The Decagon House Murders

Author: Yukito Ayatsuji
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo 2020

A group of university students, who are also members of the university’s mystery club, goes to a nearby island to spend a week during the semester break. They identify themselves by the names of well-known Western mystery writers.

Ellery (named after the pseudonym “Ellery Queen” used by the American fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) is a third-year law student, Agatha (named after Agatha Christie) is a third-year pharmacy student, Carr (named after John Dickson Carr) is a third-year law student, Leroux (named after Gaston Leroux) is a second-year literature student, Poe (named after Edgar Allan Poe) is a fourth-year medical student, Orczy (named after Baroness Orczy) is a second-year literature student, and Van (named after the pseudonym “S. S. Van Dine” used by the American fiction writer Willard Huntington Wright) is a third-year literature student.

The island was owned by a famous architect who killed his wife and his servants, and then set himself and his house on fire six months ago. The fishermen in the area say they see the ghost of this dead man walking on the island and are afraid to go there. There is one other building on the island, which has a regular decagonal shape, and that is where the students are staying. The entrance, kitchen, and bathroom are on three sides of the decagon, and seven rooms are on the remaining sides. The center of the building is another regular decagonal meeting room with a decagonal desk and chairs at its center. The plates and glasses in the kitchen are all decagonal in shape.

The first day ended without incident. Orczy was the first to wake up on the second day. She noticed something she had not seen the previous day had been placed on the table. Seven milky-white plastic plates were on the table. Red characters had been printed on each of them: The First Victim, The Second Victim, The Third Victim, The Fourth Victim, The Fifth Victim, The Detective, and The Murderer. The implication: at least five of them are going to die, and the murderer is one of them.

I was guided by the analysis of the students on the predicament they face throughout the book. Unlike other mystery novels, the deductive reasoning of the characters in the novel prevented me from guessing who the murderer was until the end. In that sense, this is a great mystery novel. When the premise is invalid, no matter how good the reasoning is, the predictions are all going to be wrong.

Once again, I was taking a break from my project, but mysteriously I always find something (sort of) related to my project in these randomly selected books.

…

Just before he left the room, Kawaminami asked about the full bookcases in the back that had caught his attention.  Kōjirō explained that, besides his work as a social studies teacher, he was also doing research on Buddhism.  With a shy smile, he explained he was researching the “emptiness of the heart” in early Mahayana Buddhism.

…

(Page 61)