Meaning all clues are given, so despite the improbability of the crime, you, the reader, could in theory solve it as well. This subgenre is what typically would be referred to in English speaking countries as a “locked room” or “fair play” mystery. The novel is a part of what is referred to in Japan as Honkaku mystery. The plot kicks off with a reference to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and continues with loving nods (including all the characters having nicknames based on American and European mystery authors) throughout. This is a book that notes its origins with pride. I like that feeling.Ī group of students arrive on a deserted island, which was the scene of a grisly murder one-year prior.Obviously nothing goes wrong and they spend a relaxing week long vacation, talking about books they like and taking in the sun… oh, wait, no, this a mystery novel. One of those reveals where I had to go back and double check what I was actually reading. And the reveal of the murderer genuinely shocked me. Even the blandness of its prose and the purely surface-level characters worked in its favor. It lacked the labyrinthine quality of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders and the over the top melodrama of The Inugami Clan, but its clarity of purpose - shades of Christie's And Then There Were None - and its interesting focus on physical spaces - and not just the murder house, but nearly all indoor locations - made it thoroughly absorbing from beginning to end. 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. He will come through these places and spaces he will murder you, he will murder you all. 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.

He will build a trap of one of these houses.

He will describe these spaces regularly and with careful precision.Īre you aware of the physical space around you? Asks the murderer. Of open areas concealing closed areas - the mental ones as well. He will build a novel based around concepts of space, of physical limitations and barriers. One burned to the ground, one empty but soon to be burned.Īre you aware of the physical space around you? Asks the author, Yukito Ayatsuji. These houses will hold secrets and mysteries and murder and despair. He will build two houses, one of Blue and one of Ten. Are you aware of the physical space around you? Asks the mad architect.

The decagon house murders 4