The Headless Lady

「探偵って、そういうものなんじゃないのかな？少なくとも僕はそう思っているよ。探偵とは、大多数の人間を納得させて、事件を終わらせる存在だよ」

『異世界の名探偵 1 首なし姫殺人事件』

"Isn't that exactly what a detective is though? A detective is someone who can convince the majority of the people and bring an end to a case"

 "The Great Detective of the Other World 1: The Case of the Headless Princess"

If you have been following anime these last few years, there's no way you could've avoided the word isekai. Literally, isekai means "a different world" but it is commonly used to refer to a certain subgenre in Japanese popular fiction. In an isekai series, the protagonist is usually a person from Earth who ends up in a different world (usually a fantasy world) by means of transportation, reincarnation or some other manner. The genre often involves some kind of power fantasy, with the very ordinary human using their memories/knowledge from Earth to their advantage in their new situation/the other world to become the legendary hero/evil overlord/whatever the story is about.The genre has parallels with classic literature like Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia of course, but it's been especially popular in Japan the last couple of years, with an unbelievable amount of light novels, manga and anime released based on this concept, but all with slightly different takes and also far too literal titles that explain the whole premise like In Another World With My Smartphone or That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime.

And of course, it isn't strange that there's also an isekai mystery novel. Katazato Kamome's Isekai no Meitantei 1 - Kubinashi Hime Satsujin Jiken ("The Great Detective of the Other World 1: The Case of the Headless Princess", 2019) was originally published with the title Fantasy ni Okeru Meitantei no Hitsuyousei  ("The Necessity of a Great Detective in Fantasy") on the website Shousetsuka ni Narou, where users can upload their own fiction and have other users read them. The story starts in a very, very familiar manner when it comes to isekai works. Our protagonist is an ex-cop who had always dreamt of being like the detective from the novels, but it was only in his dying moments, stabbed for some insignificant reason, that he realized that the great detective is not of this world anymore. To his great surprise though, his dying moments are followed by his own birth scene. While completely confused at first, our protagonist realizes he has been reincarnated as a baby now, but still in possession of his old memories. What's equally surprising is that he is not in Kansas anymore, or even Earth. He finds himself reincarnated in Pangea, best described as the world from fantasy novels, with magic, elves, dragons and more. Our baby protagonist is given the name Van and he grows up as the eldest son of a peasant farmer family. Van turns out to be a rather talented student, especially of magic: magic is a skill most people master in this world up to a certain degree, but usually at a rather limited scale. Van's memories of Earth science give him an edge in his studies however, and realizing how talented their son is, his parents decide to send him to the Royal Academy of the kingdom of Sherck. While normally only reserved for children of nobility, the commoner Van is chosen as this year's scholarship student because of his enormous skill in magic, and he soon becomes friends with two other 'outsiders': Leo Bahl is the brash, but clever young head of one of the most important families of nobility of Sherck, while Kirio Lafla is the only daughter of an impoverished family of nobility who was raised as a boy. Eventually, all three friends manage to graduate from the academy, and the joint thesis of Leo and Van on a complete restructuring of the justice system in Sherk, emphasizing the need for scientific investigation, attracted attention from the whole country.

Each year, the top graduating students are commemorated in a Commendation Ceremony, but this year's ceremony is exceptional, as it will be attended by the king and queen of Sherck, as well as their daugther Princess Victi, who is considered to be the living reincarnation of Saint Phata, protector of the whole world of Pangea. Victi hardly appears before others, as the royal family and the church fight a political war over her, so the fact that Victi herself will speak to each of the four students individually is singularly unique. The private ceremony is held at the former Royal Academy, a small building with no windows originally built as a fort (because the students are usually of nobility). Princess Victi is to receive each of the students one after another in the chapel as part of the ceremony: her two security guards (one of the Royals, of the church) guide the students from the main building to the chapel and once the princess has spoken with the student, the guards bring the student back to their room. Each time the Mythril doors of the chapel are locked by the two special keys held by the two guards, meaning Princess Victi is always safe inside the chapel even when they are transporting the student to and from the chapel. After the last student's done, the guards walk the princess back to her room in the main building, when suddenly part of a wall is blown up, and in the confusion, the princess disappears. One of the chapel keys is stolen too, and when they blow open the Mythril doors of the chapel, they stumble upon a horrid sight: the decapitated body of Princess Victi, reincarnation of Saint Phata herself, lying on the floor! But how could her murderer have opened the chapel with only one key, and where did they escape to considering the whole forest surrounding the former Royal Academy is swarming with soldiers? The Royal Detective Geralt the Silent is soon called to explain the situation, butLeo and Van protest to his farfetched 'solution' and say they can really solve this mystery based on proper forensic investigation and logical reasoning.

Okay, so a detective novel in a fantasy setting, one where magic is possible. Like I mentioned in a short piece last year, I love mystery stories that make use of supernatural settings. As long as the 'unusual' elements are properly introduced and explained, science fiction and fantasy elements work perfectly fine in mystery novels (in fact, the best examples authors do their best to actually be more fair than most other mystery novels). Magic is fairly well defined in Isekai no Meitantei 1 with clear limitations: line of sight is for example essential to cast magic in this world (you can't cast magic in some remote place on the other side of the world), casting takes time and while a skilled magician can easily create a block of ice the size of a fist, no magician can conjure up a whole snowman out of nowhere (to people who know Fullmetal Alchemist, magic here kinda works like alchemy in FMA, in the sense that a scientific understanding of all elements help the magician cast their magic). The Challenge to the Reader too helps define some more limitations, and with a fair amount of text that help define what magic can and more importantly can't do in this world, I'd say that Isekai no Meitantei 1 is still a fair mystery novel, that can be solved by logic and reasoning, and definitely no less fair than something by Carr for example.

It does take a long while to get to the mystery plot though. The first half of the novel is really just set-up of the world, with Van adaptating to this new environment and explaining everything about Pangea to the reader. It's fairly standard isekai fantasy stuff, which also makes this part quite boring, as so much is just exposition. On the other hand, it's also necessary, as both Van and the reader need to learn what is exactly possible in this world in order to present a fair mystery plot. You also have the usual power fantasy tropes, with Van turning out to be a brilliant student due to his Earth memories, and even co-authoring an epoch-making thesis. In the early parts of the novel you might think you'll be getting some kind of Harry Potter story, but then it jumps a few years in time, and suddenly we have Van being some kind of brilliant philosopher who wishes to change the whole criminal justice system. By the way, there are official detectives in this world, but because here the natural sciences have not developed and due to the presence of magic, investigation work in Pangea is more like 'guesswork' and there's no need for gathering evidence, proving a hypothesis or even having someone check the detective's solution: usually people just accept whatever the detective says happened (and sometimes, the 'solution' is just "perhaps there's this obscure magic spell that could..."). It's Van's history as a cop and as a fan of Earth's mystery novels, that drives him to conduct investigation in the same manner as his beloved detectives. In a sense, this reminds of the 3DS game Professor Layton vs. Gyakuten Saiban, where medieval fantasy witch trials are shaken up by the introduction of.... logic in the trials.

When you make it to the main mystery plot, you get a well-executed, but perhaps also surprisingly unsurprising detective story involving magic. As mentioned, the effectiveness of magic in this world is fairly limited. For example, at a limited distance, throwing a knife is both more effective and faster than trying to cast an explosion spell at the target. In this mystery plot, magic is therefore used for smaller scale events, but it's definitely a plot that only works because of the existence of magic. What makes this novel 'unsuprising' is exactly the fact magic is mainly used for rather smaller parts of the crime, rather than something large-scale. Of course, that's also what makes Isekai no Meitantei 1 a fairly-clewed mystery in the first place, because magic is kept at a scale that is still comprehensible to the reader, and Katazato is sure to mention all the practical uses of magic as utilized in the actual crime, have already been properly mentioned long before the solution. Magic is simply a tool like a string or a needle, not the solution to everything. Whereas Geralt the Silent first proposes a solution that is quite ridiculous for a mystery novel ("and then the murderer used some unknown magic spell that..."), the solution Van arrives at is one the reader can deduce themselves based on the clues, based on a logical examination of everything presented to them. I do think it's kinda easy to guess who the murderer is, because so much of the plot depends on a certain fact, but overall, it's a competently clewed mystery that uses magic at the right places.

Considering the current release now has a "1" in its title, I assume sequels to Isekai no Meitantei 1 - Kubinashi Hime Satsujin Jiken will follow. And yes, I'd be interested in more adventures of Van in Pangea. I do think the question of whether this really needed to be an isekai story is a fair one. At this point, Van having memories of his Earth life is mostly manifested in the fact that he's a quick learner, and the fact he knows about scientific investigation and mystery novels in general, but to be honest, this could've been a pure fantasy novel too, with Van simply being a bright kid who noticed the shortcomings of the investigative methods in this world. At the moment, there's little that really necessitates Van being from our world, besides being a vehicle for the reader to help introduce the world and provide for a framework for a fair mystery story, but Van being an Earthling isn't really interfering either, and perhaps we'll see more of that part of his Earth past in future volumes. As a first step in the world of Pangea, I'd say this first novel does a perfectly fine job.

Original Japanese title(s): 片里鴎『異世界の名探偵 1 首なし姫殺人事件』

Teeny Tiny Murder

So when in tears 

The love of years

Is wasted like the snow

"The Forest Reverie" (Edgar Allan Poe)

Oh man, I really only reviewed only one volume of Detective Conan last year! Let's hope this year the comic will have more regular releases...  Really excited to see how the current four-part anime original story will turn out though!

Volume 97 of Detective Conan was released in the second half of December 2019 and opens with the final chapter of The Deadly TV Drama Shooting. The previous volume ended with Kyougoku Makoto (boyfriend of Sonoko and unbeaten karate champion) considered a suspect in the murder of Tokuzono Saiya, lead actor of the TV drama Detective 48. Earlier in the day, Kyougoku had mistaken one of the stunt actors for a real robber and knocked the poor sap out. Kyougoku was asked to fill in as the stunt actor, which he did surprisingly well, earning the praise of everyone, except for Tokuzono himself. Tokuzono dies after he falls off the fourth floor of the abondoned school building where they were shooting, but the only other person on that floor was Kyougoku, as he was preparing for his next scene (and everyone else was outside on the ground as the camera would be shooting from there). There seems to be no reason why Tokuzono would've jumped off the building himself, so suspicion falls on Kyougoku, but later, the assistant-director dies of poisoning. As it doesn't seem like anyone had poisoned his drink (no traces of poison in either the drink or on the straw), it's suspected the man may have taken the poison on his own will, which would make him the more likely suspect for the murder on Tokuzono. Of course, neither Conan nor Sera believe that's the case, but after the events in the Scarlet School Trip, Sera is quite convinced Conan is in fact Shinichi and tries to find evidence to support her suspicions.

Plotwise, this is a fairly minor story. The two deaths are basically discrete situations, with the tricks behind both murders having no direct connection to each other whatsoever. Both ideas are also very simple: the Tokuzono murder is perhaps clewed too obviously, as it shouldn't be hard to guess what the murderer did to trick Tokuzono into falling to his death. It's an idea you also often see in Conan anime original episodes and we've seen countless of variations of this, so it's nothing that'll make an impression. The second murder is more original in terms of whether we've see in it in the series before, but it's almost disappointingly simple. I did like the way the method eventually tied back to the evidence that'd prove the murderer's guilt. But on the whole, this is a very minor story, obviously one conceived to coincide with The Fist of Blue Sapphire, which also featured Kyougoku.

Minor stories is in a way the keyword for this volume, as Deathly Intent Hidden Within The Coded Message is also mostly built around minor ideas to bring a rather classical type of story, but things do happen in the background related to the main story arc. Kogorou has been sent a letter by a client who wants to meet with him at an abandoned church in the Nagano Prefecture to investigate the death of a friend who committed suicide there and the mysterious note left at the scene. Kogorou is asked to take along three other people and his client will drive them to the hotel after meeting at the church. Initially, Conan, Ran and Sonoko were supposed to come along, but Sonoko's ill and Ran decides to stay with her best friend, but two unlikely replacements are quickly found. The ever-enigmatic Amuro decided to join his "teacher", as well as the sushi chef Wakita, one of the persons Conan suspects might be RUM in disguise, the right hand to the boss of the Black Organization. At the church, the gang runs into a group of old school friends, who all have been called here under false premises. Their friend had committed suicide here, and it's then that Kogorou learns that his "client" used the name of that deceased person too. After realizing they have all been gathered in this church for a reason, the situation quickly turns into a closed circle one: the parking lot was rigged to break down, toppling all cars there off a cliff, and a snowslide also blocked the one tunnel on the road to the church. While the police has been notified of their plight, the group also tries to figure out why they have been gathered here and what the meaning is of the coded message they all received, but while they explore the church, they're targeted one after another...

Wait, a closed circle situation in some remote mountain church with Conan on the scene? I have the feeling we haven't seen one of these stories in ages in this series! Most of the stories lately have been far more urban, and the few times they do get out, it's not really a closed circle situation. In a way, a refreshing story. The core mystery plot is really simple though. The murderer uses a few tricks to guide their victims to the place they want them to be, but it's rather obvious who the murderer is and the tricks used are basically simple stage magic staples. The code is also not particularly interesting: it's a 'ok, it makes sense in hindsight' but don't ever expect me to solve that before the reveal. The story is more interesting as part of the big picture, as Wakita is acting as suspicious as ever, and at the end of the story, Aoyama is sure to pick up on the revelation of the last volume, which showed that unbeknownst to Amuro, he had a connection to an unlikely person.

My Darling is a Corpse is one of the rare short two-chapter stories in this series and features yet another one of the persons Conan suspects is more than she appears to be: his teacher Wakasa. The Detective Boys join their teachers Kobayashi and Wakasa as a test panel for a planned class outing to the nature found in the mountains of the Gunma prefecture. Their guide is Maika, a colleague teacher from Gunma. What they don't know however is that she's the victim of a marriage swindler, and that she has just killed the man because she found out. She plans to use the children and the teachers as her witnesses and indeed, the plan seems succesful at first. The body of the man is found lying against a tree next to where they parked their car in the forest. Maika wasn't away long enough to have committed the murder and dragged the body all the way to the car, nor could she have hidden the body in the forest in advance and moved the car to make it seem like the body wasn't there when they first parked first (the car would've made quite some noise in a silent forest). The solution is, again, a practical, but simple trick, but fairly competently clewed. Part of the story is to reveal a bit more about Wakasa's real intentions though, so once again, it's more a story that functions as a device to set-up future storylines.

The volume ends with the first chapter of The Antique Appraiser Murder Case, which starts with a surprising call-back to a very early Conan story, when the Detective Boys visited the house of Dr. Agasa's deceased uncle. He found an antique plate there, which he had appraised by the famous antique appraiser Nishitsu. Conan and Haibara join Dr. Agasa on his visit to the appraiser, as do Okita and Sera, who not only has suspicions about Conan's identity, but also about Haibara's true age and who has been trying to get something out of Haibara. Meanwhile Nishitsu has been approached by three different clients, who all brought him the same antique Chinese decorative Phoenix plate. Obviously, only one of them is real, making the other forgeries. Nishitsu is first fatally wounded by the owner of one of forgeries, just as Dr. Agasa arrives at the house. On the verge of death, Nishitsu tells Agasa which of the plates is real, but not knowing the murderer was still hiding in the room, Dr. Agasa ran off to call for help. Nishitsu is then finished off for good, and all the plates are returned to their containers, making it impossible for Dr. Agasa to tell which one of the plates is the genuine one. For the moment though, the character interaction that plays in the background seems to be like a minor set-up for the 2020 Detective Conan film The Scarlet Bullet, as it also focuses on several of the key characters of that movie.

Detective Conan 97 was not an outstanding volume on its own, but I did enjoy it better than the previous volume. The stories here were very simple in comparison to the usual standard, but it's also clear Aoyama is trying to push the overall storyline a bit forward by having these simple stories act as the backdrop during which other developments occur. Of course, this is something that works with Conan especially because it always uses the episodic story structure to also tell a larger mystery story. Lately, Aoyama hasn't been able to find the perfect balance between the episodic mysteries and the larger story, partially because of the irregular publishing schedule now meaning he's just not outputting as much as he used, but the trend of the last few volumes is definitely you can feel something big is coming. And I hope it's sooner than later!

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第97巻

No Time To Die

"Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart” 

"Momo"

And it's right back to business at the start of the new year!

Rena had been confronted with the reality of the "Ryuuzen Curse" all her life, as most of her family had died due to unnatural causes like traffic accidents. When what should've been a normal cold suddenly turned out to be a far more dangerous disease, she knew she wouldn't have much time left on this world. Her loving husband Kamo Touma, once a sleazy gossip writer who first fell in love with Rena while he was researching the Ryuuzen Curse, however could hardly accept something as a "family curse" as the reason why his wife's terminally ill at such a young age. While lamenting their fate in the hospital parking lot, Kamo is suddenly addressed by a mysterious voice who introduces themselves as Meister Hora. The voice assures Kamo that Rena's current condition is a direct cause of the Ryuuzen Curse and that the only way to save her is to travel 58 years back in time to the origin of the curse. In August 1960, practically all of the Ryuuzen Clan had gathered in the holiday villa in Shino. Head of the family in 1960 was Ryuuzen Taiga, great-great-great-grandfather of Rena. While there had also been family losses during and after World War II, four generations of Ryuuzen had gathered in the holiday villa that year to celebrate Taiga's birthday, with the youngest being Fumika, Rena's grandaunt, who was only thirteen at the time. Fumino, Rena's grandmother, had not been present in the villa at the time, which made her the only living Ryuuzen after the so-called Deadly Tragedy of Shino. A landslide had covered and destroyed the whole villa, leaving no survivors, but when the police investigated the building after the disaster, they learned some of the deaths had not been caused by a force of nature. The remains of Fumika's diary revealed that in the days leading up the landslide, several murders had occured inside the villa. The landslide had killed off the rest of the Ryuuzens, and the identity of the murderer remained unknown forever.

Meister Hora tells Kamo that in order to save Rena, he needs to stop the murderer in 1960. To Kamo's great surprise, he finds Meister Hora is capable of sending him through time and space, and he finds himself transported to the villa in August of 1960. Unfortunately, time-travel can be a wibbly-wobbly affair and Kamo finds that he arrives after the first two murders have already occured, but thanks to Fumika, who overhears Kamo and Meister Hora arguing and believes their time travel story, Kamo is quickly invited inside the house as 'a detective from the city' and asked to investigate the murders and capture the culprit. While Kamo's a pretty intelligent man and has the power of sixty years of hindsight, having once investigated this series of deaths himself in his journalist days, he finds that the case is far harder to solve than he had expected. Not only have the first two murders occured under impossible circumstances, as whole body parts were smuggled out of the villa even though the only exit had been watched all evening, he must also try to prevent further murders from happening, but things don't always go as he had learned from his history lessons. It's a race against the clock with the landslide about to happen in Houjou Kie's Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei ("The Hourglass of the Time-Space Traveller", 2019).

Houjou Kie is a former member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club (like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru, Norizuki Rintarou and more), who made her debut as a professional writer in October 2019 by winning the 29th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award with this novel. She had been working hard on her debut, as she had already reached the final round of the 28th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award in 2018 with a different novel. In fact, she was also an active writer during her time as a student member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club (more about that later), but now she's made her professional debut, and man, I hope to see more of her work soon!

For Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is brimming with everything I like about mystery novels. It's a very dense story, almost insanely so, but it holds together, somehow. Still, it's a mystery novel that involves closed circle situations, impossible murders, disappearances from locked houses, alibi tricks, a family curse and overly complicated family feuds, a creepy country house in the middle of nowhere, a Challenge to the Reader and on top of that there's also the science fiction element of time travel. Houjou is very ambitious to say the least, and it's almost a wonder the novel doesn't collapse on itself by its weight, for not only does it work, I'd say Houjou does a great job at keeping it all very understandable because she knows and understands how to plot a mystery story and more specifically, because she knows how clewing and foreshadowing has to be done for a fair-play mystery story.

To put it simply, Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is very much like a novel-length version of the traditional Guess-the-Culprit/Whodunit stories of the Kyoto University Mystery Club. These are short mystery stories with a Challenge to the Reader written by members for members. Readers have about an hour to read the story and figure out who the culprit is in the story, but their accusation should always be based on the clues presented in the story. There are a few unwritten rules for these stories, like 'there is only one culprit', 'nobody besides the culprit lies intentionally' and 'all the hints necessary to solve the crime are in the story' (therefore, nothing/no person outside the world described in the story exists) and most of these stories are solved through a Queen-esque elimination method: identify the characteristics the culprit must have (i.e. must have known about the key in the closet, or must be left-handed) and see who fits (or does not fit) the profile. One thing that is very important for these stories that they must be fairly clewed. Anyone can write an unsolvable mystery story: writing a mystery story that is fair and solvable, but still challenging is difficult. Especially with the Guess-the-Culprit format, which are held in a classroom setting, it's not a good sign if after 30 minutes nobody even tries to guess who the culprit is based on the hints in the story.

Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is like a novel-length version of these stories, and the result is that the novel is insanely densily clewed. Few stories will try to be as fair as this one, and even fewer will manage to be still as satisfying as this novel. Houjou has gone great lengths to properly hint every aspect of her plot and what's impressive is that she's always trying to do it as fairly as possible. The last set of murders for example, most writers would've left one single hint at what had happened, and in the conclusion mocked the reader for not guessing what the solution was based on that one thing. Houjou has a whole series of clues that together point towards the solution and she does that pretty cunningly too, as the hints are all found in different aspects of the story. But she does this for everything in the novel: every mystery in the novel, be it a murder or about the identity of the murderer, is accompanied by quite a few clues from various angles. It makes the conclusion a very satisfying read, as you'll see she has left clues everywhere in the novel that eventually all point towards the solution. It does make the writing  a bit unnatural occasionally, as they are times where you know she's just writing about something because it's so coming back in the conclusion as an important point and it's obvious you need to make a mental note now, but as a keenly plotted mystery novel that really hopes that its readers will try to solve it, I think Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is one of the best novels I've read in the last few years. You can really tell the writer wants the reader to solve the mystery based on the hints, and not with a condescending "I gave you this and you still didn't get it?' attitude, but a genuine, playful manner that sees the mystery story as a logical game of entertainment. I think what will stick to me the most about this novel, is how wonderfully nice and kind-hearted the clewing is, without making the mystery too easy (as it really isn't).

After a short prologue, the science fiction element of time travelling seems to take a backseat, as most of the first half seems to unfold like a "regular" mystery story with all the impossible crimes and more, but the time travel aspect of the story returns more prominently in the second half, making this truly a mystery story that cleverly includes time travelling. I mused a bit about mystery stories that cleverly use supernatural/fantasy/sicence fiction elements to create more unique situations last year, and Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is one to add to the list of succesful examples. The most important thing it does right is clearly declaring the rules and limits of time travel at an early stage, and you can use those rules to figure out if and how time travel could be used in this story. That said, what Houjou does well is not write a mystery story that only revolves around time travel. Many parts of the story are "normal", but the way it at least forces you to consider the possibility of time travel makes it a very different experience. Houjou's rules luckily limit the ways in which time travel could be used, and when it's used it's quite clever. In fact, I'm kinda disappointed one fake solution proposed for one of the murders wasn't the real one, as that would've been an absolutely original murder method. That said, you certainly mustn't think everything in the novel can be answered by crying "time travel!" and you have to carefully consider where it would work and where it wouldn't work, and in the latter case, still figure out how those impossible crimes were pulled off!

Personally, I loved this novel, but I can imagine some people might think it feels too much like a puzzle. As mentioned, it's a densely clewed novel with a lot of things going on, and that's even without including the time travel aspect of the story, which of course makes things even more complex. At the end of the story, everything comes together deliciously, but some readers could think this novel feels too much like a puzzle. As someone who reads mystery fiction exactly because I like cleverly plotted puzzle plots however, I can only say I wish more novels were like Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei!

After reading this story, I remembered I still had a short Guess-the Culprit story by Houjou from her amateur days, which I dug up. The Guess-the Culprit stories of the Kyoto University Mystery Club are for club members only, as they're usually scheduled as part of the weekly meeting, but once in a few years, the best of them will be selected to appear in the anthology Whodunit Best, which is sold by the Kyoto University Mystery Club at university fairs and other occassions. The most recent volume is 2014's Whodunit Best Vol. 5 (I'm in there too with a short essay!), which features Houjou's Obakeeeee! ("Ghooooosts!"), originally presented in 2006 as the 359th Guess-the-Culprit in the history of the club. It was pretty funny reading this story right after Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei, because you can definitely sense a common theme. The protagonist of this story is the college student Kouichirou, who can see and communicate with ghosts. He has a guardian ghost in Shinonome, a samurai-esque ghost who likes solving mysteries. Kouichirou is spending a few days up in the montains, to help out his uncle, who has bought a nice lodge there to serve as a B&B. One of the guests is murdered on the first night however, and it's up to Kouichirou and Shinonome to figure out whodunit.

And the common theme with Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei is of course the supernatural theme. It's a short story, but the clewing is quite diverse, some quite 'ordinary' for these kinds of Guess-the-Culprit stories (the culprit knowing or not knowing a certain fact), some more original. But then there's also the element of ghosts, and that's used pretty interestingly. In this story, ghosts adher to three basic rules like ghosts having no mass or having the ability to touch/carry things in the mortal world for thirty seconds, twice every twenty-four hours. And in order to solve the story, you really need to use those rules to figure out whether a ghost could or could not have committed the murder. It's a really interesting concept, and quite similar to how time travel is used in Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei, with it being an important concept to keep in mind, but not the answer to everything.

Anyway, Jikuu Ryokousha no Sunadokei was a great debut novel. It's brimming with everything I like about the genre, and executed in very capable, and perhaps most importantly, very inviting manner, as you really feel like the writer wants you to solve the mystery yourself. I sure hope more of Houjou will be released soon: I mean, there's the novel with which she reached the final round of the 2018 Ayukawa Tetsuya Award....

Original Japanese title(s): 方丈貴恵『時空旅行者の砂時計』
水木貴理「お化けぇぇぇぇぇ！」

Turnabout Memories - Part 9

"I have to go over everything that's happened. I have to remember"

Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories

It is probably the most boring manner in which one can end the year, but alas, it's the tradition here: in the final week of the year, I always write a short overview of the titles and posts of the year that stood out the most. And by which I mean the few ones I still remember. My tendency to work months ahead usually means a fair number of the reviews published early this year, were actually read in 2018, while quite a few (great!) novels I've read this year, won't be properly reviewed until 2020. That coupled with my bad memory usually means things become err, vague. Also: don't take the categories and lists here too seriously. A new Detective Conan volume was released last week, and if the postal services will cooperate, I might do one final review this year, but otherwise this post will be the last and I can already reveal that the book of the first review of 2020 is one I am absolutey sure will end up at the best-of list at the end of that year. Have a nice week!

Important note to future self: update the post archive more often. Adding more than a year's worth of posts is time-consuming and extremely tedious work.

Best Project Outside The Blog!
A Smart Dummy In The Tent

Okay, I'll have to be honest here and say there wasn't much competition this year. Abiko Takemaru's The 8 Mansion Murders was received very positively in 2018, so I was glad I got to work on another one of his works in 2019. This short story about the ventriloquist dummy detective Mario was published in the June/August 2019 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and features a rather interesting impossible crime in a circus fair setting. It's definitely a story I can recommend to those who have a special affinity with the impossible crime trope, because it's got a very original concept. And it's a really funny read too. Some might be disappointed that I didn't get to work on another Locked Room International release of a full novel this year, but errr, sometimes things don't go exactly as one'd hope. I can reveal that there's definitely something coming next year, because err, I've been busy these few months.

Best Mystery Movie/TV series/other linear audiovisual media! Seen in 2019 but probably older!
Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness") (Detective Conan episodes 379-380)

I've seen a fair amount of mystery television and film productions, but choosing the best of them wasn't very difficult, to be honest. Not all of them were truly bad, but the two-parter Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken was easily the best of them. As expected of screenplay writer Ochi Hirihito, this 2004 story was another prime example of an impossible murder that involves multiple elements that synergize exceedingly well together, with each element both depending on, but also strengthening another element. The 2019 theatrical release Detective Conan: Fist of the Blue Sapphire was on the other hand more a flick focused on action and comedy. It's actually an incredibly entertaining Conan movie, but as a standalone mystery movie, it's definitely not as impressive. Doraemon: Nobita no Himitsu Dougu Museum was a surprisingly fun, but very light mystery movie. The last two months, I have also followed a few on-going Japanese mystery dramas I'm probably not going to write about in seperate posts, but I have to say that Sherlock - Untold Stories ended up much more entertaining than I had feared: it borrows a lot from BBC's Sherlock, but the idea to use plots loosely inspired by the references to unsolved cases in the original Holmes stories worked out really well. The final episode was errr, very, very disappointing though. There was a reason "Who the hell is Moriya" went trending  on Twiter during the broadcast. The third Jikou Keisatsu series, Jikou Keisatsu ga Hajimemashita ("The Limitation Task Force has Started") was extremely entertaining thanks to a cast who are still having as much fun as ten years ago (when the previous series ran). The mystery plots were pretty simple and outright silly at times, but man, there were some minor gems like one of the most original murder weapons ever in episode 7, and a murder case inspired by the indie zombie film One Cut of the Dead, where the director was murdered even though everybody was busy shooting a whole zombie movie in only one cut.

Best Mystery Merchandise!
Fuwamofu Detective Pikachu pillow (San-ei Boeki)

The Detective Pikachu movie itself was not particularly impressive as a mystery movie (I liked the 3DS Detective Pikachu game better), but it was pretty fun to watch as someone who does like Pokémon. But man, there was some really cool, and absolutely adorable merchandise! Last year, I wrote a short article on merchandise of mystery series, but this pillow (technically, it's not a stuffed doll) is exactly the kind of things I want! The moment I saw this Pikachu with the deerstalker I knew I needed to have it and I quickly ordered it. It's so fluffy! And long-time readers might've noticed that I changed my avatar to Detective Pikachu a few months ago.

Best Theme! Of 2019!
The supernatural in mystery

Okay, this wasn't planned, but I read a lot of mystery fiction this year that featured either supernatural or fantasy elements in a great way. To quote myself from a different post: "Actual prophecies destined to come true, magic watches that show you to the exact moment of death of any person, a murder mystery set in Alice's Wonderland, robotic cats with technology from the future and a 5000 light year road trip through space: this year alone I've gone through heaps of great mystery stories that utilize the supernatural in one way or another, and all of them were interesting puzzle plot mysteries that played the game square and fair." I have read a few other great examples too that will be reviewed next year, but if anything, my readings of this year have only strengthened my beliefs in how much potential the mystery genre holds.

Best Non-Review Post! Of 2019!
Clocks in mystery fiction

For some reason, I always write more editorials/features near the end of the year. Anyway, I've written short pieces on the potential of the supernatural/fantasy elements in mystery fiction, the potential of what a mystery can be, family tress in mystery fiction, the meaning of the Challenge to the Reader and the closed circle situation. As I'm writing this, I realize the reason why I chose the article on clocks as my favorite, is the exact reason why I choose the article on glasses as my favorite last year! For this article was probably the only one I actually thought about before I started writing, instead of just winging it and writing as I went on.Though I do like the Challenge to the Reader one too.

Most Interesting Mystery Game Played In 2019! But Probably Older!
Armchair Detective Case. 1

I haven't played many 'major' mystery games this year, I think. I already knew in advance the two Shin Hayarigami games would involve the supernatural heavily in their plot and not present pure puzzle plots, even if I did really enjoy the second a lot. The Raven Remastered and Detective Conan - Mirage of Remembrance were replays of games I already knew were quite flawed and while I was pleasantly surprised by the release of a new Tantei Jinguuji Saburou mobile app in the summer, it too was far too limited in scale to leave any lasting impression on its on. Ise-Shima Mystery Annai: Itsuwari no Kuroshinju was a fun, small game inspired by Famicom adventure games, while I have to admit I expected more comments on my post on Dennis Wheatley and J.G. Links Murder Off Miami, a gamebook which included the actual, physical evidence like photographs, handwritten letters (even on in Japanese!), telegrams and even strands of hair retrieved from a comb. In the end, I had to choose between Armchair Detective and The Return of the Obra Dinn: the latter was a fantastic game that really forced you to think as you try to figure out what name and face belonged to the deceased on the abandoned ghost ship, but in the end, I decided to choose Armchair Detective Case. 1 because the synergy between the gameplay mechanics and the overall mystery story made a better impression on me. It's only part of what should become a bigger game, and I hope the whole thing will be released soon.

I didn't review Layton's Mystery Journey DX here, but while the presentation was top-notch as ever, you really do notice that the original puzzle supervisor is gone now. Obviously, I don't only play mystery games, so to name a few other titles that left an impression me this year: Box-Boy & Box-Girl! was a great addition to the small puzzle title, Dragon Quest XI S was a phenomenal game that manages to give a very modern feel to what is in the essence a very traditional system, Pokémon Sword might not be very surprising, but the many QOL improvements and the Wild Area are so good. Worst game played was Tales of the Tempest. By far.

Craziest Detective (Character) Read in 2019!
Yu Bu-ran in Hwanggeumgul ("The Golden Cave")

Okay, this creation by Kim Nae-seong, the father of the Korean detective story, always had a rather melodramatic and theatrical side to him, but I hadn't expected to see him go overboard in the book Baekgamyeon ("The White Mask"), which collected two of the juvenile adventures starring Yu Bu-ran. In the second story, Hwanggeumgul, Yu Bu-ran goes around shooting pirates with his pistol, while crying out to the orphaned children he's supposed to protect to watch him as he guns everybody down. That's... that's probably not how one should act in front of children...

The Just-Ten-In-No-Particular-Order-No-Comments List
- Alice Goroshi ("The Murder of Alice") (Kobayashi Yasumi)
- Invented Inference (Shirodaira Kyou)
- Hagoromo no Kijo ("The Ogress With the Robe of Feathers") (Nemoto Shou)
- Astra Lost In Space (Shinohara Kenta)
- Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness") (Detective Conan episodes 379-380)
- Shi to Sunadokei ("Death and the Hourglass") (Torikai Hiu)
- Magan no Hako no Satsujin ("The Murders In the Box of The Devil Eye") (Imamura Masahiro)
- Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono ("Those Who Submerge Like The Water Spirit") (Mitsuda Shinzou)
- Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu ("Alibi Cracking, At Your Service") (Ooyama Seiichirou)
- Shiryou no Gotoki Aruku Mono ("Those Who Walk Like The Dead Spirits") (Mitsuda Shinzou)

Dark Night of the Hunters

This happened to a friend of a friend...

This'll probably be the last normal review post of this year!

Houjou Saki is a new graduate from the police academy and as part of her training period before she's officially assigned to a division, Saki has been stationed at a small police box at the station of K City in S Prefecture. Once a thriving industrial city, K City is now slowly transforming into a bed town for nearby Tokyo. After getting complaints from the neighbors about a horrible smell coming from an empty house, Saki and her two senior police officers at the police box go check the building. Inside, they make a horrible discovery: three mutilated bodies of woman wrapped in blue sheets are scattered across the house. It's at the investigation update meeting that Saki learns for the first time that their discovery was just only one in a series: more bodies of women were found lately in empty buildings in K City, all because neighbors complained about the horrible smell of death lingering in the neighborhood. The fact all the victims were horrible tortured with a whip and cut open while alive and the fact all the women are missing body parts, tells the police they're after one and the same culprit. Because the faces of the victims are completely bashed in, their teeth removed and fingerprints burnt off with acid, it's impossible to determine the identity of these women.

What isn't mentioned at the meeting is the curious thing Saki saw when she found the bodies: Saki swears she saw a ghostly apparition in the house a second before she entered the empty building. The figure she saw was a beautiful woman dressed in a white robe, but who for a moment, also seemed to have a skull for a face. While one can guess why Saki's report was ignored by her direct superiors, one person finds it highly interesting: Lieutenant Takahashi Mayako of the Special Patrol Unit of the S Prefectural Police HQ, which usually handles old unsolved cases. Mayako reveals to Saki that thirty years ago, a serial killer active in K City acted with the exact same modus operandi as the current killer. That killer, dubbed the Parts Collector as each of the victims was robbed of a body part, was never caught, but the files mention witnesses who saw the same ghostly apparition Saki saw at the sites where the bodies were found. Mayako is the only one who is convinced there's a direct link between the two cases and has Saki assigned to her as her partner in order to track down the murderer in the novel Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 Tokoyami no Maria~ ("Shin Hayarigami ~File 0 Maria of the Eternal Darkness~", 2014) by Sayama Misao (pen name of Kushimachi Minato).

After playing and reviewing the two Shin Hayarigami videogames the last few weeks, I learned there of the existence of a spin-off prequel novel, which was released together with the first Shin Hayarigami in 2014. While the first Shin Hayarigami was more of a horror game than the hybrid horror-mystery game the series usually was, I enjoyed the much improved second one a lot, and as I was already in this Shin Hayarigami mood, I decided to dive right away in this novel too. The novel is set one or two years before the first Shin Hayarigami game: Saki is still a rookie patrol cop in her training period. Her meeting with Mayako of the Special Patrol Unit and her experience with the case in this novel would later result in Saki's first official assignment to the Special Patrol Unit and thus get her involved in the Blindman incident. What's funny is that this novel also provides an explanation for a game mechanic. In the Shin Hayarigami games, Saki is a master of "Liar's Art", where she uses sweet talk, threats and any kinds of lies to lure a witness into giving the answers she needs. As a game mechanic, it's pretty frustrating as often you don't know beforehand how a witness will react to the answers you pick, but it's funny how Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 at a certain point actually provides an origin story to Saki's Liar's Art. I mean, prequel novels often include origin stories of how the gang first met or something like that, but seldom for game mechanic! It's like having a novel that incidentally also reveals how Mario learned how to jump.

As a horror-mystery novel, Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 strangely enough feels more like classic Hayarigami than the actual game it accompanied. Most of the scenarios in the first Shin Hayarigami were just gorey horror where Saki would always find herself also becoming a partial victim, while Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0, Saki is investigating a case that has some occult nuances to it, without becoming too much a part of it herself, like in the classic Hayarigami games and Shin Hayarigami 2. While the story of Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 is not split in a scientific and occult route like in those games, the investigation of Saki and Mayako is definitely focused on both these angles. I do think it's kinda a shame that Saki sees a ghost right at the beginning of the story: in the games, even the scientific routes usually contain some supernatural or unexplained element, but that usually only comes near the end. In Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0, the ghostly sighting is basically presented right at the start and accepted as such by Saki and Mayako, which is the opposite of the games, where the unsettling feeling of the supernatural creeps into the story at the very end. While the ghost has no direct effect on the world and most of the investigation would've occured more or less in the same way without the ghost appearing, it's still a bit distracting to have Saki see the ghost multiple times and accept that it's supernatural.

That said, Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 isn't just about ghosts. Saki and Mayako also perform 'normal' investigative work as they try to track down the serial killer, and this novel was fairly entertaining as a perhaps not remarkable, but okay-ish thriller serial killer story. Don't expect a fair play mystery where you can identify the culprit based on clues beforehand (though I do think this story could've been rewritten to be a bit more fair), but it works fine as a work that focuses on the chase, and the idea of the split in scientific/occult routes of the games is actually represented quite well by the two female senior detectives of this story: Mayako (who believes in the witness sightings of the ghosts) and the forensic expert Hiromi who dismisses all supernatural explanations. The Hayarigami games have always been about urban legends: cases were themed after urban legends, or at times, urban legends would actually be the motive or driving force behind a case. This element is done actually quite well in this novel, even more than how the theme of urban legends was handled in the first Shin Hayarigami. I won't reveal who the "Maria of the Eternal Darkness" in the title is, but this is what I want from Hayarigami! References to and reflections on real-life religion, folklore, and urban legends and juuuust a little bit of an original twist all work together to bring an interesting case is exactly what Hayarigami should do and man, the first Shin Hayaragami would've been so much more enjoyable if it was closer in atmosphere to this novel. The first Shin Hayarigami is a perfectly fine horror game, but Hayarigami shouldn't just be a horror game, but also present an interesting mystery story. The only complaint I have about this particular part of the story that it's not a well-known urban legend/folklore story (certainly not in Japan), but having the characters realize the case is patterned after such a story midway, instead of right at the start also works for this series as a change in formula.

Shin Hayarigami ~ File 0 Tokoyami no Maria~ is not a novel I would recommend to those who haven't played any of the games as on its own, it's an unremarkable thriller, but if you did like either of the Shin Hayarigami games, I'd say this is a pretty solid read. It does a good job at invoking the style and atmosphere of the games in terms of set-up and how urban legends link up with the cases and I also like how you can see how the experiences in this story will eventually shape Saki into the Saki we know from the games (though strangely enough, Saki is much stronger in a fight in the novel than in the games). Play the soundtrack in the background while reading, and you're all set. As far as I know, I have now handled all the story-related content of Shin Hayarigami now, so if I'll return to this series, it'll either be because I've returned to the original Hayarigami series, or because a third Shin Hayarigami game is finally released.

Original Japanese title(s): 『真 流行り神 〜ファイル0 常闇のマリア〜』

Danger in Disguise

The clouds are heavy.

- Yes, a storm is approaching.

"The Valley of Fear"

It was late last year when I finally read Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Shijinsou no Satsujin ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead", 2017) and like the legends said, it was a highly entertaining, and cleverly written mystery novel that utilized a completely unique, supernatural background setting to not only create a closed circle situation, but also allow for lines of reasoning otherwise not possible. I also reviewed the sequel released early this year (which was great too), but in terms of popularity, it's (obviously) still the first novel that attracts most attention. Its success was not confined to the novel form: Shijinsou no Satsujin has not only seen a manga adaptation, as earlier this week (to be exact, two days ago) the live-action movie was also released in Japanese theatres. I'm dying to see this movie, as on top of the killer source material, both the director and the screenplay writer turn out to be people who have worked extensively on the drama TRICK (a personal favorite), and that distinct rapid-fire comedic tone of that series is also very noticable in the trailer for the movie.

A special prequel/prologue story to Shijinsou no Satsujin was released on the same day as the live-action film premiere, available in either issue 98 of the magazine Mysteries! or as e-book. As a fan, I obviously had to read this as soon as possible. Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken ("The Murders in the Villa of the Dead Episode 0- Akechi Kyousuke: Neither His First nor His Final Case" 2019) is set about four months before the events of Shijinsou no Satsujin, in late April. It's been only a few weeks since Hamura Yuzuru started his life at Shinkou University and has become a member of the Shinkou University Mystery Society (not to be confused with the Mystery Club). The club only has two members: Hamura, and the club president Akechi Kyousuke, a great admirer of detectives who has also solved a few cases himself on campus, earning him the reputation of "the Holmes of Shinkou". Akechi is hired by the university's Cosplay Club to investigate a certain incident. In a corner of the campus stands the old "box" building, which currently houses the Cosplay Club, a newly established university club officially affiliated with the university's design faculty. A few nights earlier, the campus guard noticed a suspicious light inside, and when he went inside to check, he found an unconscious burglar lying on the floor. The man was of course arrested, but he claims he was busy looking for something to steal, when someone else entered the building, who assaulted him and knocked him out. While nobody believes the burglar, the Cosplay Club still wants Akechi to investigate the case thoroughly, as the supervising teacher of the club is really fussy and might even close the club if the whole thing doesn't get sorted out.

For the situation is somewhat baffling. In the end, nothing was stolen from the building, as it was mostly used as a spot to hang out by the members of the Cosplay Club (the actual costumes are usually kept at the design faculty) and the money box was even left untouched. But there are indications the burglar may have been telling the truth about another intruder: not only were his gloves missing, some person had also wiped the handles of the doors upstairs clean for some reason, but not those on the ground floor. What reason could the second intruder have to go inside the building if not to steal anything? As the investigation continues, Hamura learns in his very first case that playing detective isn't as easy as the books make it out.

Obviously, this story is a bit different from the two full-length novels in this series (which, vexingly, doesn't really have an official series title yet), as this story does not feature any supernatural elements in any way. It is therefore a fairly normal, orthodox puzzle plot mystery in terms of setting. And while it's a pretty short story, it's also a very well-constructed mystery, one that follows the same type of logical reasoning you also see in the novels. There are enough indications that show a second intruder was there that night, so the problem revolves around the questions what the motive was of this second intruder, as while they did attack the other burglar, nothing was stolen. Guessing exactly what the intruder wanted to do might be a bit difficult just based on those clues, though I have read a different short mystery story, also in a school setting, that basically had the same idea (though executed very differently), and that made it easier to guess what was going on. What's a lot more fun is the subsequent process of guessing who this second intruder was: the elimination process is very simply, but elegant, and completely fair. Once you realize why it was done, all the set-up until then make it brilliantly clear who must've done it, and I like how Imamura also built in an extra little step to show how the culprit could be caught.

I also liked the story a lot as an academic mystery/campus-set story.  Clubs and circles are a pretty important element of university culture in Japan, and there are many mystery stories too that involve them (you may remember I have translated a few that also featured them), but I don't think I've ever seen a cosplay club mentioned/used extensively as a setting in a mystery story before (you do often seen anime/manga/cosplay clubs in err, anime and manga about university clubs). And one moment in particular makes brilliant use of the fact that this is indeed a mystery plot set at a university, and while in hindsight, it's oh-so obvious and nothing remarkable at all, the realization work really well because it's very likely you'll not think of it yourself until it's mentioned and then you see how even the most mundane and trivial specifics of a university campus can be used in a mystery plot.

Shijinsou no Satsujin Episode 0 - Akechi Kyousuke: Saisho demo Saigo demo nai Jiken is a very short tale that perhaps doesn't show off what made the two novels so unique and exciting, but on its own, it's without a doubt also an entertaining piece. It's a cleverly structured puzzle considering the page count, and its competence in mystery combined with the actual character interaction (the fairly light tone of the narration) do give you an idea of what to expect of the novels featuring the Shinkou University Mystery Club.

Original Japanese title(s): 「〈屍人荘の殺人〉エピソード０　明智恭介　最初でも最後でもない事件」

Answer

"A detective story must have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end."

"The Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction"

I'll be doing my impression of a broken record here, but I am of the opinion one can do a lot within the mystery fiction genre, and that for example, supernatural or fantasy elements do not, by default, threaten the internal integrity of the genre, in the same sense that realism does not automatically mean a mystery story is actually good or fair.  So what if there is an experimental drug that can turn a sixteen year old boy into a child? Detective Conan's core premise may be based on something out of a fantasy novel, but there have also been various stories within the series that present a completely fair and expertly written mystery plot that utilize the whole fact such a drug exists. A story about actual ghosts that can attack real-life people? Invented Inference (In/Spectre) is easily one of the more entertaining and exciting mystery novels I've read this year, one that at least dares to focus on what makes a mystery plot interesting and build a story around that core idea, rather than just using the familiar set forms of locked rooms murders or anything like that. Actual prophecies destined to come true, magic watches that show you to the exact moment of death of any person, a murder mystery set in Alice's Wonderland, robotic cats with technology from the future and a 5000 light year road trip through space: this year alone I've gone through heaps of great mystery stories that utilize the supernatural in one way or another, and all of them were interesting puzzle plot mysteries that played the game square and fair. What's important for a good puzzle plot mystery story is having a consistent internal logic, not boring realism!

Anyway, this got me thinking about what a "mystery" in a mystery/detective story means to me. Because to be completely honest: most of the 'conventional' mystery stories don't even try to something truly original with what a mystery could be, and keep to the familiar murders and other crimes. We have the familiar whodunnits, howdunnits, whydunnits, howcatchems and the occasional whatthehell (where what appears to be a normal story is revealed to much more, putting previous events in a different context). They may provide an original take on for example the locked room mystery, but they don't attempt at taking one single step back, at examining what a mystery could also entail. To me, a mystery or detective story is not about murders or crime. Like Knox said, it's about a mystery: an unanswered event. The question of who murdered Roger Ackroyd may be such a mystery, just like all the familiar tropes like locked room murders, perfect alibis, whodunnits and whatever comes to mind right away, but the rather mundane question of who someone managed to make hot cocoa with only three mugs and one teaspoon is also a valid mystery. I am not a particular fan of the everyday life mystery subgenre, but I'll be the first to admit I've seen some great stories involving mysteries about seemingly mundane, but still curious and alluring problems, like the problem of the food stalls at a summer festival all returning change in 50 yen coins instead of 100 yen coins.

What can a mystery also be? Some months ago, I read Astra Lost in Space and the first half of that science fiction mystery series involved a type of mystery you never see in 'conventional' mystery stories. A group of space-stranded students try to make their way back to their home planet with their spaceship the Astra. They have to make pitstops at several unknown planets due to the length of their trip and some of these planets house threats which only manifest when it's almost too late. Astra Lost in Space really shines during these moments, as these 'creeping' dangers on the various planets are always well-hinted and foreshadowed before they are actually shown to the reader. On the second planet they encounter for example, the assumption that everything is the same as back home almost leads to fatal conclusions, but both the team, and the reader, could've foreseen the reveal, as it's properly hinted in the narrative from the moment they land on the planet. Whether it's the question of how Lt. Fukuie is going to uncover the ingenious murderer even though the reader already knows what the murderer did in detail, the discovery of a 50.000 year old corpse on the moon, or just the question of why someone decided to litter and not bring their food tray back inside the canteen: a mystery (in a mystery/detective story) can involve anything, as long it's presented as a genuine curious problem and the solution is based on properly presented clues and internally consistent logic.

By the way, I keep saying I'll write a review of Liar Game one day, which too is a fantastic mystery series that uses a completely original premise, revolving around a series of gamble games like Minority Rule (where you want to be voting for the minority) or the Contraband Game (where two teams have to smuggle money to from one room to another, and each team has to play border patrol) that appear to be games of pure chance, but which can be 'rigged' by both pure logic and psychological warfare. It's a great example of what the mystery genre can also offer. One day, I'll really write the review. But not this year.

Earlier this week, the first trailer for the 2020 Detective Conan film The Scarlet Bullet was released, and not surprisingly, it seems to continue the trend of the last few years to be somewhat action-focused. These films have always been more action-focused than the original comics for obvious reasons, but looking back, I have to admit there have also been some great action scenes in these films that are also properly build on a mystery story model. Usually, these scenes involve Conan having to escape some imminent danger, and he eventually manages so by cleverly using the tools available to him. So you have the mystery (how is he going to escape?) and the solution (earlier shots of what's available to Conan as hints, and there's of course internal logic). 2002's The Phantom of Baker Street has a grand climax scene for example where Conan has to survive a very imminent crash of the steam train he's riding into the station. Conan's given verbal and visual clues, and in the end, he comes up with a clever way to not get crushed into a pulp. I'll be the first to admit that the viewer is given very little time to consider the problem themselves, but it's without a doubt a fair puzzle plot. But let's take for example 2008's Iron Man, the movie that properly kicked off Marvel's Cinematic Universe. In the final act, Tony Stark is having quite some trouble fighting off Iron Monger in his own Iron Man suit, until a certain event that helps give Tony an edge over the larger/more powerful Iron Monger suit. This too follows the cycle of having a problem (how's Tony going to win?) presented, and proper build-up/hinting (that one thing happening to Tony earlier himself too) and internal logic. Now I'm not going to say Iron Man's a detective movie because of that one scene, but I do think a mystery story can be much more varied than a lot of people seem to think, because the core values of the genre can be applied in so many ways. While it does need proper set-up to be considered a mystery/detective story, I do think anything can be a mystery.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear some thoughts about how others look at the concept of "mystery" in the genre and perhaps hear about some personal favorites of examples of not-so-likely mystery fiction.