Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Pushkin Vertigo (2021), 288 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:"Ayatsuji's brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits... Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal" �?? Publishers Weekly A hugely enjoyable, page-turning murder mystery sure to appeal to fans of Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, and Agatha Christie, with one of the best and most-satisfying conclusions you'll ever read. A classic in Japan, available in English for the first time. From The New York Times Book Review: "Read Yukito Ayatsuji�??s landmark mystery, The Decagon House Murders, and discover a real depth of feeling beneath the fiendish foul play. Taking its cues from Agatha Christie�??s locked-room classic And Then There Were None, the setup is this: The members of a university detective-fiction club, each nicknamed for a favorite crime writer (Poe, Carr, Orczy, Van Queen, Leroux and �?? yes �?? Christie), spend a week on remote Tsunojima Island, attracted to the place, and its eerie 10-sided house, because of a spate of murders that transpired the year before. That collective curiosity will, of course, be their undoing. As the students approach Tsunojima in a hired fishing boat, 'the sunlight shining down turned the rippling waves to silver. The island lay ahead of them, wrapped in a misty veil of dust,' its sheer, dark cliffs rising straight out of the sea, accessible by one small inlet. There is no electricity on the island, and no telephones, either. A fresh round of violent deaths begins, and Ayatsuji�??s skillful, furious pacing propels the narrative. As the students are picked off one by one, he weaves in the story of the mainland investigation of the earlier murders. This is a homage to Golden Age detective fiction, but it�??s also unaba… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member seasonsoflove
When a group of students from a Japanese university, all part of a mystery fiction club, move into the Decagon House for a week, they think it is simply to visit and understand the site where a notorious multiple murder occurred the year previously. But as they start dying one by one, they begin to
This is such a clever, gripping read! It reads as a Japanese homage of sorts to one of my all-time favorite books, And Then There Were None (a muse the book readily has the characters themselves acknowledge). This is a book that is scary, suspenseful, and surprising. I could not put this book down, and read it in less than a day. And I never saw the ending coming, it absolutely blew my mind.
I just wish that more of Yukito Ayatsuji's books were translated into English! I would read more in a heartbeat.
I studied Japanese literature in college (including a Japanese Horror class), and it was a wonderful treat to return to something I had read a lot of and loved. And to have such a great take on my second favorite book of all time just made it even better. I definitely recommend this book.
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realize somewhere on the island there is once again a murderer.This is such a clever, gripping read! It reads as a Japanese homage of sorts to one of my all-time favorite books, And Then There Were None (a muse the book readily has the characters themselves acknowledge). This is a book that is scary, suspenseful, and surprising. I could not put this book down, and read it in less than a day. And I never saw the ending coming, it absolutely blew my mind.
I just wish that more of Yukito Ayatsuji's books were translated into English! I would read more in a heartbeat.
I studied Japanese literature in college (including a Japanese Horror class), and it was a wonderful treat to return to something I had read a lot of and loved. And to have such a great take on my second favorite book of all time just made it even better. I definitely recommend this book.
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LibraryThing member PhoenixTerran
Originally published in 1987, Yukito Ayatsuji's debut novel The Decagon House Murders is credited with sparking a renaissance in Japanese honkaku mystery fiction, a subgenre of classic detective fiction emphasizing logic and fair play. The novel was translated into English by Ho-Ling Wong (the text
Located on the currently uninhabited island of Tsunojima is the Decagon House, a peculiar building designed by the eccentric architect Seiji Nakamura, a man believed to have committed a series of murders on the island before taking his own life. The house, the island, and their history provides the perfect setting for some of the more accomplished members of a university mystery club to relax and find some inspiration for their writing during the break before classes resume. But what most of the group doesn't realize is that Seiji Nakamura was the father of Chiori Nakamura, another club member who recently died as the result of one of their drinking parties. Chiori had a preexisting health condition, but at least one person feels that the club is responsible for her death. On the mainland members are receiving ominous and threatening letters signed with the name Seiji Nakamura and on the island one person after another dies under strange circumstances, and no one but the murderer knows killer's identity.
The focus of The Decagon House Murders is definitely on its mystery. Character development in the novel is limited, enough to distinguish the individual players and to establish some of their back stories, but not so much that the reader really gets to know them as people. The murderer, whose motivations and meticulous schemes are eventually revealed, is the person who has the most depth as a character. Although there are twists to the story, Ayatsuji's writing style is likewise straightforward and clean, lacking in heavy description or embellishments. Distraction is kept to a minimum as the facts of the case are laid out one after another, allowing readers the chance to pick up on clues and develop their own theories before everything is explained. At the same time, the members of the group trapped together on the island are themselves struggling to come up with their own solutions before they all end up dead. Ultimately, The Decagon House Murders is primarily about the murderous plot and it its execution.
Ayatsuji's decision to make a large part of the cast of The Decagon House Murders members of a mystery club is a brilliant one. They are all well-versed in how similar crimes play out in fiction, but now they are faced with an increasingly deadly reality where those rules and expectations don't necessarily apply; even though they know the possibilities, they can't anticipate what will actually happen. I, too, am fairly familiar with many of the tropes and tricks used in mysteries about seemingly impossible crimes, however The Decagon House Murders still managed to surprise and satisfy me with its clever twists. I also particularly liked the narrative structure of the novel. At first the chapters alternate between the developing situation on the island and a related investigation occurring on the mainland, but eventually the two connected storylines merge together for the novel's big reveal. The Decagon House Murders is apparently the first volume in a series of mysteries involving buildings designed by Seiji Nakamura. I have no idea if there are any plans to translate the others, but I would certainly be interested in reading them.
Experiments in Manga
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based off of the Japanese edition from 2007) and released in 2015 thanks to the efforts of Locked Room International, a group which works to publish translations of novels featuring locked room mysteries and impossible crimes. The English edition of The Decagon House Murders also includes an introduction written by Japanese mystery author Soji Shimada, which places the novel within the historical context of Japanese and world mystery fiction, as well as a brief essay by the translator. It was only after reading The Decagon House Murders that I realized why Ayatsuji's name seemed so familiar to me—he wrote the horror mystery novel Another which was also recently translated and which received both a manga and an anime adaptation. Ayatsuji also happens to be the husband of Fuyumi Ono, the creator of The Twelve Kingdoms which I greatly enjoy.Located on the currently uninhabited island of Tsunojima is the Decagon House, a peculiar building designed by the eccentric architect Seiji Nakamura, a man believed to have committed a series of murders on the island before taking his own life. The house, the island, and their history provides the perfect setting for some of the more accomplished members of a university mystery club to relax and find some inspiration for their writing during the break before classes resume. But what most of the group doesn't realize is that Seiji Nakamura was the father of Chiori Nakamura, another club member who recently died as the result of one of their drinking parties. Chiori had a preexisting health condition, but at least one person feels that the club is responsible for her death. On the mainland members are receiving ominous and threatening letters signed with the name Seiji Nakamura and on the island one person after another dies under strange circumstances, and no one but the murderer knows killer's identity.
The focus of The Decagon House Murders is definitely on its mystery. Character development in the novel is limited, enough to distinguish the individual players and to establish some of their back stories, but not so much that the reader really gets to know them as people. The murderer, whose motivations and meticulous schemes are eventually revealed, is the person who has the most depth as a character. Although there are twists to the story, Ayatsuji's writing style is likewise straightforward and clean, lacking in heavy description or embellishments. Distraction is kept to a minimum as the facts of the case are laid out one after another, allowing readers the chance to pick up on clues and develop their own theories before everything is explained. At the same time, the members of the group trapped together on the island are themselves struggling to come up with their own solutions before they all end up dead. Ultimately, The Decagon House Murders is primarily about the murderous plot and it its execution.
Ayatsuji's decision to make a large part of the cast of The Decagon House Murders members of a mystery club is a brilliant one. They are all well-versed in how similar crimes play out in fiction, but now they are faced with an increasingly deadly reality where those rules and expectations don't necessarily apply; even though they know the possibilities, they can't anticipate what will actually happen. I, too, am fairly familiar with many of the tropes and tricks used in mysteries about seemingly impossible crimes, however The Decagon House Murders still managed to surprise and satisfy me with its clever twists. I also particularly liked the narrative structure of the novel. At first the chapters alternate between the developing situation on the island and a related investigation occurring on the mainland, but eventually the two connected storylines merge together for the novel's big reveal. The Decagon House Murders is apparently the first volume in a series of mysteries involving buildings designed by Seiji Nakamura. I have no idea if there are any plans to translate the others, but I would certainly be interested in reading them.
Experiments in Manga
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LibraryThing member miss.mesmerized
Murder and mystery are what they are all interested in as the members of the so called Mystery Club of their university. They like to delve in the classic stories and to solve the puzzles of crimes. They have even given themselves nick names after the great classic writers of crime novels: Ellery,
“Even if the world were viewed as a chessboard, and every person on it a chess piece, there would still be a limit as to how far future moves could be predicted. The most meticulous plan, plotted to the last detail, could still go wrong sometime, somewhere, somehow.”
Yukito Ayatsuji’s debut novel is clearly inspired by the novels of the Golden Age of crime using the classic setting. “The Decagon House Murders” was first published in Japan in 1987 but only now the English translation is available. The reader alternatingly follows the evens on the island, where one after the other student finds his/her death and on the mainland, where they do not know what exactly happens there but try to combine the murders of the year before with the current events and the mysterious letters they got. Even though both lines of enquiry provide numerous ideas of what could be happening, the reader remains in the dark until the very end, just to discover what can only be called the perfect murder.
The novel is a homage to the classic crime novels and mystery readers who have always enjoyed Agatha Christie and the like will be totally enthralled. The plot, first of all, lives on the atmosphere of the island which is not very welcoming and cut off from the outside thus strongly reminding of “And Then There Were None”. The fact that it was the scene of a dreadful murder only months before adds to the its mysterious vibes. The murders seem to be carefully planned, no repetition in how they students find death and therefore leaving you pondering about one person could manage all this without being detected.
A classic whodunnit I thoroughly enjoyed.
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Carr, Leroux, Poe, Van, Agatha and Orczy. When they are invited to the remote island of Tsunojima, they are thrilled. It has been the place of a quadruple murder the year before and thus promises an interesting week which they want to spend with writing and enjoying themselves. Yet, they did not count on somebody waiting there for them to settle an old bill which is to be paid with their lives. In the meantime, on the mainland, three people receive letters insinuating that something strange might be going on and that a presumably dead killer might still be around.“Even if the world were viewed as a chessboard, and every person on it a chess piece, there would still be a limit as to how far future moves could be predicted. The most meticulous plan, plotted to the last detail, could still go wrong sometime, somewhere, somehow.”
Yukito Ayatsuji’s debut novel is clearly inspired by the novels of the Golden Age of crime using the classic setting. “The Decagon House Murders” was first published in Japan in 1987 but only now the English translation is available. The reader alternatingly follows the evens on the island, where one after the other student finds his/her death and on the mainland, where they do not know what exactly happens there but try to combine the murders of the year before with the current events and the mysterious letters they got. Even though both lines of enquiry provide numerous ideas of what could be happening, the reader remains in the dark until the very end, just to discover what can only be called the perfect murder.
The novel is a homage to the classic crime novels and mystery readers who have always enjoyed Agatha Christie and the like will be totally enthralled. The plot, first of all, lives on the atmosphere of the island which is not very welcoming and cut off from the outside thus strongly reminding of “And Then There Were None”. The fact that it was the scene of a dreadful murder only months before adds to the its mysterious vibes. The murders seem to be carefully planned, no repetition in how they students find death and therefore leaving you pondering about one person could manage all this without being detected.
A classic whodunnit I thoroughly enjoyed.
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LibraryThing member brangwinn
Like many novels translated from Japanese to English the writing seems somewhat flat, but the languages reflect the attributes each culture has, so I do not hold it against the translator. Originally published in 1987, this is the first translation into English. Based on Agatha Christie’s locked
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room mystery, it is the story of a university mystery lover’s club whose core members are determined to solve a real mystery which took place on an isolated island where the homeowners and caretaker were murdered in the mansion which burned down at the same time as the murders. But the seven competitive mystery club members find themselves being murdered in the Decagon house, a 10-sided house. There are lots of red herrings and this helped the conclusion be a complete surprise. Although the short book wasn’t fast paced it was an interesting mystery. I appreciate authors who are successful in thwarting my solving the mystery before the book ends. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
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
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.
A few months earlier, the previous occupants of the island
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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.
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LibraryThing member kordasix
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).
LibraryThing member ParadisePorch
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
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.
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
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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.
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LibraryThing member Charon07
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
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shrift. Show Less
LibraryThing member KallieGrace
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.
LibraryThing member emilymcmc
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.
LibraryThing member richardderus
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
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.
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
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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.
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LibraryThing member SharronA
Couldn't get into it -- plot, characters, atmosphere weren't interesting.
Awards
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Mystery/Thriller — 2015)
Language
Original language
Japanese
Original publication date
1987-09
Physical description
288 p.; 7.78 inches
ISBN
1782276343 / 9781782276340