During a recent discussion on Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders, a friend made the following observation: "How come none of the mystery club members, for all their wisdom of classic crime fiction works, sensed that there could be something wrong with an invitation to an uninhabited island? Given their shared past, surely one of them would have thought of politely declining?"
It was, I felt, an argument that lends itself to works that tend to be self-aware and reflexive; so when the logic is reflected back on to the work itself, the deficiency seems to stand out that much more. In the case of The Decagon House Murders, the issue stems more from the lack of a proper 'trade-off' for the group to gather on the uninhabited island in the first place, given the surrounding context and history.
In mystery fiction works involving closed-circle situations, I have noticed readers (myself included) to be more generous with the rationale behind people gathering in the first place, than with the dynamics and mechanics of the way in which the situation plays itself out. The Decagon House Murders, otherwise an exemplar of the classical, logic-based school of mysteries, itself suffers from this shortcoming. However, Ayatsuji does improve on this aspect in a major way, with his third offering in the Yakata series: 1988's Meirokan no Satsujin (translated as The Labyrinth House Murders, 2024).
The setup is tantalising, and makes good use of a pitch-perfect casting. A few writers, an editor, a critic and a surprise guest gather at the residence of a famous author, each for their own reason. The editor to coax one last masterpiece out of the author; the writers to stay in the good graces of the author who was a mentor to them; the critic and the surprise guest attend the gathering for reasons that become evident once the party is underway. Missing from the party itself? The famous author, whose birthday is being celebrated in the remote Labyrinth House.
The initial scene-setting reminds me of the well-thought-out proceedings in the Detective Conan story, "The Holmes Freak Murder Case", where a bunch of Sherlock Holmes fanatics gather at a collector's place and take part in an exceptionally tough quiz to get their hands on the first edition of A Study in Scarlet. As the hidden motive behind the party is revealed—a writing competition to be judged by a panel of experts, with ownership of the Labyrinth House as the prize—along with the unforeseen death of the famous author, the similarities with the Kindaichi Shōnen no Jikenbo story, "Russian Dolls Murder Case", become apparent. In that story too, a deceased author leaves behind his palatial house as his inheritance, and organises a competition among select participants to decide who gets to inherit it, thereby setting in motion a series of bloody murders. Things are no different in The Labyrinth House Murders—the competing authors are all killed in violent ways, with an added twist.
By this point, the nesting doll structure of the story is already established. The three translated stories in the Yakata series possess strong identities: The Decagon House Murders stands out as a reinvention of And Then There Were None, while The Mill House Murders has a fairytale-esque flavour to it. In The Labyrinth House Murders, Ayatsuji experiments with the structure of the novel itself, making it unfold in the form of 'a story within a story within a story'. The books opens with a certain Shimada receiving a copy of The Labyrinth House Murders by one Shishiya Kadomi, who had been present when the events mentioned in the book took place. We then enter the world of Kadomi's manuscript, surveying a meeting between the famous author and the editor a few months prior to the birthday party. There is a fair bit of foreshadowing and a subdued-but-clever introduction to the cast in the opening chapter itself.
The events of the party kick off in earnest with shenanigans that clue in to some character traits and authorial tendencies of the writers participating in the competition. Then comes the double shocker: the announcement of the death as well as the terms and conditions of the will that bequeaths the entire mansion to the winner of the competition, besides funding a mystery-writing competition in the author's name. The will and its conditions lay a solid groundwork for the mystery to unfold: no one except a secretary and a doctor to step outside the house for the duration of the competition; the author's suicide to be reported to the police after five days; the fifty-page story entries to be set in the Labyrinth House, featuring only people present in the house, and centred on a murder mystery; all stories to be typed out in typewriters provided in each of the authors' room. The tension is well depicted, and the competition forces the authors to face their own demons, and their greed for the mansion itself.
Not surprisingly, the authors meet ghastly ends. An invisible enemy targets them one by one, walking through and around the solid walls of the mansion, terrifying and befuddling the remaining characters. And this is where Ayatsuji accomplishes an inspired, audacious feat of plotting: each of the authors, barring one, are killed in ways that completely resemble the manners of death they outline in their own submissions for the competition.
What is perhaps another strange point of similarity is the fact that both The Labyrinth House Murders and Tragedy at the Maze Manor reveal 'hidden' culprits. But, while the adaptation of Yokomizo's work explores this in a straightforward way, Ayatsuji, in keeping with the multi-layered nature of the book, employs a fair amount of narrative trickery to keep the real culprit cloaked till the very end. And, while some may object to the way the novel utilises fair play in the post-manuscript revelation where all disguises are discarded, this is also Ayatsuji at his playful best. While I did perceive a lack of the characterisation one sees in The Mill House Murders, the conceit, structure, and trickery seen here, and the much-better rationale for the setup, more than make up for it. The Labyrinth House Murders witnesses an author at his self-assured best—exhibiting a level of imagination, control, and sportsmanship few can aspire to achieve. One wonders what further surprises lie in store in the Yakata series.