Slings and Arrows: Q.E.D. vol. 35-36 by Motohiro Katou

The first of two stories from Motohiro Katou's Q.E.D. vol. 35, "Two Suspects," is a surprisingly uncomplicated, straightforward case of burglary gone wrong when the owner of a moving company, Yoshimitsu Ryozo, discovers a burglar in the manager's office – working on the safety deposit box. So the burglar takes a crowbar to the owner's skull and leaves him seriously wounded. Yoshimitsu Ryozo is either unable, or unwilling, to identify his attacker, because due to his own past "often hired those with criminal backgrounds." Only viable suspects are two of his staff members, Saburo Mikawa and Kurose Yasumasa, who have several counts of theft and assault on their record.

So a simple, but tricky, case handled by Inspector Mizuhara's subordinate, Asama Kiyori, who's very keen to impress his superior. Naturally, Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara come along to drop by something for Detective Sasazuka and Kiyori is surprised when he asks Touma's opinion on the burglary ("why are you asking that stuff to a kid?"). Sasazuka explains Touma is "a genius who is respected by Inspector Mizuhare" ("so... the inspector has some like that?"). Kiyori asks Kana Mizuhara to rope in Touma to help him solve the case. After all, if the subordinate bungles an investigation, it reflects poorly on his superior, i.e. her father.

While there are only two suspects, they both have a financial motive and their alibis "only supported by someone very close to them." Just having two, or three, suspects can make things a lot more difficult and complicated than an entire swarm of suspects, which these manga detective series regularly demonstrate. Touma is not easily fooled and points out that the one difference between the suspects is "your impression of good or bad with regards to their circumstances." Logically untangles that neat, knotted little problem. A very minor, but solid, story that curiously leaves one small plot-thread unresolved.

The second story, "Christmas Present," sounds out-of-season, but the December holiday is only a small, unobtrusive decoration to a fun parody of the theatrical mystery – even poking fun at the shin honkaku-style locked room puzzles. This story centers on two of Sakisaka High School clubs. Firstly, the Drama Club whose president is a brilliant, promising young actor, Shiroi Kentarou, but despite his acting skills ("...almost at par with the professionals") is the reason why the club is bleeding members ("...he's clumsy as hell"). Always making some thoughtless mistake leading to one members, after another, giving up on the club and now they're given an ultimatum: get new members after the Christmas show or get disbanded! The notorious Detective Club comes to the rescue, but their president, Enari "Queen" Himeko has one condition. It has to be a mystery play. Not that they have script ready, but Detective Club has that covered as well, which means turing to Sou Touma and Kana Mizuhara for help. Touma is tasked with penning a script on the spot. Which he does.

So, of course, the collaboration between the two clubs is not exactly going smoothly and even is threatened to be canceled all together, but, for me, the highlight is the trick Touma's dreamed up for the mystery play, Murder at the Pentagon House. The play is about a murder committed in a small, pentagon-shaped house with the door and windows locked from the inside. Sure, the locked room-trick is completely tongue-in-cheek ("W-wow, such a trick exists?! No wonder it's called Pentagon House"), but nonetheless quite clever and original. More importantly, the trick can be easily used in an actual comedy mystery play. A fun, cheeky send-up of the theatrical mystery and shin honkaku impossible crime tales.

"Kurogane Villa Murder Case" is the first of two stories from Q.E.D. vol. 36 and brings Sou Touma to the Kyoto to meet with Jinnai Ryozaburou.

Jinnai Ryozaburou is a lecturer at K University whose mentor, Yanosuke Kurogane, hanged himself at his home five days previously and nobody knows why. Professor Kurogane lectured on theoretical physics for thirty years and renowned as a great researcher, but had treated a promising assistant professor badly. Namely trying to take credit. Karasuma Renji is viewed by the police as a person of interest in their ongoing investigation, but he's "impossible to handle" and tries to make himself look suspect ("this detective is an idiot"). A second murder happens when all of Professor Kurogane's friends and associates gathered at his home to mourn him. One of his potential successors is hit with an arrow while walking down an outside, roofed corridor that poses something of a problem, because long corridors like that were used for archery competitions during the Edo period – where the trick lies in distance combined with the low ceiling. A target at the end of the corridor with a low ceiling overhead limits the angles in which an arrow can be loosened. So the murder is an impossible one as "it'd require the power of a rifle" and "the aim was even a bit off..." On top of that, Karasuma Renji alluded before the murder to Zeno's Arrow Paradox.

Touma gives a clue to the solution to Kana, "the key to solve this case is why did the culprit choose an arrow as the weapon," but the arrow-trick should have been offered as a false-solution – a trick that sounds nice enough in theory. But would simply not work in practice. No matter how skilled the archer who shoots the arrow. Even if it can be done as described, there's no way it can be accurately aimed to hit a fatal spot. And, no, I don't think (ROT13) n funqbj frra sebz n guveq-sybbe ebbsgbc, cbxvat bhg sebz gur pbirerq oevqtr nqwnprag gb pbeevqbe, vf rknpg rabhtu gb uvg gur ivpgvz evtug va gur arpx. A pity as I like archery-themed detective stories of which there are only a scant few. On the other hand, the solution to the murder-disguised-as-suicide of Professor Kurogane had a much simpler, elegant solution. That murder is a quasi-impossible crime with the question being how the killer managed to enter and leave the house without being seen or leaving footprints in the snow outside the study. A mixed bag of a story.

The second and last story from this volume, "Q & A," is one of those unorthodox, character-oriented puzzles drawing on Touma's time as an MIT student in the United States.

Glass Rosfeller is an American banker who helped Touma securing research grants, when he was still studying abroad (see previous reviews), but Rosfeller intends to retire and wishes to hand over the business to one of his four children, Ian, Walter, Freya and Wood. So has an unusual favor to ask from Touma. Rosfeller wants him to select the most suitable one to succeed him and in order to do so has them gathered in a luxurious villa, on an island, in the middle of Aegean Sea. Touma brings along Kana and his younger sister, Yuu Touma. Only other people present on the island is the caretaker and his son. This all appears to be conventional enough and most readers will probably expect someone to be murdered, likely under seemingly impossible circumstances, but what happens is a series of minor and more serious incidents. There's a blackout. The gas and warm water gets turned off. The son of the caretaker is injured and finally an explosion. This short, strange series of events is retold several times from the perspective of everyone present on the island. Every time one of these incidents happened, they were all scattered around the villa or the island. A story with a really, really razor-thin plot, but Katou deserves credit for how he handled it and making it feel more substantial than it actually is. So not entirely without interest, but a minor and unmemorable entry in the series.

Obviously, vol. 36 is on a whole weaker than vol. 35 with "Christmas Present" being the standout of the two collections and the first story, "Two Suspects," standing as a solid, no-frills detective tale. "Kurogane Villa Murder Case" is not a bad story, but the arrow-trick is hard to credit and "Q & A" is one of those stories I've completely forgotten when getting to the next two volumes. Still an enjoyable read overall. You can probably expect the next Q.E.D. review by the end of the month.