6/27/21

Deadly Thunder (1998) by Seimaru Amagi

Earlier this year, I tracked down and reviewed an obscure, hard-to-get Japanese light novel in The New Kindaichi Files series, Operazakan – aratanaru satsujin (Opera House, the New Murders, 1994), written by the Soji Shimada of the anime-and manga detective genre, Seimaru Amagi – who crafted a beautiful, perfectly executed theatrical (locked room) mystery. One of the better entries in the Kindaichi franchise demonstrating Amagi is a mystery writer who's firmly entrenched in the traditions of the shin honkaku school. 

A fact he already proved with another light novel, Dennō sansō satsujin jiken (Murder On-Line, 1996), which is perhaps the first whodunit to use the internet in a meaningful way. Not to mention his original manga stories/anime adaptation of The Prison Prep School Murder Case, The Rosenkrauz Mansion Murders and The Legendary Vampire Murders. So I was eager to get my hands on the other two translations in the series, but those editions were intended for Japanese readers learning to read and speak English. Consequently, the well of secondhand copies in the West is practically empty and bone-dry.

Nevertheless, I managed to get hold of a copy of the sixth title in the series, Ikazuchi matsuri satsujin jiken (Deadly Thunder, 1998), which is the fourth and last novel to be translated and is a relatively minor story compared to the bigger, previously mentioned cases – centering on "a spontaneous crime" with an improvised trick. A trick turning an otherwise simple, straightforward murder into an impossible crime! It's not the no-footprints trick that makes Deadly Thunder somewhat standout, but how the plot combined everything from elements of cultural anthropology and entomology to geology and meteorology. All of these different aspects come together in the remote, unique setting of the story with the result reminding me of the regional mysteries by Todd Downing and Arthur W. Upfield. Two names not often associated with the Japanese shin honkaku detective story. 

Deadly Thunder has a standard enough opening with Hajime Kindaichi and Miyuki Nanase traveling to a tiny, remote village to visit a former classmate, Akie Asaki.

The land around Kumoba Village is "shaped like a valley or a basin," which makes it very hot during the summer with clouds forming above the surrounding mountains to produce heavy thunder and rain storms. In the past, the locals thought these thunderstorms were an act of the gods and appeased them with the three-day Thunder Festival. A long-standing, unbroken traditional of 300 years that has preserved to the present-day, but the rain and thunderstorms also gifted the village something special and unique. A kind of clay that's only found in Kumoba Village, which is washed down from the mountains.

Akie comes from a long line of potters whose "curious, translucent white" pots were presented to the Shogun during the Edo period and the ground their family home stands on has the best pottery clay, which is why it's surrounded by a large, foreboding wall with spikes on top – erected by previous generations "to protect the clay from robbers." She has to share the home with her stepmother and stepsister, Hazuki and Shigure Asaki, who Akie and her aunt, Haruko, consider intruders ("those two"). They also have a quasi-residential house guest staying at the annex, Kyoichi Muto, who's an entomologist. Apparently, the village is also rather unique in its "variety and number of cicadas."

So the setting is very well piece of miniature world-building as Amagi created a small, unique geographical area and populated it with a unique, somewhat isolated culture. A culture with its own history, religious practices and even architecture. Such as all the houses being low built, single-storied "to avoid being struck by lightening" with a tall tree in every garden to "serve as a lightening conductor." Another interesting aspect is how rich Deadly Thunder is in sound. Deadly Thunder is filled with the sound of falling rain, claps of thunder, chanting, beating of drums and "the incessant drone of cicadas," which all helped elevate a mostly routine detective story.

This kind of world-building is unfortunately a rarity in the detective genre, but Amagi has done it before, on a much larger scale, for Detective Academy Q with The Kamikakushi Village Murder Case. I co-reviewed the anime adaptation with Jim here.

Anyway, as the story moves towards the halfway mark, everyone begins to prepare for the first day of the annual Thunder Festival, but the celebration, or rather spectacle, ends with Hazuki discovering Muto's body in annex – bludgeoned to death. The body was covered in "hundreds, no thousands, of cicada shells," but even more inexplicable where the two sets of footprints going from the back of the house to the annex. A set of fresh, recently made prints belong to Hazuki, while the older, rain washed tracks were made by the well-worn, easy to identify sandals of the victim. So with the question of time and rain taking into consideration, the tracks turned the murder into a locked room mystery! 

Deadly Thunder has only one body and three suspects, which has been done before in the series (e.g. The Blood Pool Hall Murder), but not very often and the plot really needed a good locked room-trick to give the plot some weight. Thankfully, the locked room-trick delivered as it did something new with the no-footprints scenario, but with all the clues in place necessary to arrive at (nearly) the same conclusion as Kindaichi. Why the body was covered in cicada shells was an inspired piece of plotting functioning as both a clue and a red herring.

The reader has an easier time putting all the pieces together than Kindaichi as he has to deal with a local policeman, Detective Akai, who's more annoyed than impressed by the grandson of "the master detective Kosuke Kindaichi." Even if he "solved several murder cases and mysteries that the police couldn't solve." Detective Akai only sees an ordinary high school student who speaks to adults like they were taking classes together. Kindaichi has to learn and show a little humility before getting an opportunity to prove himself to Detective Akai. One of those many small touches that made the story shine.

There is, however, a minor problem with the solution. Amagi added a last-minute twist that gave the story an ending as black as the ink with which it was printed, but not a fair surprise as it's impossible to anticipate the motivation behind the act. A smudge on an otherwise very well written, competently plotted detective story.

That being said, the good definitely outweighed the bad with a simple, but good, locked room-trick and a splendid, vividly realized setting, which told its story in less than a 130 pages with full-length illustrations. The short length proved to be an asset as it enlarged all its strong points and prevented the story from overstaying its welcome by dwelling on its weaknesses. So, yeah, a perfect detective story to nip at during a lazy summer afternoon.

10 comments:

  1. I kinda recall the ending/twist of this story and the situation, but I can't remember how it was done, so perhaps I should re-read this one again. I have the same edition by the way, and this story is especially short because the Japanese version included two short (prose) stories, but these were omitted in this English release.

    Read the latest Kindaichi, Age 37 earlier this week, though this is sadly one of those stories that ends up being split across three volumes, so I still have to wait for the next volume to finally write something on it. Even though it's a fun one with some recurring faces like an older Fumi...

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    1. So I was robbed out of two short stories? Bummer! But it explains why this one was so much shorter than the other two light novels. Why not review the other, untranslated light novels? I'm more than a little curious about The Ghost Passenger Ship Murder Case with its connection to both The Legend of Lake Hiren and The Undying Butterfly.

      I guess 37-year-old Kindaichi is going to be my next stop right after The Shanghai River Demon's Curse, because there's no way those untranslated light novels will become available to me anytime soon. Before you say, "learn Japanese," remember that I'm the man of a 1001 locked room-tricks. ;D

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    2. I have a review of the Ghost Ship novel, but it's a pretty early post on the blog, so it's rather brief ~_~ I do think I have reviewed all the untranslated novels (though ironically I don't think I have reviewed the four translated ones), now I think about it, as I did the last one about a year ago. Perhaps I could redo the Ghost Ship one together with the English translated ones...

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    3. Yes, that would be great. I'm curious to know just how tightly The Ghost Passenger Ship Murder Case is intertwined with those two other cases.

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  2. Glad to hear that this is a strong entry in the Kindaichi light novels series, as I've all of them on my shelf, albeit in traditional Chinese script (which I can't read quite as easily as the modern script).

    To date, I've only read the 'Heresy Mansion Murders' and 'Shanghai Mermaid Murders', and I recall liking the latter. Or perhaps the pleasant memories were as a result of the movie, which was a suitably scary adaptation of the novel.

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    1. I'm trying to think if there are other Kindaichi mysteries worth reading, before you proceed to the 37-year-old sequence... Will have a think and get back.

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  3. Hi TomCat, it'd be worth checking these cases out before moving to 37-year-old? I think you've already read and reviewed some of these already - but hopefully you'll find some previously undiscovered gems in this list. I believe you hadn't enjoyed some of these titles, and I confess I have a soft spot for the Kindaichi series. It was a childhood favourite, and the very first actor who played Kindaichi, Kindaichi himself, and I all turned 37 in the same year - which reinforces the sentimentalism, I daresay.,

    Anyway, here goes...

    雪夜叉伝説殺人事件 (Snow Demon Murders)
    飛騨からくり屋敷殺人事件 (Headless Samurai Murders)
    蝋人形城殺人事件 (Wax Figurine Castle Murders)
    仏蘭西銀貨殺人事件 (Burial Franc Murders)
    速水玲香誘拐殺人事件 (Hayami Reika's Kidnapping)
    天草財宝伝説殺人事件 (Amakusa’s Treasure Murders)
    露西亜人形殺人事件 (Russian Doll Murders)
    金田一少年の決死行 (Kindaichi Puts His Life on the Line)
    オペラ座館・第三の殺人 (Third Opera Mansion Murders)
    獄門塾殺人事件 (Demon Island Murders)
    剣持警部の殺人 (Framing of Inspector Kenmochi)
    薔薇十字館殺人事件 (Rosenkreuz Mansion Murders)
    亡霊校舎の殺人 (Haunted School Dormitory Murders)
    狐火流し殺人事件 (Foxfire Fen Murders)
    蟻地獄壕殺人事件 (Antlion Moat Murders)
    人形島殺人事件 (Doll Island Murders)
    聖恋島殺人事件 (Saint Siren Island Murders)
    金田一二三誘拐殺人事件 (Kindaichi Fumi’s Kidnapping)

    If I really had to choose, I think my favourites of this list would be...

    飛騨からくり屋敷殺人事件 (Headless Samurai Murders)
    オペラ座館・第三の殺人 (Third Opera Mansion Murders)
    仏蘭西銀貨殺人事件 (Burial Franc Murders)
    聖恋島殺人事件 (Saint Siren Island Murders)

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    1. I've read or reviewed most of the titles from your first list, but only one from your four favorites and agree The Headless Samurai is uncharacteristically good considering who wrote it. The third opera case is actually a good suggestion to read/watch before dipping into the new series with Burial Francs being a good second, because remember it was scheduled to be released in English before TokyoPop folded. There's the dark horse of the first series, The Demon God Ruins Murder Case, which I want to read just for the archaeological backdrop. Hopefully, it will turn out to have a half-decent plot. Any opinions on that one?

      Anyway, thanks for the suggestions!

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    2. Yes, I’d say read “3rd Opera House” before proceeding to dip into the 37-year-old sequence. Because the 1st case for the sequence is the “4th Opera House” - where, if I recall correctly, Kindaichi reminisces about the previous 3 Phantom of the Opera cases, with mild spoilers.

      I bought “Demon God Artefacts Murders” together with “Burial Franc Murders”, and while I enjoyed both, I thought “Burial Franc Murders” stood out more. My memory might not be entirely accurate - I seem to recall “Artefacts” having a slightly smaller circle of suspects, and having one or two key clues requiring some degree of cultural knowledge. 🤔

      But I’d definitely say read it - and read all the other Kindaichi mysteries too! (Yes, I know I’m not being entirely objective here… 😅)

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    3. Hey, if it had not been for the nonobjective enthusiasm of Kindaichi fans, I probably wouldn't have given the series a second chance. Not this soon anyway. I find unapologetic enthusiasm for mysteries to be highly infectious and I was too hastily in writing the off series based solely on Kanari's copy-paste run. Give me more Seimaru Amagi!

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