The Hit List: Top 10 Favorite Cases from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 1-25

Back in 2018, I began reading and reviewing Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. series centering on an introverted, teenage polymath, Sou Touma, who graduated from MIT's mathematical department at the age of 15 and moved back to Japan the next year – enrolling into a regular high school to get a taste of the normal. Touma befriends an energetic, tomboyish girl, Kana Mizuhara, who becomes the Archie Goodwin to his Nero Wolfe. Because normalcy, in a high school detective manga, usually translates to playing Sherlock Holmes between and after classes.

That sounds not too dissimilar to Case Closed and The Kindaichi Case Files, but Q.E.D. is incomparable to any other series of its kind. And possibly unique in the history of the genre.

I called the Q.E.D. series in recent reviews the detective story for the 21th century and strongly suspect Motohiro Katou intended to reconstruct the traditional detective story with the modern world in mind. Q.E.D. began serialization in July, 1997, which is a period reflected in the first six volumes. There are still a ton of very good, classically-styled stories plotted around such things as unbreakable alibis, impossible crimes and some good, old-fashioned whodunits, but the stories that distinguish this series from everything else are a lot harder to pigeonhole. A good example would be "Jacob's Ladder" (vol. 4), originally published in 1999, in which a rogue AI wreaks havoc on the traffic lights in downtown Tokyo and even threatens to "crash all the computers in the world" – mirroring the Y2K fears of '99. However, that story is not at all representative of all the less than orthodox stories littering this series. There are deep, character-driven stories in which the human being and what drives them or makes them tick. Some of these earlier stories revolve around Sou Touma and the friends he left behind at MIT in the United States (e.g. "Breakthrough," vol. 3). There are more ambitious, outright experimental stories defying categorization (e.g. "Serial John Doe," vol. 7) or simple cases about minor crimes or incidents (e.g. "A Melancholy Afternoon," vol. 7). But also stories about mathematical problems or probing the mysteries of memory. Or stories in which the two main characters are shoved to the background to shine the spotlight on a recurring or one-time characters.

I can go on citing examples, but, suffice to say, Katou has a streak of originality coupled with a willingness to experiment and explore the fringes of the detective story, while remaining true to its tenants. So, having recently reached vol. 30, I thought it was appropriate to compile a top 10 favorite stories from the first twenty-five of fifty volumes with part 2 coming after reaching the 50th volume. However, I'm a little bit disappointed in my own picks. Having lavished praise on Katou for being a bold, original storyteller and plotter cutting new paths and opening previously unexplored areas for the genre, I ended up selecting mostly the more conventionally-plotted stories. What can you do? So here's my selection of favorite Q.E.D. stories from vol. 1-25.

"The Fading of Star Map" (vol. 3)

 An excellent, shin honkaku-style detective story bringing Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara to an abandoned, crumbling star observatory on a lonely mountaintop – whose founder disappeared twenty-five years ago. Those long-buried secrets come to light when the giant telescope is accidentally opened to reveal a charred skeleton followed by murder. Even better than the clever trickery or clues is the human element pinned to the motive driving the truly tragic figure of the murderer. One of the first and best examples from this series showing puzzles can have feelings.

"Breakthrough" (vol. 3)

An important story and the first to delve into the character and background of Sou Touma. One day, two students from MIT, Eva Scott and Syd "Loki" Green, turn up at Touma's school in Tokyo. They were stunned and worried when Touma had left MIT without a word. Everyone suspected it had something to do with the research lab incident. Touma's thesis was taken from the research lab, thrown into the river and even the backup data on the computer was erased, but he doesn't want to talk about it. Even taking the blame for the incident. But why? However, the problem of the destroyed thesis is only a vehicle to tell the story of the friendship between Touma and Loki.

"The Afterimage of Light" (vol. 5)

This is another story shining some much needed light on a dark, dimly remembered incident from the past. Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara buy an old camera at the flea market with an undeveloped roll of film inside, which upon developing contains five snapshots. Those snapshots show a doll, storage house, group of children, mountains and a blurry picture of a man's shoulder. So they follow the trail of clues to a remote mountain village where they find the old, crumbling and windowless storage room. A place where long ago strange things happened concerning a little girl who could see through walls. That's not the last forgotten locked room mystery that has to be pried out of that old storage building. A good, solid impossible crime story and overall exactly the kind of detective story I enjoy.

"Uncertain Memories" (vol. 6)

A great character piece and slice-of-life puzzle that takes place during the final days of 1999 as the world counts down to the new millennium. Yuu Touma returned to Japan to celebrate New Year with her brother, but Mizuhara wonders why Touma never talks or even mentioned his sister to her. A problem that goes all the way back to their childhood days, family home and a particular incident whose memory still pains Yuu. So bridging the gap between the distant siblings in order to mend their relationship is the core problem of the story, which makes for a great ending as the year 2000 arrived. One of my favorite character stories from this series!

"Secret Blue Room" (vol. 6)

From the same, excellent volume, "Secret Blue Room" returns the series to its traditionalists roots with a very neat variation on the conventional detective story. Mizuhara convinces Touma and when they arrive at the drop zone, preparing for their own dive, they watch a four-man skydive team doing a formation jump – until one gently plummets down to earth. A safety device automatically opening the parachute in case something goes wrong appears to have saved the sky diver, but, when they go check on him, they find a knife sticking out of his back! Since you can't stab someone in mid-air, the police assumes the victim must have been killed on the ground, but that possibility gets rejected pretty quickly. So they're stuck with an impossible crime after all with the airport setting ensuring an exciting conclusion to a superb story and overall great volume.

"The Frozen Hammer" (vol. 9)

A puzzle-within-a-puzzle that is so much more than some abstract, completely artificial brainteaser. A part of dried, mummified arm drops from an iron pipe under the Kachidoki Bridge onto a passing boat and the subsequent investigation reveals human remains inside the pipe, which is sealed and blocked at both ends with steel. So the only way to extract the body is to open the bridge, but the last time it was raised was 30 years ago and that poses a problem when examining the corpse's wristwatch – which dates the secreting of the corpse at roughly 25 years ago. A second problem is a map found on the body or rivers and bridges. Touma recognizes the map as an age-old mathematical problem, "Seven Bridges of Königsberg," but the puzzles play second fiddle to who and what is behind it all. More importantly, the motive and how the culprit (sort of) succeeded in turning back time for a brief, fleeting moment. A puzzle with a heart and soul!

"Summer Vacation Case" (vol. 14)

This story takes place over the summer vacation at the school of Touma and Mizuhara. There are no classes, but the clubs are still active. So the empty school grounds and mostly unoccupied classrooms tend to be a lot quieter than on regular schooldays, "only the sound of club activities," but a prankster is stalking the hallways and classrooms. Someone who commits all kinds of weird acts of vandalism or pulling little stunts that are hard to explain. A minor story, perhaps, but enjoyed how Touma and Mizuhara played detective here. Touma's explanation how all these small, apparently unimportant incidents tied together and demolishing a cleverly-staged alibi in the process is simply first-class.

"Glass Room" (vol. 15)

I think this pick, more than any other on this list, reveals my personal tastes and prejudices. "Glass Room" is arguably the most conservative, but deviously plotted, detective stories in the Q.E.D. series concerning the impossible murder of an audiophile, Oya Etsuro, who received three visitors on the day he was murdered – all possessing unimpeachable alibis. Additionally, the housekeeper was knitting outside the workshop and claims Etsuro was still alive after they had left. So who killed the audiophile and how? What makes this story a gem is how Touma methodically eliminates all the suspects and every possible method of getting in or out of the workshop. Only start all over again from scratch to show the workshop has a third, practically invisible entrance comparable to Carter Dickson's The Judas Window (1938) and "The Unguarded Path" (1963) by Arthur Porges.

"Three Birds" (vol. 18)

 This is definitely not a conventional, traditionally-styled detective story, but a psychological crime tale showing the darker side of memories and even nostalgia. The story is not easily described without giving away too much, however, it concerns some strange gaps in someone's childhood memories concerning a toy pistol and an apparent double suicide many years ago. The story is interspersed with illustrations from a children's story about three birds and a gold coin. A weirdly effective story as the solution to the memory gaps is brilliant and original.

"Outer Space Battle" (vol. 25)

Enari "Queen" Himeko, Nagaie "Holmes" Koroku and Morito "Mulder" Orisato, of the Sakisaka Private High School Detective Club, burst onto the scene in "Arrival of the Famous Detective(s)" in vol. 18. Those three stumbling, wannabee detectives have been nothing but trouble ever since. This time, the trio get conned out of their own club room by a group of students who needed a place to hang out. So they enlist Touma and Mizuhara to get their club room back. Surprisingly, Touma agrees to help and go along with their insane scheme, because he believes "those three need to be kept in that room." What they planned to do is stage a full-blown alien invasion. A completely tongue-in-cheek con game with high school students over a club room, but my favorite story, so far, starring the detective club.