Gotta Knock a Little Harder: "Knockin' On Locked Door" (2014) by Aosaki Yugo

Recently, this blog went through another period in which the locked room mystery and impossible crime reviews crowded everything else out, which I always correct after a while until it happens again – starting the correction this time with a review of Agatha Christie's Peril at End House (1932). So wanted to stable my hobby horse to focus attention elsewhere, however, someone decided to put together the "New Locked Room Library." In May, I received the list with selected titles, "the result is exquisite," to be voted on for inclusion in the new, updated Locked Room Library. Surprisingly, there's enough exotic material included I either hadn't read yet, were unknown to me or had no idea they were even available.

So this not an excuse to jump right back on my hobby horse, but simply doing homework to be an informed voter when the time comes to cast my ballots.

I wasn't exaggerating when saying the first selection has some "exotic material," which ranges from the expected novels and short stories to games, game segments, radio-plays and fan fiction – even a handful of so-called fanlations. I reviewed a fanlation of Ooyama Seiichiro's short story "Kanojo ga Patience wo korosu hazu ga nai" ("She Wouldn't Kill Patience," 2002) and today's subject is another one. But is it a short story that belongs in the 21st century locked room library? Let's find out!

Aosaki Yugo is a popular, award-winning mystery writer who debuted with the novel Taiikukan no satsujin (The Gymnasium Murder, 2012) and has since produced two collections of short stories in the "Knockin' On Locked Door" series. "Knockin' On Locked Door" (2014), originally published in Dokuraku magazine, introduces the reader to the two private investigators of the Knockin' On Locked Door Detective Agency, Gotenba Tori and Katanashi Hisame. A specialized agency with the specialized detectives who split "responsibilities according to the nature of the puzzle." Tori is a specialist in the seemingly impossible ("...strong in elucidating tricks"), while Hisame's "forte is in searching for motives and reasons." So a series intertwining the puzzle plot, or howdunits, with equally puzzling motives (whydunits). Their first client who comes knocking ("...no intercom is provided") presents them with exactly such a case.

Kasumiga Mizue's husband is the well-known painter, Hideo, nicknamed "The Poet of the Sky," who has been murdered under inexplicable circumstances. Hideo was remodeling his attic room into a studio and spent entire days there, until the previous day. Hideo had not come down from the attic room/studio nor does he respond to the knocks on the locked door, which is when they decide to force their way inside and find Hideo's body lying in the middle of the room – a knife planted in his back. The only way in, or out, of the locked studio is the door as the skylight was fixed and solid in place. One of the six paintings in the studio was completely over painted with red.

So how was it done? Because the locked room specialist quickly finds out the lock on the door leaves precious little room for manipulation ("...this 'pin-and-thread' thing would be hard to implement"). Why even bother creating a locked room scenario when there's no question of suicide? The victim was stabbed in the back with a knife that was wiped clean and rarely locked the door behind him. There's always the question of whodunit. Was it the wife, the son or the visiting friend and art dealer?

While not playing entirely fair, the explanation delivers as the locked room-trick is completely original and beautifully balances on the double motive. The motive for the murder and the reason why the murder was turned into a locked room mystery. Only thing holding "Knockin' On Locked Room" from a status as an instant impossible crime classic is that you have no shot at figuring out the reason behind it all, which is a shame, because the way in which the how and why are put together is incredibly pleasing. Not to mention that I expected something much simpler and less original from the premise, which fortunately turned out not to be the case.

So, all in all, "Knockin' On Locked Door" is a solid introduction to the series with a plot standing on the threshold of being a minor impossible crime classic and sports a truly original locked room-trick. Not a perfectly executed detective story, but a really good one deserving to be translated and would love the read the rest of the series.

Note for the curious: If you're wondering in which direction I expected the solution was headed, I thought the locked room came about by accident. Sort of. Hideo rarely locked himself into the studio ("...disliked the lock and rarely used it"), but he might have done this time. Why? Someone had to paint red all over one of the canvases and Hideo was already in the studio. So why make things more complicated than needed, but why would he deface one of his own paintings? More on that in a moment. First, the problem of the locked attic room: the room is described as surprisingly large, presumably high, where "the fierce rays of August sun" coming through the round skylight light the room – which gave me an idea. It's possible for those fierce rays of sunshine to hide a small, round cutout in the glass when looking up. A small, round cutout through which a knife can be dropped, but that might not have even been its original purpose. The culprit could have used the cutout to drip red paint on one of the paintings and remained up there to gloat, but saw Hideo (for some reason) painting over the vandalized painting (like trying to cover it up and why he locked the door) and that (again for some reason) angered the culprit. And dropped a knife, while Hideo was bending over. Not a particular good solution, or a very well developed one, but that's the idea I was toying with while reading. Rest assured, Aosaki Yugo came up with a far superior solution.