The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Honkaku mystery:  A Japanese subgenre focusing on intricate "fair play" puzzle-solving designed to challenge readers with logical deduction, locked-room scenarios, and complex mechanical tricks. Inspired by Western Golden Age authors like Agatha Christie, these novels typically provide all necessary clues, diagrams, and maps prioritizing the puzzle over literary prose.

Four mystery authors, a critic, an editor and his pregnant wife, and an amateur sleuth have all been invited to a famed mystery writer's isolated home to celebrate his 60th birthday. But when their weekend begins with a shocking death, they find themselves locked inside the Labyrinth House with a murderer. 

This was an entertaining 'locked-room' mystery. It was a little hard at first to keep all the characters straight, but I soon got them figured out. And I really liked Utayama Hideyuki, the editor, and Shimada Kiyoshi, a fan of mystery novels and amateur sleuth. They worked together on solving the puzzles within the Labyrinth House. I guessed one of the twists early on, but there was another twist at the very end I was not expecting. Which added a layer of fun. As did the map of the Labyrinth House included at the beginning of the book and all the allusions to the Greek myth about Minos and the minotaur. I did think the dialogue felt a little stilted at times, but that might have been because of the translation, or just a difference between Japanese and American fiction. Overall, though, I really liked this one. It's definitely made me a fan of Honkaku mysteries. 

Happy Reading!

Death From a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson

 

When an occultist is found dead in a locked room, and the only suspects are an escape artist, a ventriloquist, a clairvoyant and her husband, and a professional medium, the police call in the Great Merlini, a master magician himself, to help them figure out who the murderer is. Because it takes a magician to catch one. And Merlini is very skilled in magic and misdirection. And they're going to need all his skills of deduction when a second magician is murdered just like the first.

"Of course, Inspector," Merlini said, "the really difficult crimes to solve, as you know, are the ones in which anyone might have popped in and done it. But when, as in this case, it seems that no one could possibly have murdered either man, it means that, once we find out how they were done, we will know who did them. The impossible situation, by its very uniqueness, ultimately limits the possibilities." 

Clayton Rawson, a talented magician himself, wrote this mystery in 1938. And it is so much fun! I loved Merlini and how he and Ross Harte, the writer/journalist narrating the story, banter with the police and discuss all the possible ways a murderer could escape a locked room, quoting from the best detective novels and crime fiction afficianados. Their discussion of classic magic tricks was also fun. And while I didn't figure out whodunnit, the clues were there. And the Great Merlini was more than happy to explain them all at the end. I've read several Golden Age mysteries this year, and this is one of my favorites.

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Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

 "Murder as a puzzle."

Dr. Anselm Rees is a famous psychiatrist in 1903s London. He has three patients who are all famous, too, but only Rees knows their secrets. Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard is called in when Rees is found murdered in his study. The real puzzle is that all the windows and doors of Rees' study were locked from the inside. So, how did the murderer get in and back out again? Flint needs a little help with this one, so he calls in Joseph Spector, a retired magician, for his illusionist insights.

"When they'd first met a number of years before, Inspector Flint had viewed Spector with the guardedness he reserved for clever con men. After all, Spector was a famed devotee of the macabre and maintained one of the most comprehensive libraries on both crime and the supernatural. But it was this very 'otherness' surrounding Spector that made him a perfect foil in instances of impossible crime. The useful part about knowing a magician is learning how the tricks are done."

Locked room mysteries are always fun to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. In addition to the murder, there's also the theft of a painting to solve, and an interesting array of characters from a successful stage actress, to a writer, to Rees' own daughter, Lidia, and her wealthy fiancée. Spector was my favorite, of course. I loved the way he put the puzzle pieces together over the course of the investigation and then revealed the truth of it all at the end with a true magician's flourish. The narrative style and tone of this novel is very reminiscent of the best Golden Age mysteries, which I also like. All in all, this was a very fun mystery. 

Happy Reading!