The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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While they are away on the island, a former member of the mystery group, Kawaminami receives a mysterious letter that points out his connection to a former student Chiori, who died. 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. The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. 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. 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.

The characters construction is amazing, you get attached to them so quickly even though you perfectly well know what's gonna happen to them - but still, you have a tiny bit of hope that maybe your fave will survive this. I don't have that reaction very often; even though there have been many times I've been truly surprised at the unmasking of the who, this one absolutely takes the cake. Meanwhile, we are introduced to some peripherally related characters ashore who are involved in the situation.Also, I needed more character development just so I could attach more of an identity to each of the people on the island. Now, they are meant to be crime fiction experts, and yet do not really implement any actual knowledge of this genre. 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. Soon after their arrival they begin to suspect that one of their members is intending to kill them one at a time, but who? I had a hunch who the killer was but the book made me keep wondering if I was right and keep weighing other possible options.

It’s a locked room mystery that clearly takes its inspiration from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. You’re also kept in the dark if it’s one of the students that’s guilty or that there’s another person hiding on the island. Even Ellery is such a cliché of a character that I didn’t really feel any real excitement about him. 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. They all belong to a mystery club and plan to consider the multiple murders incident that occurred on the island six months before as well as the future work of the club.Perhaps there was some elegancy that was lost in translation, but I found the character interactions to feel stilted and unnatural. I'm going on about it because it was an aspect of the novel that I enjoyed deeply but I'm not sure how readers who haven't lived in Japan would take it.