rid of some crows that bother him at home and the method employed is the first hint you get that Hasumi might not be as normal as he appears to be. As the story continues, you'll see Hasumi taking more and more extreme measures to wipe out any problem in his way, from blackmailing a fellow teacher to setting things up so a problem child gets himself expelled. This first half is easily the best part of the novel, as the gap between Hasumi's perfect appearance and his ruthless behaviour is quite creepy. The build-up in the first chapter to make you feel uneasy is great and the way the story develops to the more extreme second half is effective.

The second half of the book however is mostly a splatter-horror story, when some of Hasumi's pupils start to suspect there's more behind their homeroom teacher than just his smile, and Hasumi decides to kill his entire class during a school festival, put the blame on someone else and start anew (and this kinda sounds like a big spoiler, but considering this is also written on the back cover description and the film trailer is all about this particular part...).  This part has some similarities with Battle Royale, with kids trying to defend themselves from a shotgun-carrying assaillant,all  locked up in one area (and the bloody bloodiness of the bloodshedding). For those who like over-the-top violence, you can find plenty of that here, and in the pool of blood that drips out of the pages.

Did I like the book? Well, reasonably. Like I said, I thought the first half was good, especially if one sees it as a parody/subversion of 'traditional' school drama like Great Teacher Onizuka, where an unconventional teacher helps students and fellow teachers alike. If one considers the place of the educational system and teachers in society as pillars (especially Japanese society) and the school as a safe haven for minors, one has to admit that Lesson of the Evil plays a lot with that. A lot of 'stereotypical' and real social problems fly by: from grand-scale cheating, 'monster parents', corporal punishments, sexual harassement to indecent teacher-student relations, but the way Hasumi deals with them is not as typical. By the way, this school has way too much serious problems, even without Hasumi!

I was less a fan of the second half. Not because I dislike the blood, but that massacre takes just too many pages. It just goes on and on and on and whereas the first half had a good sense of speed because Hasumi was multitasking on several schemes across the school, the second half is just straight splatter horror.

Lesson of the Evil is the first time I read horror by Kishi Yuusuke, by the way. Is it a mystery? Noho, absolutely no. Is it entertaining? Well, yeah. As a psycho-horror novel, it's okay and I personally liked the way the story resembles a standard school drama in form (including the social problems), but handles it in a very warped way. If what I've said sounds alluring, or if you think the film trailer looks cool, take a look. For those who want a real mystery, try Kishi's Security Consultant Enomoto Kei locked room mystery novels (also known as the Kagi ga Kakatta Heya series).

Original Japanese title(s): 貴志祐介 『悪の教典』