The only family I knew from Sea Cliff consisted of a father who had something to do with Starbucks, his wife who collected fancy glass balls, and their three children Krystelle, Damon, and Sterling — the names a reference to crystals, diamonds, and silver, respectively. The exposition is integral to the plot, but the fact that it's through her is very annoying she is clumsily handled and just has zero real personality, everyone on the island is so much more interesting than her, the POV shifts can kind of kill your interest in the story and momentum you have going while reading. Without any hesitation or fear they would walk into the decagonal trap, where they would be sentenced.

First published in 1946, it was the first of his books to be translated to English, in 2019 (one more has followed, with two more on the way). In the centre of the island is the eerie Decagon House, which is described as “ the decagonal trap” [1987/2015: 16] unbeknown to the students.Six months prior to the story's opening, the owner and builder of the house died when the adjacent mansion burned to the ground, and since the body of one of the five people who were on the island at the time was never accounted for, the case is considered unsolved. But for years the Shin Honkaku (New Orthodox) group in Japan, of which Yukito Ayatsuji is a prominent member, have been putting out mysteries following Van Dine’s formula, shying away from new science or gimmicks in favour of good old honest mysteries. It lacked the labyrinthine quality of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders and the over the top melodrama of The Inugami Clan, but its clarity of purpose - shades of Christie's And Then There Were None - and its interesting focus on physical spaces - and not just the murder house, but nearly all indoor locations - made it thoroughly absorbing from beginning to end.

He really wants to show not just that he’s knowledgable, but that he wants Japanese people to open their minds. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (translated by Hong-Li Wong) The Honjin Murders (translated by Louise Heal Kawai) and The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo (translated by Yumiko Yamakazi) and The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada (translated by Ross and Shika MacKenzie) are all published by Pushkin Vertigo. They are intrigued to spend a week on this island because an unsolved murder/suicide happened there six months previously. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole.It isn't perfect and does enjoy its own schtick a bit much at times, but it's also a lovingly crafted ten-sided puzzle box with a different author on each face. The final revelations, including the modus operandi of the crimes, will surprise all but the most astute readers. In a way, Ayatsuji's glimpses of the characters' background and feelings almost make the novel more frustrating -- he throws in this incredibly heavy stuff (one student's mother is in a mental institution for attempting to kill a patient in a hospital, the parents and sister of another were killed when he was in middle school, to name just two examples) but that's all he does -- toss it into the conversations, without doing anything with it.

She is the one in her group — and there’s always one — who hits the puberty jackpot, developing myriad physical enchantments while her friends go to war with blackheads. A couple of university students who are members of a mystery club and crime fiction aficionados travel to the decagon house, which is on a remote island that was the site of a brutal and still unsolved multiple murder the year before. Yukito Ayatsuji's " The Decagon House Murders" is a terrific mystery, a classic of misdirection very much in the manner of Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr. It never shies away from its source material and even could be said to pay a tribute to the novel by Christie.I've been careful not to say too much about the action in "The Decagon House Murders," but let me stress that this book really is a pleasure for anyone who enjoys locked-room mysteries, impossible crimes or Golden Age "Challenges to the Reader. His 1930 story The Spider is an excellent example, and has recently been republished as part of the British Library’s Foreign Bodies anthology. is another hybrid – a futuristic “survival adventure” take on a golden age “closed world” whodunnit that references not only Black Mirror and Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None but also Enid Blyton’s Famous Five. In honkaku, everything is transparent: no villains suddenly appear in the last chapter, no key clues are withheld until the final page.