Maze

もう二度と迷わないように

その腕を離さないで

『Mysterious Eyes』 （Garnet Crow)

Don't let go of my hand

So we won't get lost again

"Mysterious Eyes" (Garnet Crow)

I write about detective fiction in any type of medium, so I have also quite a number of reviews posted under games and audio drama for example. The most surprising (to me) is still the fact I have a musical tag. Not sure whether I'll ever be able to use that again... Anyway, an audio drama today. And it's not even in Japanese!

Dutch Sinologist Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories are quite famous around the world. An important factor explaining its popularity is probably the fact that van Gulik's managed to combine his expert knowledge on ancient China and its law practices with stories that are also fun to read. The character of the wise magistrate Dee was based on the actual magistrate Di (Dee) Renjie and his (slightly fictionalized) appearance in the detective novel Dee Gong An (see for a more detailed introduction to the series, this older post).

Robert van Gulik's first original book has an interesting publication history: it was actually first published in 1951 in Japan, under the title Meiro no Satsujin ("The Maze Murders"). A Chinese version followed in 1953, but the book wouldn't be published in English (the language the book was originally written in) or Dutch (van Gulik's mothertongue) until 1956: it was known as The Chinese Maze Murders in English, while it was released one year later in the Netherlands with the name of Labyrinth in Lan-Fang (which means the same in English, of course). I am not familiar with the reception history of the book, but I gather it must have been fairly popular, for a radio drama was produced for the Dutch radio waves somewhere between 1957 and 1959: Labyrinth in Lan-Fang was a play in nine half-hour parts, probably broadcast by radiostation VARA.

Labyrinth in Lan-Fang starts with judge Dee being appointed as the new magistrate of the border town of Lan-Fang, one of the strategic points of the empire in their fight against the Uyghur people. Yet not all is well in this town: the population has lost all its trust in the central govenment because of a local usurper, who managed to corrupt all previous magistrates, an Uyghur attack seems imminent and there is also 'normal' work for the magistrate: a case of a widow being cheated out of her legacy by her stepson, a secret hidden inside a painting and a large garden-maze just outside of town, a missing girl and the mysterious murder of a retired governor inside a locked room will also keep the judge busy these first few days of his appointment.

I have read my share of Judge Dee novels, but this was my first encounter with The Chinese Maze Murders / Labyrinth in Lan-Fang. And I liked it! As always, a lot of the enjoyment comes from the way Robert van Gulik manages to bring ancient China alive: from 'big' settings like how the administrative and legal system worked, to little details like daily habits, the food and objects people use, all the Judge Dee novels offer a great look in ancient China, but it never feels 'too heavy': it is perfectly possible, and fine to 'just' read these novels as is.

One of the best elements Robert van Gulik borrowed from Dee Gong An is the story-structure: the judge is always working on multiple cases at the same time (usually three), which is actually quite logically considering he's the highest authority in the district: it wouldn't make sense for him to work on one case at a time. This results in overlapping storylines, which feels quite natural: the findings of one case might be useful to the solving of another, while sometimes he has to prioritize one over another. In most of the Judge Dee novels, these seperate storylines overlap at several points, which is also the case here. In a way, these storylines crossing over make up a Chinese Maze on their own.

And a little bit of sidetracking here, but I recently found out that there are Judge Dee videogames. Well, find-the-object games. But what about a Machi/Detective Conan Marionette Symphony-esque sound novel game, where multiple, seperate storylines intersect and where the outcome of one story, is connected to another? Wouldn't that be an awesome, and fitting Judge Dee game? Just imagine, a game system like that of Marionette Symphony, with the judge, Sergeant Hoong, brawlers Ma Joong and Chiao Tai and trickster Tao Gan each contributing a little in their own way to the investigations!

But back to Labyrinth in Lan-Fang. I usually enjoy Judge Dee stories more as well-structured puzzles, rather than stories with memorable tricks or things like that and I feel the same about this story. Sure, there is a locked room murder, but I felt the solution came kinda out of nowhere. Though I have to note, I think that the storylines of the early Judge Dee novels were all based on actual court records from ancient China (again, this was van Gulik's expertise), so it seems that the trick behind the locked room in this novel was one that was actually used. Kinda creepy if you think about it (and to enter another sidetrack: I remember that a few years ago, there really was a stroller in the attic case in Japan、who was discovered in the end because someone noticed toilet paper was disappearing).

And how was Labyrinth in Lan-Fang an audio drama? The only complaint I have is the length; nine times thirty minutes is a bit too long in my opinion for one story, but besides that, I quite liked it. The combined efforts of Van Gulik's original story, the voice actors and the radio script also did a great job at keeping characters distinct from each other, something that can be quite different when your story is set in a different culture and with so many unfamiliar names. The multiple storyline structure of the Judge Dee stories can be a bit confusing, because it involves of jumping from one storyline to another, but no problems in this adaptation. Oh and I was very happy with the fact that the recording I listened was quite clean, because that isn't always the case with recordings of old radio dramas.

This month featured reviews of Japanese novels based on Chinese novels, Japanese translations of English novels, Japanese novels set in the United States and a too eager Japanese take on two American detective novels, so what better way to finish month than with a review of a Dutch audio drama based on a book originally written in English by a Dutchman, but first published in Japanese?

Original Dutch title(s): Robert van Gulik (original story), "Labyrinth in Lan-Fang"

Mr Short and Mr Long

森へとri ra ra ra

doorを叩く

まい散る風　悲痛な（かなしい）叫び（こえ）が

聞こえぬよう祈りながら

フラリ　フラリ　駆け抜ける

「Marionette Fantasia」 (Garnet Crow)

To the forest li la la la

Knock on the door

Praying I won't hear

The fluttering wind, its sad voice

I keep on running

"Marionette Fantasia" (Garnet Crow)

The return of Short Shorts! Most people probably don't remember this corner, but it's mostly a collection of several, unrelated items. Sometimes I just have trouble writing a full-length review of something: to prevent these reviews from staying in limbo, I just combine multiple of these items in one Short Shorts post. Usually fairly incoherent posts, though today's Short Short is surprisingly following a popular theme: the impossible crime in short story format.

I had always wanted to read John Dickson Carr's famous short story The House in Goblin Wood and because in Japan you can just walk in a bookstore and get a new copy, I did just that. Over a year ago. The collection Youma no Mori no Ie (The House in Goblin Wood) has confusingly the English subtitle The Third Bullet and Other Stories and to make the chaos complete, this collection is not the same as The Third Bullet and Other Stories released outside Japan. Anyway, The House in Goblin Wood deals with the disappearance of Vicky Adams from an observed house, one of the witnesses being Sir Henry Merrivale. Vicky had done the same disappearing act when she was a child and when she returned she said she had been with the fairies. Has adult Vicky gone to the fairies again? The House in Goblin Wood is definitely a masterpiece: short, but expertly designed. It's completely solvable (I did, actually), but the way the story develops within the small amount of pages, the spooky disappearance and the whole truth at the end are presented, fantastic!

This collection also has The Incautious Burglar (Guest in the House), The Locked Room, The Clue of the Red Wig and The Third Bullet, but none of them really impressed to be honest. The Third Bullet in particular felt too long, even though the solution seemed so obvious. The House in Goblin Wood shows that sometimes shorter =  better. The Clue of the Red Wig has a Queenish murder scene: a woman dressed just in her underwear with a wig next to her is found in a little private garden/park. The pay-off is not particularly interesting in the end, but not bad (though I am quite sure I'll forget about this story in just a few months).

Which is an art Edward D. Hoch had mastered. I had already said in my review of the third collection of the Dr. Sam Hawthorne series that I probably wouldn't do full reviews anymore (see the review for more details), which makes it ideal material for this short short. Like a lot of Tokyo Sogen's publications, this volume has an English subtitle, which is Diagnosis: Impossible 4  - More and More Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne and that's the best way to describe it: yes, it's 'just' more impossible problems for the New England town doctor Sam to solve, and yes, the stories are still mostly the same in terms of structure, but heck, they are fun! There is a bit of a running storyline, with Sam hiring a new nurse and all, but it's still about all the mysterious murders that make Northmont one of the scariest places to live.

The Problem of the Haunted Tepee should be mentioned, as it's a crossover story with Hoch's Old West mystery series Ben Snow. An elderly Snow wants Sam to solve the mystery behind a haunted tepee, of which Snow himself had seen its deadly powers. This volume also contains the short story Frontier Street as a bonus story, which too is part of the Ben Snow series. The best story of the volume is The Problem of the Leather Man, where Sam has a long walk with the titular 'leather man' to the next town. They both take lodgings there, but the next morning the man is gone, and everybody, from the people at the lodgings to the people Sam had seen during the walk, say that Sam had been alone. Is the good doctor going crazy? This story takes a plot device I've seen quite often lately (probably just a coincidence), but constructs it in a reverse way, which makes it feel quite fresh. Sam has always been closely related to the crimes he solves as witness, but this time there's not even a crime and it's his own sanity that is being questioned. Quite different from the other stories in terms of development and type of story, something that is quite welcome once in a while.

And that wraps up this Short Short! Again, this corner is mostly reserved for materials I have trouble writing a full post on, so it's fairly irregular. For all I know, it might take once again a year and a half for a new Short Short to appear.

Original title(s): John Dickson Carr  『妖魔の森に家』: 'The House in Goblin Wood' 「妖魔の森の家」 / 'The Incautious Burglar' (Guest in the House) 「軽率だった夜盗」 / 'The Locked Room' 「ある密室」 / 'The Clue of the Red Wig' 「赤いカツラの手がかり」 / 'The Third Bullet' 「第三の銃弾」
Edward D. Hoch 『サム・ホーソーンの事件簿』IV: 'The Problem of the Black Roadster' 「黒いロードスターの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Two Birthmarks' 「二つの母斑の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Dying Patient' 「重体患者の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Protected Farmhouse' 「要塞と化した農家の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Haunted Tepee' 「呪われたティーピーの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Blue Bicycle' 「青い自転車の謎」 / 'The Problem of the County Church' 「田舎教会の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Grange Hall' 「グレンジ・ホールの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Vanishing Salaryman' 「消えたセールスマンの謎」 / 'The Problem of the Leather Man' 「革服の男の謎」 / 'The Phantom Parlor' 「幻の談話室の謎」 / 'The Problem of the Poisoned Pool' 「毒入りプールの謎」 / 'Frontier Street' 「フロンティア・ストリート」

File 4: Music to be Murdered By

Let's post this before I forget it: a new Music to be Murdered by post! A corner where I post music from various detective-related media and crappy art drawn in MS Paint to accompany the tune!

Title: Mystic Antique
Composer: Tsujiyou
Album: Trick Original Soundtrack

Trick is a quirky TV series that started out as a detective series with a bizarre sense of humor, and is now more closer to a comedy-series that takes on the form of a detective series. The first season was a bit more serious/dramatic in tone, and while the duo of Yamada and Ueda exposed psychic charlatans for what they were in each episode, there were also hints that the supernatural really did exist. The opening theme of Trick (also used for the movies and the game) is called Mystic Antique and embodies that supernatural, somewhat strange feeling of the series with its organ melody.

And why did I draw an egg to accompany this song? Well, it's the accompanying opening sequence to this song! How can an egg breaking be a proper opening sequence to a TV series? I don't know. The contents of the egg changes per season/production by the way, the TV seasons have shown different kind of colors, while lately, even more surprising things have popped out of the egg. Mystic Antique is also used as the main theme of the series, and you'll occasionally hear it as the background music to the final denouement scene.There is also a slightly arranged version of this song, titled Antique Mystic.

Original Japanese title(s): 「Mystic Antique」（辻陽）　『トリック　オリジナルサウンドトラック』

Bad City

「浮気調査も金持ちの夫婦しか引け受けないし、 犬も猫も雑種は探しません。探偵業界のブラック・ジャックと呼ばれています」

「誰に呼ばれているの？」

「基本、私です」

『私の嫌いな探偵』

"I only take adultery cases from rich couples and won't look for crossbred cats or dogs. And that's why I am called the Black Jack of the private eye industry"

"By whom?"

"Mostly me"

"The Detective I Don't Like"

'No, not another Higashigawa Tokuya drama adaptation review', you might think. Sorry, I seldom plan what to read/watch/listen to next, so sometimes I accidently end up with similar reviews close to each other...

Ikagawashi series
Misshitsu no Kagi wo Kashimasu ("Lending the Key of the Locked Room")
Misshitsu ni Mukatte Ute ("Shoot Towards The Locked Room")
Kanzen Hanzai ni wa Neko Nanbiki Hitsuyouka ("How Many Cats Do You Need For a Perfect Crime?")
Koukan Satsujin ni Mukanai Yoru ("A Bad Night to Exchange Murders")
'Jisoku 40 Kilo no Misshitsu' ("A Locked Room at 40KM/H") in: Shin Honkaku Tokubetsuhen - Fukanou Hanzai no Kyouen.

Adaptations:
Watashi no Kirai na Tantei ("The Detective I Don't Like") (TV)

Watashi no Kirai na Tantei ("The Detective I Don't Like") is a TV drama which ran from January to March this year based on Higashigawa Tokuya's Ikagawashi series. Ukai Morio is a private detective who specializes in infidelity cases and locating lost pets, because they make the most money. He finds a cheap spot for his offices in the Ninomiya Building, but soon starts to regret his move: his new landlord, Ninomiya Akemi, is a big detective fiction fan and 'blackmails' Ukai (through the rent) in taking on more difficult (and less profitable) cases like locked room murders and other baffling crimes, just so she can tag along and try a bit of mystery solving herself. And unfortunately for Ukai, and fortunately for Akemi, the town of Ikagawashi is brimming with impossible crimes.

I have been following the Ikagawashi series for some time now, and I quite like how it mixes comedy with orthodox puzzle plots. But I'll be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to this adaptation of the series. Why? Because it was clear from the start that the TV series would feature some drastic changes from the original stories. Most obvious is the upgrade in importance of the character of Ninomiya Akemi. In the original stories, she's Ukai's landlord and basically has to force Ukai in taking on cases, or else he won't be able to pay the rent. She has no interest in the detective business nor detective fiction however, and most of the stories follow the detective Ukai and his disciple Ryuuhei. But because TV dramas absolutely need love interests, and because they had to push actress Gouriki Ayame as the main character, the TV drama version of Ninomiya Akemi becomes a strange amulgation of Ryuuhei from the novels, and the actual person Gouriki Ayame. And as such, she hogs all of the screentime and is the driving force behind all investigations.

So I wasn't sure whether I would like this adaptation of the Ikagawashi series, considering they made someone else the main character. It's like making Miss Lemon the protagonist of a Poirot TV series. Just play with that idea in your mind for a minute.

But because the TV series also adapted stories of the Ikawagashi series I hadn't read yet, I decided to bite the bullet. And it wasn't as messy as I had expected. Don't get me wrong though, the Ninomiya Akemi in the drama is absolutely horrible as a character. She's like a black hole sucking up all the good lines, all the great moments of the stories from the other characters. But ignoring that part (which can be difficult, I admit), Watashi no Kirai na Tantei is a fairly entertaining detective series.

The original stories are a great example of how to mix (sometimes slapstick) humour with puzzle plots: hints are concealed in what seem nothing more than just gags at first sight, and you'll often hit yourself when you realize you let such an obvious hint slide by just because it was presented in a funny way. The TV drama manages to do the same and adds in a lot of its own comedy, most of it in the form of  a good dose of meta-comedy as well as the zany (faulty) deductions made by Akemi. A lot of detective TV dramas are referenced in the course of the show, for example Galileo, Furuhata Ninzaburou, Kindaichi Kousuke, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo and Trick, as well as other Higashigawa Tokuya-based dramas like Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de. The many, obviously mistaken deductions remind of that Police Squad! inspired classic, 33pun Tantei ("33 Minutes Detective"), which had the premise of stretching each story out to a full length episode of 33 minutes with crazy deductions, even though they always figured out who it was in the first five minutes. Watashi no Kirai na Tantei is also doing a good job at presenting the craziest deductions: the moment they posed the killer-cat solution for a locked room murder (complete with image), I knew that at least the comedy was good.

The first two episodes are based on the first book in the series, Misshitsu no Kagi wo Kashimasu ("Lending the Key to the Locked Room"), and the seventh episode on Kanzen Hanzai ni wa Neko Nanbiki Hitsuyou Ka? ("How Many Cats Do You Need For a Perfect Crime?"), so refer to those reviews if you want to learn more about them in detail. The remaining five episodes are based on the short stories, of which two I think are the best of the whole TV series.

Episode four, Shi ni Itaru Zenryou Shisshou no Nazo ("The Mystery of Running Into Death") is about an almost grotesque problem: a man is witnessed to run at full speed into a wall, knocking himself out. Does the case have to do with the summoning of UFOs by Akemi? A fantastic premise, and the solution is pretty great too: Higashigawa Tokuya is really at his best when he does these short stories with somewhat plausible, yet somehow strange scenes. Nanatsu no Beer Case no Mondai  ("The Problem of the Seven Beer Cases") on the other hand is a good example of how to tie up all kinds of plotlines together and how to present a somewhat mundane, yet mystifying problem with an almost painfully simple, yet hard to see solution.

 
I would absolutely love this series if not for the shuffle with main characters. In the novel series, the 'detective' archetype (i.e. the person who explains everything at the end) is acually someone different most of the time, sometimes it's Ukai, sometimes it's police detective Sunagawa etcetera, but this is also changed in the TV series, always having Ukai doing most of the deductions, and then Akemi stealing the last good part by deducing something even Ukai overlooked I actually liked how the novels always kept readers on their toes by switching detective roles, so this was another reason I wasn't too big a fan of the character rewrites.

Watashi no Kirai na Tantei is a pretty fun series. The biggest reason behind that is because the original stories are good, but the team also did their best injecting their own comedy in the stories. It's just the sudden rise in importance of one character that kinda makes it hard for me to just recommend it. Of course, if you're a fan of Gouriki Ayame, go for it and I quite liked Tamaki Hiroshi as Ukai, but the main dynamics of this TV series, are quite different from the dynamics you'll find in the original Ikagawashi series.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 (原)　『私の嫌いな探偵』

Sins of the Fathers

父なる天

九つの龍

母なる地 

我が友

『シェンムー　一章　横須賀編』

Father's heaven

Nine dragons

Mother's earth

Comrades

"Shenmue"

And let's slip something English in for a change! And a double review, something I haven't done in a long time! Well, technically, I have short shorts, but I haven't written one of those in a long time either, and those faux double reviews of There Was An Old Woman/Double Double and The Dragon's Teeth/The Scarlet Letters don't really count. The last proper double review of a book was in September 2012 by the way, of two novels by Abiko Takemaru; of two games in January 2013. Can you believe that when I first started writing this blog, I always did double (or even triple) reviews in one post?

The title Inspector Queen's Own Case kinda explains itself, I think. Son Ellery has solved many cases that baffled his father, but this time it's Richard Queen's time for some action. And he needs it badly, because his forced retirement is driving him crazy. Old Queen was once one of the most fearsome police inspectors of New York City, but now spends his days doing very little. He spends some time at his friends' beach house near the Conneticut shore, near Nair Island, a private haven for the rich. The Humffreys are one of the multimillionaire inhabitants of Nair Island, and having recently been blessed by a baby, hire nurse Jessie Sherwood to take care of their child. One night, the most horrible thing possible happens to the baby, but his death is thought to be an accident. Jessie is the only one who is convinced it as a murder though, and together with old Queen (who has also taken a romantic interest in Jessie), try to figure out what happened that fatal night in the Humffrey mansion.

After many, many, maaaaany stories were we saw Ellery explaining how elementary everything was to his father, old man Queen finally has a chance to show why he made it to police inspector. In a somewhat clumsy way. Inspector Queen's Own Case definitely has some elements we know from the other Ellery Queen novels, but is not nearly as complex as anything we've seen in past releases. It is not a bad read though, as we see the old man cope with his own age and the blossoming of a new love. I am not a real fan of the love subplots in the Queen novels, but this was the most tolerable one of all Queen novels I've read until now.

The murder is quite shocking, in my opinion and that's something considering we've seen decapitated bodies and bodies exhibited in department stores. The Murder on the Orient Express effect, if you like. But the truth behind the case is revealed quite early on in the novel (or to be more precise: old man Queen guesses, and suddenly it becomes true despite it was never proven logically to be true...) and it has a tendency to drag a bit despite the short length of the novel. I understand that old man Queen works in a different way than Ellery, and as a police inspector, he might work a bit more singlemindedly (because all policemen are like that in detective fiction featuring amateur detectives), but I did find Richard a bit... simple in this novel. But then again, the plot of Inspector Queen's Own Case is a bit simple. The solution does mirror some elements we already saw in Cat of Many Tails, but doesn't pull it off as well as Cat.

Nair Island, an island for millionaires, reminds of The Spanish Cape Mystery and that island from The Treasure Hunt in The New Adventures of Ellery Queen. And wasn't there an island in The Eygptian Cross Mystery too? But then again, the island, as a geographical location, is never of real importance: movements of the persons on it and the location of buildings are not crucial to the understanding of the crime.

I was not really impressed or anything by Inspector Queen's Own Case, but considering it was a short read and I did like seeing old man Queen on his own for a change, I don't consider it a bad Queen. I wouldn't put it high on the priority list, which is actually precisely the case with me: I just don't have that many unread Queens left.

Especially not because I read the direct sequel to Inspector Queen's Own Case on the same day. In the House of Brass, Richard and Jessie get married (with the blessings of son Ellery). Jessie receives an enigmatic letter one day, with as contents: a hundred dollar bill, half a thousand dollar bill and the message she'll receive the other half if she comes to the House of Brass. When she and her husband arrive there, they discover that a group of six has been assembled at the house in true And Then There Were None style. Their U.N. Owen: old Hendrik Brass. He says he is considering to leave his fortune to his guests, but requests them to stay here until he can make up his mind. Anyone who leaves forfeits his claim. Jessie does not like the story, but old Queen thinks something's up and the couple stay there to see how things work out. Of course, anyone could guess it would all end in murder.

Ghost-written by Avram Davidson, The House of Brass feels more like a classic Queen novel. It's once again mostly old man Queen's show (together with his wife, which explains the detecting couples tag I used), but with a double-twist ending, some appearances by filius Ellery and a plot about a big search for something, it is hard to deny this book seems more like an Ellery Queen novel. Especially the big search, in this case for Hendrik's fortune, is undeniably a classic Queen trope. It was also featured in Inspector Queen's Own Case actually, but as a lesser plot-device and the story never went deep into that until the last minute. Here it is a major part of the story, and it reminds of scenes like the search for a victim's hat in The Roman Hat Mystery, or the search for the will in The Greek Coffin Mystery.

In Inspector Queen's Own Case, Richard called his own Baker Street Irregulars (of similarly retired policemen) to help in the Hummfrey case: they return in The House of Brass. Both books have a slight (just sliiight) getting-the-gang-back-together feeling to them, but I stress the 'slight', because we actually hardly know this gang. Sure, I understand that people like Velie are probably still in the force, but old man Queen calling his old gang without calling old faces the reader actually knows, was a bit disappointing.

The double twist and the identity of the murderer are also quite easy to predict if one has been keeping up with his Queen reading: in the Queen universe, some people just have more chance of turning out to be cold-blooded murderer than others. The double (or triple, or quadruple etcetera) solution has been a Queen staple ever since The Greek Coffin Mystery, so you usually expect one (or more) if you read one of these novels. Surprising, these tropes are not, but it does help in creating that Queen feel.

Inspector Queen's Own Case and The House of Brass might not be Ellery Queen on his best, but having read so many Queen novels with the old man, I have to admit it was quite refreshing to see inspector Queen on his own for a change. The House of Brass feels more like a part of the series due to its usage of familar tropes, but Inspector Queen's Own Case might be more interesting because it presents a different kind of Queen than we're used to. As a set, they form a fun little mini-series.

Murder is Served

「謎解きしますよね」

「します？」

「ディナーのあとですか」

「ディナーのあとじゃ、遅いですね」

『私の嫌いな探偵』

"You're going to solve the mystery, right?"

"Shall I?"

"After dinner?"

"After dinner would a bit late"

"The Detective I Don't Like"

When I step inside a train or an airplane, I don't usually think of detective fiction. Sure, there are some great stories set on moving objects, and the first couple of times, a ride might remind of such a story, but by the tenth time... But I haven't been on a boat that often, so that mode of transportation still has a bit of a (deadly) romantic allure to me. Death on the Nile and that sort of thing. The longest I've been on a boat, was the three-hour trip van Fukuoka (Japan) to Busan (South Korea), which was actually quite fun. No murders though. 

Higashigawa Tokuya's funny armchair detective series Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de has been a great hit in Japan, not in the least because of a succesful TV drama adaptation in 2011. The series is about a wealthy heiress (and rookie police detective) Houshou Reiko, who each time after a hard day at work tells her butler Kageyama about the mysterious cases she's handling. Kageyama however always manages to clear up the many murders that are troubling his mistress without even taking a step out of the room. His answer to the cases, which often includes a bit of verbal abuse directed at his mistress' intelligence), however is always only told after Reiko has finished her dinner.
  
And the hit 2011 adaptation was followed by a theatrical release with the same title last year. Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (literally "Mystery Solving is after Dinner", official English title: The After-Dinner Mysteries) brings Reiko and her butler Kageyama to the luxury cruise ship the Princess Reiko on its final voyage from Japan to Singapore. Reiko plans on a relaxing trip, but her plans go all wrong when she finds out that Inspector Kazamatsuri (her direct superior who doesn't know Reiko's a wealthy heiress) is on the ship too to guard a statue on its way to Singapore. The international phantom thief Soros is thought to be on board and Reiko's also forced to help with security. But that's not all, because on the first night, a man falls overboard, but when the man is found, it is discovered he was first shot to death, before being thrown overboard, but the murderer went through the trouble of dressing his victim in a life jacket after killing him. Can Kageyama solve the mystery before dinner so his mistress can finally have her cruise holiday?

The original TV series was based on Higashigawa Tokuya's stories, but the movie was based on an original plot and I have to say, not nearly as entertaining as the original stories. The essence of the series, in my opinion, lies in the butler Kageyama being an armchair detective in simple, yet strange cases. He would just be there in the background, listening to his mistress relating the story of a relatively simple murder investigation, but with a small, yet enigmatic feature.The first story for example, Satsujin Genba de wa Kutsu wo O-nugi Kudasai ("Please Take Your Shoes Off At A Murder Scene"), showed how Kageyama solved a murder based on the fact the victim was still wearing her shoes inside her apartment (a no-no in Japan). All before dinner. The best stories were always about very small cases with one strange feature, and seeing how Kageyama brought light to the darkness just by changing the point of view.

The movie however has Kageyama coming along with Reiko on the cruise ship and having to solve the murder 'in real time', like an active detective. It brings another dynamic to the series, and I don't think it's a positive one. It kinda takes away from the whole premise of the series if you have Kageyama actively participate in an ongoing investigation on a ship. Almost as silly as having a old spinster-detective in a sword duel on a ship.

The case itself is also fairly simple, even though the movie tries to confuse you by having a lot of storylines running through each other. But there's one good point: the mystery of a naked dead body in a dogeza (kowtow) position. In a movie two hours long with a series of plotlines, this was the only one which actually felt like a true Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de story, with a strange murder scene with a surprising truth behind it. The rest is forgettable, but it was a fair mystery, at any rate.

The visual style of the series is mostly good though. A plotline with a 'comedic' duo of thieves is awful, but the rest is what we've learned to expect from the franchise: a comic-esque presentation of events, fast cuts and the occasional text pop-ups like in comics (and, no, not like those in Sherlock). While the cuts themselves aren't really remarkable (it is 'just' a movie spin-off of a TV series), the movie did had the advantage of having been shot on location. In this case, a little bit in Singapore, but also a large part on the gigantic cruise-ship SuperStar Virgo, which served as the ship Princess Reiko of the movie. And boy, does that ship look great!

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de is a somewhat boring movie spin-off. Sure, we have our familar faces in all kinds of mysterious and comedic situations, but as a mystery film it is a bit disappointing. The original stories by Higashigawa Tokuya were much more interesting, and made much better use of Kageyama as an armchair detective. This movie is more aimed at people who liked the characters of the series, rather than people who liked the mysteries of the series, I think.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉（原）　『謎解きはディナーのあとで』

再生 -Rebuild-: the Student Alice series

Readers of the blog might have noticed that I often read books from the same series/authors. I often refer, and build upon what I wrote in previous reviews, but I figured that a single post introducing a certain series might be easier to read. So here, the first post in a series I have called Rebuild, which serve as general introductions to the more lengthy/interesting series I discuss. Expect a short introduction, some observations on characteristic tropes of the series and of course a bibliography list. For more indepth reviews and observations, please refer to the individual reviews.

Student Alice series (Author: Arisugawa Alice)
Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88") [1989]
Kotou Puzzle ("The Island Puzzle") [1989] AKA The Moai Island Puzzle.
Soutou no Akuma ("Double-Headed Devil") [1992]
Jooukoku no Shiro ("The Castle of the Queendom") [2007]
Egami Jirou no Dousatsu ("The Insights of Egami Jirou") [2012]

The Student Alice series is about the adventures of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC), as experienced by Arisugawa Alice, a Law student of Kyoto's Eito University. Other members include Mochizuki Shuuhei (economics, Ellery Queen fan), Oda Koutarou (economics, hardboiled fan) and founding member Egami Jirou (philosophy, several years overdue for graduation). Arima Maria (law) joins as the first female member of the EMC during her (and Alice's) second year at Eito University. The members of the EMC have a tendency to get involved with mysteries (most of them of the criminal kind), but Egami Jirou always manages to explain everything with his impressive deductive powers.

The series has three major characteristics. First is the setting of students and the mystery club. Like many writers of the so-called New Orthodox movement from the late '80s (which revisited, and reconstructed classic puzzle plots), Arisugawa Alice (the writer) debuted while he was a student and member of his university's mystery club, and these are elements that are mirrored in his own work (compare also with Ayatsuji Yukito's Jukkakukan no Satsujin). The Student Alice series is often described as young adult fiction, with its focus on student life.Also, the fact the characters are all well versed in mystery fiction is quite important, as they act as a device for discussions on all kinds of mystery fiction, and they can also make insightful observations from a meta-point of view, by refering to famous novels.

Secondly, the novels all deal with closed circle situations. For some reason or another, the EMC members always get involved with murder cases while cut-off from the outside world. Vulcano, island, they have seen it all. It's never 'just' a murder, but there's always another element of danger that drives the story.

Finally, as one can guess from the device of having the protagonist sharing a name with the author, Arisugawa Alice is strongly influenced by Ellery Queen. His novels also have Challenges to the Readers, like you'd expect from the older Queen novels. The deduction style is also similarly very complex, dealing with who-knew-what-when-how-which-allowed-them-to-do-what. Prepare for long deduction chains when you read the novels. Special mention goes to The Island Puzzle, of which the conclusion is an incredible tour-de-force in deduction all based on just one object.

Chronology of the EMC

Chronology is fairly important to the series. A bit more than two years have passed since the start of the series. For example, when we first met Mochizuki and Oda they had just survived their first year at Eito University, but by The Castle of the Queendom, they're already preparing for their graduation.
 
1984: The Eito University Mystery Club (EMC) is founded by Egami Jirou and Ishiguro Misao.
1987: Ishikuro graduates. Mochizuki Shuuhei and Oda Koutarou enter the Economics faculty, join the EMC.
1988: Arisugawa Alice and Arima Maria enter the Law Faculty. Alice joins the EMC.

• 'The Maison Lapis Lazuli Case' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Hard Rock Lovers Only' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Body on the Faded Railway' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• Moonlight Game - Tragedy of Y '88 (1989)
• 'The Ophelia of the Sakura River' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Four Minutes is too Short' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'The Mystery of the Sealed Room' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'A Twentieth Century Abduction' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• 'Walking on New Year's Eve' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)

1989: Arima Maria joins the EMC.

• 'An Observation regarding Squandering' (in: The Insight of Egami Jirou, 2012)
• The Island Puzzle (1989)
• Double-Headed Devil (1992)

1990: Final year Egami Jirou is allowed to be enrolled in Eito University.

• The Castle of the Queendom (2007)

As of now (March 2014), four novels and one short story collection have been published. There are also a handful of uncollected short stories. The series is planned for five novels and two story collections, so we can expect another two releases in the future. The final novel will probably deal with Egami's graduation.

Note: Arisugawa Alice (the writer) has two series, both starring an Arisugawa Alice. Also, both of these protagonist Alices write detective stories. And to make things even more complex, each of the Alices writes the adventures of the other Alice. So the Alice of the Student Alice series, writes the Writer Alice series, while the Alice of the Writer Alice series, writes the Student Alice series.