A Double for Detection

Wishing on a dream that seems far off, hoping it will come today

"Wind's Nocturne"

Hmm, discussions on non-Japanese comics are rather rare on this blog, which is why I use the manga tag for all comics...

Stanislas-André Steeman was a French-speaking, Belgian illustrator and novelist, who wrote mystery novels (in French) from the 1930s until the late 1950s. I have to admit, I had never ever heard of his name until I started to see references to him in Japanese literature: while he is apparently fairly well-known in the Franco-language sphere of mystery fiction, just two of his novels have been translated to English, and they sell for quite the price. Apparently his work is also available in Flemish (Dutch) translation, I have never seen them going around in the used market, so they are not that common either. As my French isn't that good, I never really thought about looking deeper into this (I do believe there are multiple film adaptations of his books). But earlier this year, I learned a few of this books had been adapted as comics in the late 1980s, and the Flemish translations of these comics are still very cheap in the used market. The imprint which published these comics did several detective and thriller adaptations, ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Rouletabille. Interestingly, some of these adaptations inserted detectives in stories they were not originally part of, like having Rouletabille appear in The Phantom of the Opera.

These four books were all adapted from Steeman's novels by André-Paul Duchateau: the first three featured art by Xavier Musquera, the last one by Didier Desmit. The art obviously follows the French Ligne claire style, and the comics are also all the same lenght at around fifty pages. This does mean some of these stories feel rather rushed, though I can't say whether that's only because of the limited page count, or whether the original books also felt like that. Still, I feel that for some stories, an extra ten pages would have changed a lot. The page layout is, as often is with these comics, rather static, so it's a bit boring to look at at times, but that's also partially because I read much more manga, where page layouts are often more dynamic. That said, for those who are not as familar with manga, these comics might be easier to read exactly because they are so static in layout.

Zes dode mannen ("Six Dead Men") is based on 1930-1931's Six hommes mort (a book which is also available in English), and concerns a pact by six men down on their luck, who want to change their fate. They will split up and try to make something out of themselves and in five years, they will reconvene and share all their wealth with each other. Every mystery fan recognizes this has a tontine-esque element (if someone dies, the share of the remaining people grows). Five years later, most of them have indeed crawled up the financial ladder and are making their way back home to share their fortune with their friends, but one of them dies on the boat back. Another man has tattoed the secret to his fortune on his chest, but he has been followed by a mysterious figure, and just as he explains about this, he is shot and later his body (with the tattoo) is even spirited away. The men are offed one by one, and not even Inspector Wenceslas Vorobeitchick, also known as Wens, seems to be able to do anything. But will this really continue until one is left alive?

This story is absolutely fine to read as a tontine-based thriller, but as a proper mystery story, it's quite outdated. I am going to guess many readers will guess what is going here, as you will probably have seen the criminal's big gambit in a similar form one way or another in mystery fiction before, and... it's just not surprising anymore to the modern reader. There is a minor locked room-esque situation when one of the men is found dead in an elevator cage even though he was seen stepping inside the cage alive, but it is solved rather swiftly and it's not really a major problem in the book, just a short mystery to temporarily halt M. Wens' actions, even though he solves it rather quickly. Some parts of the plan of the murderer also seem a bit weird (the endgame for killing everyone in the tontine can't really work... right?), which is probably why as a contemporary reader, this is more fun to read as a thriller.

De vijand zonder gezicht ("The Enemy Without a Face") based on 1934's L'Ennemi sans visage (also released as M. Wens et l'automate) starts off really creepy: the death row inmate Jund is given a chance on a new life, as he is given the chance to become a guinea pig for professor Arthus, who is researching a way to transfer a human brain to the body of an automaton.  So yes, Jund's brain is going to be put in an automaton, and if he's lucky, he'll have a second life as he was supposed to be executed anyway. A prison detective is assigned to watch over Jund as they go to the professor's home, where his daughter and two sons also live. M. Wens is also present in the creepy house that is full of automatons that can move on their own once activated. During the brain operation however, something happens and they find the professor killed in the operation room, and the automaton with Jund's brain has gone missing. Has the automaton become a killing machine? Again one that is best read as a pulpy thriller. There are some scenes where Wens 'fights' the automaton, but the explanations for the powerful automaton are disappointing and as a whodunnit, it's not really remarkable.

De moordenaar woont op Nr 21 ("The Murderer Lives At Number 21") is based on 1939's L'assassin habite au 21, which I believe isn't originally a Wens novel, but he's in this adaptation as well. A murderer roaming the misty streets of London has been leaving calling cards signed "Mr. Smith" at his crime scenes, but one day, a drunk guy tells a police constable he actually saw Mr. Smith after his latest murder, and saw him enter Russel Square 21. The problem? It's a guest house, so which of the people staying there is Mr. Smith?  The police try to ask the French professor Julie, who is slated to stay at the house during his stay in London, to act as their spy, but he becomes scared, but before he is even able to flee the house, he's murdered by Mr. Smith, which seems to confirm the police's suspicions Mr. Smith lives there. But who is the murderer? What follows is a story that is actually pretty funny, because the guests have rather strong personalities and bicker a lot with each other. But the comic ends in a rather abrupt manner, and I have no idea whether the original book is like this too, or it's just because the comic has a rather limited page count. No motive is given for Mr. Smith's murder's before that of M. Julie. The murder of M. Julie does include an interesting dying message idea, which I think works on paper better than on... comic page paper. As in, I think the idea is good, but I don't think the comic itself really sold the idea really well, though I can't say whether the book did it any better. I think the atmosphere of the story is good though and of the four, I liked this volume the best.

Kaarsen voor de duivel ("Candles for the Devil") is based on Des cierges au diable from 1932 (also known as Les Atouts de M. Wens) and deals with the twins Frédéric Dolo and Martin Dolo: Freddy is a notorious swindler who has always been able to stay out of the police's hands, while Martin is a hardworking salesman who as of late has been making fewer sales due to his infamous brother. After a poker night at Georges D'Aoust's home, Georges is found shot in the head the following morning. At first it appears to be a suicide, but as Freddy Dolo was one of the poker players, the police start to suspect this was no self-inflicted death and start looking for Dolo, while some figures in the underworld also want to "pay back" Dolo for "services rendered" in the past. Martin Dolo too also gets involved in everything, as the brothers' resemblance leads to more than a few mix-ups, while more and more people with a connection to Freddy get attacked or killed. At this point, I was of course not surprised I enjoyed this better as a suspense thriller with mild mystery elements, rather than full-blown fair-play mystery. The story's big surprise won't really surprise now, I think, and I also have my doubts about how surprising it really would have been back when this was first released, but it wasn't boring at least!

Overall, I can't say these comics really made me a Steeman fan, though I am glad to have finally read something of his work (even if it's an adaptation). While I don't think I have seen anything that's really impressive in these stories, they were okay thrillers that build on familiar mystery tropes. Perhaps I would have been more enthusiastic about them if I had read the originals in the 1930s, and of course, the comic format and the limited page count might have changed the feeling of the novels too, but for now, I think I have gotten some idea of Steeman's work in terms of plotting, and I don't feel the immediate need to search for more, though I am happy to have read these four. 

Three Strikes, You're Out

"There must be something comforting about the number three. People always give up after three"
"Sherlock"

Wow, it's been almost four years since I last wrote something about this series? 

Tantei Jinguuji Saburou series 

1: The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case (1987) [Nintendo Famicom Disk System]

5: The Unfinished Reportage (1996) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn] 

6: At the End of the Dream (1998) [Sony PlayStation / SEGA Saturn] 

7: Before the Light Fades (1999) [Sony PlaySation] 

8: Innocent Black (2002) [Sony PlayStation 2]  

9: Kind of Blue (2004) [Sony PlayStation 2]  

10: The White Phantom Girl (2005) [Nintendo GameBoy Advance] 

14: Ashes and Diamonds (2009) [Sony PlayStation Portable] 

15: The Red Butterfly (2010) [Nintendo DS] 

16: Rondo of Revenge (2012) [Nintendo 3DS]

17: Ghost of the Dusk (2017) [Nintendo 3DS]

18: Prism of Eyes (2018) [Nintendo Switch/Sony PlayStation 4]

 

00: Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz (2018) [Nintendo Switch/Sony PlayStation 4]

Mobile: New Order [iOS] 

 

Novels

The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case AD2000 (2000)

The Ghost of Shinjuku (2006)

A Bright Future (2007)

In 1987, Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken ("The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case") was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, making it the third command-based adventure game on the system, and the game would become the first entry in one of the longest mystery adventure game franchises in existence. In the game, the player took up the role of private investigator Jinguuji Saburou who worked in Shinjuku and helped by assistant Youko and backed-up by his friend Inspector Kumano, the player was asked to solve the murder of a woman found in Shinjuku Central Park. It was far from a perfect game, and a lot of the ideas seen in this game would be abandoned, or only return in much later installments in a much refined versions, but still, the basic concept of the game were unique enough to make this a franchise over 30 years old. The game was unique for being aimed at adults, with a distinct hardboiled atmosphere, offering a story that involved the underworld of Shinjuku, and which had you investigate suspicious bars and other places in the shady entertainment district. But, it had also aspects of a puzzle plot mystery, with a pretty outrageous plot revealed at the end, and that is what has given the Tantei Jinguuji Saburou game franchise its unique face: the series has seen several developers in its history, but you can generally expected a mystery story with a hardboiled exterior involving the underworld, but you can occasionally find puzzle plot mystery plots too that tie in with those "hardboiled detective" plots, and then there's of course the fantastic music of this series. I am a big fan of the series, and have written about many of the games, and while they are certainly not all recommended material, I still enjoy them in general a lot.

What might be confusing about this franchise is that the title Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken ("The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case") has been used multiple times for different productions. In 2003, a "remake" of the game was released on mobile phones in Japan, and this version was also later included in the first Nintendo DS title of this franchise. This DS game has been released in English in localized form as Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past, with the remake of Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken being given the title The Petty Murder of a Fragile Heart. But even though this version is considered a "remake" and in Japanese, bears the same title as the 1987 original, it's basically a completely different story: while the 2003 version starts similarly with the corpse of a woman being discovered in Shinjuku Central Park and Inspector Kumano asking Jinguuji to look into the case, the rest of the case is completely different, and the "biggest" connection the 2003 version has with the 1987 game in terms of story, is that a few characters from the 2003 game share names with characters from the 1987 version, though with completely different backgrounds. So that's two games titled Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken but with different stories.

And then there's a third murder in Shinjuku Central Park: Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 ("Detective Jinguuji Saburou: The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case AD2000", 2000), which isn't a game, but a novel written by Sukeno Hiroshi. Who incidentally would go on to work on the story of the 2003 version of Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken, so he worked on at least two of the three Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken titles that exist within this franchise, and because older games don't really properly credit people, so this is impossible to check, but I wouldn't even be surprised if he also worked on the original 1987 game! Anyway, it should surprise anyone if I say the story starts with the discovery of a strangled woman in Shinjuku Central Park. The woman is identified as Yukie, a "hostess" who worked at the club Side Pocket. Jinguuji is hired by Hitomi, a friend of Yukue and fellow hostess to find out why her friend ended up murdered. Jinguuji starts his investigation by asking around in the night club where the victim worked, but soon starts to suspect that something going in at Side Pocket might've led to Yukie's death. but what?

This novel was released in 2000, after the three PlayStation/Saturn era games (The Unfinished Reportage, At the End of the Dream and Before the Light Fades), and you can definitely tell. The atmosphere of this novel, and the way the investigation into the murder of Yukie plays out is very similar to those three games, so as "supplemental material" to those games, I quite enjoyed it. This 2000 version of the Shinjuku Central Park murder by the way is not intended as a remake of the first game: in the book Jinguuji refers to the events of the 1987 game, saying he worked on a case involving a dead woman in the park before, so it's just supposed to be a similar, but different case. There are a few other minor parts that help "fix" this novel within the game timeline, like this book being the first time Jinguuji meets the forensic investigator Miyoshi (who first appears in Mikan no Rupo) or mentioning how this story is set only a few months after Youko first became Jinguuji's assistant (also referencing how they first met, as shown in Yume no Owari ni, and later somewhat retconned/explained really weirdly in the spin-off prequel game Daedalus). That said, I'd say the book is pretty accessible for people who don't know the series at all: sure, you have a few recurring characters like the yakuza boss Imaizumi, but everything you need to know is explained, and Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 is perfectly readable as a standalone hardboiled detective story.

That said, I assume that most readers of this blog are not really looking for a hardboiled detective story and in that regard, Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 isn't really a book I would recommend. I think it's a great Jinguuji Saburou novel, that really captures the atmosphere of the games, and of the three novels I have read now, this one is absolutely the best one at capturing the vibe, but as a standalone detective story, it's not particularly clever or memorable. You just follow Jinguuji's investigation as he tries to learn more about Yukie, the shady going-ons at Side Pocket and how that may be connected to Yukie's death, and as always, things start to get complicated when Jinguuji stumbles upon a plot that involves the underworld of Shinjuku and there's even a social school-esque aspect as we learn about the weaker people like hostesses who live within the shady night-life of Shinjuku, but it's not like you're treated to a fairly clewed, clever mystery. You're just here for the ride. There are a few minor moments where Jinguuji makes clever deductions about what to do, but those times are rare. It's not the novel that will win people over or anything, it's just a solid spin-off novel of the game series. Some parts might feel bit too similar to the plots from the PlayStation/Saturn-era games, but it's a part I like, because I think those games were the best of the series, and this book really feels part of that era.

Oh, and the book has some neat original art!

So Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 isn't really a must-read on its own, but as a big fan of the series, I am happy to have now experienced all three times within this franchise where the titular detective had to investigate the murder of a woman in Shinjuku Central Park. The novel is at no time truly surprising nor does it offer a really clever plot, but it does feel incredibly close to the type of stories the PlayStation/Saturn games in this franchise told and as such, I even think it's the best Jinguuji Saburou novel I have read until now. And as I haven't discussed this series in years now on this blog, I needed an excuse to bring it up again, and use the "hardboiled" tag again. Guess it's back to waiting for a new game again...

Original Japanese title(s): 助野寛『探偵神宮寺三郎新宿中央公園殺人事件AD2000』

Masquerade Death

The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. 

"The Masque of Red Death"

Always happy when "an out-of-print book I'm eyeing, but won't buy because a used copy is too expensive" is re-released!

Kawamiya Keisuke and Naoko took over their father's detective agency after World War II, and have been slowly making a living as private detectives. It's 1947 when they are hired by Urabe Kiwako. Arriving at Maibara Station, Keisuke and Naoko learn how important the Urabe Silk Mill is around here, being the main economic motor of the entire region. The mill used to be run by Kiwako's husband Ryuuichirou, but before he died, he took in his two twin nephews Fumihiko and Takehiko as his heirs. Fumihiko and Takehiko's parents had been estranged from Ryuuichirou originally, but after their death and the war ended, Ryuuichirou, who had no children of his own, wanted Fumihiko and Takehiko to take over, especially as the family had a history of prospering whenever such identical twin brothers would lead the family. Fumihiko became the president and Takehiko the vice-president, and initially things seemed to go well. But after the suicide of Sayako, a girl who worked at the mill and about whom poison pen letters were being written, things quickly soured. It turned out Takehiko had a relationship with the girl, and he accuses Fumihiko of being behind the poison letters. Takehiko disappeared one day, leaving Fumihiko alone at the helm of the factory. But recently, a letter was sent to him, which prompted his aunt Kiwako to hire Keisuke and Naoko. The letter was accompanied by a newspaper article telling how an illegal plastic surgeon had been murdered, and that the records show his last patient (who killed the medical man) was... Takehiko. Apparently, Takehiko has changed his face and in the letter he says he has returned to Maibara and he'll have his revenge on Fumihiko. Keisuke and Naoko are to protect Fumihiko from the disguised Takehiko, and they stand guard in front of his bedroom the first night, but the following morning, he's found dead inside the room. It appears Fumihiko himself let the murderer inside the room via the window, meaning Takehiko must be a person who Fumihiko met in the last half year or so and won his trust (pretending to be someone else), but who? That's the big question in Ooyama Seiichirou's 2006 novel Kamen Gensoukyoku ("Masquerade Twin Fantasia").

My first encounter with Ooyama Seiichirou was via the PSP game Trick X Logic, and since that occasion, I've been a fan of his puzzle plot short stories, which range from a locked room short story collection with a unique Ellery Queen-style logic focus, to his cracking alibi-cracking stories and a fun collection where you never know who the main detective is, only the Watson, but you might have noticed one thing here: Ooyama specializes in short stories. In fact, Kamen Gensoukyoku is still the only full-length novel he has published at this moment. I had been wanting to read this for a while because I am a fan of his writings, but the original release wasn't really cheap on the used market, so I had been postponing it for a long while. Last year however, at the start of 2022, Ooyama wrote on Twitter he was working on the manuscript of the book to get it ready for a pocket re-release, which really made me enthusiastic... and then the year passed, and at the start of 2023, Ooyama tweeted once again he was (still) working on it. This was getting a bit worrisome, but fortunately, the pocket did get released in 2023, with a nifty new cover too!

I have to admit I was a bit surprised by the very Yokomizo Seishi-esque vibe of the book, being set soon after World War II, set in a rural place with a silk factory as its main economic engine, and of course a family traditions of focusing twins and family fueds playing a big role in the story. A lot of what I read by Ooyama is very contemporary, so I hadn't expected such a shift all, but that did really pique my interest. On the whole, I do think that if you like Yokomizo-style stories, you'll find a lot to like here too, though the writing style itself is contemporary, and definitely lightheartier than Yokomizo. There's of course also a distinct Carr feeling, as the plot is reminiscent of It Walks by Night.

The murder on Fumihiko occurs fairly early in the book, and because they know that a) Takehiko has secretly returned to Maibara the last few months after his visit to the brilliant plastic surgeon and has taken on a new identity, b) that Fumihiko must've been deceived by Takehiko, not knowing that one of the people whom he has become acquainted with/hired these last few months is actually his twin brother, the investigation of Keisuke and Naoko quickly turns to figuring out who of the people in Maibara could be Takehiko in disguise. Police investigation show that the plastic surgeon, Masuo, was absolutely brilliant, having his arts abroad, but he ended up in the illegal sector. While details of his records were wiped, it shows Takehiko did undergo a surgery to change his appearance, though we don't know the details. Still, because he only went facial surgery, Keisuke and Naoko of course realize Takehiko could only be disguised as someone who still resembles his original self somewhat, so being a man in the same age range (and that he's not likely to be living as an old lady now), but who could it be?

The book is fairly short, so while a few more events follow after the Fumihiko murder, including another murder and also a more thorough investigation into Sayako's death a year ago and who likely sent the poison pen letters about her, we're almost near the solution, and that's of course, as you'd expect of Ooyama, very much Queen-inspired, focusing on the actions we know the murderer=Takehiko must have taken to commit the murder on his brother to identify a few characteristics, which are then applied to the suspects to see which of them can be the murderer. There is one major trick here that is probably the one thing you'll remember about this book, and it's both quite brilliant, and a bit underplayed. The idea itself is really good: there's very clever misdirection going on regarding this that really invites you to re-read certain parts carefully to see Ooyama did indeed play very fair. It is a concept that nearly borders on concepts you'd also expect in Mitsuda's Toujou Genya books, which was perhaps why it caught me completely off-guard, because I might've expected in a Genya book, but I didn't because I was still so used to Ooyama's contemporary tales. It is a simple idea, but executed very well. At the same time though, one can also argue the trick only makes sense from a reader's point of view. One can't deny that for this trick to work, the characters of the book basically had to act in a certain way, even if it wasn't the most logical/obvious thing to do. Meaning, the trick itself is done brilliantly: but was it really necessary to do it like that? Would all the actors who are involved one way or another really always act like that? Taking a step back, the plan is a bit more convoluted than it ever needs to be for the murderer, but you know, the main trick is still memorable, and on those merits alone, I think the book's worth a read, as the biggest step on the logical road towards identifying Takehiko is really impressive in its simplicity.

If you're like me and you have read (a lot of other) Ooyama Seiichirou short stories, Kamen Gensoukyoku, will feel quite refreshingly different, despite feeling very much like a classic detective story. The set-up is not overly large in scale, but it is clear from Ooyama had one big idea as he wrote this book, which is executed in a clever manner, resulting in a satisfying mystery novel. Definitely worth picking up if you're an Ooyama fan! If you haven't read anything by him yet, this is still a fun novel, though he's mainly a short story writer, so this book is not really representative of his trademark style.

Original Japanese title(s): 大山誠一郎『仮面幻双曲』

Murder in the Maze

"Our readers are children! Millions of bloodthirsty little kids, and we give them what they want!"

"The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader"

Note to self: when planning posts in advance, make sure not to skip a week by accident, resulting in me having to write a post hastily because apparently, I didn't have a post scheduled for this week until I noticed last minute.

I have read a lot of mystery comics from Japan. I am of course reading series that are still running like Detective Conan and Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, but also read a lot of shorter, older series, especially after the release of the fantastic Honkaku Mystery Manga Zemi ("Honkaku Mystery Comics Seminar", 2018), which provides an overview of the many, many mystery comics that have been published in Japan. In particular, this book focused on honkaku mystery comics, so puzzle-plot focused stories and as you peruse this book, you'll learn that this genre has a long history in Japan, and have been extremely succesful starting in the nineties. On the other hand, I have always wondered about such comics outside Japan. I know of a few of them, of course, like the Mickey Mouse comics, or Inspecteur Netjes, and while I know there have been comic versions of Ellery Queen and other characters, I was more interested in original characters. One of the names you'll likely to come across sooner or later when looking for puzzle plot-focused American comics is The Maze Agency, created by Mike W. Barr, with various artists working on various series (runs). Originally published privately by Barr (with art by Alan Davis), the series was professionally published starting 1988 and has since seen also seen two follow-up series in the nineties and the early 2000s. The Maze Agency will even see even a completely new series later this year, as the fourth series will start late 2023. So it's a series that's been around for a while, even if it runs very irregularly.

The series is about Gabriel Webb, a a young true crime writer who would rather write puzzle plot mysteries. As of late, he has been trying to woe Jennifer Mays, a former CIA agent who now runs the succesful private detective burea the Maze Agency (Mays... Maze...). While the determined, headfast Jennifer runs a very efficient detective bureau herself, she occassionally does take Gabriel along for non-conventional jobs, because as it turns out, while Gabriel is a bit scatter-minded and clumsy, his free mind is precisely the type of brain needed for the more baffling cases Jennifer sometimes handles, like a supercar disappearing within seconds, a psychic being targeted by an unknown assailant or an art thief who steals the frames, but leaves the paintings!

The series was strongly inspired by Ellery Queen, and in fact, in essence, The Maze Agency is built up as a fair-play mystery, with proper clewing, and while there's not always an informal Challenge to the Reader, the fact each issue is about 30 pages long means that you know that around page 25 you should have all the necessary clues to, in theory, solve the crime. I say in principle, for there are plenty of issues where the clewing is so clumsily done to "surprise" the reader or the art doesn't really convey a clue well enough, so they end up feeling not as fair as the story pretends it to be. That said, having read about ten issues now, it is a fairly entertaining series, if not to see how Jennifer and Gabriel's relation very slowly evolves while they are solving all these crimes. The crimes themselves are often quite alluring, and the story-telling is dynamic, with twists and turns.

The first few issues follow a very familiar formula, with the initial crime, Jennifer and Gabriel investigating the crime, "some kind of dangerous scene" happening to create some suspense (like the murderer trying to attack Jennifer and Gabriel for nosing around too much), an occasional second murder and then the denouement, where Gabriel and Jennifer explain how the crime was done and where they point out the clues the reader should've picked up. Later issues move a little bit away from this, but as each issue is about the same in length and always last for only that one 30-page issue, the story beats usually don't change too much per story, even if the stories themselves can be varied. The second issue Murder - the Lost Episodes for example involves an interesting plot regarding a legendary television show, and while I think the last reveal of the murderer could've felt so much more satisfying if there had been more clues, I think the part preceding that was a fun idea. Issue 4, The Return of Jack the Ripper, is about members of a Jack the Ripper society being killed one by one. One clue pointing to the killer is quite nicely thought off, and mixed well with the Ripper theme. Issue 6, Double Edge, involves a locked room murder occuring during Gabriel's birthday party at a club. While the trick is a bit silly and unlikely to work, it is the kind of trick that makes you realize writer Barr does really like classic mystery fiction, as this is the kind of trick you could imagine to see in a classic locked room murder mystery. Issue 7, Hearts of Glass, where Jennifer meets an old friend who worked at the CIA, but who is killed in a locked room, similarly has a trick that is just a bit silly, but just imaginative enough to work for me.

A highlight is issue 9, where Gabriel and Jennifer team up with none other than... Ellery Queen! Written to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Ellery Queen, The English Channeler Mystery starts with an attempt on the life of a medium who channels the spirit Noraga has been made by poisoning her water, so Jennifer is hired to investigate the case, as well as Ellery. who via his father and Sergeant Velie also learns the details of the case. They are not capable of stopping an actual murder from happening, but they can work together to solve this murder. While the plotting is certainly not top-level, the type of reasoning seen in this story is particularly close to the Queen style of eliminating suspects, and it really fits this Queen crossover. And yes, this time, there is a Challenge to the Reader!

Overall, I do feel these first ten or so issues of The Maze Agency often feel just too short to really work out the clewing that these plots, in theory, provide. A lot of the gripes I have with these stories could easily have been solved just by allowing for more pages to tell the story more slowly and plant more clues and they end up feel a bit rushed in the thirty page limit. Artwork also differs sometimes per issue, and the placing of visual clues is perhaps therefore not always really strong. For example, clues like "look at how high this is" aren't really conveyed well via establishing shots or shots that clearly show certain characters' heights in comparison etc. Partially a problem of the artist, partially a matter of the writer needing to clearly point out that something is a visual clue.

But reading an issue of The Maze Agency once in a while is pretty fun, and I am interested to see how this new series will turn out, especially as surely series like Detective Conan being available in official English translation for decades now must have had some influence on how to do a fair-play mystery comic, right? I'll probably read more of this series in the future too, and if there's a really great issue I'll be sure to discuss them again.

The Dark Side of the Door

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, 

That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;

— Darkness there and nothing more.

"The Raven" (Edgar Allan Poe)

Two of the major mystery-related newcomer awards (meaning you get a publishing contract for your entry if you win) in Japan are the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award (publisher: Tokyo Sogensha) and the Mephisto Prize (publisher: Kodansha). Both are popular awards and many who want to write mystery fiction, will try to submit their manuscripts for those awards, as getting published via either of them means receiving a major marketing push and a lot of attention. Of the two, my own preferences correspond best to the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, which is more focused on puzzle plot mysteries. In a broad sense by the way, so you can have a plot set in a nursing home for the elderly with a lot of real-life experience poured into the story,  but also one of the biggest hits ever that make use of supernatural elements in a mystery story. The Mephisto Prize on the other hand is, by its own definition, not really an award that focuses on mystery fiction per se. The jury are looking for entertainment novels, that span several genres from mystery to horror and much more. That means more variety, but also that a lot of the Mephisto winners aren't the kind of puzzle plot mystery I like to read in the first place. Something like J no Shinwa is really not the kind of novel I usually read and I didn't really like it, some aren't even mystery stories, while books like Clock-Jou Satsujin Jiken and Marumarumarumarumarumarumarumaru Satsujin Jiken are memorable puzzle plot mysteries. But in terms of consistency, I can usually assume a winner of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award will more often be closer to my own preferences than a Mephisto awardee.

Hikawa Tooru made his debut via the Mephisto Prize in 2000, but interestingly enough, he writes in a mode more commonly associated with the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award. His debut work, Makkura na Yoake or Pitch-Black Dawn as the cover also says, is highly inspired by Ellery Queen and is a pure puzzle plot whodunnit. Like Ellery Queen, his detective character is also named Hikawa Tooru, a young man in his twenties who is hoping to become a mystery novelist. He used to be in a band in university, and the band is going to meet up again for the first time in a few years. Hikawa has been chasing his dream of becoming a professional novelist, doing odd jobs to make ends meet in the meantime, but all his former band members have become full members of the working Japanese society, which is one of the reasons why they haven't really come together again in a while (everyone having their own schedules). Izumi, the oldest and leader of the band who now works at the Suginami-ku Ward Office, arranges for the get-together to be held at a restaurant near his work, and while the place is a bit hard to find, everyone eventually makes it there, with some bringing a +1. After a night of catching up, Izumi says goodbye, as he lives in the neighborhood, while the others hurry to the Suginami Subway Station, as the last train will leave in about twenty minutes. They arrive a bit early though, so they hang about at the otherwise empty station. Some have to go the toilet, others walk around in the station while others wait at the platform. Just a minute before the last train arrives, Matsubara goes back up the stairs to go to the bathroom, but the next second, he cries out in terror, as he discovers the body of Izumi lying dead in the station's men's bathroom. Everyone is utterly baffled, not only by the fact that Izumi has been bludgeoned to death by an art object that had been displayed in the station hall, but because they had said goodbye to him before arriving at the station, and that he shouldn't be at the station at all as he lives in the area. Because the only people at the station, besides three station attendants, were the people at the get-together, it seems likely one of them is the murderer, even if the police can't completely rule out the possibility Izumi might've been killed and robbed of his money in the short time when there was nobody in the station hall when everyone were just still waiting for the train. Hikawa intentionally lies during his questioning to make it seem like someone might've escaped the station while he was waiting for the train and standing near the exits in the main hall, but in fact he knows nobody escaped and that therefore, one of his friends is the murderer and he is determined to find out who it is.

Makkura na Yoake is a surprisingly simple and sobre detective novel considering it's a Mephisto Prize winner, and you can definitely feel the Ellery Queen influence throughout the novel. A lot of the book is devoted to plain investigation and the discussion of possibilities and whether they can discard them, and to be honest, having read it now , I really find it odd this book isn't an Ayukawa Tetsuya Award winner but a Mephisto Prize winner. The murder set-up, while it has a few mysteries about it, is essentially very simple: a murder in the men's bathroom in a subway station and the only people inside, besides the station attendants, all had some kind of (in-direct) link with the victim. Because everyone's memories are a bit vague and it's hard to vouch for each other's alibis, it seems quite a few of them could have committed the murder, but two mysteries remain: why was Izumi in the subway station in the first place, and why did the murderer use the specific murder weapon? For the murderer didn't use the small handy statue to strike Izumi down, but with the flat base upon which the statue stood. The statue is much better suited as a striking weapon compared to the disk-like base, so why did the murderer choose the latter? It's here where the Ellery Queen-flavor becomes the most obvious, as a lot of the book is devoted to discussions about why this weapon was chosen, as well as trying to sort out everyone's positions and a time table until the discovery of the body. And of course, these theories and conclusions are then used to arrive at new conclusions, building whole chains of logic that eventually lead to the murderer.

The situation itself also reminds of the earliest Queen novels, with a kind of public space, but also with a limited cast, and a focus on where everyone was and what they were doing. Hikawa himself as a character obviously isn't early Ellery, especially as he's personally involved in the case, and technically one of the suspects himself too, but you can easily tell who inspired Hikawa.

But even as an Ellery Queen fan, I do have to say the middle part of the book is rather boring. The book tries to help this by telling the story in a kind of And Then There Were None way, with each section following a different character (so the book does not solely follow Hikawa himself). It gives the reader a somewhat more diverse reading experience, as it plays with the idea of you knowing the murderer has to be one of these people you're reading about, but so little happens in these segments. It's basically only Hikawa and fellow member Shiori who genuinely talk about the case, so the segments about any of the other characters just feel like time filler. And while Hikawa, Shiori and the detectives in charge do talk about the various possibilities together, posing theories and also pointing out flaws in each other's ideas, fact remains a lot of it remains rather open to interpretation until later on in the book, so the plot moves very slowly.

Which reminds me, why does the police detective decide to trust Hikawa all of a sudden...? At first they were annoyed with Hikawa's detective playing, but like one chapter later, the main detective decides to trust Hikawa and even feeds him confidential information about the investigation... Hikawa isn't even a renowned mystery writer or anything, he's someone who's trying to become one!

The solution however does remind me once again why I like Ellery Queen-style whodunnits so much. It's these kinds of chains of reasoning that impress me the most about mystery fiction: where the detective use fact A and fact B to arrive at conclusion 1, and combines that with conclusion 2 to arrive at conclusion 3, etc. etc. until lo, you have identified the one single murderer, even though you started with a very, very humble clue. In this case, the way Hikawa arrives at the identity of the murder is truly in the spirit of Queen. It starts with a simple problem, but by focusing on that, Hikawa can use logic to slowly eliminate who it couldn't have been, and finally arriving at who it only could've been. Even though at first, it seemed anyone could've done it. A lot of "side-issues" like motive however are left to speculation and guesses, which are only confirmed because obviously the actual writer Hikawa Tooru wants it to be like that, but the logic itself is sound. The book does feel a bit longer than it needed to be though, and I think I'd have liked it more as a short story, as the deduction itself is great. The book features a second crime in the second half of the book, and while that is fairly simple, I do like the way Hikawa determines the crime is in fact a crime, and not a suicide: this solution hinges on something uniquely Japanese, but also incredibly normal and easy to miss, yet once pointed out, you can't believe you didn't notice it yourself the first time.

Overall, I think that as a debut story Makkura na Yoake is not an outstanding, but still a reasonably consistent mystery novel that is in particular of interest for fans of EQ-style whodunnits. Hikawa would go on writing a few more books, so I'll definitely check them out to see how he further develops. Strangely enough though, Hikawa just suddenly disappeared as a writer. He debuted in 2000 and wrote his last works in 2004, but while he was active on Twitter and last wrote he was moving, he fell silent afterwards and no books have been published since, and his books are also not available as e-books, suggesting perhaps even the publisher can't reach him. For the moment, I have all of the Hikawa Tooru books that also have Hikawa Tooru as the detective, so I'll be discussing them here on the blog eventually.

Original Japanese title(s): 氷川透『真っ暗な夜明け』

The Last Free Man

"Nothing is impossible," declared The Thinking Machine with equal emphasis. He always spoke petulantly. "The mind is master of all things. When science fully recognizes that fact a great advance will have been made."

"The Problem of Cell 13"

I have only read a handful of American comics , but are there good Batman comics that actually sell him as "the world's greatest detective"? Something with a fair-clewed, puzzle plot? I mean, I enjoy Batman as much as anyone else, and grew up with Batman The Animated Series, but I never really had the feeling Batman was the greatest detective, at least, so much of what would constitute detecting was technology-based, and while sure, it probably required some intellect on Batman's side to construct Batcomputers and stuff like that, you don't really get to see that, so as the viewer, we only see a Batcomputer analyzing stuff and providing an answer, or have Batman solve riddles or more like guessing villain schemes. 

So I got started with this, because I was thinking of manga artist Kuwata Jirou, famous for his 8 Man series, but until yesterday, the only manga I ever read by him was the Batman manga, better known as Batman: The Kuwata Jiro Bat-Manga. The 60s series was slightly based on the Adam West Batman series, only not camp, and far more action and scifi-based, and I genuinely like it as a 60s scifi manga. Some of the stories are based on the American comics, some are completely original creations and it feels surprisingly close to series like Kamen Rider or Astro Boy, but with Batman and Robin.

This same Kuwata also made a manga adaptation of the famous 1905 impossible mystery short story The Problem of Cell 13, by American journalist Jacques Futrelle and featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, also known as The Thinking Machine. Originally receiving a collected release in 1978, Meitantei Thinking Machine: Kanzen Datsugoku ("The Great Detective The Thinking Machine: The Perfect Escape") is a short, 110 page adaptation of the most famous of the Thinking Machine stories, and it's on the whole a pretty faithful and funny adaptation, only making small changes to add a bit of comedy, without intruding upon the plot. Like in the original story, the manga too starts with Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen making his claims that nothing is impossible for the human brain, as long as one applies it correctly to the problem, to which his friend Dr. Ransome challenges the Thinking Machine to show everyone exactly that. Supposing the professor was kept alone in a cell, in a prison in Chisholme, could he manage to escape within a week? The professor accepts the challenge, agreeing to be moved into a cell in the prison, with just three conditions: he wants a toothbrush (tooth powder in the original story), he wants a five dollar bill and two ten dollar bills, and he'd like someone to polish his shoes before he's put in prison. Can the Thinking Machine truly escape from a secured prison under those conditions?

The short story is over a century old, and while I won't spoil it, there's not really much I can say about it now. Would I put it in a top 100 list of best crime and mystery stories like H.R.F. Keating did? No, absolutely not. Is it a good impossible "crime" story? Ehh... it depends. In the context of 1905 of course,  The Problem of Cell 13 is an original impossible crime story, that also does focus on the proper process of providing clues -> logical reasoning -> solution, but it does make a few jumps in the explanation that for a modern reader of puzzle plot mysteries, might feel unfair, or at least not strongly enough hinted at. I think the basic idea of how the Thinking Machine manages to escape the prison is good though, but seeing it from the POV of a puzzle plot enjoyer, I would have preferred a few more "confirmation" clues to what the professor was doing, as the story demands quite some imagination/fantasy from the reader if they were to try to solve this themselves. Of course, because this story is so old, it pre-dates most genuine puzzle plot mysteries, so it's very much looking at the story with "future" knowledge, but that's how I feel about it. 

While reading this adaptation by Kuwata, I was also strongly reminded of Lupin the Third by the way. Who of course was... at one point, inspired by the original Arsène Lupin (even if they are very different personality-wise), and who as a character, is from the same time period as the Thinking Machine. Those stories too are usually not really fair play mysteries, so quite similar in that sense. I wonder if Kuwata had Lupin the Third in mind while drawing this manga: it dates almost ten years after Lupin made his own debut, and he of course also had his own prison escape stories. The Thinking Machine in the Kuwata adaptation in particular is quite enjoyable to see, mischieveous, and almost with the heart of a young, playful boy despite his age and wisdom. 

As mentioned, the changes are quite minimal, though one change is probably just a "oops, that slipped my mind" mistake: the story starts with a scene that is basically only one single paragraph in the original story, where the Thinking Machine beats a Russian grandmaster in a game of chess, even though he has never before played chess and only studied the rules before the game. This opening scene is set in Great Britain, and the story then remains in there, also stating that's where the Chisholme prison is. Which... makes the request of Professor van Dusen for (US) dollar bills to take inside the prison even more mystifying, and another later story development too. In a way, it makes the Thinking Machine's plan even crazier, in a funny way, but yeah, I think this was just a brain fart of Kuwata and his editors, forgetting to either move the story back to the United States or at least change those American references...

It had been a while since I last read the original story, so I thought this was a fun way to revisit The Problem of Cell 13. As a comic adaptation Meitantei Thinking Machine: Kanzen Datsugoku is a functional, and pleasant read, but at the same time, it's of course simply an adaptation of a fairly short story, so it's not like this was ever likely going to be a must-read masterpiece. But as a Japanese adaptation of a Western mystery story, it's a fun footnote.

Original Japanese title(s): 桑田次郎（絵）『名探偵シンキングマシン 完全脱獄』

Survival of the Fittest

Memento mori

Remember you will die

I like Enta Shiho's art, but all these covers with just a girl's face looking at the camera all feel kinda samey after a while...

People probably didn't quite expect the zombie virus to take over the world in this way.  Twenty years have passed since the first recorded instance of a "zombie" or the "living dead." With time, scientists discovered it was not a virus, but a pathogen that causes dead mammals to becoming moving creatures again, even though people still commonly refer to it as the zombie virus. By now, most mammals across the world have already been infected by the pahtogen, but fortunately, a healthy person (or animal) usually has enough natural resistance against the zombie virus. It was when they die, or are severely weakened, the zombie virus can take over their mind, controlling the living dead. While the pathogen only affects the recently deceased (older bodies have not risen from their graves), society had to adapt to a world where the dead, and also the critically injured and ill will turn into a zombie. Many of them of the human zombies are rounded up, but because it is impossible to tell which are zombies of actually dead people, and which zombies are of people who are technically alive, but taken over by the zombie virus, they can't really "get rid of them" that easily. The bigger problem is the food economy, as it became impossible to do factory farming anymore, as even one single sick animal could in no time tun all the others in the farm into zombies. Society had to adapt to the new reality, and to some extent, they did, but there is still much to learn about the living dead.

Ultimate Medical is a medical company doing research into the living dead, and one day, they have a big announcement to make regarding zombie research. The presentation is to be held at the manor of Ukari Ichirou, an executive of the company. But when the time of the presentation arrives, the scientist in charge doesn't appear on stage. They go to the room where he was preparing for his presentation, but find it not only locked from the inside, but they hear rather worriying grunting noises from inside. When they mange to open the door, they see what they had feared most: the glassy look in the eyes and the slow movements of the scientist as he charges in the direction of the humans is unmistakable. The scientist is eventually led out of the house, where the police manage to capture him, but they are confronted with a mystery: the scientist was clearly murdered, which turned him into a zombie, but the room where he was preparing was completely locked from the inside, door and windows, and no weapon was found in the room, nor a murderer. So how did the scientist turn into a zombie? Yatsugashira Ruri, a rather young-looking detective, suddenly appears on the scene and manages to convince Ukari to hire her to find out why the scientist was murdered and how, but it doesn't take long for Ruri to get targeted herself by someone, sparking the suspicion that something bigger might be going on. Will she figure out who the murderer is in Kobayashi Yasumi's Wazawaza Zombie wo Korosu Ningen Nante Inai (2021), or as the cover also says: No One Bothers to Kill the Living Dead?

A mystery about the living dead might not sound that original anymore (because of exhibit A and exhibit B), but hey, it's a book by Kobayashi who makes really great use of supernatural settings in his mysteries with his Märchen Murder series, so if there's someone who can come up with something cool with zombies, it must be Kobayashi. And certainly, if there's one thing this book absolutely excels at, is the depiction of a world where a zombie virus (technically not a virus) has taken over the world, but not in a way that has immediately caused the downfall of human society. We are shown "zombie farms" where zombies are rounded up and just... let free, because they don't really know what to do with them, we have detailed descriptions of how the food economy had to change because it became impossible to continue the large-scale farming model and other goosebump-invoking details like how with the changing food economy, some people started to enjoy zombie meat (because it's better than nothing) and some even very much like the suspicious "monkey" meat they sell of which everybody knows it's not a monkey but they want to lie to themselves, and some people even go out hunting for wild zombies themselves to get some... fresh meat right off the bone. The world-building in Wazawaza Zombie wo Korosu Ningen Nante Inai is really interesting, and in that way, quite different from the earlier mentioned examples of zombie mystery fiction, which were set in worlds that barely started to know the new reality.

As a mystery however, I find the book slightly less engaging. The book opens with the locked room mystery revolving around how the scientist could've been turned into a zombie while he was preparing for his presentation in a private room, but the book doesn't really focus on that: that part is mostly ignored as we follow Ruri, who uses the excuse of being hired to investigate the locked room murder, to look into the research of the zombie-fied scientist, digging into a bigger conspiracy, which, due to numerous flashbacks to her past interspersed between the chapters, is obviously very much connected to herself. More than half of the book feels more like a private eye-type of story, where we see Ruri and her sorta assistant poking around, making people in Ultimate Medical nervous and occassionally some moves being made to get Ruri off the case. Some readers might find this more interesting to read as there's always a new event coming up, but I myself find it less interesting because at times, it just felt unfocused. As the book continues, we learn a lot more about Ruri's past which will eventually tie back to current affairs, but I didn't think this part really interesting. I believe the book was originally published with a YA horror-focused imprint, so I guess I shouldn't be expecting a hyper-puzzle-focused mystery out of this, and depending on your mood, the private eye mode of the book might be satisfying enough, but I personally felt it a bit lacking, with a few surprises which were telegraphed too obviously.

They don't completely forget about the locked room mystery of course, so we return to it at the end of the book, and it's an okay mystery, that makes good use of the unique world of the book. It's not a super complex trick however, and personally, I would also have liked a short story version of this that only introduced the world, the locked room murder and without the bigger conspiracy Ruri is after, because then I think it would have stood out a bit more, but as it is now, it's an okay locked room murder, which however is set aside for a very, very long time, so the impact is lessened.

By the way, I mainly know Kobayashi via his Märchen Murder series, which has some rather unique conversations which I always thought were because the stories were based on books like Alice in Wonderland, with characters speaking in roundabout manners and jokes based on misunderstandings and wordplay, but you also see that, though to a lesser extent, here too.

Overall, I did have fun with the book, but its main selling point is definitely the world that is portrayed within its pages. Don't expect too much of the locked room mystery mentioned in the blurb, and you'll have an entertaining time, especially if you also like the Märchen Murder series as it as a similar vibe. It's not very long either, so works great as a 'light-weight' book to be read between other books.

Original Japanese title(s): 小林泰三『わざわざゾンビを殺す人間なんていない』