History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 8/10 · Translated from Japanese; English edition 2004

• Plot: In 1936 an artist is killed in a locked studio, and six young women in his family are then murdered and dismembered as described in his notes. Forty years later, an astrologer takes on the case.
• Clues: Exhaustively fair, with diagrams and two explicit challenges to the reader.
• Reveal: One of the most ingenious solutions in the genre.
• Science bonus: The solution is geometric: once the spatial trick is seen, every impossible detail falls into place, and the reader has all the data needed to deduce it.

In 1936 the painter Heikichi Umezawa is found murdered in his locked studio. His notes describe a plan to kill six young women in his household and assemble a perfect woman, Azoth, from their body parts. After his death, the women are killed and dismembered, and their remains are buried across Japan. The case remains unsolved for four decades.

In 1979, Kiyoshi Mitarai, an eccentric astrologer and amateur detective, and his friend Kazumi Ishioka take on the case. They review the evidence, visit the locations and argue about theories.

Sōji Shimada’s debut revived the classic puzzle mystery in Japan and helped launch the “new orthodox” movement. It is an extravagant homage to Golden Age detective fiction, particularly John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen, with maps, diagrams and challenges to the reader.

The solution is brilliant. It is simple once revealed, and yet it is extraordinarily hard to guess.

The weaknesses are the characterisation and the long discussions of astrology and alchemy. Mitarai can be irritating, and the pace is uneven.

The 8 reflects a landmark puzzle novel that is essential for fans of fair-play mysteries. The English translation came more than twenty years later.