The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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If you are a fan of the formal puzzle mysteries of the old school, in particular the Characters On An Island Picked Off One By One subgenre, this is one of the absolute best. Here in Japan of 1986, several college students are on a boat to an island to spend a week indulging in their common enjoyment. The Decagon House Murders alternates between Kawaminami's investigations on the mainland and the progressively macabre events taking place on the island, paying respect to Christie's original while crafting its own convoluted and skillfully constructed mystery. To really enjoy this one, you have to be a person who enjoys the deduction aspect of a mystery novel over the plot.

Also, as mentioned before, the introduction to the book is fascinating enough alone to warrant a read.Interesting isolated house murder mystery with a vivid setting, plenty of red herrings, and a slowly depleting cast as the murderer whittles away. No sooner would i come up with a theory than one of the characters would voice it themselves, and then I’m left to wonder: does that mean the theory is a red herring, or is it actually still valid, and the author is trying to psyche me out by bringing it into the open? Meanwhile, on the mainland, a former member of the mystery club receives a letter from the previous owner of the mansion — a dead man — accusing him, and every member of the club, of murder. Thank you to the author, Yukito Ayatsuji, the translater, Hong-Li Wong, and the publisher, Pushkin Press, for this opportunity.

Kodansha USA publishes the series digitally in North America from August 17, 2021, [8] to November 29, 2022. Now the Decagon house has had a 'everyone-murdered' scenario before and coincidentally Chiori is related to the house (she is daughter of the owner). The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.

I did love the occasional mention of historical and cultural details but those are made for people that are actually acquainted with it already and not especially infused for ‘tourists’. Ayatsuji honors the traditions of mystery’s honkaku, Japan’s take on the Golden Age puzzle-plot, while putting his own spin on the form. The book opens with the inner thoughts of a deranged character, staring into a choppy sea hell-bent on passing ‘Judgement’. stars because I am the sort of mystery fan described above and the ending is clever enough to warrant a notation.

Except that the second day of their trip, they wake up to find seven plastic nameplates with the labels First Victim, Second Victim, and so on to Fifth Victim, with the final two plates labelled Detective and Murderer. I wish the original names were introduced earlier on, so that the reader had enough time to map the nicknames to the real names. Unlike, for example, Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table, where her detectives are series characters so you know you can take them at their word, the detectives here are all unknown to me. Also, they are whodunnit experts, surely they would know that they are squandering valuable time on the kind of idiotic disagreements that solve nothing and if anything may result in them not paying attention to their surroundings etc. Not one of the characters was actually clever or possessed any real common sense, many scenes were wasted on each character asking ‘was it you?The book actually has two storylines, one that takes place on the remote island while another takes place on the main land that eventually blends to disclose a big reveal. Originally published in Japan in 1987 and only now available in English translation, this book represents a resurgence of "locked room" mysteries in Japan at the time.

The second English-language edition was published in December 2020 by Pushkin Press, and in July 2021 the manga adaptation, illustrated by Hiro Kiyohara, was announced for publication in America. However, things take a wild turn when the members of the mystery club get killed one by one, and the killer is just among them, hiding in plain sight. With not 1 but 2 murder investigations going on, you must keep your wits around and you’re not certain if the murders then and those now are related. The split story always keeps you on the edge of your seat as you keep wondering what’s happening in the other storyline. The author was interested in Golden Age Mysteries and even the characters in this book note similarities to Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.They both have students going to a remote island where they’re killed off 1 by 1 and both openly pay homage to Agatha Christie’s original. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, two of the members who did not go on the trip receive letters, suggesting all is not well, and begin to investigate the murders on the island. There is the extroverted pretty and the dowdy introvert…funnily enough one of the female characters is the first one to ‘lose it’, to the point of having to be sedated and referred to as hysterical. As the bodies begin to pile up, and the list of suspects shortens, a lesser mystery novel may struggle to hold the reader's imagination.