And Then They Never Die / そして誰も死ななかった

The protagonist of And Then They Never Die, Ushio Oomata, is a sleazebag. He’s crass, rude, and a fraud—he’s a mystery novelist, but the only book he published was actually a manuscript he found among his dead father’s belongings. That book becomes a massive success, and Ushio decides to play along with the role, despite being uneducated, uncultured, and completely ignorant of the mystery genre. At least until he encounters a certain woman.

Ten years later, Ushio is a financially stable sleazebag. He works for an at-home health (read as: prostitution) company. One day he receives an invitation from a mystery novelist to a party on a private island celebrating the novelist’s career. (Despite being a one-hit wonder, Ushio is still known to the world as an author.) Ushio brushes off the invitation until he discovers one of the girls at his company moonlights as a mystery writer—and also received an invitation.

The pair and three other mystery novelists set out for the island, which contains nothing but the host's mansion and studio. However, when they arrive, their host is nowhere to be found, and five dolls have been set up in the dining room. With five four mystery writers (and one sleazebag) present, it doesn’t take them long to figure out what the dolls mean. The group is essentially stranded on the island (their boat lost some fuel on the ride over and doesn’t have enough for the return trip), so they resolve to take precautionary measures that night and figure out what to do tomorrow—which is not cautious enough, since someone massacres all five overnight.

But… that’s not right, is it? Yes, an And Then There Were None pastiche needs to end with all characters dead, but they’re supposed to be picked off one by one, driving tension and paranoia, right? If you just kill them outright it may as well be a cheap slasher flick. But that’s where the premise (and title) come in—they don’t die. One by one the characters wake and discover they’re essentially living corpses. The exact same set of five characters serves as the victims, investigators, and suspects!

And Then They Never Die presents an incredibly unique scenario, and there’s a great cascade of logic as each person revives and comes up with their own theory for how the murders were pulled off. The ultimate solution is quite clever and tricky, and provides a satisfying resolution that incorporates all the clues that were presented. It feels a bit too nitty-gritty to inherently “click,” but on an intellectual level it’s fine. There is also one solution near the end of the book that is simply spectacular in its ridiculousness.

However, it’s probably now time to address the part that everyone who knows Shirai is waiting for me to mention. And Then They Never Die is gross. Which is par for the course for Shirai; just like Yabusaka Hayasaka includes sex in his Lychee Kamiki books, Shirai features in-depth descriptions of gore, mutilation, bodily fluids, and other disgusting topics. Shirai has no special respect for the human body—it’s a bag of flesh that leaks fluids, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, and nothing more—and so has no qualms incorporating any feature of our anatomy or biochemistry into a trick. The gross-out elements are not gratuitous, and are all relevant to the mystery, but they’re still a great reason to pass on the book if you’re not comfortable with them. And this book is supposed to be Shirai’s tamest.

Even after the prologue, it still takes a while for the group to reach the island and the murders to occur. It’s a slow burn with a horror-like atmosphere, not unlike a Shinzou Mitsuda novel. The characters seem like they’re harboring something, and that to a certain extent the book is trying to also be a character piece. But… it isn’t. Everything—everything—in the book is in service to the mystery, and nothing more. It’s a great mystery, so that’s not a bad thing, but feels like most plot threads outside the murder mystery were left dangling. (The most salient one, regarding the mysterious disappearance of an indigenous tribe from a remote island is explained, but I wasn’t convinced that the explanation that was presented would have actually killed the entire tribe.)

And Then They Never Die delivered pretty much everything I wanted: a unique scenario, disgusting scenes, and a mystery plot that takes full advantage of all of it. Well, I didn’t want the gross stuff, but I knew from Shirai’s reputation that it was unavoidable. As long as you think you can stomach those passages, And Then They Never Die is a remarkable book that delivers an experience unlike any other.