The Decagon House Murders: Yukito Ayatsuji (Pushkin Vertigo)

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While they are away on the island, a former member of the mystery group, Kawaminami receives a mysterious letter that points out his connection to a former student Chiori, who died. So even as the students on the island have no idea why anyone may be after them, we readers are well-aware, because of the mainland story. As the group begin to recognize the danger they face, on the mainland former Mystery Club member Kawaminami (or ‘Doyle’) receives an ominous letter. My gut says maybe Morisu because he’s so quiet and serious, but I can’t figure out a motive, so I’m going with Kojiro, to avenge Chiori’s death. I pretty much figured out who did it fairly early on, but I didn’t figure out how so much (and when the reveal hit, I had a moment where I could have applauded it) “I’m Van Dine” was one of the biggest wham lines I’ve read in a while, and genuinely had me flipping through pages trying to figure it out HOW that one happened.

After all, I didn’t want to get so used to Christie’s style that I could pick out her storytelling tricks and solve her mysteries with my eyes closed. Agatha Christie is my favourite author of all time and, "And Then There Were None," is one of her very best - if not the best - mystery she wrote. and I'm fine being right as long as I'm constantly guessing, it's actually my best possible outcome. First published in 1987, The Decagon House Murders had a huge part to play in revitalizing the honkaku, or orthodox sub-genre of murder mystery novels in Japan.But at the end when the mystery is resolved, the characters are suddenly addressed by their original names.

I didn't love it as much as The Inugami curse, the earlier title released in the Pushkin Vertigo series. Except that the second day of their trip, they wake up to find seven plastic nameplates with the labels First Victim, Second Victim, and so on to Fifth Victim, with the final two plates labelled Detective and Murderer. But here the characters were bland, the girls left a lot to be desired (they are the type of characters that would have been okay-ish if they existed in a 1930s whodunnit) while the boys (allegedly) were all kind of clever and yet so very foolish and slow.

Like, I feel like Van Dine had the most opportunity coz he was there first, and his being sick feels sus, but he also has no motive that I can see? 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. Soon after their arrival they begin to suspect that one of their members is intending to kill them one at a time, but who? The mystery switches between the club members who are at the house and a couple of ppl who are trying to learn more about an event some of the members were involved with.

Then I think Kojiro killed Seiji and then put his body in the Decagon House secret room so everyone would still think Seiji or the gardener was the murderer.Murder At the Mansion of Strange Masks: the latest book in the Mansions series and it's still going strong. 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. 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. There just has to be a better way of ending the book that explains the beautiful puzzle but also packs a bigger punch.