Murder in the House of Omari (2021) by Taku Ashibe

Taku Ashibe, a former journalist, became a full-time mystery writer in 1994 and member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan who penned nearly forty novels and numerous short story collection – only one novel and a short story have been translated over the years. In 2012, Kurodahan Press published a translation of Ashibe's Koromu no satsujin (Murder in the Red Chamber, 2004) and "Shikku suru joker" ("The Dashing Joker," 2001) appeared in the September/October, 2020, issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. In May, Pushkin Vertigo added a third translation to that shamefully short list, Oomarike satsujin jiken (Murder in the House of Omari, 2021), translated by Bryan Karetnyk.

Murder in the House of Omari, a true retro-GAD whodunit, is a fairly recent work, but Ho-Ling Wong pointed out in his review that it's very representative of Ashibe's work. According to Ho-Ling, Ashibe has three story themes/personalized tropes running through his work, of which the first two are historical and literary references. For example, Murder in the Red Chamber is set in the world of Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber (1791) and populated with many of its characters. The third theme is old Osaka and the bustling commercial hub it became following industrialization, which provides the historical setting for the wholesale slaughter of the House of Omari.

House of Omari is a family business, manufacturing and selling pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other luxury goods, but the once household name is on the decline with the outbreak of World War II and a string of murders doing it no favors.

Before getting to the killings, Murder in the House of Omari hops around the timeline beginning with a prologue taking place in the 2020s as construction workers uncover an unfilled, long forgotten air raid shelter revealing a treasure – "a complete set of the Ryuko-Shoin world detective-fiction series." This stash of detective novels is wrapped in a cloth emblazoned with a faded, old-fashioned logo with the name "House of Omari." At the same time, not far away from the demolition site, an identified, dying person mentions that forgotten shop in a startling death bed confession ("so that's why I killed the lot of them..."). The story than goes back to 1906, when the family business was securely on top of their market, but the first tragedy occurs when the young heir presumptive, Sentaro Omari, disappears during a visit to the Panorama Museum. So, in 1914, the head clerk of the business, Shigezo, takes his place by marrying his younger sister, Kiyoe. They initially continued the success of the House of Omari, however, the trade began to decline during the late 1920s and were forced to scale down. When the Second Sino-Japanese War turned into a World War, their business model was decimated as their Westernized, non-essential luxury products could "label a person unpatriotic." So now they're trying to stay afloat by selling comfort bags to be mailed to soldiers on the front line.

This preamble to murder roughly covers the first hundred, or so, pages, but never flags and full of historical interest. A noteworthy point is the appearance of wood and charcoal powered cars. These so-called "charcoal engines" were introduced to conserve petrol, but "were notoriously slow and lacking in horsepower" making them "incapable of handling slopes." Not exactly the romantic picture steampunk envisioned.

The detective story proper picks up in 1945, towards the end of the war, when the two sons of Shigezo and Kiyoe are serving abroad. Taichiro Omari as an army surgeon and Shigehiko Omari soldiering on the front line. So the already depleted household and dwindling business begin to suffer a string of gruesome, personal tragedies. Firstly, Tsukiko Omari, eldest daughter of Kiyoe and Shigezo, is attacked and wounded, but the circumstances are strange indeed. Tsukiko has "real wounds" that "appeared to be bleeding fake blood." Secondly, Shigezo is found hanging from a rope in his bedroom and the evidence points towards murder. Shigezo is not the last of the Omaris to be killed under bizarre circumstances. Strange, downright bizarre circumstances pile up alongside the bodies. Like one of the bodies being found stuffed, upside down, inside a barrel of sake or the sightings of a household spirit dancing through the dark, deserted corridors of the Omari house in the dead of night. Not to mention the storybook appearance of the "Great Detective," Koshiro Hojo, who lugs around a copy of Hans Gross' Criminal Investigations: A Practical Textbook.

Murder in the House of Omari becomes tricky to discuss, in detail, pass the halfway mark with its various plot-strands, complications and new developments practically every other chapter – right up until the moment the war catches up with the characters. What can be discussed, however, is the admirable way in which Ashibe handled this dense, maze-like plot to weave an engrossing tale of a merchant family that finds itself under siege from all side. Not to be overlooked is how the story is structured like a period-accurate, Western-inspired honkaku detective novel by Akimitsu Takagi or Seishi Yokomizo. So very different from what most have perhaps come to expect from shin honkaku translations. However, Murder in the House of Omari also differs from other shin honkaku translations in that Ashibe lavished all his attention on his personalized tropes and not the usual tricks and tropes. That makes it a more accessible title for readers who find the usual shin honkaku style with its eccentric architecture, grisly corpse-puzzles, gruesome locked room slayings and elaborate deductions heavy going. Murder in the House of Omari is a pure whodunit without any impossible crimes, unbreakable alibis or untranslatable codes. A incredibly tricky, complicated and densely-plotted whodunit in which Ashibe admirably weaves his love of literature/detective fiction, history and old Osaka into logically patterned whodunit. How the (meta-ish) ending is handled ensured it a place on my list of favorites.

I admittedly started to become skeptical when starting on the last two parts of the final chapter, "1946: Amid the Ruins, Part I" and "Amid the Ruins, Part II," because the pages quickly began to diminish with still so much left to explain. If it wasn't for the curious twist the denouement scene makes, it would have been a big chunk to digest. Ashibe mostly pulls it off with only the explanation for the dancing household spirit leaving me unimpressed. I thought the sightings was a clue that one of the sons had sneaked back home and was hiding in the air raid shelter with a pet monkey he brought back from abroad. Other than that disappointing minor plot-thread, Ashibe delivered a first-rate, classically-styled family whodunit in which old sins cast large, all-consuming shadows while American bombers begin to appear on the distant horizon. Hopefully, Murder in the House of Omari is going to be first (well, the second) of many more of Ashibe's detective novels to make it pass the language barrier. In the meanwhile, Murder in the House of Omari comes highly recommended to fans of Takagi, Yokomizo and the historical retro-GAD writers like Tom Mead and James Scott Byrnside.