A nice setting, interesting characters, but a little "unseasoned".

Yukito Ayatsuji's novel began as an average mystery novel but finished as a pretty good one. Although I still think some things were left unexplained, and poorly used as background and motive for the killing sprees. Much is left unexplained about how it really went down for Chiori, and I would've liked if he dived a bit more into what happened on that fateful night.

That final twist is amazing, but the narrative construction of the book makes it hard for the reader to make the necessary connections. On that matter, the overall structure of the book can get quite confusing as well.

Overall, it was a nice, 3-star experience. I enjoyed this book, and the last 20% of the e-book kept me on the edge of my seat, begging for more.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3604355657

I thought this crime novel sounded really interesting, so requested it from NetGalley.

"The members of a Japanese university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly, unsolved multiple murder the year before. They're looking forward to investigating the crime, putting their passion for solving mysteries to practical use, but before long there is a fresh murder, and soon the club-members realise they are being picked off one-by-one. The remaining amateur sleuths will have to use all of their murder-mystery expertise to find the killer before they end up dead too."

Obviously this is a deliberate homage to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'.; unfortunately it is such a closely matched story that a lot of the suspense is removed. I liked the motif of all of the mystery club members choosing famous detective novelists as their club names, which they refer to themselves as (rather than their real names) throughout the novel. It also enables the author to do some sleight of hand with the characters as you don't really know for most of the book who 'Agatha', 'Conan', etc. really are, so it's difficult to make the real-life connections.

I was a little disappointed by this, it has to be said. Great idea, but execution could have been better.

I am a sucker for the shin honkaku style of Japanese mysteries and this book is the one that started off the genre! No wonder i loved this one to bits. Following a premise similar to Christie's And Then There Were None, this too takes place on an island which is cut off from the rest of the world and where 7 members of the mystery club of a university visit for a week. But their visit becomes a nightmare when someone starts picking them one by one and killing them.

The island has been a site of a lot of bloodshed a few months back and a homicide scene as well. Who is the killer? Does he live on the island or is he a member of the visiting group? This fantastic take on Christie's book is worth all your time n effort. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this book.

DNF

I appreciate that this is inspired by “And then there were none”, but it honestly felt
more like a bad pastiche.

I understand that this book began a revival in Japan of locked room mysteries which are a homage to UK golden age detective fiction, in particular Agatha Christie. This is interesting in itself, I had no idea that English Literature is studied quite widely in Japan or that English detective fiction is popular.

The novel opens with six students (Japanese but all with nicknames drawn from English/US crime fiction) travelling to an uninhabited island where a series of murders were recently committed. In this the plot is similar to Christie's And Then There Were None and the parallels are made clear. The narrative moves between the island and the mainland and the eventual reveal at the end is very clever.

Overall though I wasn't blown away by the novel. The prose is flat, almost turgid and the characters are flat too, not fleshed out in much detail and with few distinguishing features. Nonetheless it is interesting and worth reading.

** spoiler alert ** 2.5 stars


Mixed feelings on this one for me.

The group on the island I never really got a good measure of,they had no chemistry,and seemed like a group of strangers rather than friends.

Their actions seemed a bit off too... at one point it seemed as if they'd just find a dead body,move it somewhere safe,and get on with things normally.
Where's the panic?The outrage. The grief???

I stuck with the book and was rewarded with a long slightly satisfying explanation.