Medium - The Medium Detective Hisui Jouzuka / メディウム 霊媒探偵城塚翡翠

Shirou Kougetsu is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Japanese mystery novelist. He writes novels, goes on wacky adventures with teenage sidekicks, and assists the police with actual murder investigations. You know, the usual. One day a college friend, Yuika (who’s a pretty young woman, obviously), tells Shirou that she recently got an odd reading at a psychic and feels a spirit has been following her ever since. In order to learn about this spirit, she asks Kougetsu to accompany her to visit a medium—the mysterious, delicate, and stunningly beautiful Hisui Jouzuka.

At the meeting Hisui demonstrates her powers, warns Yuika that she’s in danger, and asks to make a home visit to investigate further. However, when Hisui and Kougetsu go to visit Yuika, it’s too late—she’s been murdered in her apartment. The police suspect a break-in gone wrong, but Hisui tells Kougetsu that the culprit is a woman. Thus begins a partnership between medium and novelist: Hisui forms a conclusion using her power, and then Kougetsu uses his knowledge and experience as a mystery novelist to find evidence to back up Hisui’s findings (since they can’t just go to the police and directly report Hisui’s magic powers).

As Kougetsu and Hisui solve cases, we see interludes from the perspective of a serial killer who has been abducting and murdering beautiful young women. He’s extremely methodical and careful, and thus has avoided leaving any traces or clues for the police so far. He’s convinced himself that the only way someone would be able to catch him is with supernatural powers….

I hated Medium when I was reading it. I loved Medium when I finished.

Six Pork Cutlets / 六枚のとんかつ

Feeling hungry? Six Pork Cutlets is a baka-mys short story collection that won the third Mephisto prize, so as you could probably expect from that those pieces of information, it... has a bit of a different flavor than you might expect.

The Seven Great Detectives / 7人の名探偵

Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders was published in 1987, and is credited with kick-starting the shin-honkaku (new orthodox) movement of murder mystery writing. Three (and a half) decades later, the genre is still going strong! There were several pieces and events in 2018 commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the influential work, and one of those was The Seven Great Detectives, a collection containing short stories from seven shin-honkaku writers.

Rainbow Toothbrushes: Refractions of Lychee Kamiki / 虹の歯ブラシ 上木らいち発散

Returning from The ???????? Murder Case, Rainbow Toothbrushes features high-school prostitute Lychee Kamiki as she screws and deduces her way through an assortment of lewd cases. In The ???????? Murder Case, Kamiki functioned almost like a side character (until she started having sex with everyone and solving the case), but in this short story collection both Kamiki and the lecherous subject matter are presented front and center.

Knockin' on Locked Door / ノッキンオン・ロックドドア

Knock-knock.

Who's there?

If I just told you, it wouldn't be a very satisfying mystery.

Detective Galileo / 探偵ガリレオ

Detective Galileo is a short story collection by Higashino Keigo about how you probably learned everything you ever needed to know to solve crimes in your 10th grade science class.

The stories center around Kusanagi Shunpei, a detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, who often goes to his friend Yukawa Manabu, a physics professor, for help with particularly confounding cases. The stories are interesting and have cool ideas behind them, but probably won't satisfy readers looking for traditional detective stories.

The Human Chair / 人間椅子

A second Ranpo story, to go with the first! I had known there was something about this story, but I had no idea what. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but... it was still freaky.

The Psychological Test / 心理試験

(What does that cover have to do with the story? Your guess is as good as mine!)

The Psychological Test is an early short story by Edogawa Ranpo, one of the grandmasters of Japanese mystery fiction, featuring his famous detective Akechi Kogoro. This was the first piece of Ranpo I've ever read, so it felt like something of a milestone for me. Overall, reading The Psychological Test was an interesting experience, and I liked it, but I was slightly disappointed because I felt like some minor changes could have greatly improved it.