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**UPDATED**
A Little Background
I checked my book log and I'd read three Japanese detective novels prior to picking up The Decagon House Murders. They are: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada; The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo; The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo. I enjoyed the books but never thought about the broader context of how the Japanese view crime fiction. By coincidence, all four books fall into what the Japanese refer to as honkaku mysteries. An article in The Guardian (link below) describes honkaku like this:
Honkaku translates as “orthodox”, and refers to the crafting of fiendishly clever and complex puzzle scenarios – such as a murder in a locked bedroom – that can only be solved through logical deduction. Writer Haruta Yoshitame, who is credited with defining honkaku, described it as “a detective story that mainly focuses on the process of a criminal investigation and values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning...Honkaku writers were scrupulous about “playing fair”.
If you are a reader of Golden Age detective stories, honkaku detective fiction should remind you of S. S. Van Dine's Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Fiction. Van Dine's rules one and two cover playing fair.
Newer works such as The Decagon House Murders are referred to as shin honkaku, or new orthodox. Honkaku fell out of popularity for a while due to the rise of the social school which emphasized natural realism. Matsumoto SeichÅ launched this movement with books including Points and Lines and Inspector Imanishi Investigates. The Decagon House Murders was instrumental in bringing honkaku back into favor.
While looking for Japanese mysteries that have been translated I found a shin honkaku titled Death Among the Undead by Masahira Imamura which adds zombies to the country house setting. A locked room AND zombies, could a reader ask for more? I'm pretty sure I need to promote this to the top of my TBR stack.
My interest in making a more focused study of Japanese detective/crime fiction was sparked by the most excellent podcast, Death of the Reader hosted by Flex and Herds. They are an engaging duo with an interesting way of presenting the subject of detective fiction. One will read a book and the other will try to solve the case as they work through the chapters. They also have interviews with academics and authors and they do broader explorations of the detective genre and trace influences of the genre around the world.
I've just started my exploration of Japanese crime fiction and have links to some web articles, a dissertation, and another podcast episode below
The Decagon House Mysteries
Seven students from a university mystery club have an opportunity to spend a week on an island where a year before horrible murders took place. The main house (the Blue Mansion) was burned leaving only the Decagon house standing. Throughout most of the story, we know the students only their club nicknames taken from western Golden Age authors. They are: [Gaston] Leroux, [John Dickson] Carr, Agatha [Christie], Ellery [Queen], Van [S.S. Van Dine], [Baroness Emma] Orezy, and [Edgar Allen] Poe. Leraux, the editor of the club magazine declares that everyone is to write a story for the next issue. Their pleasant retreat takes a nasty turn when they find that they have been targeted for death. Unfortunately the island is without electricity or a phone and they directed the fisherman who brought them to the island not come by until the day of the scheduled pickup.
The action takes place on the island and on the mainland. On the island, fear sets in as the threat appears to be very real. On the mainland, several people — former members of the club — have received a mysterious letter containing the words My daughter Chiori was murdered by all of you. It is signed by Nakamura Seiji who died on the island. Chiori was also a club member who died of alcohol poisoning after a club party. Kawaminami Tata'aki doesn't know if it's a prank and decides to find out if any other club members who were at the party also received letters. On the island the club members are desperately trying to figure out who wants them dead and on the mainland Kawaminami Tata'aki is trying to figure out what the letters mean.
Update: Toward the end I had an idea of who is the killer might be but it wasn't a fully formed idea. However, Flex, on the The Death of the Reader podcast (link above), had the killer(s) nailed. He displayed pretty impressive analytical skills. After I have all of the Japanese mysteries they discuss, I'll be giving The Decagon House Murders episodes another listen.
You might think that remote location, picked-off-one-by-one plot has been done to death (sorry but it had to be said) but the author has a very clever approach to constructing the story especially the way the killer announces his/her intentions. The students simultaneously if someone from the outside is responsible or could it be one of them. Having a parallel investigation on the mainland works very well in advancing the story as details emerge that couldn't logically come from the students on the island.
I don't read Japanese but the translation has a good flow that makes for a smooth read. I was taken with the way the fisherman taking them to the island talks. I got a mental image of the Japanese equivalent of a New England fisherman. It is a neat way to separate him from the university students.
The story begins with Ellery declaring that the mystery should be an intellectual game. Basically defending the honkaku mystery against the social realism school. He puts forth a bit of foreshadowing when he says"
What mystery novels need are — some might call me old-fashioned ¸— a great detective, a mansion, its shady residents, bloody murders, impossible crimes, and never-before-seen tricks played by the murderer. Call it my castle in the sky but I'm happy as long as I can enjoy such a world. But always in an intellectual manner.
I mostly entirely agree with Shimada Soji in the introduction who says about the characters:
As a result, his characters act almost like robots, their thoughts depicted only minimally through repetitive phrases. The narration shows no interest in sophisticated writing or a sense of art and is focused solely on telling the story. To readers who were used to American and British detective fiction, The Decagon house Murders was a shock. It was as if they were looking at the raw building plans of a novel.
I can't say that I was shocked by the characterization. I thought the author did a decent enough job giving the students individual characteristics and personalities. I read the introduction last and can't say I picked up Soji's analysis of the characters as I read the story. Of course, I can, in retrospect, see what he means.
The Decagon House Murders is a good story in the Golden Age style of mystery writing. Although I am early in my exploration of Japanese mystery stories, I would recommend starting with a honkaku story such as Yokomizo Seishi's The Honjin Murders and The Inugami Curse and then moving on to shin honkaku mysteries like The Decagon House Murders. Bear in mind that I didn't know about honkaku when I wrote those reviews. At some point I'll compile a bibliography of honkaku and shin konkaku mysteries.
References
Locked Room International — Take a look at the publishers website. they have a good list of books, articles, and recommended reading.
Honkaku: A century of Japanese whoduddints keeping readers guessing. From The Guardian, 27 April 2021.
Have you read ... Japanese crime fiction. By Matthew Castle on Rock Paper Shotgun, 18 March 2020.
Whodunit, How and Why? The Evolution of Japanese Detective Fiction Literature. From Jauns — UMD Undergraduate History Journal
Culture and authenticity: the discursive space of Japanese detective fiction and the formation of the national imaginary by Satomi Saito. PhD dissertation
The Honkaku Mysteries on Shedoneit podcast
For a fun look the trope used in this book, go tot Ten Little Murder Victims on TV Tropes. Beware, though, it's hard to stop following links once you get started down that road.
Keywords: honkaku, shin honkaku, Japanese mysteries, Japanese crime fiction
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