Pattern of Murder

"Yeah. Death sucks. Every single time. But I've experienced so many, I'm kinda numb to the whole thing now."
"Jisei: The First Case"

The first game review of the year, is about the last games I played last year.

A young man awakens in a coffee shop, having fallen asleep after a triple expresso. He feels a bit sick, so heads towards the restroom, when he notices the women's restroom's door is open, and inside he discovers the body of a woman lying on the floor. For reasons not explained, our protagonist (who goes lengths to not ever mention his name to anyone) has a kind of psychometric ability, which allows him to experience for himself the death of a person he touches, and he can sense it when somebody dies nearby. The moment he touches the victim though, another customer of course sees the man doing something really suspicious, so he's immediately seen as the main suspect by an off-duty police detective who happened to be nearby. While they are waiting for police reinforcements though, our unnamed protagonist attempts to clear his name and find out who really commited this coffee shop murder in the visual novel Jisei: The First Case (2010). His adventures continue immediately in the direct sequeul Kansei: The Second Turn (2011), where he is taken in by a group of misfits with similar powers of telepathy and empathy. They visit the manor of a person who is, in a way, related to the murder that occured in the coffee shop the day before, but during their visit, this man also dies, and in his highly-secured office too! Once again, our unnamed protagonist and his new 'friends' find themselves working on the case, but as they do, they also stumble upon clues indicating a greater plot behind all this.

Jisei: The First Case and Kansei: The Second Turn are visual novel mystery adventures games developed by sakevisual. Jisei: The First Case was originally released back in 2010 already on PC as an early Japanese visual novel-inspired game, and was followed by its direct sequel Kansei: The Second Turn one year later. Apparently, the plan is to make five installments in the series, of which currently three have been released, but unlike Jisei: The First Case and Kansei: The Second Turn, the third entry Yousei from 2013 has not been released on consoles yet (I played the Switch versions of Jisei and Kansei). For older indie games, both Jisei and Kansei actually look quite nice with especially well designed character sprites and there's even voice acting available, which is really nice and unexpected for games of this scale, though the music didn't make as much an impression. Anyway, these games have been around for a long time, so I was always kinda aware of them, especially as the titles obviously indicated some Japanese link (Jisei and Kansei are Japanese words), and as I mostly play Japanese mystery adventure games and visual novels, I guess it was only a matter of time until I'd try them out. Though I guess it helped they were on Switch now and heavily discounted. Note though I got a small bug in the Switch version in Jisei, where the text box of a character wouldn't appear, though fortunately it wasn't a very important text box, while Kansei works fine, but... you can tell from the controls it was originally meant to be controlled with a mouse and while it's servicable, it could have been made a bit more comfortable to play (using the control stick to move a cursor to click on indicators just doesn't work really well...)

Gameplay-wise, neither Jisei nor Kansei will be very surprising: in Jisei you can explore several places within the coffee shop where the murder occured which you can examine, or you talk there with the other suspects/witnesses, who will tell you about themselves and the others. Learn enough information from them to activate a story flag which allows you to talk about them again about other topics, rinse and repeat and until you reach the end. As for actual mystery solving, this is limited to a few questions asked at the very end of the story to test you if you figured it out, but this is a very small segment. The sequel Kansei is more-or-less the same, but bigger. You have a larger location to explore (the manor), more characters to interview and there's actually a multi-ending structure, where you can examine different aspects of the mystery and arrive at different story climaxes, which definitely gives this second game a welcome length boost. As for the aforementioned special powers of the protagonist though: this is not reflected in actual gameplay. Touching the corpses to learn their final memories is always just a scripted part of the plot, so basically the information you learn there is forced upon you when the story wants you to know that. A tad disappointing, because in truth, these psychic abilites are barely used in both games in terms of the mystery plot. Like in the second game, a character uses telepathy to communicate with the others.... but people have mobile phones, even in 2010. The protagonist 'remembering' an important clue about the dying moments of the victim usually only comes into play at the very end of the story, so it feels kinda forced too.

But as mystery games, I have to say Jisei and Kansei didn't manage to really win me over. Jisei: The First Case is really just a prologue to the five-part story, and can be done in a mere 30 minutes. It isn't meant to be anymore than a prologue I guess, but everything is just far too... limited to make any impression. The mystery plot itself is also ridiculously small and barely a mystery at all! The first twenty minutes you're interviewing people who are all pointing at each other, and then basically you examine a piece of physical evidence a bit closer, and the story then magically tells you this piece of evidence points at one specific character, and it's over! The weird thing is that the piece of evidence had been found earlier, but for some reason the game doesn't allow you to find the super incriminating element of that piece of evidence until just before the denouement, because... well, otherwise the game would have been over in 5 minutes instead of 30. The whole existence of this piece of evidence doesn't even make sense when you consider what the murderer did, so that whole part surrounding that part of evidence feels incredibly contrived, planted there by the storywriters only because they didn't know how else to resolve their own murder mystery. And sadly enough, that piece of evidence is about all the "body" the murder mystery of the woman in the restroom has. There is nothing clever about this mystery, nothing surprising, they just find evidence pointing at a character. Even as a prologue, this is quite disappointing, and the only thing that makes Jisei: The First Case somewhat interesting in terms of plot is the hinting at something bigger regarding the murder, but also the protagonist's past and his powers, but that's it. Jisei teases things that might be interesting in the future, but doesn't really have much of its own, and as a murder mystery on its own, it's barely worth calling a mystery.

And then Kansei just recycles the mystery plot.

As a mystery, Kansei is definitely larger in set-up and fortunately, it isn't over as quickly as Jisei (especially due to its multi-ending structure), but the murder of the owner of the house in his high-security office is... disappointingly similar to what happened in Kansei. Perhaps this is less noticable if you played the game in real-time with more time in between, but I bought both games on the same day and played then back-to-back, and it's almost eerie how similar the two plots play out, complete with the "totally unnecessary piece of evidence left by the murderer found at the end of the story to seal the deal because otherwise, we can't resolve this plot". Kansei, in a way, almost feels like a "remake" of Jisei's plot, using similar ideas, just dressed differently. Only of course, it's supposed to be the sequel, a continuation. But the mystery makes the same mistakes, having characters point at each other with shady backstories, but then rendering all of that unnecessary, because of the introduction of physical evidence that only point at one character. So like Jisei, Kansei doesn't ever really surprise. You come across a corpse, you find evidence pointing at 1 character, it's over. No clever twists, no realization that a clue meant something completely differently, no figuring out what kind of clever tricks the murderer must've done, no, it's just coming across evidence the murderer left behind for no reason while they were committing an extremely straightforward murder. Kansei at least has multiple endings which allow you to explore different aspects of the crime, which is nice, though I have to say the "treasure hunt"-esque route is not nearly as interesting as the "whodunnit" route, and as said, even that route isn't that exciting because at the essence, it's very similar to Jisei.

Similar to Jisei therefore, the more interesting parts of Kansei are just the many teases about the ongoing story and the mysterious past of the protagonsit, but once again, these parts don't really add too much to the experience as it's simply more tease than explanation, so on its own, Kansei isn't really satisfying, even if it is an improvement on Jisei in scale and execution (graphics etc.).

So I can't say I'm a really big fan of Jisei: The First Case and Kansei: The Second Turn. While presentation-wise, both games look good considering they're fairly small-scale indie visual novels (and especially considering their age). they don't really stand out as individual murder mystery adventures. The plots are far too simply and limited to make any impression and don't really manage to surprise in either "Oh, I didn't see that coming" manner, nor in the "oh, that was a clever set-up or twist!" way. And as the overall storyline is still on-going, I also find it hard to recommend these games based on the mere teases and peeks we get regarding the protagonist' past and how the various cases are connected to each other. And Jisei in particular is just too short and offers too little on is own. Perhaps it's something that could change once the series is finished, but even then I can't say I'm a big fan of spreading this out across different games in this manner. I might return to this series in the future if it's all done and over, but that's a big if.

Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief

There open fanes and gaping graves

Yawn level with the luminous waves; 

But not the riches there that lie 

In each idol’s diamond eye— 

Not the gaily-jewelled dead 

Tempt the waters from their bed; 

"The City in the Sea"

I'm pretty sure this series is the one I have read the fastest on this blog, starting in 2018 and averaging about two books a year now.

Toujou Genya series
1) Majimono no Gotoki Tsuku Mono ("Those Who Bewitch Like The Evil Spirits", 2006)
2) Magatori no Gotoki Imu Mono ("Those Who Are A Taboo Like The Malicious Bird", 2006)
3) Kubinashi no Gotoki Tataru Mono ("Those Who Cast A Curse Like The Headless", 2007) 
4) Yamanma no Gotoki Warau Mono ("Those Who Sneer Like The Mountain Fiend", 2008)
5) Himemuro no Gotoki Komoru Mono ("Those Who Stay Inside Like A Sealed Room", 2009)
6) Mizuchi no Gotoki Shizumu Mono ("Those Who Submerge Like The Water Spirit" 2009). 
7) Ikidama no Gotoki Daburu Mono ("Those Who Turn Double Like The Eidola", 2011)
8) Yuujo no Gotoki Uramu Mono ("Those Who Resent Like The Ghostly Courtesan", 2012)
9) Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ("Those Who Are Deified Like The Haedama", 2018)

10) Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like the Demon Idol", 2019) 

11) Ina no Gotoki Nieru Mono (2021)

Toujou Genya, created by Mitsuda Shinzou, is a horror mystery novelist in post-war Japan who also travels across the country to gather ghost stories and document local religions and their ceremonies, as he is also a gifted amateur folklorist. His interest in local religions however often also get him involved in baffling murder cases that more often than not, occur during unique religious ceremonies in small, isolated communities, but it's Genya's free-style thinking that always allows him to solve him these creepy and complex cases, even if it also involves him voicing out loud a lot of wrong theories first before he arrives at the correct one. At the moment I am writing this post, there have been eight novels released in this series, and I have reviewed the first seven of them, as the most recent one hasn't been released in pocket form yet. There is however also a secondary series of short story collections: these stories are prequels and set in Genya's student days, but are also about creepy crimes involving folklore. After Himemuro no Gotoki Komoru Mono (2009) and Ikidama no Gotoki Daburu Mono (2011) however followed the third short story collection Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like The Demon Idol") in 2019, which got a pocket release in 2022. This book is set slightly later than the previous two volumes, as Toujou Genya has now made his professional debut as a horror novelist and also has started making a name among police officials as a gifted amateur detective, and much to Genya's annoyance, some police detectives even seek him out for help on baffling murder cases even though he doesn't consider himself an amateur detective. Fortunately for the police detectives however they know exactly how to lure Genya in, as he can't help himself whenever he hears some kind of ghostly folklore tale is involved. The 2022 pocket release also adds one extra story not found in the original 2019 release, but considering the way it's visibly "set seperately" in the table of contents and the specific themes of that story, I'm not sure it's considered "canon" but more on that later.

The opening story Youfuku no Gotoki Kiru Mono ("Those Who Cut Like The Bewitched Clothes") is weirdly enough a perfectly fine mystery story and works well as an opener, but it's not really a good Toujou Genya story, in the sense the "horror" element of the story is basically not vital at all. There's some talk about a "bewitched jacket" but it's not really important to the case. Genya is asked to look into a double murder case of two wealthy brothers, who lived on the same sloping street, but one at the top and one below, with two sizeable houses between their houses. The two elderly brothers were a bit strange and hard on their own sons, and weirdly enough, the two ended up liking their respective nephews better, and with time, the two nephews started living with their uncles, as their own fathers always preferred the nephew thinking they were better than their own sons. But now both are murdered, and the police suspect the two cousins swapped murders, killing their uncles, so they'd inherit from their respective fathers.The brother living in the upper house was discovered to be murdered with the same knife that killed the brother living down the slope around the same time, but the problem is this is impossible, as the knife couldn't have been brought to the upper house where it was found: the housemaid of the lower house left her master and his nephew in the afternoon and went up the slope to bring the neighborhood bulletin board to the neighbours up the slope and swears she never saw the nephew overtake her on the street to take the knife "up", a fact collaborated by other witnesses, and in fact, this nephew has an alibi as he left after the housemaid did to go to a bookshop he frequents. What follows is a howdunnit story about how the knife could have been brought unseen from the house below to the house up the slope, and considering the short length of this story, it's actually quite good, as we get multiple false solutions, and a convincing final solution that is well clewed. Tone-wise, it does remind me of an earlier Genya short story, and another Rampo-themed story Mitsuda wrote, but I think this is a great opening. But really, the "horror" aspect in this story feels out of place, or at least unnecessary.

Fushi no Gotoki Yomigaeru Mono ("Those Who Revive Like the Death Honorer") has Genya being asked by Fushimi Fujiko to look into the disappearance of her brother Fujio. The two of them hail from the town of Fushiori, located at the foot of a mountain and their family has been the leading family in that town for generations, doing business in fabrics. During the war, their oldest brother died, and while Fujio made it back to Japan alive after the war, the tragedy had a tremendous effect on his mind. For a while, his parents let him be, hoping he would recover and prepare to become the future family head, but Fujio started his own little community of "social misfits" just outside Fushiori, near the mountain forest. What started out very small, became a small and isolated community, fenced off and not allowing outsiders to look inside. Eventually, Fujio even started getting obsessed with the idea of life and death, and basically became a kind of cult leader, who believed he could resurrect even if he would die. This drove off most of the people in the community, but with him remained five women, who each were given a "trial": one wasn't allowed to see and blindfolded, one wasn't allowed to hear so had earplugs, etc. However, the woman who joined the community last had a fugitive brother, and the police suspected he had gone to his sister to hide, so they watched the fenced-up community for days. Eventually, they caught the fugitive, but when the police entered the community, they were somewhat susprised to learn Fujio had disappeared, even though they had been watching the community all that time. But as they caught the criminal and Fujio was an adult who could go where ever he wants, they couldn't do anything now, which is why his sister Fujiko wants Genya to solve this impossible disappearance. The opening story didn't make very good use of the religious and folklore themes that feature so heavily in this series, but this one is absolutely perfect in that regards. It's a fairly short story, but the small cult that is presented here feels quite convincing, and the way each of the women has one of their senses "shut off" leads to a very interesting puzzle where you wonder how Fujio could've disappeared. The solution is absolutely fantastic, one of the most memorable solutions I have read in recent years and while a bit crazy, it works perfectly in this story because the build-up is very convincing. My favorite of the collection.

Kemonoya No Gotoki Suu Mono ("Those Who Suck Like The House of Beasts") is very hard to explain without giving away too much. It is about Genya reading two different accounts that involve a building that sound a lot like each other, a house hidden away deep in the mountains with creepy statues of fantastical beasts inside and Genya using those accounts to arrive at a certain conclusion: I like the idea of the house a lot, but I have the idea this story as it is now works better as a horror story than a mystery story, a lot of the background story should have been worked out more to bring a better, deeper mystery story, but I think it's left a bit vague on purpose to emphasize the horror aspects. Again, I like the core idea as a mystery story too, but I feel it leans a bit to the horror side.

The title story Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono ("Those Who Bring Forth Like The Demon Idol") is by far the longest story in the collection, but sadly enough also the one I like least, for a large part because it's so long, even though not a lot happens in the story, making it feel very drawn out. By this time, Genya has become a fairly well-known writer among those in the industry, and he is finally contacted for the first time by Sofue Shino, editor at Kaisousha and Genya's usual sidekick in the novels. Genya is made aware of the Maguu, a statuette that is supposed to bring fortune, but also calamity to its owner. It is actually the property of a local collector, who has a swastika-shaped gallery in his garden where he keeps all his valuable antiques: each of the four "arms" is a different gallery with its own garden entrance, and they all come together at the center of the swastika. Genya is brought along to visit the collector, who is entertaining some other guests too and while Genya and the collector talk very enthusiastically about all kinds of things, the others all take a look in the gallery, but eventually, one of the visitors is found dead in the middle hall of the gallery, and the four people in the gallery who each came from a different entrance all swear they aren't the killer. The idea of a swastika-shaped building is interesting and I like the idea of having multiple false solutions based on the known facts, but a lot of the mystery is a bit "loose", as they just depend on testimonies of people saying "I was about here in the north/west/south/east gallery when I heard a noise" and it's ultimately not a very alluring mystery. The solution has some clever clues and all, but I feel like it isn't even used to its full potential in this particular story, because there's not very much synergy between the murder in the swastika-shaped building and the specific trick used in this story. That coupled with the length of the story made this my least favorite of the collection, despite it being the title story.

The bonus story Inin no Gotoki Suwaru Mono ("Those Who Sit Like the Human Chair") is as the title suggest actually an Edogawa Rampo-inspired story, not very surprising as Mitsuda actually has another series that features Rampo-inspired mystery stories and 'almost' pastiches. It's a fairly short story and involves Genya visiting a local chair workshop, but the attentive reader will of course realize how it's all inspired by Rampo's famous horror short story The Human Chair. Eventually, someone is found dead in the workshop, but I think if you already know The Human Chair, it's likely you'll start thinking in certain directions and eventually arrive at the solution. I think it's a fun extra story, but it feels a bit "weird" as a Rampo-homage story within the Genya universe, which is probably the reason why it's put in a seperate space in the table of contents.

Overall, I'm a bit a bit divided on Maguu no Gotoki Motarasu Mono I think. I think the first two stories are great, and while the rest of the volume is never anything near bad, I do think the latter three stories are not as good as the first half. But save for the second story, you don't really get a good feel for what usually makes for a good Toujou Genya story. Sure, these short stories can never reach the sheer brilliance of the novels, because the way they mix horror with complex mystery plots that build in unique religious ideas really does require an extended page length, but I feel most of the stories in the previous two short story collection still managed to do better in general, each of them having more stories that are similar to the second story in this collection, rather than just that single one. So I wouldn't recommend this as an entry point into the Toujou Genya series, nor as an entry point into the short stories of this series. It's not bad, and at times really good even, but I think practically all previous books are just more consistent in bringing the Toujou Genya experience.

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『魔偶の如き齎すもの』:「妖服の如き切るもの」/巫死の如き甦るもの」/「 獣家の如き吸うもの」/「魔偶の如き齎すもの」/「椅人の如き座るもの」

Growing Up and Good-byes

'I forget them after I kill them,' he replied carelessly.  When she expressed a doubtful hope that Tinker Bell would be glad to see her he said, 'Who is Tinker Bell?'

"Peter and Wendy"

First one of the year!

Slow-witted Bill the Lizard still hasn't found his way back to Wonderland and Alice, and after wandering into the Hoffman universe and the Land of Oz, Bill now finds himself taken care of by Wendy, her brothers and the adopted Lost Boys as they once again fly off with the eternal child Peter Pan and the fairy Tinker Bell. Their destination is of course Neverland, where previously the children had grand aventures with Peter Pan, the members of the Piccanniny tribe, mermaids and of course, Captain Hook and his pirates. Have things settled down now Hook was defeated? Of course not, as Mr. Smee is intent on getting even with Peter Pan, and Tiger Lily, princess of the Piccanniny tribe, is intent on taking revenge for the death of her brother. Wendy takes the role of mother of Peter and the Lost Boys again in Neverland, but after a rigorous day of fishing training at the inlet, everyone is shocked to find the fairy Tinker Bell brutally murdered in their underground hide-out: her wings torn off, thrown around on the floor and stabbed through her abdomen. Everyone was shocked? No, not everyone. For Peter Pan doesn't care about Tinker Bell, who he only thought to be nuisance and barely any different from a bug, and in fact, the reader knows Peter did this. While Bill the Lizard has only known the eternal child for a short time, he knows Peter Pan is actually a complete psychopath, because right in front of his eyes and the eyes of Wendy and the other Lost Boys, the 'innocent' child has cruelly slit the throats of pirates and tribe members without any hesitation. In fact, even the Lost Boys are not safe from Peter's sword if they happen to say something that doesn't please Peter, and Peter Pan is not only their "savior" but also their dictator, the one who might stab them right through the heart at any time if he just happens to feel like doing so. Peter Pan, in all his "innocence" doesn't care about death and he tends to forget about whoever he kills. Wendy somehow convinces Peter Pan to find the murderer of Tinker Bell and bring the culprit to justice, and Bill the Lizard is assigned to be his "Watson". 

Meanwhile, the university student Imori has travelled to an inn to attend to a reunion of his primary school class. Imori and Bill the Lizard are two sides of the same coin: while they are two distinct people with their own personalities living in completely different worlds, they share memories, so whenever Imori falls asleep in our real world, he'll remember Bill the Lizard's experiences in Neverland and vice-versa. In previous adventures, Imori met other people like him, who all collectively share "a dream" of a fantasy world, where they are different people who can also interact with each other in the other world. But more importantly, he also discovered that the lives of these people across worlds are linked: a death in the fantasy world, also means a death in the real world! And when at the school reunion, people start to die in various weird manners, Imori realizes that people in his class must be the counterparts to people in Neverland, and that they are all victims of Peter Pan's murderous outbursts in Neverland. But due to a heavy snow storm, the inn becomes isolated from the outside world, making it impossible to leave the place and while theoretically, Imori and the remaining classmates could try to find out who the avatar of Peter Pan in the real world is and try to restrain them (despite understanding they are different people), Peter Pan in Neverland is all-mighty and can kill everyone as easily as taking a nap and think absolutely nothing of his deeds.  Imori tries everything he can in the real world, but can only rely on the very, very unreliable Bill the Lizard in Neverland, so how are they going to stop Peter Pan's deadly games and catch the murderer of Tinker Bell in Kobayashi Yasumi's Tinker Bell Goroshi, or The Murder of Tinker Bell (2020)?

Tinker Bell Goroshi is the fourth and final entry in Kobayashi' Yasumi's wonderful Märchen Murder series which started with Alice Goroshi followed by Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and this final book. Kobayashi sadly enough passed away in 2020, just months after the release of Tinker Bell Goroshi, thus ending the series (I read the pocket release, which was released late 2022). Fortunately is perhaps not a really good word to use, but Clara Goroshi, Dorothy Goroshi and Tinker Bell Goroshi are all prequels to Alice Goroshi, so story-wise, the series does feel "complete", as those books are all set "during" Alice Goroshi, when Bill the Lizard just gets lost and ends up visiting a few other fantasy worlds based on famous children's literature before returning to Wonderland to continue with the events of Alice Goroshi. As mentioned in previous reviews of this series though, it's strongly recommended to read them in release order though: the avatar-system is first introduced in Alice Goroshi, where Alice in Wonderland becomes a suspect in the murder of Humpty Dumpty, and Imori and fellow student Ari try to prevent Alice's execution in Wonderland by investigating the murder in both Wonderland and the real world. Subsequent books however build on build on the mechanics of the avatar system introduced in Alice Goroshi, with shocking revelations and twists about the system in Alice Goroshi being taken for granted in its sequels. So some discoveries about how everything works will just be treated as common knowledge in later books, so it's best to read them in order.

Me reviewing this series has also been me confessing I read very little outside of mystery fiction and having to admit I never read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, any of the Oz books or the Hoffman stories, and while I of course know about Peter Pan, I have never read the original book Peter and Wendy, nor even seen the Disney film. I have seen Hook though, if that counts for something! And I also knew Peter Pan was a bit of a creep in the original book, with the original book suggesting he just kills Lost Boys with the line "The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out." So the concept of him being completely off-the-hook psychopathic murderer didn't actually require any time to adapt to on my part. There are probably a lot of references to the original book that flew over my head, but a rudimentary knowledge of Peter Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Captain Hook is more than enough to enjoy this book, so I never felt lost, and like with the previous entries in this series, a lot of the charm of the books come from the children's literature-esque writing: heavy on dialogue with almost no narration, and the lines themselves are often very silly, almost nonsensical conversations, as the screwball characters discuss things in roundabout ways, like Peter not understanding the concept of twins, or Wendy trying to explain the logic of why killing everybody in Neverland is not a good idea to 'catch' the killer. The repeated jokes and constant misunderstandings might take a while to get used to for some readers, but not only do these dialogues help set the mad setting of this series and its characters, it's also often skilfully used to hide clues in these nonsensical dialogues, and often feel very rewarding mystery-wise too.

While I enjoyed Dorothy Goroshi, it had a bit of a 'more of the same' feeling, which certainly isn't the case with this book. First of all, we have the closed circle situation Imori finds himself in: the inn is snowed in, and while he knows a majority of his classmates (and their teacher) probably has a Neverland counterpart, nobody dares to reveal who they are because they are afraid that if they say something in the real world, Peter Pan in Neverland (who shares memories with someone in the real world) might want to get even with them there. Meanwhile, people are dying left and right due to Peter's casual murders, which puts Imori himself in a very tense and dangerous situation, something we seldom saw in this series. It's a closed circle situation, but not like one you normally see in mystery fiction, because while people are "murdered" one by one, the actual murders only happen in Neverland, while their Earth counterparts will "automatically" die in some way or another to correspond to the Neverland death. So Imori isn't "really" trapped in a closed situation with the murderer, but it sure feels like one. The book alternates between Neverland and the real world between chapters, and near the end, this is actually used quite cleverly while the murder on Tinker Bell is explained, splitting the "deduction" scenes across both worlds as different people know different things.

Meanwhile, the Neverland part of the book also feels fresh for this series... for we know Peter Pan is an unscrupulous murderer who I think literally can't spend one chapter without killing at least one other living being, preferably by slitting their throat. And what's also important is that Peter Pan cares so little about death, he literally forgets about the people he kills, and not even his counterpart on Earth can recall if Peter killed certain people or not, because all they share are each other's memories. This makes the investigation into Tinker Bell's murder rather farcical, because it all happens while Peter is continuing his multi-hit murder combo, but Wendy somehow still manages to convince Peter to investigate the murder of the fairy properly with Bill the Lizard and actually find evidence or testimony to prove who did it and there are actually a few surprising twists and turns while they look for the 'elusive' murderer.  It makes for incredibly interesting murder mystery, because it's hard to guess where all of this will eventually end and how they'll catch the murderer despite Peter's murderous tendencies. As you can guess, the avatar-system is also part of the mystery plot and not just a funny hook for the series, and it's used brilliantly again here, like the aforementioned break-up in deduction scenes, but also by hiding hints and clues in the way counterparts in both worlds behave and the exact things they say in their memorable dialogues. The big clue pointing to the truth behind Tinker Bell's murder is pretty clever in that it's also a "dual" clue, two clues pointing towards the same idea and yet from different angles, and it also fits the world of Peter Pan and Neverland. It's a concept that probably would have been incredibly simple and silly if it had been used in "realistic" setting and fallen flat there, but it works absolutely perfectly reading it as a part of a "sequel" to Peter and Wendy. The motive behind the murder however needed a bit more depth, it's treated a bit too light now despite it having really heavy implications, which almost makes it feel like an afterthought even though I don't think that was ever the intention.

Tinker Bell Goroshi is now the final entry in this series and whether I can't say Kobayashi would've continued the series or not if he had lived longer, I can at least say Tinker Bell Goroshi was another wonderful murder mystery adventure in the world of famous children's literature. It spins the story of the boy who wouldn't grow up into a tale of mystery that is both tense, but also very comical and silly, while at the same time offering a mystery plot that is original and only possible due to the unique story setting invented by Kobayashi. In that sense, the whole concept of the avatars and shared memories is one you could imagine to have been used in classic children's literature, right? If you have read the first book in the series and liked it, I think you owe it to yourself to read the rest of the series too as Tinker Bell Goroshi is a worthwile read, and of course, if you have an interest in Peter Pan already, this is a no-brainer and should be picked up immediately. A bitter-sweet ending knowing this is the last book, but what an awfully big adventure it has been!

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『ティンカー・ベル殺し』

Reflections of the Mind

"I never sleep I hate those little slices of death"

"Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Last one of the year!

Disclosure: I have translated Arisugawa Alice's The Moai Island Puzzle. 

Shirafuse Masato's Nightmare Rising series of fantasy horror novels have been a fantastic hit all across the world, being translated in many languages and having become a symbol for J-Horror everywhere, and now a Hollywood adaptation is about to be released. Shirafuse is a big star, known as the "Japanese Stephen King" , but he also happens to be working for the same publisher as mystery novelist Arisugawa Alice, and after a double interview with the two authors, Shirafuse invites Alice for a stay at his home, as according to Shirafuse, he has a "nightmare room" in his house: any person spending the night there always has nightmares, nightmares also being the main theme of the Nightmare Rising series. Alice takes up the invitation and visits Shirafuse's so-called Dreamwatcher House, which is basically like a little cottage in the woods outside of town. There are only a handful of cottages on the road that splits off from the highway into the forest, and the road ends in a cul-de-sac, where the auberge (inn) Reverie stands, with a fairly popular restaurant. Shirafuse, his editor and Alice have dinner at Reverie, after which Alice spends the night in Shirafuse's "nightmare room", while Shirafuse's editor has taken a room at Reverie. The following day however, the murdered body of a woman is found in one of the empty cottages on this road: the cottage belongs to Shirafuse and used to be inhabitated by his assistant Shinya, but Shinya died two years ago and the cottage had been left empty since. The woman, Okita Yoriko, was a friend of Shirafuse's assistant, but only recently learned about his death, and had asked Shirafuse whether she could stay one night in the house where Shinya had lived. She had been staying there the day before Alice arrived at the Dreamwatcher House, but Shirafuse assumed the woman had already left by the time he went out to pick up Alice and his editor from the station the following day, as he had told the woman to just leave the key in the house as he had to tend to his guests that day. In fact though, Yoriko had been killed and in a gruesome manner too: her neck had been pierces by an arrow (an ornament based on a weapon used in the Nightmare Rising series, which had been hanging on the wall) and for some reason, her left hand had been cut off. Being one of the first to discover the body, Alice contacts his old friend Himura Hideo, who teaches criminology at Eito University and who often assist the local police with their criminal investigations as part of his "fieldwork". How will this hunter find the murderer in Arisugawa Alice's Karyuudo no Akumu (2017), which also has the English title Nightmare of a Hunter on the cover? 

It's been a while since I talked about a Himura novel here, so I'll just repeat this even just to be sure: the mystery novelist Arisugawa Alice has two main series, both of which have have a character named Arisugawa Alice as their respective narrators. These two Alices however are not the same person. The Alice in the Student Alice series is a young student who acts as the Watson to the older student Egami (see: The Moai Island Puzzle) , while in the Writer Alice series, we follow an Alice in his thirties who's a professional mystery author, who acts as the assistant to Himura Hideo, a criminologist. The funny thing is that these Alices write each other: the student Alice is a budding mystery author who writes about a professional mystery author named Alice and his friend Himura, while the writer Alice writes about a young student named Alice and his senior Egami. Anyway, Karyuudo no Akumu is of course a book about Himura and Alice. This series is much longer than the Student Alice series, and to be very honest, this is reflected in quality too: while seldom bad, the Student Alice series is consistently extremely good in terms of mystery plotting, clewing and doing Queenian reasoning chains to identify the murderer. The Writer Alice series has its own gems of course, but as it also has like at least triple the number of releases, you can understand how it is not as consistent in terms of quality. 

So what is Karyuudo no Akumu? Well, that's a hard one to answer! I have mentioned more than a few times here that in principle, I am more a fan of short stories than of novels and it's something I felt very strongly as I read this book. Which is a very personal thing of course, but this book has a very limited setting and set-up on purpose, which can make the book feel very slow, because it has too few pieces to move around or to check. Some might prefer the more focused approach, and there's definitely also a reason why this story has such a focused set-up, but to be very honest, as I was reading this I constantly thought the same set-up could have worked just as well, or even better as a short story or a novella, especially as this book is actually bit longer than average, rather than shorter. And as I arrived at the conclusion and followed Himura's reasoning as he very logically identifies the murderer, I still felt that considering the clewing and the other relevant factors for the mystery plot, the story of Karyuudo no Akumu would have worked in a far shorter form too. So that is definitely something that plays in my impression of the book.

For as a mystery story, I do think Karyuudo no Akumu has some good moments. Some really good moments even. For most part of the story however, you feel like Karyuudo no Akumu is just trying to juggle with too many pieces, despite the very, very limited set-up and there really aren't that many pieces. The cast of characters is very small for example, focusing mostly on the six people living on along the road (which had been blocked off from the highway on the night of the murder due to a thunderstorm striking a tree which fell across the road). So the mystery in terms of characters and location focuses solely on that little road, but at the same time, we are also confronted with many smaller mysteries: a cut-off hand, a woman who for some reason was killed with an arrow, what was the woman actually really doing staying in the cottage, where are her hand and smartphone and more. At the same time, these problems don't feel as "big" as say a locked room murder, missing footprints in the snow or even a situation where everybody has an alibi. So these problems "bug" you but are not very effective in really driving the investigation. As the story unfolds, we learn more about the victim and who might have had a motive to kill her, but Karyuudo no Akumu mostly feels like it's throwing all these smaller mysteries at you that on their own are okay-ish, but as a result, it does make you feel like you're playing with too many small puzzle pieces that don't seem to connect in a meaningful manner: the book feels chaotic and disjointed at times.

But all the chaos becomes order when Himura at the end explains how all those disjointed pieces are connected. And yes, there's a reason why a lot of what they find out and what had happened feels so haphazard, and while I wouldn't say the logical chain Himura builds here is as impressive as the tour-de-force we saw Egami pull off in The Moai Island Puzzle, it is definitely the same kind of memorable logic that allows Himura to identify who the murderer is: he focuses on all the actions the murderer took on the night of the murder, even those that don't seem to make much sense, and by applying all the known facts he not only manages to explain why everything happened the way they did, but also how those insights allow us to identify which of the suspects is the murderer. The revelations regarding the motive, while totally convincing, are not presented in a manner as strong "logically" but that is not as big a concern as Himura shows who the murderer is based on what everyone knew at what time and what actions they would or could have taken taking that in consideration, showing exactly that only one person could have commited the murder. I do have to say the last step, where he eliminates the last possible candidate to end up with the murderer, is... not weak, but certainly not very strong. Reasoning-wise I totally get what Himura means and it is true it is a valid way to use to eliminate the last suspect, but at the same time it's not a very strong one and open to a lot of attacks, and is of the kind you'd usually more likely to see as a "first step" in the elimination process (like the first suspect is removed because of this argument) rather than the final person. Still, I was quite impressed to see Himura pull everything together at the end of the book, because I felt throughout there were just so many "loose" puzzle pieces I was afraid it would just feel like a messy blob of minor puzzles, but in fact, it all chains together very nicely, surprisingly so, and it's certainly a book you should check out if you like these kinds of Queenian deduction chains.

But as mentioned, had Karyuudo no Akumu/Nightmare of a Hunter been a short story/novella, I would probably have liked it even better. Of course, your mileage may very well vary here, and in that case, I think you'll find a very competently written mystery novel here that showcases Arisugawa's love for Queenian chains of reasonings. While the core case aspects feel a bit limited and perhaps not really exciting, I think the final section definitely makes this book a worthwhile read, as it shows how the emphasis on reasoning can make very chaotically-feeling stories feel very logical in the end and it's definitely one to check if you like these kinds of novels. And while it's a bit late to mention it now, it's actually the reason why I read this book, because I read somewhere this was one of those books where you could really see Arisugawa doing his "chains of deduction" thing, and I was not disappointed in that regard.

 Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖『狩人の悪夢』

Turnabout Memories - Part 12

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

Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories

Another year passes, another holiday season comes, and as per tradition, this is also the time I look back at the reviews and other posts that stood out the most this year and highlight them in a 'not really a list' list post. As I read the reviews posted this year, I noticed a lot of my favorites were all posted in the first half of the year, making the second half seem a bit... boring, though because the posts on this blog aren't actually written and published real-time (sometimes, a post waits for months before it's published, while others I decide to publish the same week), it's more of a coincidence than a trend, I guess.  Anyway, the lists and categories in this post aren't really made after serious deliberation, and are just pointing to a few of the more memorable mystery media I consumed this year, so in case you happened to have missed them the first time, read them now! I'm already well into 2023 when it comes to scheduled posts, and I can already safely say some of those books will definitely end up in my lists of favorites of next year, so I hope readers will be back next year too. Until then, have a good holiday season!

Best Project Outside The Blog! 

Death Within the Evil Eye

 

Yes, this is just the the self-promotion category! Unlike 2020 and 2021, I have only one title to mention here. While the release of The Mill House Murders has already been announced, it won't be released until next year, meaning there's only one big, and I do mean big title to mention here: Locked Room International released IMAMURA Masahiro's Death Within The Evil Eye, the direct sequel to his hit novel Death Among the Undead. Death Among the Undead was a personal favorite, and its 2019 sequel was, almost surprisingly, also a real gem, weaving supernatural themes with a mystery story that still valued logical reasoning above else, resulting in the kind puzzle plot-oriented mystery story I love. This is the first time I got to work on a sequel novel too, so that makes it extra memorable. The release has been very recent, so I guess not many have read it yet, though I hope eventually people will pick it up, because it's really a great mystery novel. And I mean, we all have to read something during the holiday season, right?

 

Oh, and technically a project outside the blog, in the sense that it is not supposed to be directly connected to this blog: I opened a Honkaku-themed Discord server a few weeks ago, so you're welcome there to discuss mystery fiction, including (shin) honkaku stories, with other fans!

 

Most Interesting Non-Review Post! Of 2022!

Higurashi: When They Cry Playthrough Memo

 

Okay, I haven't really made any non-review posts this year... sorry! I'm always reading books, so there's always material for reviews, but I have to admit editorials etc. are the first type of posts to get forgotten whenever it's busy or I am just not in a writing mood. So in the end, the only posts that even fit in this category are my playthrough memos I kept while playing Higurashi: When They Cry. Last year, I did the same with Umineko: When They Cry, writing down my thoughts while playing through the eight episodes of that game and keeping track of how my theories changed with each new episode. Higurashi: When They Cry had a similar set-up with multiple episodes, so it was only natural I would do the same thing. I don't know how many people actually read my notes while I was playing the game, but I still think this is a fun experiment, writing down the theories I play with in my mind while tackling a mystery story of an enormous (and time-consuming) scale. Perhaps I should do this for The Sekimeiya and finally force myself to get past that first part because I know it's supposed to be really good, but it's also really slow...

 

Book I Didn't Really Want to Read But Wanted to Have Read!

Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata ("A Sonata for Summer and Winter") AKA "Parzival"

 

I mentioned the saying "The books you want to have read, but don't want to read" in my review of Maya Yutaka's 1993 novel Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata ("A Sonata for Summer and Winter" AKA "Parzival"), because it was exactly the type of novel it would be used on. This year, there were basically only two novels I read which this saying applied to: Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata and Nikaidou Reito's Majutsuou Jiken ("The Case of the Sorcery King" 2004).  And of course, this all sounds very negative, but these were books I really wanted to read, but of which I knew it was also likely it wouldn't be an easy experience: Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata was often referred to as a catastrophic deconstruction of the detective story in true Maya post-modernist fashion, while Majutsuou Jiken was a very, very long book and the last one I hadn't read in Labyrinth saga in the Nikaidou Ranko series, and in general, the tone and style of the Labyrinth books just weren't really what I liked about the earlier Ranko books. So why did I pick Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata? Easy: Majutsuou Jiken was actually pretty fun to read once I got started, and I ended up enjoying it the most out of the four Labrinth novels. Natsu to Fuyu no Sonata on the other hand was a tricky novel to read from start to finish, and while I am glad to have finished it to know what all the talk was about, I am also glad it's behind me now!

 

Most Interesting Mystery Game Played In 2022! But Probably Older!  

Haru Yukite, Retrotica ("As Spring Passes By, Retrotica") AKA The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story

 

2022 ended with a lot of Nintendo DS reviews, so you'd almost think you had gone back about 15 years. None of those games were really outstanding though, though that was something I already knew: most of these games I played because I have already played so many Nintendo DS mystery adventure games, so I kinda want to play, well, perhaps not all of them eventually, but most of them, so even the less impressive ones. Though I want to highlight Project Hacker and Unsolved Crimes as games with interesting points to them. Some other games that made an impression on me were Lucifer Within Us and the board game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, but for me, the 'fight' was clearly between Haru Yukite, Retrotica ("As Spring Passes By,  Retrotica"), better known as The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story outside of Japan, and Higurashi: When They Cry, a game I poured a lot of time in. And even then, I knew right away The Centennial Case would win. Created by the director behind personal PSP favorite Trick X Logic, this game utilizes similar game mechanics with a FMV game, resulting in a game that feels like an atmospheric mystery drama, but which really succeeds on showing how a proper whodunnit should be plotted, and how readers (viewers) should combine clues to arrive at hypotheses, and use these hypotheses to solve a mystery. While the individual episodes might not be super complex, The Centennial Case is a great showcase of how to translate a shin honkaku mystery story to the video game medium.

 

This might actually be the first time a game ends up in this category that was actually released in said year...

Best Premise! Of 2022! 

Rouko Zanmu ("Dreams Are All That Remain To The Tiger Who Has Grown Old")

 

Always a difficult category. With premise, I mean the blurb on the back of the book or something similar being enough to really rope you in, regardless of the actual execution.We have Houjou Kie's excellent Meitantei ni Kanbi naru Shi wo ("Delicious Death for Detectives", 2022). of course, which is set both in the real world and in a VR-game similar to a murder mystery Mario Maker. On the other side of the spectrum there's Ashibe Taku's Oomarike Satsujin Jiken ("The Oomari Family Murder Case", 2021), a fantastic historical work that focuses on the fall of the Oomari family and the women of that family as they remain at home while World War II develops: the mystery is one that could only have occured in war-time Japan, war-time Osaka, and has a bit of a Trojan Women vibe. In a similar vein, Kokuroujou ("The Castle with the Dark Prison") AKA The Arioka Citadel Case deserves a special mention too, being a fantastic historical mystery story set during a year-long siege of a castle. An English translation is in the works by the way! Higurashi: When They Cry has a fantastic horror-vibe premise that really becomes creepier with each subsequent episode, and it uses the whole set-up of multiple episodes really good to flesh the whole mystery out, while other note-worthy titles are Haiyuuenchi no Sastsujin (2021) (set in an abandoned amusement park), Dorothy Goroshi (The Murder of Dorothy, 2018), set in the world of the Wizard of Oz and Cinderella-jou no Satsujin ("The Cinderella Castle Murder" 2021), which places Cinderella in the defendant's seat in the murder case of the prince. All premises that sound amazing right away. I ended up with Momono Zappa's Rouko Zanmu ("Dreams Are All That Remain To The Tiger Who Has Grown Old", 2021) however because I thought the wuxia theme was really original, and while it's very close to "conventional" fantasy (and I have read my share of fantasy mystery novels the last few years), I thought the martial arts aspect of wuxia was also very appealing and I was wondering how it'd be incorporated in the mystery, so as a premise, this one earns many points.

 

The Just-Ten-In-No-Particular-Order-No-Comments List

- Meitantei ni Kanbi naru Shi wo ("Delicious Death for Detectives") (Houjou Kie)

- Garasu no Tou no Satsujin ("The Glass Tower Murder") (Chinen Mikito)

- Squid-sou no Satsujin ("The Squid House Murders") (Higashigawa Tokuya)

- Oomarike Satsujin Jiken ("The Oomari Family Murder Case") (Ashibe Taku)

- Haedama no Gotoki Matsuru Mono ("Those Who Are Deified Like The Haedama") (Mitsuda Shinzou)

- Kokuroujou ("The Castle with the Dark Prison" AKA The Arioka Citadel Case) (Yonezawa Honobu)

- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ("When the Cicades Cry") (Ryukishi07)

- Sekigan no Shoujo ("The Girl With One Eye") (Maya Yutaka)

- Aomikan no Satsujin ("The Murder in the Marine Azure Manor") (Atsukawa Tatsumi)

- Haru Yukite, Retrotica ("As Spring Passes By, Retrotica" AKA The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story) 

Danger on Ice

氷の上に立つように危なげなこともしたい

「氷の上に立つように」（小松未歩）

I want to do something risky like standing on ice

"Like standing on ice" (Komatsu Miho)

Last Nintendo DS mystery game review this year, I promise!

In 2007, Tecmo released the Nintendo DS game with the ridiculously long title DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto - Atami - Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana ("DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense - A New Detective Series: Kyoto - Atami - The Lone Isle In The Deep Sea - A Murderous Trap"), a mystery adventure supervised by super-prolific novelist Nishimura Kyoutarou. That game was followed up by DS Yamamura Misa Suspense - Maiko Kogiku / Kisha Catharine / Sougiya Ishihara Akiko - Koto ni Mau Hana Sanrin - Kyouto Satsujin Jiken File ("DS Yamamura Misa Suspense - the Maiko Kogiku / Reporter Catharine / Funeral director Ishihara Akiko - The Three Petals Dancing In the Ancient Capital - Kyoto Murder Files"), a game I reviewed only a few weeks ago, and which was based on the works of similarly super-prolific novelist Yamamura Misa. While the two games were based on the works of different authors, the games were quite similar, both following a three-episode set-up and being obviously more aimed at a wider audience beyond traditional gamers, as the games were very simple in terms of difficulty. DS Yamamura Misa Suspense in particular was far too linear and simple. 

In 2008 however, Tecmo also released a sequel to DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series as the third entry in their DS Suspense series. DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series - Kanazawa, Hakodate, Gokkan no Keikoku: Fukushuu no Kage ("DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense - A New Detective Series:Kanazawa, Hakodate, a Freezing Valley - Shadows of Revenge") too has a ridiculously long title and of course once again about the newbie private detective Arata Isshin, who inherited his late father's detective agency. He is assisted by Kyou Asuka, his father's former disciple. These two characters are especially created for this game series with supervision of Nishimura by the way, and thus are not featured in any of his books, but the game does invokve the feeling of the 'two-hour suspenseful television drama' so strongly associated with Nishimura Kyoutarou, and the game of course always ends on a cliff-hanger at the end of each act, and there's even eyecatches between the acts with a Stereotypical Suspense tune. Following the story structure of the first game, we follow Isshin and Asuka on three adventures, one involving murder case happening inside the manor of a pottery master in Kanazawa, the second adventure set in cold Hakodate where a woman is found dead in the hot spring of an inn, and finally, a case involving Asuka's own past, set in a mansion hidden in a deep, snowy valley. It's up to Isshin, and the player to solve these cases!

 

Not as if this game is challenging or anything though. It is definitely not as easy and simple as DS Yamamura Misa, but you can easily tell this game is made to also appeal to people who have never played a game, as the Nintendo DS was one of those handhelds that really reached beyond the traditional gamer audience. Not a bad thing per se, but there's a lot of competition on the DS when it comes to mystery adventure games. Unsurprisingly, DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense 2 plays exactly the same as the first game, following standard adventure format: you visit various locations as you interview people and gather evidence or testimony. The evidence and testimony you have gathered allow you to answer the quiz-like questions asked in dialogue confrontations with allies or suspects, which will further develop the plot and eventually allow you to solve the case. There's no penalty for getting questions wrong (you are just asked again), so it's all very beginner-friendly. It is not as linear as DS Yamamura Misa Suspense though, fortunately, and therefore feels less rigid. 

As mystery stories, the three episodes included in this game aren't really complex and a lot of the "twists" are telegraphed a bit obviously, but I have to admit that usually, each episode seemed to have a plot point directly related to the mystery which I genuinely found clever and on the whole, the stories themselves are also told better than those in DS Yamamura Misa, so this game never actually felt boring, as it managed to keep a good pace throughout, even if the stories it told were simple. The opening story, Broken Bonds, has Isshin and Asuka travel to Kanazawa, as they have been hired by a master in pottery baking to investigate a series of thefts of expensive pots from their storage. When Isshin arrives there however, he discovers the body of the number one disciple, and the future master of the school as the victim was supposed to marry the current master's daughter. However, while Isshin is busy looking for help, the body disappears from the room Isshin found it. The last act is very clumsily written to show you who the real murderer is as it was basically putting them beneath a spotlight, but I like the whole deal about why the body was spirited away after Isshin had already found it. The second episode, Frozen Feelings, has Isshin winning tickets to Hakodate, so he visits there with Asuka. They meet a woman who is holding an ice sculpture exhibition in an hot spring inn, so they visit there, but as they prepare to enter the hot springs, Asuka discovers a dead woman in the women's bath. This story feels very much like a Nishimura story, as it involves Isshin and Asuka checking out the alibis of the suspects and making use of various means of transport to which of the suspects could've made it to the crime scene despiet a seemingly perfect alibi (being on the other side of the city). I think that on the whole, this was the best episode of the game, feeling exactly like what you'd expect of a game with Nishimura Kyoutarou's name on the cover, even if again the final act feels a bit cheap as it kinda takes the easiest way to eliminate viable suspects by pointing very very obviously to the real culprit. The final episode, Never-Ending Requiem, is a story that hinges on a certain thing that could work in some specific fictional worlds, but not really here, and it just falls flat because of that. Atmosphere-wise, it's pretty good, with Asuka disappearing while she was investigating a case on her own, and Isshin tracing her last known whereabouts to a manor hidden deep in a snowy valley and then everyone getting snowed in, but it tries to do something fairly unrealistic, even though the world depicted in these games is actually fairly realistic. 

Like the first game, DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense 2 also has an extra mode called West Village II ("Nishimura" meaning "West Village"), which this time contains 100 mystery-themed quizzes and puzzles. Some are pure puzzles, but others are short mystery stories where you have to pick a specific sentence to show where the culprit slipped up or where the contradiction is, and they are acually quite fun to kill some time with. The overall game is pretty short, and you probably won't even have 10 hours on the clock by the time you see the credits, but this extra mode will add a few more hours to that.

DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense 2 Shin Tantei Series - Kanazawa, Hakodate, Gokkan no Keikoku: Fukushuu no Kage is plainly put, very much like the first game. It's a game that has decent enough production values, but it is also clearly a game made for people who don't usually play mystery adventure games, so while some of the episodes feature some small clever ideas, on the whole it's all just very simple. and you're more there to enjoy the ride rather than really being challenged mentally to solve a mysterious crime. I played the game between other games though, and found the relaxing pace perfect as such, but this is by no means a high point in the list of Nintendo DS mystery adventure games. It's certainly the best of the three Tecmo DS Suspense adventures though, and if you're like me and just enjoy playing mystery ADVs on the DS, DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense 2 is made well enough to provide for a few hours of entertainment.

Original Japanese title(s): 『DS西村京太郎サスペンス2 新探偵シリーズ「金沢・函館・極寒の峡谷 復讐の影」』

A Case of Immunity

" I hate guns. Besides, I'm a bad shot"

"Troubled Waters"

At least these covers are still really neat...

Professional photographer/amateur detective Minami Mikikaze has been playing tour guide for the American forensic expert Elizabeth Kittridge in Japan since Aru Egypt Juujika no Nazo ("An Egyptian Cross Mystery"). When he was younger, Mikikaze suffered heavily from a weak heart, but it was Beth's father who was the surgeon who successfully conducted Mikikaze's heart transplantant a few years back, and they have kept in touch ever since, which is also how he became friends with Beth. Beth is visiting Japan for an international symposium and workshop program on criminal forensic investigation, and Mikikaze has been tagging along as her guide and personal photographer, though she can speak (a kind of) Japanese herself. The two of them also happen to get involved in all kinds of mysterious crimes during Beth's visit to Japan, from shorter adventures to a novel-length adventure in Aru Girishia Hitsugi no Nazo ("A Greek Coffin Mystery", 2021). And after a short story collection and a novel, we of course get the novella form: Tsukatou Hajime's Aru America-Juu no Nazo ("An American Gun Mystery", 2022) is once again titled after an Ellery Queen novel and is also the title of the first novella included in this book. Beth has been accompanying Mikikaze, who has planned to this trip to take some nature pictures, but after taking a fantastic photograph of a sunset and making their way back through the forest back to civilized world, the two of them are stopped by a police detective, who is obvious looking for something or someone. When he learns that Beth is an American coroner, he makes some calls and Mikikaze and Beth are asked to come along, and they are brought to the American consulate nearby. They had two events today at the consulate, a cultural exchange fair during the afternoon, and an evening masquerade party to celebrate the birthdays of the wife and daughter of the consul, as their birthdays are within days of each other. However, around sunset security noticed a suspicious figure in the large garden, and when they went to look for him, they found him shot to death, the pistol at his side. The victim was Ethan Matthews, the ex-husband of Vanessa Lang, one of the security officers in charge of the consulate. His obsessive behaviour caused their divorce, but that only changed him in a genuine stalker, which is why he might have been hanging around the consulate, but how did he end up with a bullet in his body? While everyone hopes it was just an accident and that he shot himself with his own pistol, they can't be sure, and as Beth, as an American, happens to be around, they ask her to examine the body and determine the cause of death, because obviously, they want to clear up this murder on consulate grounds as quickly as possible and don't want to wait for FBI agents to arrive from elsewhere in Japan or the US. However, while they are handling this case, and some people are waiting in one of the lounges, another murder occurs, with a man being shot in the head through the window of the lounge. What is going here?

What is going on here? As you may guess from the titles of these books, Tsukatou is greatly inspired by Ellery Queen in this series. These stories are not directly based on the Ellery Queen novels though, but only built on themes or just the title: in the title story's case, two people being shot, and of course this happening at an US consulate, and the victims being Americans. The stories were also inspired by Queen in terms of plotting, featuring chains of reasonings based on physical evidence, focusing on the state and circumstances of how something is found and the logical implications of those lines of thoughts. The state of an object tells something about when the culprit did something, with what purpose they did something, which knowledge they had that allowed them to do something, etc., and all of that serving as clues to identify the killer: the bread and butter of Queen-style plotting. Aru America-Juu no Nazo however does not feel like such a story: it is a mish-mash of seperate ideas that could've found a better place in different stories, but together they... don't add up to very much: there's little synergy between the various events and mystery-to-solution moments, and in the end, this rather long novella just feels... chaotic. 

The story starts promising though, with a consulate party being the "setting" of the story, but it doesn't take long for pretty much all the guests to be sent away, leaving a rather small cast of characters (suspects), and it's here when the chaos begins. What starts as an investigation into the death of Ethan Matthews soon becomes a muddy series of events that just happen, but don't really feel connected in terms of story, with for example Beth disappearing for a moment, followed by a second murder, and the appearance of a surprise character. You have all these events happening, but if you break it down, you see you just happen to have seperate things occuring simultaneously... simply to make the story seem more complex, and not because the incidents are connected to each other, even at the lowest level. This is of course the easiest, and least impressive way to present a "mysterious" story, just by stuffing unrelated events together in one box. Some ideas used in this story are okay or even memorable, but they just don't really work together, and there are certainly a few ideas here that really don't work in this story. The second murder for example, where a man sitting in a chair on the second floor of the consulate is shot from outside, has a solution that really doesn't fit this story or the world of Mikikaze and Beth, while I certainly would've swallowed it easier if it had been used in another story. One aspect of Beth's disappearance on the other hand is brilliant, and does work perfectly in this series, but ultimately, the story doesn't work as one cohesive mystery story. There are few elements that work specifically because they are in this story, while I do recognize there are ideas that would've worked better in a different story, or at least not together.

Oh, and then there's the way this story addresses a certain real-world issue with a fictional substitute. It was kinda daring to do this so close to the real-world counterpart, especially with the fictional twist it uses and while I think the core idea/thought behind this was pretty neatly used, this too feels out of place in this story, in this series.

The second novella, Aru Siam Futago no Nazo ("An Siamese Twin Mystery") is much shorter than the title story, but also much better. Beth and Mikikaze are visiting Kunou Junjirou, a professor researching quantum entanglement within twins. At his lake-side laboratory are more people, like his assistant, his (second) wife and James, his stepson from a previous marriage. James and Alistair used to be Siamese twins, but the two brothers were seperated some years ago, and now Alistair is living his own life as an illustrator in Australia. Present as test subjects are also the Zenba twins. The laboratory is located near a lake in the mountains and they are having a bit trouble with their equipment due to a solar flare, but their problems were not as drastic as those of the people in a private plane flying above them. One crashed plane later, a fire has started in the forest on the opposite side of a gorge. This is also where the main road is, so the people in the lab can't escape the fire, though fortunately, or unfortunately, the crash also took down the one bridge connecting the lake-side to the main road, meaning the fire won't reach their side for quite some while. Still, it is decides to already move the women to the island in the middle of the lake, as the professor has another house there. The party is split in two, with four remaining in the laboratory for the night to watch the fire, while the other four use the motorboat to cross to the island and sleep there for the night. During the night however, the party on the mainland discovers one of them was murdered, and when they phone to the island, Beth tells Mikikaze the professor was also killed in the motorboat when he made a second trip back-and-forth that night. Why were two murders committed during the mountain fire?

Okay, the mountain fire and closed circle situation are of course a homage to The Siamese Twin Mystery, and the presence of one half of a Siamese twin and another pair of twins is not a coincidence either, of course! Where the first story felt chaotic,  Aru Siam Futago no Nazo makes much better use of its page count, and brings a story that feels much more in line with the rest of this series, focusing on Queen-like deductions. We get plenty of deductions revolving around how the two crime scenes on the mainland and the island looked like and what the murderer must have done there, or chose to not do, and that ultimately all adds together to lead to a solution that feels quite satisfying, especially compared to the first story. The book actually cleverly invokes a different early Queen novel too, but that's for the reader to find out more about. But what this story does much better than the first one is the connection between the various events. Yes, at first this story too sounds a bit chaotic with two different murders occuring on the mainland and the island in the same night, and the circumstances are quite different too (one of the twins who was supposed to stand guard on the laboratory roof was found stabbed on the mainland, the professor was killed in the motorboat, and the other twin was found knocked unconscious near the boat), but Mikikaze manages to connect these two incidents not just by guessing they must be related due to them occuring in the same night, but using logic to show how these two incidents must be connected, and how they ultimately point to the identity of the murderer. I really like the hints that point directly to the murderer too, and the motive is quite memorable.

But would I recommend Aru America-Juu no Nazo? I'm really not a fan of the first story and consider the weakest of the series until this point, though I'd say the second novella is definitely worth a read. If you have already read the previous two books, I'd say read this one too, but I wouldn't recommend this as your first adventure with Mikikaze and Beth, as the gap between the highs and lows are too big. I think overall, the first collection is still the best, so start there and see if these stories interest you. 

Original Japanese title(s): 柄刀一『或るアメリカ銃の謎』:「或るアメリカ銃の謎」/「或るシャム双子の謎