Snow White is a light, cute and unique book, and now that I’ve read the second Sanzunokawa book, I think I have a much better idea of how this series operates. They are deductive novels, not murder mysteries. They involve some supernatural element, with the characters trying to achieve some goal revolving around that supernatural element.
And the series detective, Kotowari Sanzunokawa, is the villain.
As the title suggests, the book is based on the story of Snow White, with the supernatural element comprising the magic mirror that can answer any question. Our protagonist is Mamae, who has a magic hand mirror of her own and uses it to run a detective agency with the dwarf Grumpy. The main "mirror, mirror on the wall" hangs in a magic kingdom (that appears to be in some sort of alternate dimension) and is owned by Dyna, the Evil Queen. Well, perhaps not quite yet, since the king has recently passed but a new rule has not yet been crowned.
In this kingdom, succession of the throne is an extraordinarily cut-and-dry affair: they ask the magic mirror who, based on the country’s laws, is most appropriate to succeed the throne, and that person is coronated. The country's laws provide that the rightful successor to the throne is the first person in specified order of succession who has not committed a disqualifying crime. Pretty much the entire remaining royal family except for Dyna has committed a disqualifying crime, so Dyna has taken for granted the fact that she will become queen. But when she asks the mirror the question, in her own little private rehearsal for the coronation, she discovers that she is actually second in line behind Mamae, who is completely unaware of her true lineage.
So Dyna’s goal is clear: she needs to take Mamae out of the picture. Unfortunately, murder is a disqualifying crime. However… getting someone else to kill Mamae is not. And the assassin Dyna chooses is none other than Kotowari Sanzunokawa, who immediately sets to work using the mirror’s power to craft a perfect murder plot.
I knew the premise of this book from Ho-Ling’s review, so I was expecting some sort of Death Note-styled intellectual chess match, which was… not what I got. After all, the mirror can answer any question—such as, “How is [XXXX] planning to kill me?” or “How is [XXXX] planning on evading my murder plot?” How do you plan around perfect information?
Snow White ends up tackling the issue from a completely different direction, and in fact the murder plot against Mamae only comprises the second half of the book. The first half introduces us to Mamae, her detective agency, and her mirror. Having a mirror that can answer any question might make it seem like running a detective agency should be easy, but that’s exactly the problem—the mirror gives her the solution, but clients won’t accept an answer pulled out of thin air, forcing Mamae to reverse engineer deductions. The first half is further divided into three sub-parts, which illustrate the problems with Mamae’s “method” is increasingly ridiculous ways.
Turning back to the murder plan, as I already said, it was not quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be tight, cerebral, and involve layers upon layers of plans, a la Death Note or Liar Game, but… it’s not. It’s logical and takes the ideas it presents to their extremes, but it’s not convoluted—because it’s light and fun. This is the third Tomoki Morikawa book I’ve read, so I think at this point I need to just accept that that’s his style.
Like Cat Food, I’m left wanting more, not less, which I suppose is a mark of success. But unlike Cat Food, cats (magical, morphing, man-eating or otherwise) are not mentioned in Snow White, which suggests to me that the Sanzunokawa books are meant to be independent… except the book ends with Sanzunokoawa subject to a certain condition that seems impossible to resolve with mundane means, so I’m curious will the next book will somehow address this or completely ignore it.
Also, there was one twist at the end that I just couldn’t quite swallow. I understand the intent and idea—we learn that there was a scene earlier in the book where what appeared to happen didn’t actually happen—but I don’t understand how they had prevented what appeared to happen from actually happening. Oh well.
I’d say that all the Morikawa books I’ve read so far have been of comparable quality, but Snow White has a particularly intriguing premise, so if it sounds interesting it’s as good a place as any to start, especially if you’re interested in a cute little break from traditional murder mysteries.
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