Countdown to Heaven

光が集まる　優しい梢の下で 

幼い心に　不思議な力 宿りて

豊かに濯いだ　蛍の河の流れに

抱かれて眠れば　遥かな面影　何処 

「シェンファ ~江清日抱花歌~」（伊織）

There were the light gathers, beneath the gentle treetops

A mysterious power dwells within an infant spirit

Embraced by the rich stream of the river of fireflies

You sleep there , a faraway memory of a face, somewhere

"Shenhua ~The Song of the Flower Embraced by the Sun in the Pure Bay" (Iori)

Pretty sure I lament about this at least once every year, but I wish there were more people writing/blogging about mystery fiction in more mediums than just books and the occassional TV drama/film. Videogames have so many interesting experiences to offer for fans of mystery fiction, but for some reason there's some sort of gigantic uncrossable gap for many writers.

Naruhodou Ryuuichi has seen a lot of incredible things in his long career as a defense attorney, but spirit channeling was definitely one of the highlights. His former assistant Mayoi (the little sister of his deceased boss) is the last of the main family line of the Ayasato, a clan of mediums who can actually channel the spirit of the dead. Now he finds himself in the Kingdom of Kurain, where the technique for spirit channeling originates. Naruhodo is here to pick up Mayoi, who has been training in the mystic arts in the Kingdom of Kurain in order to become the true master of the Ayasato clan, but circumstances lead to a forced appearance of Naruhodo at the defense's bench at a murder trial. There he first learns that in this kingdom, defense attorneys are hated and thought to be obsolete. There is even a law that rules that defense attorneys are considered guilty of the same crime if their client is found guilty, which has pretty much eradicated all attorneys in the country. The second surprising discovery Naruhodo makes, is the existence of Spirit Channeling Visions. The Kingdom of Kurain is the kingdom of spirit channeling and this technique is also used in the courtroom: the priestress Leifa, Princess of Kurain, can actually show precisely what a deceased person saw and felt in their last moments before death through a spiritual projection on a Water Mirror. And you can bet it's pretty hard to defend someone who was seen by the victim themselves just before they were brutally murdered! Meanwhile back in Japan, Naruhodo's subordinate Odoroki is also busy in the courtroom during Naruhodo's absence, but both attorneys could not have guessed their paths would eventually cross in the 2016 3DS videogame Gyakuten Saiban 6 ("Turnabout Trial 6"), to be released in English in a couple of months with the localized title of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice.

As you can safely guess from the title, Gyakuten Saiban 6 is the sixth entry in the main series of the Gyakuten / Ace Attorney series, which is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. Longtime readers of the blog will know the drill by now: I am a huge fan of the colorful, humurous, but very well-made mystery series. In the past I've discussed not only 2013's Gyakuten Saiban 5 and spin-off titles like Gyakuten Kenji 2, Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban (crossover title in a fantasy setting) and Dai Gyakuten Saiban (set in Victorian London and co-starring Sherlock Holmes), but also entries in other media, like the film, the musical and the manga. To say Gyakuten Saiban 6 was an anticipated title, is an understatement.

I think I say it every time I do a game review, but I think the core mechanics of this series are still the most memorable way of properly doing a mystery game. I discuss mystery fiction in a lot of forms on this blog, and every medium has its owns pros and cons, but to me, the Gyakuten Saiban series has been one of the few games that actually managed to present mystery fiction in an interactive form that allows the player to think and deduce on their own. While the series has changed in the last fifteen years, the core has always been the same, as thought of by series creator Takumi Shuu (see also this essay). Gyakuten Saiban has always been about finding out contradictions, usually contradictions between testimonies made by witnesses and suspects in the court, and the evidence in your hands. Takumi was obviously inspired by Columbo when he came up with this innovative game-idea, because like Peter Falk, you'll be pointing out lies, which prompts witnesses/suspects to make up new lies, which you relentlessly follow until you figure out the complete truth. As a game-mechanic, this feels as satisfying in 2016 with Gyakuten Saiban 6 as with the first Gyakuten Saiban released in 2001. Whereas a lot of mystery fiction end with one big denouement in the end, the games are designed to give you a new mystery to solve one after another, and this process leads you to the final truth. It's interactive, it's exciting and it results in dynamic storytelling a lot of mystery fiction in 'traditional' paper form simply don't have, because they are not designed as interactive, but passive experiences. What a lot of people often seem to misunderstand is that Gyakuten Saiban was never designed as a whodunit. Like I outlined above, the series has always been much closer Columbo in spirit and game design and it is the road to finally proving the murderer's guilt that is the focus of the games (rather than figuring out who it was).

Spirit channeling, as a concept, might seem like an element not fit for mystery fiction, but as I have often posed on this blog: mystery fiction does not need to be realistic. It only needs to have alluring mysteries that can be solved with logic in a fair way. And yes, logic exists in fantasy settings. In fact, there are a lot of great mystery novels out there that build on fantasy-settings (for example: Snow White, Cat Food, Death of the Living Dead). As long as the rules within that fantasy world are clear to the player, a world with spirit channeling is as fair as a mystery story as anything written by Ellery Queen. The new Spirit Channeling Vision system in Gyakuten Saiban 6 is clearly a variant on the familiar contradiction system, but it's really, really fun. You'll pointing out contradictions between the known facts, and the last moments of the victim as seen and experienced through the victim's own eyes. These visions are not only based on the victim's sense of sight, but all of the five senses. You might for example perhaps be pointing out that the victim heard something they shouldn't have been able to hear. This new system really feels original, with its fantastical setting and focus on the human senses, and is something that 'regular' mystery fiction often lack in terms of set-up: a desire to do something truly original and exciting.

 
As a piece of mystery fiction, I think Gyakuten Saiban 6 has been a great entry in the series. Like always, the game is divided in several 'episodes', each featuring its own murder case and its own colorful cast of (usually) sorta wacky characters. The original series creator Takumi Shuu is not working on the main series anymore, and the current team has definitely its own take on mystery stories. Takumi's stories tend to start simple, with the discovery of each new contradiction leading into more complex situations. The current team usually starts with very big, baffling situations, which are broken down by clearing up each contradiction. The cases are varied, and show a lot of originality (helped by the supernatural setting of the Kurain Kingdom). But even a 'conventional' case like a disappearing act at a magic show turning into the appearing act of a dead body is great fun. The last case of the game in particular is a great example of how to do a fair mystery story with a supernatural setting. Personally, I loved that a couple of cases required spatial awareness of the player: it's something you seldom see in mystery fiction, but the videogame, as an interactive visual medium, is definitely one of best places to do such stories, and I had been lamenting the fact they did so little with spatial awareness in the previous game (with Gyakuten Saiban 4 the first to really utilize that). Also, like in the previous game, there's some clever foreshadowing done throughout the game, like mirroring and juxtaposing situations from previous (unrelated) cases to later cases in surprising ways that work as hints to the attentive player. The writing can feel a bit tiring though, as cases move much slower than they should be doing: too many characters have too much to say, with little real content or importance. The game definitely felt much longer than it actually was, in a bad sense of the saying (though it's definitely not a short game).

Gyakuten Saiban 6 is however a difficult game to recommend to people who have played none of the other games. It is heavily connected to plotlines from earlier games and that's definitely what also hurts the game in a way. Practically all cases involve the main cast in some way or another, while in previous games, the cast was just hired to act as the defense in criminal cases. While the game definitely has good mystery plots, it's all too connected to characters the developers just expect you to have an emotional bond with. Oh, and for those who indeed have all those emtional investments in the characters and overall storyline: I think this will be a dividing game. Also, I like the main story and the new Spirit Channeling Vision system quite a lot overall, but I do think the atmosphere of this game feels a bit different from the previous entries in the main series. In spirit and scale, I feel Gyakuten Saiban 6 is at times a lot closer to spin-off titles like Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban. It's a great mystery game, but I do feel the overall concept, and the things the developers wanted to archieve with this game, could perhaps have worked even better outside the main series.

And just a short bit on Gyakuten Saiban 6 as a game: it looks great, with attractive visual designs and graphics, but I thought the music a bit lacking. Perhaps it's because composer Iwadare has done five games in this series now, but while there were a few good atmospheric themes, most of the music I really can't even remember. Perhaps it's time for a composer change. Actually, until Gyakuten Saiban 5, all games in the main series had different composers, which really gave each game its own feel, but Iwadare (who did Gyakuten Saiban 3, 5 and the two Gyakuten Kenji spin-offs) has sorta become the series' main composer of late, which I personally find a bit tiring. I'm definitely open for another change in tone now.

I accused Gyakuten Saiban 5 of being 'too safe a sequel' back in 2013. That's definitely not something I can say of Gyakuten Saiban 6. It feels fresh as a mystery game, with original and daring plots. But it is also a game that is deeply connected to previous games, that can only be enjoyed best with the emotional investment in the characters. And it's without a doubt a dividing game for precisely those with that emotional investment. So yeah, even I am not sure what to think about it. I am really curious as to how this series will evolve now. As for now, I say: if you like mystery games, definitely get this, but do play the previous games for maximum enjoyment.

Original Japanese title(s): 『逆転裁判６』

The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

隠しておきたい秘密が君にあったとしても

僕にも疑われてしまう事があるように

愛し過ぎるからより深く知ろうとしてしまう

月の裏側に二人のココロを置いていこう 

「Mysterious」（Naifu）

Even if you have a secret you want to keep hidden

As if you're being suspected by me

I'm trying to learn more about you because I love you too much

Let's go and leave the hearts of us two on the other side of the moon

"Mysterious" (Naifu)

Another Dutch book this month? It's becoming scary now!

Henri Revers made his name not only as legal counsel, but also as a gifted amateur detective who occasionally solves cases for clients in matters they'd rather keep silent about (like thefts), but also bigger cases involving the police. But Revers' biggest case will always be the tragedy people called "the mystery of Rijswijk". Baron Albert Meyer-Rosing was found in his garden with a Japanese dagger sticking out from his chest on New Year's Eve and the prime suspect was his cousin Max Meyer-Rosing, who had given Albert the Japanese dagger (together with a wakizashi sword) and claimed to have been sleeping in the library overlooking the garden during the murder. The strange thing is that all those who inherited the title of Baron Meyer-Rosing died on the exact same spot in the garden for the last five generations. Max is acquitted because of insufficient evidence, but as the clouds of suspicion prevent him from marrying the love of his life, Max hopes Revers will find out who did kill his cousin and why. Revers' investigation however reveals a lot of secrets and schemes in A. Bertrand's De geheimzinnige Japanees ("The Mysterious Japanman", release year unknown).

Johan Versteeg was a Dutch writer born in 1873 who used a lot of pen names. Apparently, he only wrote three mystery novels in his otherwise prolific writing career, and his first mystery novel was De geheimzinnige Japanees under the name A. Bertrand (his other mystery books are written under the name J.T. van Leiden). The inside of De geheimzinnige Japanees mentions next-to-no details on the publication itself, so the exact publication year can't be traced, but most sources on the internet seem to set it between 1904-1910, making it a fairly early mystery novel. I was actually quite surprised I got my hands on the book for a relatively low price and it still looks great as a hardcover with neat illustrations.

To be honest, there is very little to be found on this book on the internet and I only became interested in the book because of the title and the cover art. The title features the archaic word "Japanees", which looks like the English "Japanese", but the word isn't used in modern Dutch anymore and looks pretty strange (which is why I rendered it as "Japanman", like "Chinaman"). The cover in turn features the titular "mysterious Japanman", who actually looks more like a "Chinaman" than a "Japanman", leading me to suspect this was some kind of Yellow Peril-esque novel. Obviously, as a Dutch person writing about Japanese mystery novels, I was quite curious as to the contents of the book and was quite pleased when I finally found a copy of it.

De geheimzinnige Japanees was also better than I had expected, though like I said, I was perhaps expecting little of it. The first two chapters do a good job at setting Henri Revers up as the protagonist, who is obviously inspired by Sherlock Holmes. With a keen eye for details, the legal man manages to solve two cases of theft and espionage in as many chapters and the espionage case is actually quite neatly done and practically an impossible crime! The story then moves on to the main course of the book and does a great job at introducing us to all the actors involved with "the mystery of Rijswijk" and the Meyer-Rosing family. Revers is given some hints as to where to start with his investigation in the death of Baron Meyer-Rosing, but more and more people with a motive to get rid of the baron pop up as the plot moves on. The murder mystery is spiced up with hints to an old family curse and the use of the Japanese dagger as the murder weapon and by now, the reader has all the things he could've wanted from a mystery novel.

And of course, there's the titular mysterious Japanese and it's here where you suddenly remember that you aren't reading a mystery novel from the 1920s~1940s, but one from the late 1900s. De geheimzinnige Japanees remains an entertaining mystery novel, but yes, given the title and the period, the mysterious Japanese is indeed rather a crucial part of the errr, the mystery, in an almost too predictable fashion. The story does its best at trying to divert suspicion to different characters at several points in the story, but it's always clear that in the background, there's the mysterious Japanese and here you can feel that it's just plot bias that leads Revers to the man, rather than the Holmes-esque thinking work he shows at other points in the story.

Funny is how the book has some segments that show that the writer had knowledge on Japanese culture to some extent, but also parts that show he was fairly bad at making detailed notes or something, because some Japanese words would be spelled right in one chapter only to become something horribly different in another chapter. Some chapters also showed rudimentary knowledge of the Japanese language, while others were just made-up. The author probably looked some things up in a book, but didn't with others, but it is kinda funny to see how sometimes the book features information nobody uninformed should ever know, while at other times it's obvious there's also been a lack of research.

That said though, I had a good time with De geheimzinnige Japanees. I'm tempted to say its set-up is classic (as in 'classic puzzle detective fiction starting around 1920'), but this book actually predates that period. There are actually quite some false trails, plot twists and moving around of the accusatory finger over the course of the book to keep the reader entertained and it reads quite well for a 1900s Dutch novel (I've read 1930s novels with more annoying spelling conventions than in this novel). A real puzzler, it is not, but definitely much, much better than I had expected based on just the title and the cover.

The book features eight illustrations which also look incredible. Though like the cover, the "Japanman" is mostly dressed like a "Chinaman" in the illustrations with long robes and a hat...

Anyway, I'm quite happy I got my hands on this rather obscure Dutch detective novel with a Japanese touch to it. It was quite fun to read and much better than I expected at first. Also, I think this is actually the oldest book I own at the moment and it still looks quite good, so from a bibliophilic point of view, I'm a content reader.

Original Dutch title(s): A. Bertrand "De geheimzinnige Japanees"

The Cat Who Sang for the Birds

さよならさえ伝えられなくて

それでも僕は今日此処を出てゆくよ

また素敵な誰かに会えるかな

気まぐれで自由な暮らし僕は野良猫

「Nora」（Garnet Crow)

I can't even tell you farewell,

But even so, I'll leave here today

Will I ever meet a wonderful person again?

Whimsical and free, I'm a stray cat

"Nora" (Garnet Crow)

I've been postponing writing this review for weeks. Which isn't that bad a thing, save for the fact that by finally writing this review, I'm postponing a different review for even longer. At this point, I'm not even sure whether I'm going a review on that book anymore, because it's slowly sinking deeper and deeper away in my memories...

Professor Niccolo Benedetti is usually called in with particularly nasty situations that ask for his expertise on human evil, for example with the horrible serial killings chronicled in The HOG Murders. So Ron Gentry, Benedetti's disciple, was a bit surprised to hear the Maestro accepted the request to help mediate between the two Pembroke twins. The feud between Claude (birdwatcher) and Henry (manx cat breeder) has been going on for decades, but their quabble becomes government business when Claude puts out his veto on manufacturing an air-cleaning device the brothers invented: Claude thinks his brother is responsible for an aviaric disappearance from their grounds. Benedetti thinks evil is behind the flight of the birds and his suspicions soon prove to be right when the mediation session becomes a kidnapping case with a deadly result in William L. DeAndrea's The Manx Murders (1994).

Running a blog on fiction does not mean I can actually read and think: that's why I jumped from The HOG Murders to the third novel in the series, The Manx Murders, even though I already have the second book and I'm pretty sure the correct reading order is mentioned somewhere in the books themselves...

Anyway, The Manx Murders is the third time the public is told about the adventures of Professor Niccolo Benedetti, his disciple Ron Gentry and Gentry's wife in their fight against evil. Evil's Benedetti's lifework mind you, and not detecting, he is sure to tell you, which is why he accepted the job even if it's not as big a case as The HOG Murders. In fact, The Manx Murders feels a bit underwhelming most of the time. Disappearing birds? Dead cats? Even when the stakes get higher when one of the twins is kidnapped and bodies (of the not-so-living anymore kind) start to pop up, it's still nothing compared to the terror we experienced with the unknown serial killer in The HOG Murders. Benedetti still does his paintings thing (he starts off painting realistic paintings when he investigates a case, which turn more surrealistic as the investigation continues, turning into subconcious hints), Ron and his wife still have their banter and stuff, but it's like they're stuck in the wrong story, because The Manx Murders is just not a story that would need these characters.

The Manx Murders has a very limited setting, both in terms of cast and location and while that is not a bad thing per se, I wouldn't say these elements were done exceptionally well in The Manx Murders. The length of the book does not allow much room for exciting plot developments or interesting confrontations between characters. Personally, I think the mystery plot would've worked better as a shorter story (with a few trimmings), as the current length of The Manx Murders just isn't optimal: either a longer, or shorter length would've resulted in a better-flowing story, in my opinion.

I lean towards the shorter version because the puzzle plot is a bit simple this time. The murderer is incredibly obvious (especially after the second thing) and while the clue leading to the identity of the murderer is fair and good enough, it's not nearly enough to sustain a whole novel-length story. It'd worked much better in a different type of story I think (I especially think this idea would've fitted perfectly in a Columbo episode, for example).

The Manx Murders is not a bad mystery story. But I do think it'd be a lot better in a different form and maybe even if moved outside the Professor Benedetti series. Ah well, I still have to read The Werewolf Murders, which apparently is a lot closer to The HOG Murders in terms of set-up, so that should be fun.

Hungry House Blues

風とRainbow

追いかけて　溢れ返る人の中で

閉ざされたその心の向こう

夢中でさがしてたね 

「風とRAINBOW」（Garnet Crow）

The wind and rainbow

Keep on following them among that mass of people

And beyond those closed hearts

You kept on searching, right?

"Wind and Rainbow" (Garnet Crow)

It's been a strange month where I found not one, but two old Dutch book gift certificates at home. Which really come in handy considering the relatively high Dutch book prices.

Having secured his house with window and door shutters, spotlights and cameras with motion sensors and telling next to nobody where he lived, Fred Duijster, big shot in the Dutch criminal underworld, probably was not expecting someone to just walk inside his house and slice him up. On the security footage, the police recognize Rafaël "Raaf" du Mez, a (self-proclaimed) reformed criminal with a history with the victim. While the police is working on sealing the deal by finding the last pieces of evidence to get Raaf in convicted, laywer Sjoerd Guikema is hired by Raaf's sister Elvira to save her brother. While Sjoerd tries his best at weakening the police's cases, and manages to find some weak spots, he realizes his only chance to get his client out of jail is to prove someone else could have pulled off the seemingly impossible feat of entering the victim's home without being captured on camera. And so police and defense try to outsmart each other in M.P.O. Books' Een afgesloten huis ("A Sealed House", 2013).

Een afgesloten huis is the eight book in Dutch mystery writer M.P.O. Books' District Heuvelrug series, set around several police divisions in the central Netherlands area. For the non-Dutchies, sorry, but the books are not available in English (yet?). Previously, I already reviewed De laatste kans and Cruise control. And as you might have noticed, I read the books in a rather random order, but both of them were quite entertaining. And given that Een afgesloten huis had a locked room murder premise (of sorts), I was quite curious as to how this would work out.

Like Carr's The Judas Window, Een afgesloten huis revolves about a murder in a sealed space that seemingly could only have been commited by one man, making it a locked room mystery, if you accept that the suspect is not the murderer. The plot of Een afgesloten huis keeps the investigation into the truth behind the murder interesting by moving the spotlight back and forth between the police (who are convinced Raaf is the murderer) and Sjoerd & Elvira (who try to find evidence of Raaf's innocence). The result is a story where both parts compete against each other and as both sides have their shares of (little) victories and losses, the reader is invited to keep on reading until the very end.

M.P.O. Books obviously likes this narrative technique of jumping between various parties, as he used it in all the stories I've read by him, and I have to admit that by now, it's feeling a bit forced, or too predictable at the least. Granted, as Een afgesloten huis follows a dual structure, jumping between narratives is necessary, but the biggest problem I have with this is that Books jumps way too often. Sometimes you read one page about character X, then it jumps to character Y for another page, only to jump back to character X again. The strange thing is; often there is little need for having to interrupt character X's narrative for one page of character Y. Sometimes, the next section starring character X starts at practically the same time & space as where the previous section with X ended, so why cut it up in two sections with an interruption? Because of that, the pacing of this book feels a bit strange, as you are forced to take speed bumps every other page. And while it's a problem some serialized novels have too (I look at you Rampo, sir), Een afgesloten huis is a paperback original, so it hasn't the excuse of different publication origins.

The parts with Sjoerd & Elvira are the most entertaining, as we follow the duo in their attempts to get Raaf out of detainment and solve the locked room murder mystery. The series is a police procedural, but personally, I prefer amateur detectives, so that explains that. The idea behind the locked room murder is okay, I think. It's a very simple solution that I doubt would have really worked in a story starring a Great Detective solving crimes like doing the newspaper puzzles, but it works well in the context of the series and the specific situation created here.

The trail leading to the identity of the murderer I thought less refined though. Like Cruise control, this novel features psychological clues among others, but they are so open for interpretation you might as well wave them away. Then again, by the end, after the main puzzle solving, Een afgesloten huis suddenly took a rather hardboiled way out, so maybe it was to be expected. Also, Cruise control will spoil a very significant part of Een afgesloten huis and you probably should read them in order, unlike me.

The mix of detecting couples, police procedural and locked room mystery works quite well in Een afgesloten huis and I think the book should appeal to Dutch readers wanting to read a classically inclined detective novel. I do have to admit that stylistically, I hope that other books will feature less narrative jumpiness, as at times it feels like it's only there to drag things out. But overall, a good read.

Original Dutch title(s): M.P.O. Books "Een afgesloten huis"

Over Drive

抱きしめた心の小宇宙(コスモ) 

熱く燃やせ　奇跡を起こせ

傷ついたままじゃないと

誓いあった　遥かな銀河 

「ペガサス幻想（ファンタジー）」（Make-Up)

Embracing the Cosmos of your heart

Burn it high and make a miracle happen

We won't just stay wounded

This we swear to each other in this faraway galaxy

"Pegasus Fantasy" (Make-Up)

 
I do have to say though, the cover art for the pockets of the G series look very nice. I have no idea what is going on, but I really love the style.

G series
1) φ wa Kowareta ne - Path Connected φ Broke
2) θ wa Asonde Kureta yo - Another Playmate θ
3) τ ni Naru Made Matte - Please Stay Until τ
4) ε Ni Chikatte - Swearing on Solemn ε

To the outside world, the fact that Yamabuki Satsuki and Kabeya Megumi travel back together from Tokyo to Nagoya in the same night-bus might seem a bit suspicious. Especially as Megumi already told her friends she went to Disneyland. But both of them being in Tokyo was really just a coincidence, and there's nothing strange about two friends taking the same bus back home, right? But the two of them regret having stepped on the bus when a man hijacks the bus, threatening the passengers (in an awfully polite manner actually) with a pistol and bombs. The police is also aware of the hijack and an investigation into the passenger list of the bus leads to the discovery that most of the passengers were all members of a religious sect called Swearing on Solemn ε, which is also the English subtitle to Mori Hiroshi's ε Ni Chikatte (2006).

ε Ni Chikatte is the fourth volume in Mori Hiroshi's G series, which is starting to become my go-to series whenever I want something short and easy to read (the G series itself being a spin-off of the S&M series) Sometimes it's just good to have a back-up series like this. That said though, the G series is far from a perfect series, though luckily, this fourth volume manages to bring something fresh.

The biggest problem as of now with the series is that is conceived as a series. While each novel features a mystery to be solved, the motives for each of the murders is left in obscurity. Over the course of the first three novels, you slowly find out that some sort of religious sect is active on the internet, that the sect is using Greek letters (hence the name G series) and that somehow, this sect is connected to all the cases that happen in this series. But that means that each novel you're left with a lot of questions (as they work as hooks for the next volume), and while I can appreciate minimalistic detective stories, the G series isn't one; it is a 'normal' mystery storyline stretched out over a series of novels, resulting in a very slow pace of uncovering the main mystery. It also means that each individual volume feels incomplete, as if you're missing a crucial part of the story (because you do!).

ε Ni Chikatte does little to really further the main storyline, but at least it acknowledges the fact that something is going on and this volume also brings a completely type of mystery to the series. Up until now, the series was rather 'old-fashioned', featuring locked room murders and serial murders, but this time, we have a hijacking case. Even more, there is no obvious 'mystery' to solve in this story: while the reader is obviously aware that this is a detective novel and that something needs to be detected, the puzzle is not made immediately clear to the reader and part of the fun is finding out what is going on. The idea of a terrorist hostage situation reminds of the many, many hostage situations in Detective Conan and I must say that I thought the situation of ε Ni Chikatte was much more exciting than the closed circle serial murder case of the previous book.

When ε Ni Chikatte finally does show its cards, you're left with a mystery novel that actually manages to give the reader a surprise, despite the somewhat straightforward start. It is certainly a book that deserves a reread, as you'll see that it is actually an ingeniously plotted story. It does have some issues: by the time the whole business around the hijack case is unveiled, you will very probably think: why go through all that trouble? It sorta works in the context of the series, as previous novels have already set a precedent for doing things the hard way, but still, the question will cross your mind. And of course, questions surrounding the motive are left unanswered once again, leaving you with another unfinished story. The main, core set-up of the novel is good though and perhaps the most amusing in the series up until now.

I was a bit tired of the series after the last volume, but I have to admit that ε Ni Chikatte has made me a bit more enthusiastic. Sure, like all the volumes up until now it still refuses to answer some questions raised by the plot, but there are hints of finally moving forward with the main storyline. And the hijack case itself is surprisingly fun, even if it takes a while before the reader realizes what is going on. And that is what makes it so entertaining.

Original Japanese title(s): 森博嗣　『ε（イプシロン）に誓って SWEARING ON SOLEMN ε』

The Judges of Hades

"You're alone."

"I don't care whether I'm alone or not! It's my right."

"12 Angry Men" 

I know of mystery games that place you in the role of a defense attorney, a prosecutor and lay judges, but I can't remember whether there's one where you play a professional judge presiding the court. Or one where you're the stenographer.

The lay judge system was implemented in Japan on May 21, 2009. In trials on certain severe crimes, six lay judges join three professional judges to decide about the fate of the defendant, and in the case of a guilty verdict, the judges need also decide the weight of the sentence. Ashibe Taku's Saibanin Houtei ("Lay Judge Trials", 2008) is a short story collection starring the attorney Morie Shunsaku, Ashibe's long-time series detective. Or wait, that is not true. The true protagonist is perhaps you. In the three stories collected in this volume, you (the reader) take on the role of a lay judge present at a trial ("you" are a different person every story, naturally) and watch over the court proceedings. While Japan is known for its incredibly high conviction rate (because prosecutors don't prosecute unless they're sure they'll get a guilty verdict), the young, but experienced Morie Shunsaku shows he too is desperate to save his clients and that he is even capable in performing some amazing courtroom magic.

A while back I read Sekishibyou no Yakata no Shi, another short story collection by Ashibe Taku starring Morie Shunsaku, but that was a rather 'conventional' impossible crime story collection. This time however we see him actually doing his work (a defense attorney) and Saibainin Houtei is definitely structured like a proper courtroom drama. The stories are all titled after, and set in the different phases of a trial (Shinri ("Examination"), Hyougi ("Discussion") and Jihaku ("Confession")). In fact, there is a certain educational factor to this novel though, as the book was originally released just before the implementation of the lay judge system and it does appear to be written with that in mind: over the course of the book, it will explain why the system was implemented, the role of the lay judges will have to fulfill and how the proceedings go in a trial overseen by lay judges. This is strengthened by casting the reader ("you") in the role of one of the lay judges in each of the story.

In that respect, Saibanin Houtei reminds me of the DS videogame Yuuzai X Muzai, which was also about the lay judge system and cast the player in the role of a lay judge in each of the four stories included. The big difference however is that in Yuuzai X Muzai, the player would unravel the truth behind each case himself (together with the other judges), while in Saibanin Houtei, Morie Shunsaku does most of the work. Oher fiction related to the lay judge system by the way, are the DS videogame Ace Attorney 4, as well as the Ace Attorney spin-off novel/guidebook Gyakuten Houtei.

Normally, I try to discuss each story in a story collection, but I gave up on that for this review. Each of these three stories work that much better if you indeed take on the role of a proper lay judge and step inside the courtroom with no preconceptions about the case. As mentioned above, each of the stories is set at a different stage of a trial, but in practice you'll be given a 'traditional' courtroom mystery every time. A courtroom mystery often follows the same basic pattern for obvious reasons: the prosecution always starts with accusing the defendant and then lays out the evidence. And just as a guilty verdict seems inescapable, defense starts its counterattack by slowly picking out faults in the prosecution's story (and in mystery stories, they usually find the real person behind it all too). In general, the three stories in Saibanin Houtei follow the same pattern, but the mystery plots are entertaining, so no problem there if you like courtroom mysteries. A little gripe I have is that the 'trick' behind each case (that turns the case around) is rather similar for all three cases. The best story is probably the last one. The plots of the first and second story suffer a bit from dependence on random knowledge nobody would usually be aware of.

Oh, and a random note, but I think this was one of the very few mystery novels I've read that actually use the second person, "you" in the narration. First person, third person and "all-seeing" narration are of course extremely common, but the only other example of a second person narration I can think of now from the top of my head is Norizuki Rintarou's 2 no Higeki.

Ashibe Taku's Saibainin Houtei is a fairly amusing courtroom mystery short story collection that manages to be both educational as well as entertaining as a mystery novel. The basic idea behind all three stories do resemble each other a bit though, but I think that anyone with at least some interest in courtroom mysteries and perhaps the Japanese lay judge system, can safely pick up this book.

Original Japanese title(s): 芦辺拓　『裁判員法廷』: 「審理」 / 「評議」 / 「自白」

番外編： The Moai Island Puzzle Released

I only just realized I too have fallen in the trap of making announcements of announcements. So err, yeah, the content of today's announcement doesn't really differ from that of the announcement of this announcement.
 

Last month, I announced that Locked Room International would be publishing the first English translation of a novel by Alice ARISUGAWA soon. And now that time has come, for The Moai Island Puzzle is now available (both paper and digital, I think). The Moai Island Puzzle was translated by me, and it is a brilliant puzzle plot mystery that has basically everything: a treasure hunt on an island , a locked room murder, a Challenge to the Reader and one of the most impressive deduction scenes in mystery fiction. Arisugawa is obviously a big fan of Ellery Queen, but I'd say that this is the novel where Arisugawa outdoes Ellery Queen at his own game. If you're in search for a detective novel that celebrates logical reasoning and fair play, The Moai Island Puzzle is what you're looking for. The English version features an introduction by Souji SHIMADA (of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders), penned especially for this release. The book was originally published in 1989 with the title Kotou Puzzle, soon after Yukito AYATSUJI's The Decagon House Murders, and it is widely considered one of the Big Ones of Japanese detective fiction.

The Moai Island Puzzle is part of the Student Alice series. For those interested in the other books: I have a retrospective on the series. Oh, some might think that The Decagon House Murders and The Moai Island Puzzle might be alike, because both are set on islands and are Japanese etc., but I assure you, they are not alike at all. If The Decagon House Murders was Christie, then The Moai Island Puzzle is Queen.

Publishers Weekly gave The Moai Island Puzzle a starred review, and I hope more reviews will follow. My own old review of the original Japanese version can be found at this link (obviously written years before I even knew I would translate the book), and my we-write-English-reviews-of-Japanese-mystery-novels collegues over at My Japanese Bookshelf and In The Threshold of Chaos also have reviews available for your perusal.

Edit: JJ's review of The Moai Island Puzzle can be found over at his blog The Invisible Event. 

Anyway, not only as the translator, but also (especially) as someone who considers the book one of the most impressive mystery novels ever, I really hope the readers will enjoy The Moai Island Puzzle. This is Arisugawa's first release in the English language, but hopefully, it won't be the last.