To me, it's two-fold: first there's the ability to engage with and grapple with the text as the characters confront the crime, and then there's the feeling of catharsis when the curtain is pulled back and all the pieces fall into place. My ideal mystery novel features an interesting problem to sink your teeth into, and a clever solution that requires brilliance to grasp but is so elegant you feel you should have seen it yourself.
That is not the kind of mystery we're going to be discussing today.
Instead, I'd like to introduce you to the wonderful little subgenre known as the baka-mystery, literally "idiot mystery," abbreviated as baka-mys. While the goal of a normal mystery is to provide an intelligent solution to a logical problem, a baka-mystery attempts to do the opposite, aiming for a conclusion you'll never see coming not because it's so brilliant but because there's no way the answer could ever be anything that stupid.
I've already reviewed a book that's arguably within baka-mys territory, but Kurasaka Kiichirou's The Misaki Black Swan Manor-White Swan Manor Serial Locked Room Murders goes all-in.
There's a theory that detective novels, at they're core, are all logical duels between reader and author. Misaki is much more direct about this, dispensing with needless trivialities such as plot and character. The book describes a series of individuals who one-by-one visit the Black Swan Manor or White Swan Manor in Misaki and are tragically murdered in turn. (Despite the title, there actually isn't a single locked room. The plot I just described is also contained within a framing device of a person reading a copy of The Misaki Black Swan Manor-White Swan Manor Serial Locked Room Murders, so there aren't really "serial murders" either. Whoops.)
We follow each victim and the singular killer as the murders occur. We're outright told the identity of the killer, and there's no trickery there. Of course, since there isn't really a "story" beyond these people getting murdered, the killer's identity doesn't really matter. However, the descriptions of the murders make them seem impossible and fantastic. Rather than evaluating suspects and clues, we supposed to parse the prose to untangle what's actually going on.
The solution is indeed ridiculous. When truth was first revealed, I actually felt a bit cheated, since I thought the trick in essence allowed Kurasaka to just outright lie in his prose. But after thinking about it a bit further, I quickly warmed to the answer. It requires some cultural Japanese knowledge, but I like it.
But even after the truth of what physically happened has been laid bare, Kurasaka keeps pushing. That was just the warm-up! There are more mysteries to be solved! Yet... it's not at all clear what those "mysteries" are. Misaki's innermost secrets are impressive. Incredibly impressive. The stuff Kurasaka managed to pull off is a legitimate feat. But before the answers are revealed, the "questions" aren't clear at all, which prevents it from feeling like a fair fight. I think the revelations are cool enough to make up for this, but it still drags down the book a bit.
I wish I could say more, but since Misaki is more of an extended riddle than a proper story, it's hard to deeply discuss without giving anything away. Also, unfortunately, Misaki is probably the most untranslatable piece of media I have ever experienced, so don't expect an English version. Ever. But if you can read it and want to check out what might be the most intricately crafted riddle you may ever experience, give The Misaki Black Swan Manor-White Swan Manor Serial Locked Room Murders a try.
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