Knock-knock.
Who's there?
If I just told you, it wouldn't be a very satisfying mystery.
Knockin' on Locked Door is a short story collection about the Knockin' on Locked Door detective agency run by two colleagues, Touri Gotemba and Hisame Katanashi. While both Touri and Hisame are detectives that specialize in impossible crimes, each has a forte within that classification: Touri handles "howdunit" while Hisame solves "whydunit."
I was expecting something a lot like Two Detectives and One Watson—that is, a novel about two detectives working to solve a crime using opposing methods—and, while the atmosphere was similar, the content ended up fairly different. For one (as I already said), Knockin' on Locked Door is a short story collection, rather than a novel. Additionally, the detectives cooperate rather than compete. While Touri and Hisame are both detectives, when confronted with a new case they determine whether the case is a "howdunit" or a "whydunit," and then the appropriate detective takes the lead while the other assists.
Although this is a neat idea, I think it sounds a lot cooler in theory than it works out in practice. To begin with, the howdunit/whydunit dichotomy is a bit off-balance from the beginning. Most impossible crimes are centered all around the "how," so it feels like Hisame usually gets the short end of the stick. Another issue is that the dichotomy isn't clean. Sometimes you can have a case that obviously falls into one camp or the other, but usually there will be some weird element of the crime. For instance, maybe the crime is committed under impossible circumstances and the victim is dressed to look like a scarecrow. In that case, is the core of the case "how" or "why"? The problem is compounded when you consider the fact that the "how" and "why" in these types of cases are often interrelated. Lastly, there isn't a particularly compelling reason for the split. We're told, over and over again, that Touri can only solve howdunits and Hisame can only solve whydunits—that it's not a matter of preference or relative skill but literal ability—but we're never given any sort of reason for this, and even though Touri can't solve whydunits that doesn't stop him from theorizing and trying to help Hisame in his cases, and vice versa.
This is an interesting and unique way to structure the mysteries and the dual detectives are handled well so I'm not saying that the split is bad, just that it doesn't quite live up to the ideal it sets up for itself. It seems like even Aosaki himself got tired of dealing with it at the end. While the initial stories play around with the presentation, having what appears to be a "how" case end up being a "why" case or vice versa, the last few stories are just a string of "how"s (as you'd expect most mysteries to be).
Despite that minor fault (if you can call it that), Knockin' on Locked Door is like the murder mystery equivalent of popcorn: light and easy to digest (and delicious). The writing style is breezy, taking many cues from anime and light novels. Since they're short stories (and broken up into sub-sections within the stories), you can get full mysteries in bite-sized chunks. The book is also full of references, from 30s detective fiction to 70s rock to 90s sitcoms.
These features do have some negative feedback, though. Since these were serialized short stories, the characters and set-up need to be re-established every single story. Someone mistaking Hisame as an assistant and not a detective because he is so plain-looking is much more amusing the second time it happens than the fifth. The stories don't dwell on these moments, but they do get a bit repetitive (and I'm sure they'd be even more grating if you don't like anime tropes).
The quality of the stories also takes a bit of a dive in the middle. The first story is neat and the second story is probably the best of the collection, but then there's a steep decline until Aosaki redeems himself in the end. Sometimes when I finish reading a mystery novel I'll feel that the main idea behind the book was clever, but not deserving of an entire novel (and instead should have been used in a short story). There was one story here where I felt that way... even though it was already a short story. (Maybe it should have been a 1-minute mystery?)
But it's popcorn. If you don't like one story, just move onto the next.
And even if there were some misses, there were also some really cool stories and ideas, and nothing felt unfair or too far-fetched (in the context of the alternate universe of murder mysteries where impossible crimes can and do happen semi-regularly).
I liked the easygoing writing style and the characters are fun, although it feels like they lean a bit hard on wacky personality traits and anime tropes over being actual characters. The only people with any development are the core cast, with the suspects in each story being little more than a name attached to a distinguishing trait or two. There are references to a dark, mysterious incident in the protagonists' past, which is never elaborated upon in any specificity. If Aosaki intends to flesh this out in future installments I'm okay with it, but if it ends up never getting resolved then I don't like it.
The stories are paced perfectly so that you always feel like you're making progress and no single story wears out its welcome, but still provide full, clever puzzle plots (even if every story isn't a winner). The collection takes a unique approach to structuring its mysteries (despite the fact it doesn't employ that approach to its full potential), and leaves some hooks to make us look forward to Touri and Hisame's next set of adventures. All in all, Knockin' on Locked Door is an easy recommendation for digestible but substantive mysteries.
...If I just told you, it wouldn't be a very satisfying mystery who?
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