The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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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 He knew his plan was far from perfect. It was best described as shoddy rather than meticulous. But he’d never intended to plan everything out in perfect detail in the first place.

Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. August 24, 2019. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021 . Retrieved July 29, 2021. Based from the original novel from Yukito Ayatsuji tells the story that is set in a dual perspective, one coming from 7 University students who were in a Detective Club and went on an uninhabited island called Tsunojima Island, where the famous "Decagon" house is located and from the mainlands where another two of the club members who did not join the expedition. I became disengaged with the unfolding events, about half-way through the book, as well. Events slowed and the focus returned, again and again, to the characters casting their suspicions on one another.

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Chapter Four: Second Day - Mainlad ( 第四章 ( だいよんしょう ) 二日目 ( ふつかめ )・ 本土 ( ほんど ), Dai Yonshō Fukkame Hondo) This debut of Yukito Ayatsuji was apparently credited with launching the shinhonkaku movement which restored Golden Age style plotting and fair-play clues to the Japanese mystery scene, which had been dominated by the social school of mystery for several decades. It is also said to have influenced the development of the wildly popular anime movement. a b 十角館の殺人（5） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022 . Retrieved August 30, 2022. The book opens with the inner thoughts of a deranged character, staring into a choppy sea hell-bent on passing ‘Judgement’. From there, we follow seven students of the K- University Mystery Club as they travel to the desolate island of Tsunojima, the sight of a gruesome murder-suicide six months earlier. Instantly, the cogs in the reader's mind begin to whir; the puzzle Ayatsuji has crafted is beginning to take form. Note: this book was first published in Japan under the title of 'The Island of Lamentation' and it won the author an award when he was still a student. Decades later it has been published as 'The Decagon House Murders' in English.

The Decagon House Murders, based on Yukito Ayatsuji's novel of the same name and illustrated by Hiro Kiyohara, was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon from August 24, 2019, [3] to April 25, 2022. [4] [5] Kodansha collected its chapters in five individual tankōbon volumes, released from November 22, 2019, [6] to May 23, 2022. [7] So the sea, fate, god; however you want to call it, was asked to make that judgement instead. If the bottle disappeared forever, then it would mean that his judgement was right. However, if the bottle was to return to this land... then that would mean he was in the wrong. a b Mateo, Alex (November 30, 2022). "North American Anime, Manga Releases, November 27-December 3". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on December 8, 2022 . Retrieved December 8, 2022. The promised 'decagonal trap' is a house on a hard-to-reach island, and the novel proper begins with seven members of a university Mystery Club stranding themselves there for a week in the spring of 1986. After a very long introduction and a slow start, the story becomes ever more suspenseful in the best tradition of the old fashioned detective stories those students admire. With not 1 but 2 murder investigations going on, you must keep your wits around and you’re not certain if the murders then and those now are related. 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. The split story always keeps you on the edge of your seat as you keep wondering what’s happening in the other storyline. I swear that the eventual reveal is more than surprising. I did not guess this at all. The explanation might be a bit strange but it’s very ingenious.First of all, I'd like to thank NetGalley and Kodansha for providing and giving me the chance to read the e-ARC of this interesting book. A first-rate mystery, whose tight plot and deliberate structure will keep readers guessing until the very end-and might even clue them into a wide new world of international mystery

We have variation of characters in this story that can be found in most books with a group of friends. Each of them has their own personality that is shown to the reader. There are a narcissist, an introvert, a hot-headed guy and a cheerful one. This variety of characters is also important because we can see how each characters approach the problem, and what they are actually hiding among themselves. After all, everyone has their own secrets, so I would love to know more about these characters. Also, I love how all members of the mystery club inherited the name of the mystery writers such as Agatha Christie and Edgar Allen Poe. It reminds me of the manga, 'Bungo Stray Dogs' which makes me even more interested in this story. With them secluded on an island completely cut off from the main land, they need to use their amateur sleuthing skills to figure out who the killer is before it's too late. There’s a distinct difference between both storylines (Island and Mainland). The events on the island breathe the entire atmosphere and the investigating elements of the great (mainly) American and English detective series of the Golden Age. Even the names by which we know the actors are all taken from there. If you don’t know better, you wouldn’t immediately notice this is a Japanese story. There are some references to Japanese riddles, poems and stories that (I think so) loose out a lot in the translation. I would not be surprised if there’s a whole layer that we miss out on. The Mainland thread is more visibly non-western; not only by the use of the proper names for the characters but also in the references to the lifestyle and habits. I did love the occasional mention of historical and cultural details but those are made for people that are actually acquainted with it already and not especially infused for ‘tourists’.Without any hesitation or fear they would walk into the decagonal trap, where they would be sentenced.