Yukito AyatsujiRezensionen

At the Mill House, a grisly murder had occurred, and a body found in the boiler. Now, a year later, the owner, hidden behind a mask due to a car crash years earlier, has opened his home once again. Shimada Kiyoshi is there to investigate, and another murder happens, as well as the theft of a painting.
This is a tightly woven closed-room mystery with a few surprises. Interesting. #2 in the series.

Brilliantly Fantastic.......................

The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is a brilliant and twisted locked room mystery thriller. The plot plays between past and present with a limited number of characters. It gives you chills and thrills right from the start. I was just hooked up throughout the climax. This will be my first book because of which I was up late in the night. The book is perfect for the lovers of Agatha Christie. The story is fast and the characters are just awesome. And when you reach the climax it felt like it will haunt me forever. I have never read anything like this.

The author created an atmosphere with her storytelling. I could just literally feel the spine tingling thriller while reading it. I couldn't believe when the main culprits finally came into light. It is not just any regular locked room mystery, and far from guessing. Definitely, the book deserves 5 stars.

Ended on a cliffhanger. Kind of slow--maybe because I read a big chunk of it almost 6 months ago?--yet intriguing. Volume 2 is a little low on my priority list, but if it comes up for a group read or buddy read, I'd do it. I always pump up the priority for group or buddy reads on books on my TBRs. ^_^

Couldn't get into it -- plot, characters, atmosphere weren't interesting.

First 5 star read of the year and it was all I had hoped for. I remember watching the 12 episode anime years ago and loved it. When I found out that it had started as a novel before it became a manga I knew I had to read it. I was not disappointed.

Published in 1978, THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDERS is credited with launching the shinhonkaku movement, a return to Golden Age style plotting and clue provision for the reader to discover along the way. It's often described as a subgenre of the honkaku style - which can best be described as whodunit's rather than why or howdunits. Full review at: https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/decagon-house-murders-yukito-ayatsuji

It was a nice filler for the series, but it has nothing to do with the main plotline of Another. If you are a fan, this is a must-have for your collection. The translation was good and wasn't too difficult to read. Mei Misaki went on vacation with her family and get rapped up in a ghost mystery.

Goodness . . . there is so much I would love to say about this, but I'll keep it short. It is written in the first person; the translation and twists were good! I highly recommend this to anyone who had enjoyed the anime and manga.

This manga justifies the novel very well. This an omnibus collecting all four volumes for reading pleasure. It has jumpscares and keeps you entertained.

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Every year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote, castle-like Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by an impossible disappearance, the theft of a painting and a series of baffling murders.

The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives to investigate. But will he uncover the truth, and will you be able to solve the mystery of the Mill House Murders before he does?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Another more-than-competent hommage à Dame Agatha. This one, though, is much, much more dependent on you to pay careful attention to the dramatis personae on page 11. And pay close attention to the times on chapter opening pages! Most Anglophone readers aren't going to parse the names with the ease of those culturally familiar to us, so bookmark that page and save yourself confusion.

Enjoying, or even solving, it is very dependent on you keeping track of dual timelines, and since all the same characters appear in both, this can be a challenge. It was my mistake to read this book so soon after the first one, The Decagon House Murders...it reinforced my opinion of the prose as flat to my more western reading-ear. The ending of this entry in the ongoing series is, peculisr though it sounds in light of my comments about the prose, melodramatic. Delightfully so, I hasten to add. Made me smile and even lift my hand in a fond salute. After a gap, I will certainly read more of these Pushkin Vertigo-published pleasures.½

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The lonely, rockbound island of Tsunojima is notorious as the site of a series of bloody unsolved murders. Some even say it’s haunted. One thing’s for sure: it’s the perfect destination for the K-University Mystery Club’s annual trip.

But when the first club member turns up dead, the remaining amateur sleuths realise they will need all of their murder-mystery expertise to get off the island alive.

As the party are picked off one by one, the survivors grow desperate and paranoid, turning on each other. Will anyone be able to untangle the murderer’s fiendish plan before it’s too late?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: It's And Then There Were None with a Japanese accent. It works the same way, it has the same strengths (puzzles are fun!) and weaknesses (set-up is improbable in the extreme). This iteration is satisfying to me in that it doesn't ignore the conventions as does make use of its own vernacular. The translator chose, for example, not to switch family names and personal names around to suit western usage. I like that, others won't, so be aware of the fact.

The prose, as translated, is a bit flat. The world the tale takes place in is largely nuanceless, so it feels like it's a kabuki performance in front of scenery instead of an equally artificial film set where volumes flicker in front of our eyes fast enough to fool them into thinking they're real. That's not a flaw to me, but it does obtrude when I try to find an emotional resonance to the killings. Maybe that's a good thing? Whatever it is, good or bad, it's a choice that left me without a fourth-star's worth of involvement.

Satisfying read, though not in the ordinary ways of series mysteries. I will, however, read them as Pushkin Vertigo publishes them.½

Badly translated without any style. It’s just not fun to read. Every character talks the same. Half the fun of a murder mystery is in the language and descriptions, and these were both second rate.

Pure puzzle, complete with fourth-wall breaking mystery tropes and self-aware victims, this is what I love in a mystery. I've found myself disappointed with things labeled as mystery that are really more thriller, so reading what is clearly an homage to classic detective fiction was so pleasant.

An interesting puzzle, with some plot holes. It is engaging enough to keep the reader hooked. However, the characters are so wooden that it is hard to care about their fate.

A fun, spooky mystery novel with a small supernatural twist at the end. The plot would make for a good movie, because it is so visual, dark and creepy. But is perhaps a bit too far-fetched for the attentive reader. The book definitely keeps you hooked.

multicultural, Japan, locked-room-mystery, 1980s, betrayal, creepy, detective, disability, murder, murder-investigation, rural, secrets, storms, surgical-history, suspense, thriller, unexpected-deaths, wheelchair-bound, mask*****

The man in near isolation, a wheelchair, and a face mask to protect him from others.
The artist, the pseudo friends, the odd living arrangements, and the murders.
The incredible plot twists!
The story plods along fairly slowly so that the somewhat dim (me!) can try and try again to figure out the right questions and unearth the right answers. A real challenging puzzle!
Translated by Ho-Ling Wong.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Pushkin Press/Pushkin Vertigo via NetGalley.

The audiobook narrator was pretty bad, so he may have ruined this book for me. But it did seem to drag on. I wish the victims had been picked off much more quickly, with less time spent on describing their reactions to each successive murder. Instead the “solving” of the crimes was given short shrift.½

So. I'm all for 'Golden-Age' mysteries. I love them. But.

According to the introduction to this 1987 English translation, S.S. Van Dine, a prominent figure of the English-language Golden Age of detective fiction during the 1920s, proposed rules for the most exciting form of detective fiction, a form of detective story that was "not only literature but also, to a greater or lesser extent, a game." These kinds of stories were to follow a "high degree of logical reasoning" and adhere to these rules: “The introduction of suspicious inhabitants of a mansion and the fair presentation of the character profiles right from the start; clearly outlining the stage of the murder tragedy; the writer not being allowed to lie in the narration; no vital information necessary for the deduction game to be withheld from the reader; getting rid of elements that could interfere with the enjoyment of the pure deduction game (like the magic of the Chinaman or vulgar love stories)"

This kind of story also flourished in Japan at that time and was known as HONKAKU (orthodox mystery).

In the latter half of 1950s, detective novels emphasising natural realism started being published in Japan and became mainstream almost overnight. Publishers stopped actively publishing good old-fashioned honkaku mystery novels. In the early 1980s a couple of books not available in English cracked the market. Shimada Soji says: “in 1987, however, the honkaku mystery writer I had waited so long for finally arrived. He was Ayatsuji Yukito with his debut novel The Decagon House Murders’. . . . It is my belief that if we can introduce this concept to the field of American and British detective fiction, the Golden Age pendulum will swing back.

So that explains the backgound of the Decagon House Murders. The premise, following the example of Christie's brilliant Then There were None, has students from a university mystery club deciding to visit an island which was the site of a grisly multiple murder the year before. They stay in a large ten-sided house, known as the Decagon House (of course). Predictably, they get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer.

At the conclusion of the book, I had to admit that this was really well done but, oh my, getting to the end was a slog. Maybe it's just me and Japanese lit, but I don't know. If this sort of mystery interests you, you should give The Decagon House Murders a try, and let me know whether I'm being too harsh.

An homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None set in Japan in the late 1980s, The Decagon House Murders is a whodunnit focused on a group of detective fiction-loving college students who decide to spend the week on an isolated island and end up being picked off one by one. Maybe some of it comes down to the quality of the translation, but I didn't find myself caring about the fates of any of Yukito Ayatsuji's characters or finding them particularly plausible as people. This is a big problem given that the reveal of whodunnit and how relies to a great extent on multiple people responding to certain events in precise but psychologically unconvincing ways. Didn't hate it, but definitely underwhelmed.

(14) I thought this was a very intriguing and mind-bending book. I think I am so clever; yet I never get it. I read lots of mysteries, but I never figure it out, Sigh. I fell for most of the traps - hook, line and sinker. Lots of clues; yet red herrings as well. All the brands of cigarettes! Anyway, no spoilers, here. A group of college students go to a deserted island (where an unsolved gruesome murder took place 6 months prior) for a vacation to gather, discuss their mystery novel lovers club, and write some stories for their literary magazine. And who knows? maybe they will just solve the old mystery while they are at it. Instead, they begin to die one by one. The killer must be one of them; or some other mysterious person hiding on the island. Such a great plot! like Agatha Christies -'And Then There Were None,' which I don't think I've read but have seen the a movie adaptation.

The writing is a bit of a stilted translation from the Japanese which is maybe my only complaint. I also, of course, wanted more at the end, but I get that it has got to end somehow. I didn't really understand the Shimada character with the weird revelation of who his brother was in the end. Was that even relevant? Was something lost in translation there?

Anyway, great fun. I did not guess despite trying hard. My favorite type of a mystery - not too gruesome, some misdirection, secrets, a big reveal. Its all there,½

A new favorite of mine. I've never been so paranoid about an entire cast of characters. This one kept me guessing until the end (and I still never saw that coming).

Written as kind of an homage to Agatha Christie’s And There Were None, this is a similar kind of island murder mystery that was quite interesting and engaging throughout. I found the translation also to be quite well done, and finished the book in just a few hours. It’s a well crafted mystery, with many similarities to the original but also it’s own unique qualities. I also thoroughly enjoyed the concept of all the characters belonging to a Mystery Club and each having a nickname based on a famous crime fiction writer. Some of the characters did come off as peculiar, maybe even insufferable, but I was really not trying to connect to them much - I was only invested in what was gonna happen. And I definitely didn’t see the culprit coming.

I don’t read a lot of books in this genre, so I’m glad I picked a good one which entertained me for a few hours. If you are a fan of the original novel too, maybe you can give this a try - I feel you’ll love it too.

An uninhabited island that was the site of a grisly quadruple murder seems like the perfect choice of vacation destination for a university mystery club. Seven members, all of whom take the name of a famous mystery writer as their code name, are staying at Decagon House, a bizarre building constructed in the shape of a decagon. They plan to set up shop for a week and absorb the atmosphere in order to do some writing… and maybe do a little sleuthing as well. Then the murders begin.

This is a cunningly plotted locked-room mystery that pays homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. It has considerably more visceral horror, though — the first victim’s hand is cut off, which caused me to shriek out loud with surprise. (It didn’t put me off the story, though.) I felt this was a pretty fair mystery in the sense of fair play; the solution was poking at the corners of my mind and I could probably have figured out at least some part of it, but I don’t generally do that. When the solution was explained, I felt it made sense and that everything had been laid out in the text.

In terms of the Japanese mysteries I’ve read recently, I would rank this as being above Murder in the Crooked House (which I felt was rather contrived) but below The Inugami Curse (which wears its Golden Age influences more obviously but has fun with it). But if you are at all interested in Japanese mysteries from the 1960s that paid homage to the Golden Age of detective fiction, you’ll want to pick this up.½

In a Japanese city, there is a university. In the university, there is a mystery club. And in the club, there is a core group of club members who decide to spend a few days on an island where some not so good things happened awhile back.

A few months earlier, the previous occupants of the island died in tragic circumstances. Now our 7 mystery lovers move into the decagon house, believing to be isolated from the world and before long the first one of them is dead.

Meanwhile on the mainland, people start receiving letters from a dead man - the father of the family that died on the island.

The books weaves between the two stories - the island one where it starts looking as if everyone is doomed and the mainland where we start learning more about the island and some of the people on it (past and present). Except that connecting the dots on who is who is impossible until later - the island occupants use their nicknames, taken from the mystery world's famous authors (Ellery, Carr, Leroux, Poe, Van, Agatha and Orczy), and the mainland story uses real names.

Ayatsuji's love letter to the Golden Age of Mysteries (French, American and British) starts like a classical locked room mystery with a bit of a twist - there are people on an island, noone can get to the island so when people start dying, the murderer should be on the island. And it stays close to the genre - there are a lot of misdirection but the author never cheats or comes up with a detective who pulls a solution out of nowhere.

The final solution is unexpected - not because it was not getting clear who must be the killer by then but because of the logistics of the crime. It was cleverly done - and if you read the book knowing where it is going, it actually makes sense and does not feel rushed. Which is how most Golden Age mysteries work. And as with the better of them, it ended up being satisfying.

Ended on a cliffhanger. Kind of slow--maybe because I read a big chunk of it almost 6 months ago?--yet intriguing. Volume 2 is a little low on my priority list, but if it comes up for a group read or buddy read, I'd do it. I always pump up the priority for group or buddy reads on books on my TBRs. ^_^