I devoured this book in two sittings.
It was fun and so clever and kept me guessing every step of the way. The author did an amazing job at building suspense and making you doubt absolutely everyone in the story.

Wow! This was original and a mystery that keeps giving. Nothing is what it seems to be. The truth? Who knows... You can't trust anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for thos eARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All words are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC.

A nice puzzle of a whodunnit with distinct personalities driving the mystery and a likable amateur sleuth to guide us to the answer. It also features a frame narrative of a mystery book published in this world, read by someone who knows the detective, and that is a key detail to solving the mystery. I really thought I had it. My predictions turned out right at first, I thought I was so clever, but I forgot about the frame narrative! It changes everything, and it's not that the clue was even hidden, I noticed it, but I completely dismissed it at the time! It's such a smart move on the author's part, and very enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I understand that there is a certain level of derivativeness that attaches to this story, and it is, perhaps, something the author has done before. This is, however, my first foray into the world of this particular author’s brand of creepy house murders, and it’s wholeheartedly enjoyable.

The story puts across a distinct sense of security in the twists and working out what is where, but there is always a little extra nugget of intrigue lurking in the background. The payoff for this, of course, is in the epilogue, which throws a nice little curveball for the more self-confident mystery solver.

The characters aren’t necessarily overly well developed, but that doesn’t really matter here. They’re better construed as pawns in a wider game, and, in a way, the less we know about them, the better. The deaths were nasty and definitely had an element of menace about them, which made for a far grittier story than a lot of other locked room mysteries. This book was a fun one, and definitely well worth the read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the eARC. All opinions are my own.
4,5/5
The Labyrinth House Murders is the third book in the Bizzare House mysteries series. The story is inspired by And Then There Were None, as a mystery writer invites his mentees to his 60th birthday party - only for them to realized that they are being killed off one by one in a locked-house setting. The house itself is inspired by Greek mythology, which I really enjoyed. Even though I was able to guess some details, the plot twist at the end still took me by surprise. I haven't read the other books in the series yet, but after finishing this one, I definitely plan to.
Unfortunately, the Kindle format from NetGalley wasn't well done, and I struggled to realize that this was a book within a book.

This book was not my taste. It was all over the place, but not in a good way. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Another complicated house mystery from Yukito Ayatsuji! I love this series and I know my patrons will love this newly-translated addition to it. Although I thought I had this story figured out, the ending floored me and made me look at the whole story in a new light!

This was such a Fun Read, i immediately went to look at the other books in the series. This is such an interesting mystery. It's insane that this book came out at the end of the 80's. Highly recommended

This series continues to be so much fun to read! I love the house and it's bonkers map, the puzzles hidden throughout the story, the unique characters, and of course the murders happening left and right. As an avid reader of mysteries from all eras, I like how the author plays with the tropes that became so well known during the golden age.
I love reading these and recommending them to other mystery readers!

This was a captivating and fairly quick read, but I found the twists to be a bit frustrating. As someone who loves Greek mythology, I love the allusions to Greek myth. That was definitely a highlight for me. However, I found the time spent working through the clues of the mystery to be very repetitive, and the reveal in the epilogue to be frustrating rather than mind-blowing. There were also some spelling and grammatical errors that did not have to do with the translation from Japanese.

I was so surprised to love this from the beginning to the end, because I have seen a few ratings and reviews where people seemed to not be into it at all! I’m not sure why, but I have my guesses. For me, this book kept on giving! Most of my guesses (about 95%) were correct, but that’s probably because I have read all of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels and a lot of other mystery novels. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the story was predictable, but maybe easy to guess if you’ve consumed a lot from the same genre.

It is a story within a story (kind of), where Shimada got a manuscript entitled “The Labyrinth House Murders”. Most of the book came from the manuscript that was said to have been based on a true crime. A few people were invited to the unique house to celebrate a famous mystery writer, Miyagaki. Four of the guests were all his apprentice writers and they were told to each write a mystery where the victim must be themselves, if they wanted to win his wealth after his death. And then yes, you guessed it, one by one, their reality began to imitate fiction...

What did I tell you? It was beginning to sound like And Then There Were None, eh?

I thought it was brilliant how Ayatsuji weaved Greek mythology into the murder mystery. I don’t have much knowledge when it comes to Greek mythology (I have only read ever read Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green), but assuming every detail was consistent with the mythology, I thought it was incorporated very seamlessly in the ways each victim met their end.

I highly recommend this to mystery lovers, especially the ones who love Greek mythology, or any folklore. But I do know that some readers prefer to be told of everything (clues as to the motives and execution) before the reveals so that they could puzzle the mystery out themselves. To these kind of readers, well, I’d say, you might not enjoy this one as much as I did.

This was such an interesting read and the climax was amazing. The way in which the author draws our attention to a specific character being the culprit rather than who it is actually was rather unique to read. However, the ending was a bit predictable.

You will be on the edge of your seat until the epilogue. Unpredictable, unique, and shocking. Ayatsuji is a genius.

Author Yukito Ayatsuji took Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, gave it several twists and produced the suspenseful The Decagon House Murders. However, using And Then There Were None yet again with this, the fourth book in his House Murders series, just left me cold. (Goodreads counts it as the third, as the true third has yet to be translated into English. It’s OK, but, had I known it was a near-retread, I shouldn’t have bothered. I didn’t really care about any of the characters, not even Shimada Kiyoshi, the amateur sleuth who appears in all four of the books in the series. The twist at the end was good enough to elevate the novel to three stars but not good enough to make up for the ennui leading up to the denouement.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Pushkin Press and Pushkin Vertigo in exchange for an honest review.

I am almost at a loss for words about this one. Rarely do I read such a well written, crafted and thoughtful suspense-story. The prose here just knocked my brain out. Every one of these sentences told me how they were written with care. You known what I mean? Some authors write with the soul and mind and the plot is so well woven into the rest of the story you get lost and don’t want to stop reading. This is my favourite crime book now. I just need more people to know about this book because I did not see that ending coming at all. I just loved this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read it.

This kept me guessing the whole way. A true "magic trick" of a story and a fun ride through the end.

It took me a bit to start this book because I did not know that it was the third book in a series. I had to go back and read the other two books before starting this one and I'm obsessed. These books are amazing. Give me more.

Amazing, I've read Yukito Ayatsuji's other book and I was so excited to get my hands on this one. A wonderfully written book and every book I read from them makes me love them more and more as a writer.

I appreciated the arc from NetGalley, but overall it wasn't my cup of tea.

I enjoyed the locked room mystery aspect of it but the book within a book within a book combined with the strange formatting that NetGalley sent over to my Kindle made for a bit of a poor reading experience. The characters could have used a more distinct voice, but the plot was great.

3/5

A classic whodunit type of story that intrigued me from the very first beginning! Every page could never stops me from reading more and trying to find and collect every hints!
I expected nothing and just a fun ride I got from it. I jumped in without knowing a thing about this series and had no idea of the writing style, and I couldn't say it was the best decision I'd made!


Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press for providing me this e-ARC in exchange for a honest review