The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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This is the debut novel of the author and also the first of his works to be translated into English. Around 20 years ago, Nakamura Seishi built a Blue mansion and Decagon House, which, as the name suggests, is shaped like a decagon.

Now, as a mystery I’m actively trying to solve, it can feel very frustrating — and I mean that as a compliment. You need to be the person who sits there puzzling over every line and trying to think outside the box… those here for the story will likely leave unfulfilled, those here for the “game” of it, they may find something special. 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.There are some references to Japanese riddles, poems and stories that (I think so) loose out a lot in the translation.

However, things take a wild turn when the members of the mystery club get killed one by one, and the killer is just among them, hiding in plain sight. My appreciation to Puskin Vertigo, author Yukito Ayatsuji, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. stars because I am the sort of mystery fan described above and the ending is clever enough to warrant a notation. The members at the island are known to us by their very imaginative nicknames (names of famous crime authors) which take away from the characters themselves…while I never go into a murder mystery expecting nuanced characters it would have been nice for the cast of characters to be at least entertaining, and caricatures can be engaging as Agatha Christie demonstrated time and again (the rapport between her characters is nearly-always amusing, The theatrical nature of many of them adds a comical quality to her mysteries). Despite revitalizing the classic murder mystery genre in Japan, and developing a cult following in the process, The Decagon House Murders is the first of Ayatsuji Yukito’s works to be translated into English.

Even the killer in the first chapter reflects on how the best plan is one that allows for flexibility, and considering that they also reference And Then There Were None, I think that comment is a tongue-in-cheek critique of how rigid Christie’s killer was, having to adhere to the details of a children’s nursery rhyme.

In the Decagonal hall, they postulate on various theories, and generally get excited for a week of hypotheticals. I think part of it is that the scenes on the island are interspersed with scenes on the mainland, where two former club members receive mysterious letters that has them looking into the quadruple murder. 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. Meanwhile, we are introduced to some peripherally related characters ashore who are involved in the situation. Here in Japan of 1986, several college students are on a boat to an island to spend a week indulging in their common enjoyment.

Meanwhile, back on the mainland, two of the members who did not go on the trip receive letters, suggesting all is not well, and begin to investigate the murders on the island. I had great fun with this novel, and I certainly would recommend it to regular fans of this sort of puzzler, or to fans of Japanese crime fiction in general.