The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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Unlike, for example, Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table, where her detectives are series characters so you know you can take them at their word, the detectives here are all unknown to me. If you are a fan of the formal puzzle mysteries of the old school, in particular the Characters On An Island Picked Off One By One subgenre, this is one of the absolute best.

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. This is the debut novel of the author and also the first of his works to be translated into English.There is the extroverted pretty and the dowdy introvert…funnily enough one of the female characters is the first one to ‘lose it’, to the point of having to be sedated and referred to as hysterical. 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. 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. 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.

Signed off by the deceased Nakamura Seiji accusing the club of murdering his daughter, this letter sets in motion a series of events that propel the plot forward at breakneck speed. You can ask my friends whom i was facetiming with during some of the time i read this, my reaction were one of a kind.And then, the solution to the novel’s puzzle unfolds in a way so ingenious and logical it can stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best mystery novels. Indeed, it is worth noting that Christie’s novel was released under the title ‘ Dead Island’ (死人島) in Japan. I admire that Ayatsuji took on a classic Christie - there's so much love for the Golden Age mysteries in this book.