The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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First, I want to say thank you for Sanny who introduced me with this novel, and more importantly introduced me with Honkaku mystery genre. Even with the benefit of a narrative structure that lets the reader in on far more information than any one character in the novel, you are unlikely to ever feel certain throughout the book that you know who did it. Seven friends go to a deserted island where a bloody triple murder-suicide was committed just six months before in this Japanese classic locked room mystery that gives a nod to And Then There Were None. The Mainland thread is more visibly non-western; not only by the use of the proper names for the characters but also in the references to the lifestyle and habits. This is the third Japanese locked-room mystery I've read this year, and although only a star separates this one from the prior two, The Decagon House was easily my favorite of the three.

I’m giving this 5 stars because I was completely pulled into it and lived it in my head when I wasn’t reading. When she is killed, only Poe (her best friend since childhood) sees her body, and he actively keeps the others from coming closer.They all belong to their university's mystery society, and as such, go by awesome nicknames like Agatha, Van Dine, Leroux, Orczy, Ellery, Carr and Poe. You’re also kept in the dark if it’s one of the students that’s guilty or that there’s another person hiding on the island. Strange detail was that all the dead had been administered a sedative and were murdered prior to the blaze. In fact, the book contains an absolutely fascinating introduction, giving a brief history of the Honkaku sub-genre and is well worth a read (I particularly liked the bit of info where they discuss that it’s looked less as a literary genre and more like a game between author and reader).

While they are away on the island, a former member of the mystery group, Kawaminami receives a mysterious letter that points out his connection to a former student Chiori, who died. He will know the extra layers and extra walls and extra rooms; just as he will know your secrets, casting a cold eye upon them.At first, they assume that 1 of them is the killer but there’s also the possibility that Seji might be still alive. Murder At the Mansion of Antique Clocks: Dark imaginary, clever plot twists and a lot of deadly surprises, it's my all time favorite.

Sure, one thing is reading about whodunnits, and another thing is being in a whodunnit, but their delayed responses and realizations really made me question how well they were acquainted with the mystery/crime genre. The switching between these two threads lessened the momentum of the events at the decagon house and didn’t really even result in some tantalizing red herrings or promising leads. And then, the solution to the novel’s puzzle unfolds in a way so ingenious and logical it can stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best mystery novels. Meanwhile, back on the mainland a former member of the club named Kawaminami receives a letter saying that the death of a girl who died at a club party one year earlier was murder. I admire that Ayatsuji took on a classic Christie - there's so much love for the Golden Age mysteries in this book.

The club members don't use their real names but refer to each other as Ellery, Carr, Leroux, Poe, Agatha, and Orczy. He also seems the de facto leader of the group, and I think he’s been pulling strings the entire time. The body under the Decagon House is the gardener, whom Seiji likely killed and hid there, or the gardener tried to escape but Seiji killed him there.

Rather than reading like a celebration of the golden age crime novel, The Decagon House Murders reads like an incredibly derivative work that is not nearly as clever a novel as it portends to be. Note: this book was first published in Japan under the title of 'The Island of Lamentation' and it won the author an award when he was still a student. and I'm fine being right as long as I'm constantly guessing, it's actually my best possible outcome.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. 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.