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The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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There's lots of room for red herrings, plot twists, and unexpected disclosures with its constrained setting and characters, dual narrative, and dual timeline. Or rather, my gut actually did lean towards the right answer, but then my mind got in the way and reminded me that my gut feels had no rational backing, so I went with the answer that made sense but turned out to be wrong. He is married to Fuyumi Ono, author of The Twelve Kingdoms and creator of Ghost Hunt, Juuni Kokuki, and the author for a few other manga.

As authors like Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana have given the British reading public a real taste for a certain type of Japanese fiction, the release of Ayatsuji Yukito’s debut novel may signal the arrival of a new wave of Japanese mystery novels onto the British market.

I will say that I'm a bit frustrated at not being able to share my experience with the identity of the who, but to do so would be giving away the show. 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. I do think I would like to take a look at the original though, because I'm not sure I would have translated some things in this book the same way, for example, in having one character refer to the group as "y'all. To really enjoy this one, you have to be a person who enjoys the deduction aspect of a mystery novel over the plot.

As the self-proclaimed whodunnit enthusiast that I am, I was looking forward to reading this, especially as it promised to be a playfully meta murder mystery. Taking that aspect away, focusing on the who and the how, The Decagon Murders becomes an intense puzzle, the solution of which I would never have guessed.As I usually do with Japanese fiction in translation, I'll note that if you're new to it you may find the prose stilted at first, give yourself some time to get comfortable. The Decagon House Murders ( 十角館の殺人, Jūkakukan no satsujin) is a 1987 Japanese mystery novel, the debut work of author Yukito Ayatsuji.

months prior to this book, the mansion burned down and took the livers of the owner, his wife, and their 2 servants. I am mad not to have loved everything that led up to it in quite the same way, as the conclusion, with its grand reveal, was utterly ingenious and highly original. The flatness of the prose in this novel at first bothered me and then delighted me because it freed me from that somewhat squicky feeling I often have, when reading a murder mystery, that violent death should not be quite so entertaining. An example of this was when the captain manning the vessel that transported the friends to the island commented on their rather bizarre names.

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. The members of the mystery club are excited to stay at the decagon house, uncover clues and discuss theories to determine what really happened. Pages later the friends then have a similar conversation with each other where one states the same facts concerning theirself-given names.

Characters also geek out over mysteries; our first introduction to the students has Ellery talking about how strongly he prefers mysteries that are intellectual puzzles, and Carr accuses him of being elitist. I admire that Ayatsuji took on a classic Christie - there's so much love for the Golden Age mysteries in this book. But from another perspective, the parallel between this novel and Agatha Christie’s seminal work And Then There Were None is also made plainly obvious. If you wish to read a book that will grip, shock and engage you in equal measure then you need to look no further than The Decagon House Murders.Besides that everyone acted unusually calm for their friends being murdered and when someone did die it kinda just…. But I did really enjoy the book (PS: The narration style was not a problem for me and if you enjoy cozy mysteries, Agatha Christie mysteries, it would not affect your enjoyment of the book either) and if you love And then there were none, definitely give this a try. The students on the island are desperate to identify the killer, for obvious reasons, yet the novel lacks the claustrophobic quality of And Then There Were None. Now, as a mystery I’m actively trying to solve, it can feel very frustrating — and I mean that as a compliment.

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