The Ghost Walks: Case Closed, vol. 99 by Gosho Aoyama

So, before getting to the 99th volume of Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed, some fantastic news for those who have been reading reviews of this series on various blog various blogs, but have been hesitant to pick it up – mainly due to the growing size of the series. I can understand why not everyone wants to start on a new series with a backlog of nearly 100 volumes. Next year, Viz is going to re-release Case Closed in 3-in-1 volumes under its original title of Detective Conan with the names of the main characters restored. Shinichi Kudo instead of Jimmy Kudo. The first of these new omnibus editions, containing vol. 1, 2 and 3, is scheduled for publication in February 2027. Now let's take a look at Case Closed, vol. 99!

This volume starts, as usually is the case, with the conclusion to the story that closed out the previous volume. Conan, Rachel, Serena and Sera attend the birthday party of a classmate and her older sister. During the party, the room was darkened to show slide in the dark when someone collapsed. The victim of cyanide poisoning and someone, somehow, had written the phrase "Divine Punishment" on his forehead with permanent marker in the dark. Fortunately, the spot where the murder took place was "basically a fenced-off area" limiting the number of suspects to just four. A fairly typical Aoyama story with its mysterious poisoning at a restaurant and a pretty solid one at that, but honestly could have done without the complications of the written message. It would have made for much tighter case.

What adds importance to this story are developments and revelations in the ongoing storyline and storylines of the various recurring characters. Note that this story specifically mentions Jimmy Kudo's been missing for the past six months and a similar remark about only 6-8 months have passed since the first volume ("you haven't even been here a year"), which doesn't bother me at all. Who am I to disagree with Aoyama? If he says only about six months have passed than that's what we're going with. That's fine.

The second story is difficult to describe as it's quite an unusual one for this series. Conan and the Junior Detective League accompany their teachers, Kobayashi and Wakasa, to remote farmhouse to get two new chickens for their school – which the farmer donated to them. On the bus to the farm, they meet three, unsavory looking men heading in the same direction intending on making money out of something. Toru Amuro is also on the bus heading to the same destination. When they arrive, they find the farm abandoned, the chicken coop empty and damaged, but things get worse when investigating the wooded area surrounding the farm. Someone gets taken hostage, while others end up being locked inside a cellar with a corpse. And they can only communicate with those above through their detective badges. This story is more of a what-happened-and-will-happen than anything else. Not half bad either for such an unconventional story that took its time to take form. There are also more developments to the main storyline as Amuro discovers an unexpected clue at the farm directly linked to another major plot-thread.

So, on to the next story, which is another rather unconventional case for this series. If I remember correctly, this could actually be the first armchair detective story in the series. Yoko Okino, the famous Japanese idol, visits Richard Moore's office to consult him on something that had happened to her recently.

Yoko Okino is going to play the lead role of a ghost detective in an upcoming TV series joined the group scouting for locations, which included "a classic creepy old manor" where "a woman really, truly went missing" – never to be seen again. When they viewed the location, the manor house was being used as a summer retreat for the family owning it. They would become suspects when Yoko hears someone groaning, followed running down the hallway, which leads to the discovery of a trail of blood ending halfway down a dead end corridor. Someone of the family goes missing and sends a photo of playing cards spelling out a coded message, before being found in the locked attic with a crossbow bolt through his back. So the primary suspects are the victims three relatives, but there's a catch. One of them is in a wheelchair, one is walking on crutches and one has an arm in a sling. So no easy solution to the murder or coded message is found. And why send a coded message instead of a simple text or calling. Yoko came to Moore to ask him to solve the case, but Moore is trapped on the toilet without toilet paper and too embarrassed to call out. Even more so, when he hears the mystery-loving sushi chef Kanenorih Wakita has joined the party, fearing mockery ("...your brain spins as fast as your bathroom roll").

So it's Conan and Wakita who sit down to listen Yoko's story, examine the evidence and try to sort out the case. Surprisingly, the vanishing footsteps and locked attic were easily explained away, but cracking the coded dying message or answering why the victim didn't simply call for help take more work. But answering those two questions leads to a diabolical twist. Who did what and why seems to be the theme of this volume. I liked it!

This volume ends with the first chapter of a story that'll be concluded in the opening chapters of the next volume, but what a story it promises to be! Jimmy/Conan's father is Booker Kudo, a celebrated mystery novelist, who has a reputation as an amateur detective and quasi-official consultant to police – recently made the news. Kudo solved a phony Kaito KID case ("...too shoddy to be the work of the real Kaito KID") and is currently working on a serial locked room murder case. He practically solved the case and is going to reveal the solution on a TV special. But gets taken out by a case of food poisoning. So his wife and famous actress, Vivian Kudo, takes his place and drags in their son Jimmy/Conan to put the finishing touches to the solution. That locked room case is fascinating. Three different, apparently unconnected people were found murdered inside their locked apartment. Each time, the method of murder was different except for the locked apartments and "clutter around the door" showing nobody could have left without disturbing it.

Conan concludes one person committed all three murders using "the same trick to create the locked room," but then his mother goes down with food poisoning. Noboy to take Booker and Vivian Kudo's place. Only for an unexpected person to arrive at the Kudo home. What a great cliffhanger to lead into Case Closed, vol. 100!

So, yeah, Case Closed, vol. 99 is a great volume without a bad story and some exciting developments for long-time fans of the series. Very much look forward to that milestone volume!