The Mill House Murders - Yukito Ayatsuji translated from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong

 You know when you get a locked room mystery that all the clues you need to determine who the perpetrator is are all there. But how often do you actually come up with the right answer!? If you’re anything like me - not very often. Also, if you’re anything like me you end up wanting to kick yourself because it all seems so obvious in the end. I think the real trick is to pay close attention. It’s not easy to do and I found it particularly challenging in this book, I think, because of the Japanese names. I was so grateful for the list of characters and the map which I made good use of.

It’s very much in the classic crime, golden age of crime mode, although it’s set in 1985 and 1986. 

‘Ever since a horrific car accident, Fujinuma Kiichi has lived a reclusive existence in the remote Mill House, his scarred face hidden behind a rubber mask. Then one stormy night, the tranquility of his retreat is shattered by gruesome murder, a baffling disappearance and the theft of a priceless painting.

The brilliant Shimada Kiyoshi arrives on the scene, but as he investigates the seemingly impossible events that evening, death strikes, again, and again…

Can Shimada get to the truth before the killer gets to him? And can you solve the mystery of the Mill House murders before he does?’

Well, I didn’t. I had some inklings, but I simply couldn’t tie up all of the ends in the right sequence. And that’s the beauty of a story and a plot like this. It keeps a reader on their toes.

The narrative pivots between 1985 and 1986, the past and the present. There is an almost ghostly, almost macabre quality to the writing that renders the whole scene, somehow eerie and unnerving. That’s a perfect recipe for a murder mystery. With the map at the beginning of the book, sometimes I felt like it was some kind of literary Cluedo game I was playing, or reading! 

The characters sometimes presented as stylised caricatures with exaggerated nuances - like Yurie, so unbelievably solitary and protected from life, Oishi, the art dealer focused on the material side of life, Kuramoto, the inscrutable butler. And did the butler do it? 😉 I’m not going to say! As the story progresses, you feel that the characters, one by one, are falling apart mentally and emotionally. As with all locked room stories, suspicions are flying everywhere. Everybody suspects everybody else.

The conclusion is quite creepy, but very clever. The whole thing is devilishly clever. This author is Japan’s answer to Agatha Christie! Reading this has made me interested in seeking out a copy of The Decagon House murders now.

My thanks to Pushkin Vertigo for my gifted copy.