The Faulty Stroke

"Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."
"The Mystery of the Blue Train"

I am a fan of mystery fiction, by which I mean I am not solely into mystery literature. While I mostly discuss books here, you'll also see me talk about video games, stage plays, audio dramas, comics and more, as long as it features a mystery plot. And while I generally don't have too much interest in other genres, my attention is quickly drawn if I learn something completely unrelated to the mystery genre, does in fact involve stories that could be interpreted as mystery fiction. That is why I had no intention of watching Oppenheimer at first, until someone told me it could be watched as a proper mystery film, and to my surprise, he was completely right.

And that is why I have longed to watch the 1985 "pink" (= basically softcore porn) film Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri ("Molester Train: Seiko's Tush") for some time now. Yes, you read that title right. I first heard about this film in a mook on locked room mysteries edited by Arisugawa, which featured an article about locked room murder mysteries in the visual format: several prominent Japanese authors were asked about their favorites, and Abiko Takemaru's recommendation was this film. Later I learned Yamaguchi Masaya also recommends it as a locked room mystery. Of course, that seems a bit strange, as Seiko no Oshiri was just an entry in an extremely long-running series of pink films about...well, molesters groping women in the train among others. There's some story to connect the scenes with sexual content, but you'd hardly expect one of these films to be hiding a locked room murder mystery classic, right? It turns out that because the series (which ran from the eighties until the 2010s) is so insanely long (there are apparently more than a hundred of them), the series covers a wide variety of different genres from comedy and suspense to political thrillers, though the scenes with nudity/sex are of course the main attraction. Though apparently, most films aren't even about molesting in the train, as they eventually move away from that setting and might only include one such scene... Anyway, the more I learned about Seiko no Oshiri, the more I became interested in it: the film is actually directed by Takita Youjirou, who directed many of these Chikan Densha films, but would become internationally renowned with his 2008 Okuribito/Departures film, which would become the very first Japanese film to win the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language film. So yes, this is a softcore porn film by an Oscar-winning director which also features a locked room mystery. The whole story about all of this sounded just unbelievable, so I had to see the film.

Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri starts the year after the infamous Glico Morinaga case, in which "The Fiend With Twenty-One Faces"  (a nod to Edogawa Rampo's Fiend with Twenty Faces) extorted the confectioneries Glico and Morinaga. Now, a different industry is threatened: the rice industry.  Someone calling themselves "The Fiend with Twenty-One Faces" has announced they have poisoned the rice of the koshihikari variety sold at a rice store, and threatens to repeat this act. The culprit however is in fact a corrupt chairman of the Miyagi Agricultural Association, who wants to scare consumers into moving away from koshihikari so they'll consume the sasanishiki variety. However, he himself receives a call from "The Fiend with Twenty-One Faces", who threatens to expose the whole deal, unless he pays up a hundred million yen. The chairman hires his old acquaintance Morizou to do the drop-off: Morizou is a chindon-ya: someone who dressed in excessive loud clothes and makes music to advertise for shops, but he also spends a lot of time just molesting women in packed trains. Morizou's orders are to follow the blackmailer's instructions, which is to carry the money onto a certain train. On the way, he's instructed to throw the container out of the window of the train: the container falls off the bridge the train was on at the time, landing besides the river where a figure was standing ready to pick the money up. A chance video recording allows Morizou and the chairman to figure out who this man was, and they report his identity to the police.

Acting on this information, the police detective visit the suspect at his apartment, but as there's no answer at the door, they ask the building's caretaker to open the door for them with his spare key. Inside, however, they stumble upon the suspect lying dead on his bed. As the door was locked from the inside and the key was found inside a closed drawer of the desk, the police conclude it must have been suicide: even supposing the man was killed, how could the murderer have escaped with the door locked from the inside? While one window was only slightly open, the apartment is located many floors up, with no high buildings directly besides it, meaning a hypothetical murderer couldn't have gone anywhere from the window. However, while the case seems to end with the blackmailer having committed suicide, the money is nowhere to be found, and Morizou himself becomes the suspect, so he tries to figure out who has the money now.

Oh, and that's the story when you cut out all the softcore porn segments, and that would probably halven the length of this film easily. These scenes are always awkwardly long and really add nothing to the story (oh, we need to wait until we arrive at the drop-off point with the train? Let's casually sexually assault a woman then to pass the time!), but I guess for the long-time viewers of a series called Molester Train, these scenes are actually the main part and the mystery plot is the unnecessary filler. The overall tone of the film is very lighthearted, with acts like groping treated as something minor and something to laugh about and the non-sexual jokes are also... of a certain quality, so it might be a challenging view for some.

But to get to the locked room murder mystery (for yes, the suspect indeed didn't commit suicide, but was murdered and left in a locked room): this truly has no right to be in a softcore porn film. I wouldn't call it a classic by any means, but it is honestly way more complex than some pure locked room murder mystery novels are, and it is actually one that becomes more convincing on the screen, compared to if you had just read the trick behind this locked room. The visual qualities of the medium really do make the trick seem more convincing, even if it's a bit ridiculous. Of course, this film isn't really structured as a proper mystery story, so there are barely hints and you're not really intended to solve this yourself (the person solving the locked room murder basically *just* figures it out), but the actual mechanics behind how the murderer managed to leave the suspect in a locked apartment, with the only key (besides the caretaker's master key) being found inside a closed desk drawer, is pretty impressive. I can't even imagine how it was written down in the screenplay, and what everyone on the staff on this softcore film would have been thinking as they were shooting this, because it honestly should have been done in a pure mystery film, and not used as... binding material to connect the sexy scenes. The core, underlying idea of how this locked room murder was committed isn't anything special per se, but the execution is... insanely complex and not even a lot of actual mystery films/television shows will ever show anything as mind-boggling as this, and that indeed makes Seiko no Oshiri a strangely memorable mystery film.

But Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri can't be called a good film by any means, so it's really up to you whether you should watch this film. The locked room mystery part is interesting because it really has no business being in a film like this, but the rest of the film is incredibly tedious to get through if you're only interested in the mystery part.

Original Japanese title(s): 『痴漢電車　聖子のお尻』

Finessing the King

"I have billions of eyes, yet I live in darkness. I have millions of ears, yet only four lobes. I have no muscle, yet I rule two hemispheres. What am I?"

"Batman: The Animated Series"

Rather than reading in a chair, I prefer reading lying in bed!

Anata mo Meitantei, or as the book also says in English on the inside: What A Great Detective You Are, is a short story collection originally published in 2022, which was re-released as a pocket in 2025. The book collects six stories by as many authors. The stories were originally published in the magazine Mysteries!, all being pure whodunnits/guess the criminal stories, meaning they are divided in two parts: the first part being the "problem", where the main mystery (usually a murder) is presented along with all the relevant characters and clues and which ends with a formal Challenge to the Reader. Originally, readers would then have some time to write in their answers, with money prizes awaiting the correct guessers. The second part would be published in the following issue, and of course consisted of the solution, where it is logically proven which of the character did it. While some readers might find these stories too artificial and puzzle-like, I absolutely love them: it's no surprise Suiri no Jikan Desu, a book with a similar set-up, was one of my favorite reads last year. Anyway, I was already familiar with all the writers in Anata mo Meitantei, and seeing them on the cover made me quite certain there'd be delights of detection here, so let's see what we have here.

The book opens with Ichikawa Yuuto's Akaenpitsu wa Iranai ("The Red Pencil Is Never Needed"), which is a part of his Maria & Ren series, though you don't need any prior knowledge, as this is actually a prequel story. It focuses on Ren's| teenager days, and is set in the early seventies, more than a decade before the main series starts with The Jellyfish Never Freezes. The story is set in the country of J(apan) and is (mostly) narratored from the POV of Kouno Matsuri, who, like Ren, is a member in their school's newspaper club. One day, Ren joins Matsuri on her way home, where he meets Matsuri's father Kouno Tadaharu, a famous photographer, though infamously a difficult man. He however seems to find Ren an interesting young man, as he invites him to stay for dinner, though Tadaharu himself seems more focused on his own work. Ren is given a tour of the house, which includes a work cabin in the garden with an electronic lock. Matsuri's aunt and uncle also arrive at the house, much to Matsuri's chagrin, as her aunt always bosses everyone around. Even though Ren's never met these people, even he can tell there's a lot of tension going between Matsuri, her mother and her aunt and uncle, so he sticks around and eventually it becomes so late he's offered a bed for that evening. In the middle of the night however, Matsuri is awakened by a knock on his door: Ren has noticed something very odd outside, two sets of footprints going to the cabin, but only one returning. Only Tadaharu's not found in the house, so they enter the cabin... to find Tadaharu killed. But which of the people in the house did it?

On the whole a very solid puzzle, though with some elements I personally don't really like in pure whodunnit puzzles. The atmosphere is great, with the reader feeling something will happen as all the actors gather in the Kouno house, and I think a lot of readers might find it pretty challenging to figure out even half of the lines of deduction needed to arrive at the truth. While the story isn't that long, Ichikawa actually manages to put (relatively) a lot of twists in this tale, all with proper clues and foreshadowing, and while some of the element used to 'cross out' suspects might feel a bit familiar, I think it's generally a good example of this type of story. I also like how Ichikawa used his main series for this story (this tale is also included in the first short story collection of the Maria & Ren series, The Boneyard Never Speaks), but I do have to say it doesn't feel very strongly connected to the main series besides for the appearance of Ren: it misses the light sci-fi elements of the main series, as well as the dual narrative all the novels have.

Yonezawa Honobu also wrote his story as part of one of his series: namely the Shoushimin series (recently adapated as a television anime series).  Berlin Agepan no Nazo ("The Berliner Pfannkuchen Mystery") is interesting, as the reader is technically not looking for a culprit, but for a victim! Kobato is once again roped into 'trouble' despite aspiring to be 'Petite Bourgeoisie' minding his own business. His friend Kengo is a member of the newspaper club, where they were planning on doing an article on Berliner Pfannkuchen: a German doughnut with a jam filling. A local bakery has started selling them, which gave one of the newspaper club members an idea: they were going to recreate the end-of-year tradition with Berliner Pfannkuchen: basically Russian roulette by having one of the doughnuts filled with mustard. Four people were going to play the game, with one other member having picked up the Berliner Pfannkuchen at the bakery and then swinging by the Cooking Club to have one of them filled with mustard. However, the time of destiny apparently never came: all four members ate one of the four doughnuts, but they all claim to not have eaten the one with mustard. This of course doesn't make for a fun newspaper article, and some people are starting to suspect the "victim" is trying to make this article a failure on purpose, so Kengo hopes Kobato can figure out who lost the Berliner Roulette.

I absolutely love the innocent premise of this story and how it switches things around to have you figure out who the victim was. That said, I think that as a pure puzzle, this one was set-up far too easy, and I'd argue it's far more likely the reader will solve this story more based on feeling and instinct, than based on the clues per se. In fact, a lot of the necessary information doesn't even feel like they are obtained via logical conclusions, but simply via asking questions to certain characters, who then gladly give up that information, so as a puzzle, I do think this story is by far the weakest of the collection, even though as a story, it's very enjoyable.

The third story is by Higashigawa Tokuya, and I actually already discussed back in 2020, as his Alibi no Aru Yougishatachi ("Suspects With Alibis") had been featured in the anthology Honkaku-Ou 2020, so I'd like to refer to that post if you want learn more about it. Its inclusion in Honkaku-Ou 2020 was actually how I first learned about the project that would eventually culminate in the publication of Anata mo Meitantei.

The fourth story Momiji no Nishiki ("Breathtaking Red Leaves") by Maya Yutaka is also a series story, and while I think readers familiar with Maya's best-known series will soon recognize certain characters, the 'formal reveal' of their identities comes late, so I'll refrain from specificying what series this is. The main focus is on a group of students who have travelled to a traditional inn with a hot spring in the mountains to celebrate their graduation. They also have some interest in a local deity called Chuuruu, which has two small shrines dedicated to it on two points on the mountain: one near the base of the mountain, and one at the top, with them being connected via narrow (inaccssible) cracks and cavities in the mountain. At the top of the mountain is also a sightseeing deck. The students all enjoy their time at the inn, relaxing in the hot springs and playing games with each other and observing the other guests. Among the other two guests are two men, who at the end of the story discover a dead body lying on a cliff below the sightseeing deck on the top of the mountain. It is clear the victim was killed, but by whom?

Definitely of the best stories in the book, one that best shows off how cool these puzzles can be. The way Maya just throws the Challenge at the reader with the discovery of the corpse is fantastic, as all the information you needed is actually already collected before the murder even happens. You don't even learn who the victim is when you're challenged: you are expected to deduce the identity of the victim yourself too, and yes, Maya actually did leave enough hints and clues in all the events leading up to the discovery of the victim to allow you to guess who the victim actually is. And that's just the first half of the problem, because then you still need to deduce who the murderer is, and still based on the information presented to you up until the discovery of the victim, so you have no data available from investigation/interrogation etc. regarding alibis. This is really a very well-constructed puzzle, and a great example of the logic-based mystery story.

Also funny: all the characters are named after stations on the JR Kashii line in Fukuoka, which was near where I lived in Fukuoka! I instantly recognized those names together!

In Norizuki Rintarou's Shinritekikashi Ari ("Stigmatized Property"), Rintarou (the fictional writer) is asked by his freelance writer 'friend' Iida Saizou to look into the mysterious death of a colleague: Matsuoka Shoukichi was a freelance writer on matters of finance and gambling, but recently started having a hit with a series of articles on his new apartment: he was renting an old place where the previous two inhabitants had died: one had died all alone in the apartment from natural causes, while the other had committed suicide. Now he believed the place was haunted, and his articles on his home attracted quite some attention. But Matsuoka himself then was found dead in his apartment too, having hung himself by the neck. There were people who might have wanted Matsuoka dead, as he seemed to dabble in blackmail too, but Matsuoka kept his new address very secret, so how could any of the suspects have killed him?

Very decent story, and I like it a lot for having an much more "open" set-up than most of the other stories, which featured closed-off settings. The latter format of course feels more fair as a way to limit the number of suspects, and the way it is done in this story might not be completely convincing (i.e. we know the victim approached a certain number of people, who seem to be the suspects), but Norizuki does actually make proper use of this more open set-up to write a whodunnit that genuinely utilizes its urban setting. We have a private camera of a nosy neighbor that catches the times people went in and out the apartment/crime scene and the location itself is used in a clever way to determine who the murderer is. I wouldn't have wanted all the stories in this volume to use this open set-up, but it works here exactly because the other stories are more limited in their settings.

Shirai Tomoyuki's Shiri no Aoi Shitai ("The Blue-Bottomed Body") is about a detective who is looking into the indie horror film Fufa and Kuha: rumors have it footage of an actual murder that occured during its filming had been used in the film. The detective manages to track down one of the few remaining copies of the film and someone who was involved in the whole ordeal, and he is told the story of how a few years ago a group of students in the university film club were helping out Sadoshima Souhei, a graduated former member who was directing his first indie horror film: Fufa and Kuha. The group were staying at a boarding house owned by the father of one of the members, located in the woods of a mountain, the perfect place to film a slasher. Shiori, the actress of the heroine, was contracted seperately, though from the way she spoke openly about very much wanting to fuck, and the way she was flirting with all the other men in the crew, she was hired by Sadoshima for other skills than her acting. However, one of the members then realized she was the same woman who caused the suicide of a former club member by seducing him and then fake a pregnancy to push for money. The following day, the actor playing the villain role hears some moaning coming from the van. He peeks inside through the half-open window, only to see Shiori being strangled by someone. He rushes back into the building to get the car keys and help, but by the time they return to the van, Shiori has been murdered. And she's lying completely naked in the van. It is at this point our detective claims he can point out who the murderer is, and the reader should be able to do that too!

Was this the shortest story? Anyway, it's interesting how Shirai uses some sexual elements in the solution's line of deduction: I think the first time he uses it, it's a bit tacky and not really convincing, but the way it's used later on is a lot better. The story reminds a bit of Hayasaka Yabusaka's work (the Raichi series) due to its use of sex in a mystery story, though I think at least in this example, Hayakawa generally does it better. I also found the murderer's plan rather risky: while I understand the underlying goal they wanted to achieve by doing all that, it seems like this was a rather dangerous plan (for themselves) to go for, with more a chance of failing at the first step of the plan than everything going as hoped...

On the whole, Anata mo Meitantei/What A Great Detective You Are is a really impressive short story collection, that shows off how fun the formal whodunnit/guess-the-culprit puzzle can be. We have a really talented group of writers in this book, and I loved they all wrote their stories as parts of their wel-known series (if applicable). I'd love to see another iteration of this!

Original Japanese title(s): 『あなたも名探偵』: 市川憂人「赤鉛筆は要らない」/ 米澤穂信「伯林あげぱんの謎」/ 東川篤哉「アリバイのある容疑者たち」/ 麻耶雄嵩「紅葉の錦」/ 法月綸太郎「心理的瑕疵あり」/ 白井智之「尻の青い死体」

Write, She Murdered

「これですべてが変わる……この俺の運命……カカロットの運命……そして……キサマの運命も!!」 

『ドラゴンボールZ たったひとりの最終決戦〜フリーザに挑んだZ戦士 孫悟空の父〜』

"Now everything changes. (...) As well as your fate. This is where it ends!

"Dragon Ball Z:  A Final, Solitary Battle: The Father of Z-Warrior Son Goku, Who Challenged Freeza"

Now I think of it, I haven't reviewed that many collaborative works here. This one is a bit different of course, considering the two didn't really work together...

A pushy person in need of money manages to sell off some documents to a mystery writer, but it turns out these documents actually contains a rather interesting, and mysterious account of a murder and the writer decides to have the manuscript published. The documents consist of a series of long letters, be written by a Sobue Shinichi, a journalist, writing to a friend, who may be the person who ended selling the manuscript. Sobue tells about the horrendous murder on Anezaki Saeko, a beautiful widow who one day was found murdered on the second floor of the storehouse in the garden. However, not only was she found completely naked for some reason, the storehouse itself was found locked from the inside. Anezaki and Sobue were both members of a club headed by Kumauchi where they dabble in spiritualism. The testimony of a legless vagrant (who couldn't have come up the second floor himself) tells the police two people approached the house during the time of the murder, a gentleman and a woman in an old-fashioned kimono, but the police can't find out who these people are. At the club, Professor Kurokawa, the strongest believer in spiritualism, wants to hold a seance to look into the matter: he takes care of a blind girl with spiritual powers and who can act as a medium. During the seance however, the girl (while possessed) not only declares the murderer is among them, but also that the beautiful woman in front of her will also die, and there's only one person in the club who answers to this description...

Thus goes the story Akuryou ("Evil Spirits") by Edogawa Rampo, a story that was never finished. The story originally started serialization late 1933, long after it had been originally announced and hit by delays. Rampo even skipped serialization twice during this time, and ultimately, Akuryou was cancelled after only three installments, with Rampo citing "various reasons" led to him giving up, including the fact he had started writing the story before the plot had been properly developed yet. In 2024, Ashibe Taku finally gave Akuryou a proper conclusion: his Rampo Satsujin Jiken - Akuryou Futatabi ("The Rampo Murder Case - Return of Evil Spirits", 2024) is a collaborative work with the late Rampo, containing not only the original three installments of Akuryou, but also including an original ending by Ashibe, clewed together by him based on the three existing installments. And not only that, Ashibe even offers an explanation to why Rampo gave up on the project in the first place... 

Rampo Satsujin Jiken - Akuryou Futatabi  is in many ways a very special book. It basically tells two stories on two layers: it has the original unfinished Akuryou manuscript by Edogawa Rampo, which of course tells a story on two levels: the story of the detective writer who bought the manuscript, and the story within those letters (the Anezaki murder). Ashibe too finishes these two stories on both levels, and even adds an extra layer to the story that explains why Rampo ended up cancelling this serialization. The result is a story that jumps back and forth a few times, and which can be confusing at first, but things do come together in the end.

What caught my attention at once was the physical element of the book by the way. Publisher Kadokawa uses very different fonts to differentiate the various elements of the story, so you can instantly see whether you are reading the original serialized Akuryou pages, or the new original pages by Ashibe. The font used in the Akuryou parts do really look like the font used in older early Showa publications (and even look slightly smudged like you're really reading an old book), and it really helps sell the vibe of reading an old, genuine Rampo story.

Anyway, it is very hard to judge this book on its merits as a mystery story. Fact remains that Edogawa Rampo abandoned the story mid-way and left no notes as to indicate how the story was supposed to end, so all Ashibe could do was use whatever was already there: he had to play detective himself, find the clues Rampo left and find out the solution himself! Of course, Ashibe had more creative freedom than a real detective: it wasn't as if he had to build the solution solely on the elements featured in the first three installments, as he was able to freely add segments retroactively, but still, Ashibe of course tried to keep the "original" Akuryou intact as much as possible, and have his solution stick as close as possible to the original Rampo manuscript. That is what makes this a difficult story to judge, because Ashibe's hands were tied. 

Some parts of the mystery, like the locked room murder of Anezaki Saeko, were already quite fleshed out in the original script, and Ashibe is able to put forward a solution that seems well grounded in Rampo's work, but other parts of the original mystery must have been more troublesome to Ashibe, like the mystery of a curious drawing on a note found inside the locked room: attributing a meaning to that sketch in a way that ties it to the murder must have been an insanely strange challenge and while I do think Ashibe did a good job at providing an answer to it, the original idea of the drawing itself was never really that interesting to me as it always seemed to me the answer would feel a bit forced, or at least trivia-reliant, and Ashibe's answer doesn't stray far from that expectation. In a way, that's of course impressive: it definitely feels like Rampo...  I know from experience that some of Rampo's serialized longer works often feel like he didn't plan that much in advance, and often his set-ups for mysterious events were much better than the solutions he'd later provide. In a way, I feel Ashibe's conclusion to the story has elements of this too, but at the same time, I can't really blame him considering it was Rampo who set everything up, and Ashibe simply had to guess what the solution could be. And style-wise, I can't deny Ashibe managed to nail Rampo's work. He clearly studied Rampo's writing, so the additions don't feel out of place, and you could imagine this being the genuine ending to Akuryou. And in that sense, I do think Rampo Satsujin Jiken is an impressive work, more so than in the sense of it being a mystery story on its own.

Interestingly, it appears that even if this book were to win an award, the credits would likely go more towards Rampo than Ashibe. While the two authors share the credits on the cover, the bulk of the book consists of the original Akuryou manuscript, so that apparently has influence on who would be the main recipient of a hypothetical award, even if I do think the book's interesting exactly because of the transformation by a second author.

So Rampo Satsujin Jiken - Akuryou Futatabi is not per se a book I would recommend to a mystery fan, because as an standalone mystery novel, it is really mostly a 1930s Rampo serialized novel with all the haphazard planning and somewhat disappointing payoff to the set-up. However, with the surrounding context of Ashibe coming with an original conclusion based on the unfinished story, him emulating the style and offering an explanation why Akuryou was never finished, you get a story that is infinitely more interesting than Akuryou on its own. So recommended to Rampo fans, and people who want to see Ashibe live out his fanboy dream and finishing one of Rampo's work.

Original Japanese title(s): 江戸川乱歩、芦辺拓『『乱歩殺人事件―「悪霊」ふたたび』

Mine Your Own Business

"Moria. You fear to go into those mines. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm. Shadow and flame."

"The Fellowship of the Ring"

It's not actually set in the city of Fukuoka, but it is set in the Chikuhou region within the prefecture and plenty of characters use the local dialect, so I count it as my "I try to read at least one story set in Fukuoka once a year" story for this year!

When Motoroi Hayata first arrived at the prestigious Kenkoku University in Manchukuo, he believed in its ideals of ethnic harmony and a greater East-Asian power sphere, but his time there left him disillusioned, as he soon realizes there was no harmony here: Japanese students and teachers were treated as being superior, while the people from other locations like the Korean peninsula were treated as second-rate, only there to serve the Japanese. This hypocrisy of the Japanese empire's goals became painfully clear to Hayata. After the war, he found a steady job in Osaka, but one day, he just gives up and decides to just quit his job and take the train south (because the north is cold). He has no destination in mind, but decides to get off the train at Ketsune in the Chikuhou region in Fukuoka, as the view reminds him of his time in Manchukuo. He's barely out on the station, when he is approached by a man who wants to recruit Hayata as a miner. Hayata is almost forced inside a truck ready to go, but is saved by a man pretending to know Hayata. His savior introduces himself as Aizato Minoru, who explains that during the war, he had been a recruiter for a mining company himself in the Korean peninsula: while ostensibly, they only recruited volunteers, he has to admit they basically forced people to come with them to work in the mines in Fukuoka, as coal was a necessary resource for the war. The memory of the young Korean Jeong Nam-seon in particular remains a troublesome one for Aizato: the two men had a special bond, as both reminded the other of their own older brothers. Despite Aizato's attempt to get him off, Nam-seon too was forced to sign up to work for the mining company and he ended up at the worst possible mine, where Koreans were basically treated as slaves as they mined for coal, and Nam-seon would eventually find his demise during an air raid. After the war, Aizato stopped his job as a recruiter and became a coal miner himself at the Nenne Mines at Mount Yako, as a way to make amends for his past. Which is why he also tried to save Hayata from being recruited, but Hayata feels he wants to make up for his past too, and he asks Aizato to help him get employed at Nenne Mines too.

At the Nenne Mines, Hayata soon learns life as a miner s is still very harsh, even if it's better than during the war. While the miners aren't treated as full slaves now, the long shifts in the darkness are far from light work, especially as all mining companies try to maximize profits and of course, safety often ends up the first victim, meaning the risk of cave-ins and other crises always remain very present. Hayata ends up living together with Aizato in the singles dormitory, and soon learns Aizato is kind of a loner within the community, which Hayata suspects might have to do with Aizato's past as a recruiter. Hayata is a bit more social, and through his talks with his co-workers, he learns about the superstitions miners have. He hears ghost stories about mysterious women appearing in the deepest of the mine tunnels who offer to help lonely miners, but it seldom ends well for them. Foxes are worshipped as the deities of Mount Yako, with the white fox being worshipped as a symbol of prosper and great harvest (coal output), while the black fox is feared as a symbol of bad harvest, and it is said that people who die in the mine tunnels, are turned into a black fox themselves. One morning, as they are working the early shift, one man cries out: a cave-in! Veterans soon recognize the characteristic sound of the ceiling sinking in, and everyone tries to find their way out, when another disaster strikes: gas! The miners barely make it out in time, with some of them being carried out because they already inhaled too much gas. When the supervisors check their lists, they however learn one man didn't make it out: Aizato Minoru. It turns out his mining buddy of today didn't wait for Aizato as he fled their tunnel, a deed many consider absolutely unforgivable as even if you don't like your co-workers really, miners never leave each other behind. Which is why the miners also become infuriated when the mining company seems very reluctant to send their rescue unit down the mines to save Aizato, citing the risk on more cave-ins and the gas, and they will only attempt it after doing a daily canary test (sending canaries down the mines to see if they survive the gas). While the miners try to convince the company to send their rescue unit sooner, Hayata is approached by the girl who works in the canteen, as children saw something odd at this time: a man wearing a black fox mask entered the room of Kido, a former miner of Korean descent who works as a handyman around the mining village. The black fox is feared by everyone here, so Hayata agrees to have a look in Kido's room, as Kido's living in the room next to Aizato and his. When he enters Kido's room however, he finds Kido's body hanging from a shimewana, a sacred rope usually found at shrines. At first, it looks like suicide, but where did the man with the black fox mask go? The children have actually kept an eye on the front door ever since the figure entered the room, and the windows in the back can't actually be opened due to the bad building quality of the dormitory, so the figure couldn't have escaped unseen! When then more people in the dormitory end up dead in a similar way, hanging from shimewana in locked rooms, people start to fear it's Aizato's spirit, turned into a black fox and looking for more people to join him in the depths of the mines, but Hayata isn't quite convinced as he decides to investigate these murders in Mitsuda Shinzou's 2016 novel Kokumen no Kitsune ("The Black-Faced Kitsune").

As a big fan of Mitsuda's Toujou Genya series, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I read Ikan, his first novel: whereas I feel the Genya series hit a great balance between horror and a genuine well-plotted detective, Ikan was clearly more horror. Of course, I know Mitsuda also writes conventional horror, but I am not really interested in that. However, in my search for stories that in spirit are closer to the Genya series, I soon found about Kokumen no Kitsune. When Mitsuda first started doing his research for this novel, it was actually with the intention of writing a Genya novel set around a coal mine, but as Mitsuda read more and more about it, he felt the theme didn't really fitted the Genya series, and he decided to make it its own standalone novel. Still, this book is far closer to the Genya series than Ikan was, though it is also definitely not just a Genya novel with different characters, and it certainly works best as its own thing.

For one of the greatests feats of this novel is definitely the depiction of the harsh, gritty life of miners in Japan both during and after World War II. The story takes a long time for the set-up of the murders, and the mystery doesn't really get started until halfway the novel, but the lead-up time is used excellently to introduce the reader to the horrifying life as a miner. This is a horror novel, but a lot of the horror is actually based on reality: we hear about Aizato's past where he was a miner recruiter during the war, and the stories we hear about how they basically kidnapped people to work in the mines as de-facto slaves is just terrifying. This is also put in an international context, as we learn how as the war continued and resources became scarce, the Japanese empire eventually decided to "recruit" Koreans from their colonies to work in the coal mines of nearby Kyushu. Promises of high pay and just a one or two year contract after which they were free to go, were of course quickly broken, and while the Japanese miners were treated slightly more favorably, it was clear that miners were just a replacable resource to the companies running the mines, with safety never winning from coal output in terms of priorities. While things improved after the war, you still have ruthless recruiters who try to force lonely people in signing contracts, and even now, safety is not a priority for many of the mining companies, like at the Nenne Mines, which doesn't even have its own rescue unit, but has to wait for one to be sent from the main company in case anything happens (and of course, by the time such a unit arrives, hours if not days will have passed).

And we're just talking about the "outside" working circumstances here, but crawling into pitch-dark tunnels with just a light on your helmet and having to choose between wearing clothes to protect your body from the stones or wearing nothing because it's insanely hot inside the tunnels, carrying buckets full of coals to carts which need to moved out too and of course the danger of cave-ins and gas are all things that don't really make the life of a miner fun. In the first half of the book we hear also a lot about the superstitions of miners, like them at least trying to appease the fox spirits of Mount Yako, or stories about ghosts appearing in the depths of the tunnels when people work alone or about people who die and are left in the tunnels become spirits who roam the surface to take others along. Great stuff here, that really set a spooky atmosphere.

In the second half, after the cave-in and Aizato being left behind in the gas-filled mines, the mystery really starts with the apparent suicide of Kido in his room. Children saw a man wearing a black fox mask enter the room, but didn't see him leave through the front door, even though they were watching it until Hayata arrived at the scene. The back window was not locked, but the whole building was built rather shoddily, and like with parts of Aizato/Hayato's room, the window's simply completely stuck in the frame. At first, Kido's death is treated as a suicide, even if using a shimewana to hang yourself is a bit weird, but the following day, another neighbor of Hayata's found dead in his own room, and this time it's a real locked room, with the door and windows all locked and bolted.  The days after, even more people in the dorm die under the same circumstances, which soon fuel rumors of Aizato's spirit having escaped the mines to kill these people, but Hayata is of course quite convinced a real person killed these men somehow and tries to investigate these deaths, but the managers of the mining company seem very intent on handling these deaths as suicides, as a murder investigation would of course put a halt on mining activities for some time.

I do have to say that as a locked room mystery, Kokumen no Kitsune isn't as intricately plotted as the bangers we see in the Genya series. I think the first one, with the figure seen to enter Kido's room but not leave, is the best in the sense it fits the unique setting of a small miner's community the best by far. Subsequent locked rooms were less interesting I think: whereas in the Genya novels Mitsuda presents insanely densily plotted mysteries with all kinds of clues eventually coming together to point at the solution and often show synergy between the multiple impossible situations, that is not really the case here. The solutions to the individual locked rooms come rather suddenly, with Hayata just realizing how they were done even though he didn't really investigate the crime scenes and there wasn't really a particular reason why he couldn't have realized it earlier (there was no specific impulse that made the deduction only possible later). Synergy between the various locked rooms is also nearly nihil, meaning that solving one case doesn't necessarily lead to an epiphany regarding a different one, which is something I really liked about the Genya plots. That said, setting the individual locked rooms aside, I did really like Kokumen no Kitsune on the whole, as the way the plot is set in motion and how characters behave and by extent, make this murder mystery possible, is firmly set in the realistic post-war world of miners as portrayed by Mitsuda, and the way he also ties it to miner's superstitions is really good. There's not much delving into folklore and the meaning behind customs/traditions like in the Genya stories here, so you get a lot of spooky stories without an "explanation" to them, but that really helps sell the setting of the mines, a place not even the people who work in the deepest parts of the mountains, truly comprehend.

So overall, I did enjoy Kokumen no Kitsune a lot. As for the mystery plot, it doesn't reach the highest heights of the Genya series at all, but it still managed to scratch that itch of mine for well-plotted horror-mystery with an emphasis on local folklore/ghost stories, and in this book, we also get a very fascinating look in the lives of coal miners in post-war Japan, and that part is absolutely the highlight. The mining community and their circumstances are also put to good use for the mystery plot, providing a unique location that you simply won't find in other stories. 

Original Japanese title(s): 三津田信三『黒面の狐』

Fire, Burn!

"You call it hope—that fire of fire!"

"Tamerline"

When I read this... it was not a hot summer day, but a surprisingly cool one, and by the time this review is posted, it's probably a cold winter day...

Agni no Atsui Natsu ("Agni's Hot Summer") sounds like an adult video title, but it's actually the first novel starring the young photographer and amateur detective Minami Mikikaze, whom first made his debut as a character in a short story collection by Tsukatou Hajime. The story is told from the point of view of Seiji, a young man who is the second son of Kyoujirou, a famous fossil fuel scientist who is involved with several companies in the fuel and energy industry. Kyoujirou was married to Erika, mother of the brothers Kouji and Seiji, but she was murdered six years ago, and her murderer was never caught. They still hold a small service every year to commemorate Erika and after that, a small circle of family and friends gather at private resort that used to belong to Erika's grandmother: it's a huge park with a lot of green and even a hiking path, with several cottages and two communal buildings spread across the property. The whole resort is of course fenced off completely and the private park has been used by Kyoujirou as both a second home, as well as a more relaxed location to entertain guests and discuss business. While most of the people are already there on the day of the service, like of course Kouji and Seiji, but also their aunt (Erika's sister) and uncle, Kyoujirou himself had to bring some of his foreign guests back to the airport after the service, and he and his secretary stayed at the hotel that evening to return the day after. Upon his return to the resort, he has a business meeting with Kouji and one of his advisors, after which he goes jogging with Kouji and then they split up, with Kyoujirou retreating to his own room in the large main building. A perfectly normal, hot summer day.

Kouji and Seiji are relaxing on the terrace of Kouji's cottage, when they suddenly hear a loud crack, and when they look up and notice black smoke rising from the main building. They remember their father is still inside so run up to his room, as do the two other guests at the resort. The source of all the smoke is in Kyoujirou's private rooms, but they can't open the door, as a wild fire is raging inside. They quickly scan the other rooms in the main building, but can't find any trace of Kyoujirou, so it is feared he's indeed in his own room. When the firefighters have finally extinguished the fire, the room is completely lost: even the flooring has fallen through. And everyone's greatest fear is confirmed: Kyoujirou died in his room. But not the way they expected: Kyoujirou had been stabbed with a knife! It appears his murderer killed the man and then set fire to the room. The firefighters also find a memento of Erika, which had been placed at the small shrine in the other communal building just after Kyoujirou arrived at the resort that morning: Kyoujirou had been in the presence of other people since that moment, who can swear he didn't bring the memento to his room himself, meaning it must have been the murderer who placed it at the crime and arson scene for some reason. The fire was also surprisingly intense, being much hotter than a normal fire and even completely burning Kyoujirou's body, making his face completely unrecognisable, and it is suspected some kind of chemical was used to start the fire: in other case an unusual thing to do, but as the people here were all involved with Kyoujirou's fuel company... As there were only four people at the resort at the time of the arson, it seems clear one of them must be the murderer, but police investigation soon shows this seems impossible: witnesses not only the main entrance of the main building under observation basically the whole time after Kyoujirou entered, they also had eyes on each other most of the time, as they were all standing in front of their own cottages. Meanwhile, Seiji's aunt and uncle return to the resort to bring a surprising guest: Minami Mikikaze is a photographer who was supposed to make pictures of Kyoujirou for an upcoming event, but the young man seems rather interested in this murder case and soon asks some very clever questions...

It's interesting how Agni no Atsui Natsu is the first novel with Mikikaze, as it's actually really short. Most of the stories I read with Mikikaze, are relatively long: the phenomenal Misshitsu Kingdom (Kingdom of the Locked Room, 2007) is one of the longest locked room mysteries, but that is an outlier, of course. Still, in more recent years, Mikikaze has been starring in a sub-series with stories inspired by the first few Ellery Queen novels: some of the "short" stories (more like novellas) in these short story collections are much longer than Agni no Atsui Natsu, a standalone release, itself!

Because of its relatively limited length, Tsukatou has to move pretty quickly, and the first half of the book might feel very artificial: it's clear he's just setting up all the pieces of his mystery, moving characters around to get them into position and to give you all the necessary clues. As often in the Mikikaze series, his writing style is one the reader really needs some adjusting too: while the language Tsukatou uses is not complex at all, his narration style can make his stories somewhat hard to read, as he often likes to start a scene kind of in media res, with characters talking about information you had never heard about, and then it jumps back again to introduce said information, but it's not like the in media res beginning adds anything mystery-wise: there's no payoff, just a short moment of confusion. He might as well have presented all the information in chronological order from the beginning, as he always just explains everything properly a few pages later. He does this a few times every chapter, so it makes his stories far harder to reader than they should be. It's somewhat reassuring to know he did this from the beginning, and it wasn't something he developed recently... Anyway, the first half can be a bit boring as you'll hear about how character A wasn't watching the main building for two minutes, while character B saw character A for three minutes etc., but do pay attention, because Tsukatou manages to cram a lot of clues and foreshadowing in this segment, which do pay off in the second half.

Agni no Atsui Natsu is not formally an impossible crime, but it is practically one: there was only a very limited window of opportunity (two minutes) for the murderer to get in and out the main building where the victim was without being seen by any witnesses, in which they then would have needed to kill an adult man and somehow set fire to the room. While such impossible crimes usually focus more howdunnit, Tsukatou clearly enjoys the Ellery Queen-mode of culprit-focused deductions more, something we also saw in Misshitsu Kingdom and of course the Nationalities books, but I was surprised to see it being his preferred mode in this first Mikikaze novel too. Tsukatou does a great job exploring how each of the suspects could perhaps have committed the seemingly impossible crime, which involves the murderer retrieving Erika's memento, go in the main building unseen, commit the murder, set fire to the room and escape the main building again: it is here you might be surprised to learn how so much of the (slow) first half ends up being used as a clue upon which to build chains of reasoning, and of course, those densely laid-out clues are also used to disprove many of these otherwise convincing sounding theories. I honestly fell for some of the false theories, thinking I had an idea of what happened, only to be proven in a completely fair and logical way how that wouldn't work.

As more and more theories are crossed out, few possibilities remain of course, and ultimately we arrive at a solution that might not be super surprising, but I really liked the logical route to that revelation. To be honest, the actual howdunnit behind the murder on Kyoujirou seems a bit doubtful in terms of actual feasibility, but in the end, that's a relatively minor part of the novel, as the focus lies more on the logical process of determining who of the suspects could've committed the crime in that way, and considering this is actually a very short novel, I find the result quite impressive: I've read much longer novels that don't have even half the number of properly clewed, but false theories or feature so many "traps" for the reader. The way the current murder ties back to the murder on Erika six years ago also has some clever features: while it is mostly an "epilogue" thing and you aren't really expected to solve that murder based on the clues provided, there's a really cool element to it that honestly could've been explored more, and it would have made this novel a bit longer/give it more volume. As it is now, it's definitely a puzzler-type of story and little beyond that, but delving more into the past murder would've given us more context to why certain characters acted certain ways.

So Agni no Atsui Natsu is a very short, and very focused mystery novel that doesn't try to be anything more than an Ellery Queen-type of whodunnit puzzler, but considering the page length, it's quite impressive how much Tsukatou managed to stuff in the plot. Is it perfect? No, it definitely has holes and parts that could've been fleshed out more to make it a more convincing novel, but as someone who loves these kinds of deduction-chain-based mysteries, I'd say Agni no Atsui Natsu is worth a read, especially as an example to see how you can have a(n) (quasi) impossible crime, and not focus on the howdunnit. Tsukatou does this better in Misshitsu Kingdom of course, and that is a must-read I think, but that book is also six times longer...

Original Japanese title(s): 柄刀一『火の神（アグニ）の熱い夏』

A Model Murder

"No matter how abstract the painting, he always signs his name realistically."

"Columbo: Suitable for Framing"

As I do so often, I went into this book without any prior knowledge or even reading the blurb on the back. So I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed at first when I realized this was not a mystery where a breaking wheel was used as the murder weapon...

Yabe Naoki is a curator at a museum, who one day starts chatting with Imura, an office clerk at the same museum. Yabe learns Imura does not have a special interest in art, but he does like mystery fiction, and because the young man also seems to have an inquisitive mind, Yabe decides to confide to Imura the mystery he stumbled upon revolving around the painter Toujouji Kei. Yabe himself learned of the painter when one of his paintings was featured in a small exhibition, and the piece only attracted his attention because the portrait resembled his wife when she was younger. However, that was enough to get Yabe interested in the painter who committed suicide some years ago, and hoping to find more of his work, he decides to contact his widow, who however seems not at all interested in her deceased husband. Toujouji Kei had only been active as a painter for a very short period of time, though he was very active, but he was a relatively minor artist. His widow in fact threw out most of his old paintings because they take up too much space. Yabe decides to contact a few other relatives and friends of Toujouji Kei, who have bought his paintings in the past, hoping to learn more about the artist, and the circumstances behind his suicide. The paintings Kei left behind are full of suggestive imagery, like a girl being licked by a monk-like figure and a woman being tortured on a breaking wheel. Yabe uses his knowledge of iconography to try and explain what must have been going on in Kei's mind when he made these paintings, but Yabe eventually also finds a diary of Kei, where he writes about the night he was invited to a party to celebrate his adoptive father's birthday: in the middle of the night, his father was found murdered in the bathroom, which was locked from the inside, and moments later, a scream follows and they find another guest dead in her (locked) room: she was an art student both Kei and his father knew, and who had recently won an artist award and therefore been invited to the party. Yabe passes his files on the matter to Imura to see if he can figure out the link between Toujouji Kei's paintings and the double locked room murder in Asukabe Katsunori's debut work Junkyou Catherine Sharin ("The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine's Wheel") or as the inner work of the book also says: The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine.

Asukabe Katsunori won the 9th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award in 1998 with this manuscript, which landed him the publishing contract for the book and marked his debut as a professional writer. Last year, I reviewed his Datenshi Goumonkei ("Torture of the Fallen Angels" 2008), a book which had been out of print forever, but late 2023, it received a limited facsimile reprint via Shosen and the bookstore Horindo in cooperation with the original publisher Kadokawa. They reprinted more of Asukabe's work, and my copy of The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine is another of them, created by Horindo, Shosen and original publisher Tokyo Sogensha. It's interesting how these books are really facsimiles of the original books complete with the advertisements for other releases of the original publisher at the end of the book, even though these fascimile reprints are not sold or distributed via the original publisher, but only available through Shosen and the Horindo stores. Anyway, as someone who is interested in the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award winners, as they tend to fit my own preferences in mystery fiction the most, I was glad I was able to secure a copy of this book easily now!

The book can roughly be divided in two halves, the first half focusing on Yabe's inquiries into Toujouji Kei's history and his quest for Kei's paintings, and the second half being the diary of Toujouji Kei himself, writing about the events leading up to, and on the night his adoptive father and the student died under mysterious circumstances. The first half is quite unique due to its focus on Kei's paintings. For Asukabe Katsunori actually painted the paintings discussed in the book. The book opens with four paintings printed in high quality glossy paper, and they really do look good. It's insane imagining Asukabe painting these paintings for a manuscript he couldn't have known for sure would indeed win the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award, especially as the two main paintings are full of suggestive imagery, so it would be weird to just hang them in your house and have visitors wondering about the theme of the paintings. But because Asukabe designed these paintings himself, he can do something you seldom see in mystery fiction. Yabe, as a curator, analyzes these paintings based on iconography, and they allow for some interesting insights into the motives and thoughts of the artist. While of course, "explaining what the artist really meant" is up to interpretation in real-life, because these paintings were made for a mystery novel, Asukabe is able to present rather convincing and entertaining analyses of the subject matter of the paintings, while at the same time being "open" enough to actual sound like plausible artistic interpretations, rather than super-detailed Sherlock Holmes-style deductions. Yabe's analyses in Kei's motivations serve as the perfect background as we move to the second half of the book, where we follow Kei and you slowly start to see how the vague interpretations of Yabe are giving absolute form, as we learn more details of his life.

The second part is based on the diary of Kei Yabe finds, and tells the story of how Kei first got into painting, and how he slowly became better, and more obsessed with the art. His adoptive father was an well-known art critic too, who would also serve as a judge at contests, though the two were never really close and they seldom spoke after Kei's biological mother passed away, though there was no animosity between him and his adoptive father and later his stepmother. The account then builds to the fateful night, when Kei's father celebrates his birthday and several relatives and guests stay for the night: the house actually consists of two buildings connected through a passageway, so there are quite some rooms. In the middle of the night however, Kei's father is found stabbed to death in the bathroom, which was locked from the inside. Everyone in the house comes to see what has happened, but minutes later, a cry follows from the room above the bathroom, and they find the female student stabbed in the neck, with the knife that is later determined to have also killed Kei's father. But how did the murderer kill someone in the locked bathroom, escape it, and kill another person on a different floor without being seen by everyone gathered in the bathroom? On a technical level, the double locked room murder mystery has a better set-up than actual solution, which is relatively simple and relies on quite some coincidence. There is fortunately a bit more meat to the mystery in other parts, and while I do think the clewing is a bit too obvious, I did appreciate Asukabe's efforts in fleshing the mystery out, especially as the mystery part of the book is relatively short (it's really just the second half of the book, as the first part about the paintings can be seen seperate).

However, what I do think the book does really well is finally linking the narrative about Kei's paintings and the iconographical analyses of Yabe, to the murder mystery narrative. Parts of the analyses that were ambiguous at first, turn out to have been clear psychological clues/foreshadowing that explain some of the happenings in the past and parts in Kei's account of the affair take on another light if you realize how he must have felt when painting the discussed works, as interpreted by Yabe earlier. It is surprising how much of the murder mystery can be found reflected in Kei's paintings, and you can clearly see how much of an impression it made on him, but this is only apparent in hindsight, and it creates a very cool effect. It's something you don't really see in mystery fiction often, where the themes are actually visualized. There is of course art-related mystery or thriller fiction. The Da Vinci Code for example does go into the analyses of visual art, but that is not at all comparable to what The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine does, as the latter cleverly hides foreshadowing, clues and themes in the paintings, which are only given form and meaning in the second part, and the two parts do strengthen each other.

So while I don't think one should read Junkyou Catherine Sharin on its mechanical strengths as a locked room mystery, I would definitely recommend it as a highly original and unique mystery story, which uses originally created paintings to tell a type of mystery story you will likely not come across anywhere else, using visual imagery and themes to tell an otherwise prose-foused tale of detection. For that alone, this book is one I will remember for quite some time!

Original Japanese title(s): 飛鳥部勝則『殉教カテリナ車輪』

Turnabout Memories - Part 14

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

Another Code R: Journey into Lost Memories

 

 

I always post a 'let's look back at the most interesting mystery fiction of this year' post around Christmas, but it turns out this year, Christmas falls on my usual update day of Wednesday, so... this week, the 'list' post will take the place of my usual review post! Anyway, while I have been updating each week as usual and have read some really cool books this year, it's also been a rather hectic year for me privately, so I have to admit I have been mostly been doing the bare minimum for the blog, which meant basically no editorial posts this year, and also barely any games discussed. I had been visiting Japan for a longer period earlier this year too, which resulted in some really cool experiences like going to the Detective Conan 30th Anniversary exhibition and also visiting some of the publishers behind the books I worked on and their editors (and also meeting some great people, some of those meetings being really surprising personally because I didn't *they* were working there...), but those were also not really things to be writing about extensively here because it was partially private, partially work... But as always, I always have a huge stock of reviews waiting to be published, so even a few months of barely reading/writing is hardly noticable on the blog itself. But no fears, I will continue writing about Japanese mysteries, both new and old, here *at least* once a week, so if you're interested in detective fiction from the land of the rising sun, I hope you'll be here next year too. Have a nice Christmas and a great new year!

The Best Project Outside The Blog! In 2024!

The Labyrinth House Murders

 

Better known as the self-promotion category! And because Ayatsuji's The Labyrinth House Murders is the only book I worked on that was released this year, it shouldn't surprise anyone this was my pick for this year. After the reprint of The Decagon House Murders by Pushkin Press, I was approached to work on The Mill House Murders, and fortunately, that also led to me working on the third book in Ayatsuji's seminal series. This third entry has always been a personal favorite, due to my own interests in Greek mythology, due to the crazy labyrinth-layout of the house and the incredibly tricky set-up of the story. Translation-wise, it also presented some challenges, which I addressed in this post here, so please read it after reading the book. There's already a listing for The Clock House Murders available and it's mentioned in The Labyrinth House Murders, so it's no secret anymore The Clock House Murders is now planned for a release next year, and that I am working on it too, and that is perhaps the best book in the whole series when it comes to the pure mystery, so look forward to it!

 

In less joyous news however, you may have heard John Pugmire of Locked Room International passed away. As Locked Room International was mostly run by him alone, it seems unlikely you'll see new translations by me published via Locked Room International. I got my first opportunity to work as a translator thanks to John and Locked Room International, so I will always be grateful to him. There was actually a book we were working on before he passed away, so I can only hope it will be released one way or another in the future.

Most Interesting Mystery Game Played in 2024 Category

No Winner 

 

Attentive people might have noticed it already, but I discussed awfully few games this year on the blog.  That's partially because I have played fewer games in general this year, but it's mostly due to me not actually finishing the games I have started this year. The recent re-releases of the original Hayarigami trilogy and Kamaitachi no Yoru X3 are cool, but I'm nowhere close to finishing them, and the few games I have discussed this year on the blog, even if not bad per se, are nowhere near the level I'd actually call them the 'best' in anyway. I'll try to be better next year and play more games like a good child!

 

Best Set-Up! Seen in 2024!

Deisui Hadagi Kirisaki Jiken ("The Case of the Torn Hangover Underwear")

 

Besides some conventional story set-ups for a mystery story, I have come across quite a few more original/surprising ones this year. The concept of murders occuring on a warship sounds like one you'd see more often, but I had not encountered one until Okamoto Yoshiki's debut novel Hansen Gunkan no Satsujin ("Murders on The Sailing Warship" 2023). A murder occuring inside a Gundam cockpit (Mobile Suit Gundam WEARWOLF) and murders happening inside a game dungeon (Sword Art Online Alternative: Mystery Labyrinth - Meikyuukan no Satsujin) were also concepts that drew me in immediately. But perhaps the one that surprised me the most genuinely, would be the mystery presented in Imamura Masahiro's short story Deisui Hadagi Kirisaki Jiken ("The Case of the Torn Hangover Underwear"), found in the prequel short story collection to Shijinsou no Satsujin (AKA Death Among the Undead). The mystery here revolves around... the detective waking up with a hangover, and realizing he's not wearing his underwear anymore. But he can't remember why. It's such a silly set-up, but it is used for a proper mystery, and it all... just works. For some reason. That is why I love the mystery genre, it can be about murders, but it can also be about underwear.

 

Best Title of 2024!

Combustible Substances

 

Sometimes, a title alone can draw you to a book. Some of the books I read this year had pretty cool titles. I love "Oedipus Syndrome" (Oedipus Shoukougun) for example because it sounds like something ominous. "Torture of the Fallen Angels" (Datenshi Goumonkei) sounds absolutely metal and Ten Commandments (Jikkai) is very simple, but it can really invoke so many images and ideas for a mystery plot. It's basically the reason why I ended up picking Combustible Substances as the winner for this year. It is a very basic and simple phrase, but it just... tickles the mystery-oriented mind, allowing you to imagine all kinds of scenarios. 

Best Cover

Tokushinkan Satsujin Jiken ("The Murder Case in the Blasphemy Mansion" 2023)?

 

This wasn't even a contest: I just wanted to make sure this cover appeared on this blog a second time! I mean, come on, just think of all the books you read this year. Does even one of those books have a cover that comes close to how amazing this cover is? It fits the title perfectly too, because of course you'll have a Baphomet idol in a place that's called the Blasphemy Mansion and the coloring really sells the atmosphere they are going for. I have to admit: my interest in this book was derived 99% from this cover alone: I only check a fraction of the books Seikaisha releases, and some of them are not the type of mystery I usually read, and if I had only gone by the summary of the book, it was likely I would have skipped it because of the cosmic horror implications, but I am glad the cover convinced me to buy it anyway!

 

Best Post I Accidentally Deleted And Had To Rewrite Completely! In 2024!

No Winner

 

Fortunately, last year was an exception...

 

Best Post I Had To Write With One Hand Because Of A Broken Elbow! In 2024!

Detective Conan volume 106

 

Hopefully, this year is an exception...

 

Best Adaptation Seen in 2024!

Jukkakan no Satsujin (The Decagon House Murders)

 

I haven't written a post about the Hulu adaptation of The Decagon House Murders yet, but I did actually watch all five episodes the very day they started streaming it on Japanese Hulu, and it was excellent. The book was long thought to be nearly impossible to adapt in a visual format, and while a few years back, a manga adaptation was released, that is still a very different thing from a live-action drama adaptation. The director, who in the past had worked with author Ayatsuji (and Arisugawa) on the show Anraku Isu Tantei, however pulled off the impossible and made a genuinely amazing adaptation of the book and I'd want to recommend everyone to watch it. Ellery is deliciously obnoxious in this adaptation, while I honestly can't imagine anyone else anymore as Shimada than the actor Aoki Munetaka. I believe the show is for now exclusive to Japanese Hulu, so I hope they'll release it internationally too...

What's also fun to mention is that the day after the show started streaming... I met with Ayatsuji himself. I had travelled to Japan and Ayatsuji was kind enough to meet with me, and it turned out the one day he'd be available, would be the day after the show started. Which was one reason why I binged the show, though I have to repeat the show was really well done, so I was hooked either way. But because of that, I had the luxury of actually discussing my thoughts on the show with Ayatsuji himself the day after...

 

Two days ago, they announced a follow-up adaptation for next year, though they haven't said what book yet. I have my suspicions though...

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

- Shoujo ni wa Mukanai Kanzen Hanzai ("An Unsuitable Perfect Crime for a Girl") (Houjou Kie) 

- Lindongzhiguan ("Coffins in the Cold Winter") (Sun Qinwen)

- Suiri no Jikan Desu ("It's Inference Time") (Norizuki Rintarou, Houjou Kie, Abiko Takemaru, Tanaka Hirofumi, Kitayama Takekuni and Ibuki Amon)

- Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo ("The Birth of Kitarou ~ The Mystery of GeGeGe") (film based on work of Mizuki Shigeru)

- Jirai Glico ("Glico with Landmines") (Aosaki Yuugo)

- Kiguu ("Coincidentialea") (Yamaguchi Masaya)

- Salome no Guillotine ("Salome's Guillotine") (Yuuki Haruo)

- Ina no Gotoki Nieru Mono ("Those Who Are Sacrified like the Shunned") (Mitsuda Shinzou) 

- Il noma della rosa ("The Name of the Rose") (Umberto Eco)

- Karasu ("The Crows") (Maya Yutaka)