Library Read // The Decagon Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Taking its cues from Agatha Christie’s locked-room classic And Then There Were None, the setup is this: The members of a university detective-fiction club, each nicknamed for a favorite crime writer (Poe, Carr, Orczy, Van Queen, Leroux and — yes — Christie), spend a week on remote Tsunojima Island, attracted to the place, and its eerie 10-sided house, because of a spate of murders that transpired the year before. That collective curiosity will, of course, be their undoing.

 As the students approach Tsunojima in a hired fishing boat, 'the sunlight shining down turned the rippling waves to silver. The island lay ahead of them, wrapped in a misty veil of dust,' its sheer, dark cliffs rising straight out of the sea, accessible by one small inlet. There is no electricity on the island, and no telephones, either.

A fresh round of violent deaths begins, and Ayatsuji’s skillful, furious pacing propels the narrative. As the students are picked off one by one, he weaves in the story of the mainland investigation of the earlier murders. This is a homage to Golden Age detective fiction, but it’s also unabashed entertainment."

I can't recall why I ended up requesting Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders through my library. Like most things nowadays, I'm just gonna chalk it up to TikTok. But who knows, maybe it was GoodReads or Twitter. But again, had it been either it likely would have gone on a to-read list. Oh well, some things are lost to know, never to be known. But we like mystery sleuthing here, and hence this eBook read (translated by Hong-Li Wong) of this "Japanese cult classic mystery."

Originally published in 1987, Decagon House's best selling point for me would be its misdirects. I suspected the murderer from the get-go due to their initial presentation, but I forgot about them and moved on to a new suspect. Everyone had motive, no one could be excluded. Then I came back to the murderer as a suspect, but then their subsequent presentation convinced me otherwise. Was it someone on the island? Was it an outsider? I expect some big crazy reveal. And while the truth, motive and methodology, ended up being a bit usual as far as murder mystery reveals go, the reveal of the murderer's identity had me shocked for a bit. My thought process went something like, "Who is Van Dine? I don't get it....Oh....Oh!" 

There was a weird flow to the translation at times and the overall story, while progressing chronologically, wasn't the most exciting, until that point. That's when things were cemented and possibilities eliminated. So that whole reveal garnered some points. Still, the story was somewhat middling. That guilt played the role it did in revelation of culpability was not a strong point for me, but I did appreciate the imagery associated. Overall I'm giving this 4 stars. Like many mystery novels, this is a perfect read for a trip. It's short and the story's easy to follow along. But it's not as rich in social commentary as, in my opinion, the best mysteries are.