Murder Most Monstrous: Case Closed, vol. 91 by Gosho Aoyama

The 91st volume of Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed series opens, traditionally, with the conclusion of the story that was setup, and closed out, the previous volume bringing Conan, Harley and the gang to the remote of village of Yadori – invited by the mayor to participate in a treasure hunt. They're not the only one who received an invitation to hunt for the legendary treasure at the abandoned hotel. A party comprising of a disgraced archaeologist, Michiki Tanzawa, a horror novelist, Fumie Masuko, a historian, Yasukatsu Someji and a young reporter, Hajime Tsurumi. Someji is killed under bizarre circumstances ("...killed by the legendary monster").

Yadori and surrounding area is the home of the legendary monster from Japanese folktales, the Nue. A creature with the head of a monkey, body of a tanuki, legs of a tiger and the tail of a snake. The previous volume ended with the Nue making an appearance.

When they arrived at the abandoned hotel, Rachel and Kazuha hear "this freaky cry" as the lawn around them catches fire. Next thing they see is the enormous monster coming around the corner of the hotel, "high as the second-floor windows," who sank its teeth into "DANGER, DO NOT ENTER" sign and pulled it out – before wandering back into the forest. The sign is found along the path the beast created with bite marks on it. Nearby the sign is the claw-marked body of the historian, Someji. Both the bite marks on the danger sign and claw marks on the victim's back are huge. This is only the beginning as this volume continues the story with a second, neatly-posed impossible crime.

The group is informed that the arrival of the police can take a while. So it's suggested everyone retreats to their rooms, until they arrive, but Conan, Harley and the Mayor remain behind on the lawn to discuss the case. Shortly thereafter, the people who retreated are hanging out of their windows to listen to their conversation or tell them to keep it down. While this little scene plays out, the strange cries are heard again, patches of grass started to catch fire and a scream is heard from the open, third-floor window of Tanzawa. Conan and Harley find Tanzawa dead from poisoning and "marks under his chin that looked like a snakebite," but the door was locked from the inside and the open window watched by Conan and Harley. So were the other suspects hanging out of their windows.

Needless to say, I enjoyed this despite one, or two, shortcomings. Firstly, the plot is a bit patchwork, which is not uncommon for this period in the series, but, this time, it didn't feel like a story written around a trick or plot-idea. Secondly, while it feels like a cohesively-plotted detective story, some parts work better than others. The poisoning in the locked room is the part that works the best and liked how (SPOILER/ROT13) gur gjb fhttrfgrq snyfr-fbyhgvbaf unir na ryrzrag bs gur gehgu. The appearance of the Nue in the story's opening-act certainly deserves points for its creative presentation and original solution, but not wholly convincing under these circumstances and the clueing is not as crisp as the story would like you to believe. So how the hulking, two-story high Nue appeared is not really solvable. But, visually, still a very appealing trick to see play out. Oh, and the last panel introduces a new character setting up a story-arc for Harley involving an obsessive fan/stalker. I've rambled on enough about this one story.

The second story marks the return of Jirokichi Sebastian, head of the Sebastian Conglomerate, who has been chasing Kaitou KID, a modern-day Arsène Lupin, since the events in vol. 44 and their rivalry has been the detective genre's version of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner – complete with ridiculously elaborate, baited traps. It's what help make Jirokichi my favorite recurring character for some time, but their rivalry perhaps peaked after vol. 61 as the quality of heists began to taper off with each subsequent appearance of the two. This story has not convinced me their rivalry has not run its course.

An elderly widow, Kimika Tomoyose, reaches out to Jirokichi with an antique puzzle box, called "The Wooden God," made by the legendary craftsman from the Bakumatsu era, Kichiemon. A historical, in-universe figure whose various, nineteenth century mechanical marvels appeared in previous stories like the Iron Tanuki (vol. 65) and the hungry store house (vol. 66). The puzzle box was left to her by her husband, but the instructions to open the box is hidden somewhere in his rare book collection. A collection counting over ten thousand books! Mrs. Tomoyose offers to donate the collection to the Sebastian Library on the condition Jirokichi finds the instructions. Inside the box is the world's largest moonstone, Luna Memoria, "one of the big gems sought by the Kaito KID." Jirokichi smells an opportunity to let KID figure out how to open the box and catch him at the same time. So a public challenge is issued to Kaitou KID as Jirokichi begins to prepare another fail proof, tightly secured trap with past experiences in mind.

However, the story is not really about how to open the puzzle box or moonstone, which become something of an after thought to the story, but three mini-puzzles, of sorts. Firstly, Conan's aware Kaitou KID is already in the building and likely disguised, but whose identity and face did the master of disguise "borrow" this time? After realizing KID is inside, Conan notes that everyone's "starting to look suspicious." This mini-puzzle has clearest clueing in this volume. Secondly, the location of the piece of paper with instructions on how to open the box, which is tied to the third, more personal memento left behind in the box. So, on a whole, the story is not a bad one, but feels very slight for one featuring both Jirokichi and KID. If you remove them, the story would have been one of those character-oriented, heart-shaped puzzles Motohiro Katou does so well in Q.E.D.

I've been looking forward to the third story of this volume for years. A new assistant teacher, named Rumi Wakasa, is introduced to the class of Conan, Anita and the Junior Detective League at Teitan Elementary School. Conan and company accompany Rumi to the old, creepy looking storage shed on the school grounds to get powdered limestone for the dodge ball court, which turns out to have a cellar. At the bottom of the cellar stairs, Conan finds a decayed skeleton in a pile of powdered lime. The police assumes the man died as the result of an unfortunate accident, but is there a link between the skeleton and a gang of burglars who disappeared with two-hundred million yen in gold bullion. And in the mean while, Conan and the Junior Detective League go to work on an old, coded message they discovered in the cellar. But the key to code is not as easily cracked as Conan first assumed. Japanese code cracking stories rarely translate into English as they were intended and this one is no different, but the main point of the story is to introduce a new character. She's naturally not who she seems to be, but a klutz who's not who she appears to be gave me déjà vu.

The last two chapters setup a story that will be concluded in the next volume in which Conan gets dragged by Rachel, Serena and Sera to the shopping mall to try on and buy swim suits ("this must be boring for you, Conan"). While shopping, they meet a thoroughly unpleasant costumer and Sera remarks, "just the type of person who's get offed in a mystery novel" ("you'll jinx things and make it come true"). That customer is found strangled to death in a dressing room moments later. Only clues are a smear of lipstick on the victim's thumb and a dying message. Not to be overlooked, Conan began to recall dim childhood memories of meeting Sera at the beach after seeing her in a bathing suit. That always does the trick when you need to jog your memory. Apparently, answers are forthcoming in the next volume.

So, on a whole, the stories in this collection are more entertaining than good and mainly served to setup new pieces of the on-going storyline than posing first-rate, standalone mysteries. Yes, the ending is not yet in sight as the Japanese releases have reached, as of this writing, volume 105. That makes me very curious what Viz is planning to do once they catch up with the original releases. Hopefully, it'll open the door to translations of other Conanian adjacent media/spin-offs/novels.