The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

Product Information

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. The novel manages to innovate despite references to Christie's classic – as well as the detectives and writers of the larger Golden Age milieu – and there are a number of sophisticated variations on well-worn patterns.

Behold, the perfect escapist drug! If I could crush this book into a powder and snort it, I would." — Vulture

Reviews

This would have worked better for me if the author think if the author had committed to a sillier tone, as it would have resulted in a more spoof-type of narrative that doesn't elicit a lot of scrutiny. But here the story seems to think it is far more intelligent and thrilling than it is... I lived for years in Japan and this experience made my reading all the more delightful. The translation sounds exactly like the Japanese, to the point where many times I could know for certain what the Japanese word or phrase had originally been. It felt as if the translator is not a native English speaker, or at least the translator never stepped out of literal translation, and the unusual nature of the language in the novel gave it a charged, unexpected feeling as I read. Seven students, members of their university's mystery club, decide to spend a week-long vacation on Tsunojima Island off the coast of Japan. Six months earlier the owner of the island was brutally murdered alongside his wife and housekeepers, and the case remains unsolved. Soon after their arrival they begin to suspect that one of their members is intending to kill them one at a time, but who? From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels! Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT

The exposition is integral to the plot, but the fact that it's through her is very annoying she is clumsily handled and just has zero real personality, everyone on the island is so much more interesting than her, the POV shifts can kind of kill your interest in the story and momentum you have going while reading. I know it's to space out the buildup and pay off, but it just doesn't work. Seven members of a university mystery-fan club travel to a desolate island for a week to read, write, and explore the remains of a burned-down mansion where multiple murders were committed not long before. They’re staying in “Decagon House,” which is exactly that: a ten-sided structure that survived the earlier tragedy. But during their first night there, one of the group is killed, and the body left with a grisly reminder of what happened to the island’s ill-fated inhabitants. It will not be the last death during their stay.

The most desirable plan was not one that limited your own moves, but a flexible one that could adapt to circumstances: that was the conclusion he had come to. The Decagon House Murders is a pale imitation of the novel it is trying to pay homage to. While by no means a terrible read, I found it to be boring and ultimately deeply underwhelming. 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. 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.