A classic whodunnit.

I enjoyed this one. It has a good premise and funny little quirks like each member of the club going by the nickname of a famous crime writer (Agatha Christie etc.). This element becomes even more important later on as it adds to the layer of mystery of who everyone really is behind their assumed names. I also liked how the author builds up to the reveal of each murder and the confusion and paranoia among the remaining cast of characters.

It’s a good mystery and it had me guessing until the end but I didn’t really connect with any of the characters which I think did affect my overall enjoyment of the book as I didn’t feel impacted by their deaths. The translation was a little disjointed at times but this is something that I’m sure will be resolved before the final version is published next year.

Overall, if you’re a fan of murder mysteries then you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press, Pushkin Vertigo, for my advance copy.

thanks to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for an ARC.

This is a classic golden age homage puzzle mystery largely set on a remote island, where a group of mystery fiction enthusiasts have gone on an odd kind of pilgrimage to an island notorious for tragic events. It's not too much of a spoiler to say more tragic events ensue.
It was the author's debut novel in 1987, translated to English for the first time.
It formally adheres to the fair play mystery format and deliberately echoes classics of that genre, most particularly Christie's And then there were None. Fans of this style of mystery will find lots to admire, as will fans of horror I think.
I found the use of nicknames for the characters depersonalising (perhaps a deliberate ploy by the author) and there was minimal character development, so the tragic events had no power for me. The denouement was clever, but by that time I had lost real interest in the outcome.

Loved the other book and this one in this series. Clever mystery, very good writing. I'd definitely recommend if you like Mystery genre.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book ahead of being published.
It was an enjoyable closed-room murder mystery, with lots of twists along the way, some predictable some not so! Well written, and enjoyable. Characters were likeable at times and the story was compelling.

Firstly, huge thanks to Pushkin Vertigo and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Decagon House Murders, originally published in 1987, is a Japanese detective fiction novel where a group of seven university students, who are part of the university’s mystery club, decide to go on a trip to an abandoned island where an unsolved quadruple murder took place six months ago. However, they quickly realise that there is a possibility that they might not all make it back to the mainland… They aren’t the only ones to realise the dangers of this trip when a former member of the club receives a letter blaming the club for murdering one of their own, who just so happened to be the daughter of the former owner of the island…

The first thing that struck me about this novel was how self aware it was. After the initial prologue where the reader is let in on the sinister story behind the trip for the students, we’re launched into the students travelling to the island where they are discussing mystery fiction. I liked this unusual opening and it felt fresh for detective fiction - even if the novel was first published in the 80s. This opening was a great way to introduce each of the characters and establish the fact that they feel equipped to be detectives. Although they are university students, it didn’t feel out of place at all for them to be the ‘detectives’ as it were. Ayatsuji does a brilliant job at making this feel very believable.

I really liked all of the characters in the novel, I also loved how they all referred to themselves by their nicknames, all taken from great detective fiction writers. I think Ellery was probably my favourite and I found that a lot of my theories regarding what was going on on the island (as well as what happened six months ago) lined up with his. The dynamic of the group was very well done, I have always wondered what would happen with multiple detectives all working on a case and I think that this did a great job of sort of doing this. Through this group Ayatsuji brilliantly captures very genuine relationships, that just because these students all share the same interest and are in a club together this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are all the best of friends.

The narrative shifts between the events that are occurring on the island as well as what is happening on the mainland with former members of the club. This switch back and forth did an excellent job of sustaining the suspense and kept me hooked. Changing the narrative like this really highlighted how calculated and well planned this entire scheme was. Not only this but, through regularly seeing things that the students didn’t the reader could form even more ideas of what they thought was going on and who was responsible. I went through many different theories and, despite being a chronic overthinker myself, I still didn’t see the end coming and gasped when I came to the end of the book.

It’s always difficult to review detective fiction as there’s just so much I would love to say on how the plot was developed and how things unfolded, especially with the epilogue, however that would spoil what is a truly wonderful book! If you’re a mystery fan or a Japanese fiction fan, this is a must read! Even if you don’t fall into either category this is still one you should seriously consider picking up but be warned - when you do you’ll find it very difficult to put it back down!

After reading so many murder mysteries, it’s difficult to go into a story without much expectations. This book was finely written, the flow and intrigue was very spot on. Though some plot line is predictable, the author did a very fair job in executing a closed room murder mystery. Thanks for the E-arc

Mmmm, I wanted to like this a touch more than I ended up. Very well plotted, but the characters could stand to be far more compelling and likable. A locked-room murder mystery is hard to pull off but still, I felt engaged.

Whodunnit In Traditional Vein.....
Whodunnit in traditional vein with a tried and tested formula working well. All does not go well when members of a University Mystery Club visit an island which was home to a gruesome murder. Nicely done with a cleverly constructed plot, entertaining characters and a satisfying denouement. A fun and puzzling read.

In this new re-issue of the English translation of a Japanese “classic crime” mystery first published in 1987, we see references to a number of literary characters and writing styles that you might recognise. Murders have taken place on a small private island, Tsunojima, some six months previously to the main story. When the main house on the island is seen to be burning from the mainland, rescuers discover the bodies of four people. A fifth is missing. The five are presumed to be the two married servants – drugged and killed, the owner Nakamura Seiji who is believed to have committed suicide and his wife who has been murdered and had her hand cut off with both burnt. The gardener is missing. Thus there is the first “enclosed island” murder mystery to be resolved. The police have “closed” the case in spite of one missing person, others question their belief.
But as this is not a straightforward novel a second plotline will be a group of students from the nearby university who will chose to stay on the isolated island in the smaller lodge house – the Decagon House – designed by Nakamura an eccentric architect. They are drawn there by the early murders and the chance to both explore and find inspiration for their writing. They are members of the “Detection Club” that meets to discuss literary murders but also publish their own stories in their group that magazine. We are told six of the group – referred to in this tale by their “club names” after well know mystery writers – will stay over although another will make the arrangements. The island has come up for sale since the previous deaths. Shortly after the students arrive an enigmatic message will be left in the Decagon House mentioning a series of imminent deaths. Initially believed to be a joke or challenge once these start to happen the relations between the students will start to unravel. They are trapped on the island for a week.
Back on the mainland though it seems that members of the Murder Club had been at a drinking party some months previously. Another young female club member Chiori died in questionable circumstances. Now those who were present start to receive enigmatic letters about the death. Two – who have not gone to the island - will start to look into these. They will contact Chiori’s uncle who it seems has inherited and sold the island (proving that Chiori was linked to the island dead) and there meet one of his friends Shimada. Shimada will join the in exploring these and who sent them. This, a third strand of “investigation”, will start looking to longer term motives.
Through these three strands the full complexity of the story will unroll in front of the readers’ eyes. As in all crime novels there will be the issue of who killed who and why. But behind that is the questioning of the morality of “interested parties” investigating” (and approaching bereaved family members) for their own curiosity. There is, too, the debate as to what is the fascination of reading crime novels, why people do it in such numbers and what do they gain.
If you are a reader then you might want to know the quality and interest of the storyline. The three themes make for a complex novel allowing greater oversight than the characters are likely to have. It is not too easy to work out “who dunnit” too soon. The depiction of not just Japanese culture but also the landscape adds to the experience. But the reaction of the characters is what is of key interest – if this was not likely then the novel would fail. The picture of the students under stress and falling apart certainly creates a charged atmosphere – even if the 1980s expectation that the women do all the cooking, coffee making might make you sigh and not necessarily with nostalgia. But if you excuse the complexity that inevitably takes the story to the edges of possibility in places (yes we all know that Oxford is not the murder capital of the universe) it all adds to the brio of the novel.

A fun 'country house' murder mystery, but Japanese style. In this instance it is a group of 7 students from a university mystery club visiting an island which was the site of a famous multiple murder just the year before. Cut off from civilisation they are alone for the week, and quickly start to get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer. Finding out 'who done it' was quite fun and also a surprise as it was succesful in mananging to fool me right up to the end, which doesn't happen that often. Good fun.

This book was enjoyable. I quite like detective fiction - especially stuff from the 'Golden Age' in the 20s and 30s, and I found this novel to be a swansong to that genre. However, I was disappointed in a few respects, and I do think that the translation of this book was inadequate, and therefore the story suffered as a result. The prose felt clunky at times, as did the dialogue. Maybe it is the same as the original, but either way I felt that it could have been better or improved upon at the very least.

I did like this story though. It is a very traditional whodunnit story and definitely is inspired by Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' and consistently references said book throughout this novel. Due to this, like any other whodunnit, the characters are bland, only serving as plot devices and murder victims. This is typical of a Christie story as well though, so I can't really complain. I did have a lot of fun trying to figure out the murderer, and while I did sort of, I was still shocked when the reveal came! Especially when hearing about the method of which they went about! I was a little disappointed with the conclusion of the novel, as it did seem to take the easy way out. But I am picky when it comes to these things, so that could be taken with a grain of salt.

Overall, a solid 3.5. Was not a spectacular book by any means, but it was a fun read. The setting of the decagon house was positively creepy, and towards the end I was completely freaked out by a certain event! I also liked that there were the perspectives on the island and on the mainland which gave the book a grounded feel, but the lack of character development for literally any of the characters was disappointing to say the least. The ending was unsatisfying as well. But the rest was decent, and I would recommend this to fans of classic detective fiction that want a good read on one of these cold winter nights!

This book takes the well know Agatha Christie mystery of "Then there were none" and plots a different ending to it from the Japanese prospective. The ending was very well woven, and even if one is familiar with the story, it remains very satisfying.

Yukito Ayatsuji is taking one of the most famous murder mystery stories and putting a new spin on events. A group of friends – students at a university mystery club – are all planning on spending a few days staying on a small island. The island has a dark past as the previous year the couple that lived on the island, and members of their staff, were murdered. One employee remains missing to this day and it is generally accepted that he was the killer and has fled to freedom.

One of the students knows the new owner of the island and manages to negotiate for the members of the mystery club to stay for a few days in the intriguingly named Decagon House – a smaller building away from the main residence where the murders occurred. Pleasingly for map fans there is a map of Decagon House inside the book and you can see it is a 10 sided building with a room on each of the walls. The rooms taken by each of the students is shown on the map and if you are playing amatur sleuth it is a helpful guide when you try to work out who may have been close to any given room at any time. Handy when the murders begin.

Murders? Yes indeed. I said this was a new spin on a famous murder story – take a collective of people, pop them on an island and let the murders commence. It is Yukito Ayatsuji’s take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and it is a fun read. First the students…fewer than the 10 guests that Christie had on her island and because they are all members of the same club they know each other before proceeding begin. Each of the students has their club name – the surname of a famous mystery writer, Christie (nod), Poe etc. Slightly different from the original source material is that there are several scenes which also take place off the island. An independent investigator is asking questions and conducting his own review of the murders on the island the previous year.

The narrative is split – students on the island being picked off one by one with a variety of causes of death. The mainland where the truth about the murders the previous year is slowly being discovered. Will the two plot threads come together? Well possibly. Will they come together while all the students are still alive? Certainly not – the body count is high.

The Decagon House Murders was my first expereince of a Japanese murder story. There are some distintive language styles in Japanese to English so I read with more care than usual but the translator has done a terrific job and there was never any point where I wasn’t getting a great story. I am aluding to the naming style of family name before forename which was explained before the story began and it does help to understand this as characters are introduced.

I consider And Then There Were None to be the best of the Christie collection and I enjoyed this spin on the original. Look out for this when it is published next month I really enjoyed the time I spent with this one.

There is a big nod to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in this Japanese classic murder mystery. Seven university students who are part of a murder mystery club spend a week on an isolated island, the island is infamous as the previous year a family were found murdered on it. Is tragedy going to strike again? Will the students knowledge crime writing help save themselves?

This is a great read, paying homage to the Golden Age of crime writing. It's the locked room mystery with an isolated island thrown in for good measure.

I really enjoyed reading this English translation of a classic 1980's Japanese murder mystery.

This book is part of the Honkaku genre, meaning 'orthodox' in Japanese. Inspired by the golden age of British crime writing, this genre is a form of whodunit. Full of suspense, this book is fantastically paced and keeps the reader on their toes as they guess at who the murderer is. I will definitely be reading more books in this genre!

Seven members of the Mystery Club at University go on a trip to a deserted island where, only six months prior, a series of brutal murders had occured... When members of the club start dying, the remaining characters are forced to suspect each other.

Ayatsuji carefully practices the art of misdirection in his use of space and language. As characters in the book perform magic tricks on each other, the writer is tricking the reader. Obviously, this is a translation so some things may have been lost, but the language is simplistic, almost reductively so. It is artfully curated to confuse reality by what isn't on the page, and the reader's focus is completely wielded in the hands of the writer.

I am not sure about this one. I think it has really good elements of an Agatha Christie style murders on an island theme going on, and I did like the idea of a revenge murder spree. But it felt a bit too clogged down and it kind of slowed down half way through. I have really enjoyed his previous books that have been translated into English and having one where I feel it felt a bit flat makes me feel a bit sad. But it is still highly enjoyable and the mystery is really good.

A group of Japanese students are members of a Mystery Club and each of them take on names of famous crime writers . A number of them go to visit an island where an eccentric man has built a mansion and also a separate house in the shape of a decagon . The mansion had previously been destroyed by fire and a number of bodies found . When the group get to the decagon house where they are staying a number of plates are found with the words Victim 1 up to Victim 5 , Detective and Killer printed on them . Gradually members of the group start dying and as they have no contact with the outside world cannot report it to the authorities . The suspicion is of one of the group is responsible , but the thought that the owner of the island has not died in the fire as thought and is seeking revenge for some reason is also present . The plot unfolds and the truth is uncovered. Unfortunately a bit slow and drawn out story for me .

I didn't really know what to expect from this book but I love Agatha Christie type murder mysteries so I was really intrigued! After finishing it, I'm not sure how I felt about The Decagon House Murders. It's in a similar style to And Then There Were None where the victims get picked off one by one, so I did enjoy the suspense that ran throughout the novel. I would say one of the best aspects of this book is the thorough explanation at the ending - you're not left in disbelief because every little thing is recapped from the point of view of the killer. (I wouldn't say the motive was the best but it wasn't outrageous either, so I wasn't necessarily disappointed).

Some of the characters did blur into one another because only a couple had distinct personalities, which was a shame. I also felt that the start was very slow and I only became properly interested in the book at around the 40% mark. Sometimes the writing style could be a little flat, but there was a good sense of atmosphere during the scenes on the island. Overall, I would recommend this to fans of classic murder mysteries to broaden and diversify their reading in this genre.

This is a translation of a popular Japanese murder mystery novel, one which in itself is partially about murder mystery novels. It is set up as a puzzle which the reader can to some degree participate in solving the mystery, and as a puzzle is half decent fun. Each of the major characters are named after famous mystery writers (Agatha, Ellery, Carr, Poe....) and the physical set-up the Decagon House is indeed a house in the shape of a Decagon, providing seven equal sized rooms for its protagonists has the sense of a maths problem. The characters are all part of a University Mystery Writing Society - which is a thing that might exist - taking a week's break on a deserted island where a grisly murder took place less than a year before. It is a remarkably artificial situation, and one that coupled with the pseudonyms of the characters makes it tough to emotionally engage.

Considering the set-up, and that we know it is murder mystery fiction, you have to wait for almost half of the book before an actual murder takes place. You know they are coming - the murderer anonymously promises them in advance, and there is a parallel storyline off of the island about the death of an ex-member of the club which (if you pay attention) should help you solve what is going on in the Decagon House. The book bounces its viewpoints around too, which is more cause to consider unreliable narrators, though the novel plays enough tricks to hide the murderers identity, it generally does it fairly. Certainly when I discovered the identity of the murderer I then had to flick back a few times to check if my recollection of certain setups and scenes were correct - and it does skirt the right side of tricking the reader.

I don't read much mystery fiction any more, and when I do it is usually for the characters navigating their way through a mystery, rather than for the mystery itself. As such the Decagon House Murders didn't really work for me, the artificiality of the scenario perfectly encapsulated in the Decagon House itself is mirrored in the book. I have to admit to admiring the eventual solution and the reveal of all the working parts, but in evoking the giants of mystery fiction it can't help but also ask questions about how it stands up to them, and I think weakly.

[NetGalley ARC]

Oh man, I really wanted to ove this one yet, sadly, I did not. It took on the vibe of “And then there were none” by Agatha Christie yet the characters were ill prepped and did not seem like people who were friends. The stumbled upon a body and it honestly felt generic. As though the writer was grasping for straws trying to keep the characters and events in the book appealing to the reader. The characters were not really believable but if you stretched your imagination, you could make it work. I hate reviews like this but I want to be honest.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.