The Decagon House Murders

by Yukito Ayatsuji Narrated by P.J. Ochlan

Overview

A hugely enjoyable, must-listen murder mystery sure to appeal to fans of Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, and Agatha Christie, with one of the best and most satisfying conclusions you'll ever hear. A classic in Japan, available in English for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal - Audio

★ 12/01/2022

Japanese author Ayatsuji's 1987 debut, a brilliant homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, was first translated into English in 2015 (another translation in his "Mansion" mystery series is coming in 2023). This complex puzzle mystery, known as shin-honkuko or "new orthodox," features two sets of murders to untangle. Seven Kyoto University Mystery Club members visit an isolated island, now owned by a member's uncle, to enjoy a week relaxing and, perhaps, solving the murders that occurred there just months before. Upon arrival, the students are cut off from the mainland, with no electricity or telephone service in a bizarre, 10-sided mansion that was designed by an eccentric architect who was killed along with almost everyone else on the island. In traditional locked-room style, the students, whose detective skills are useless in real life, die one by one. Narrator P.J. Ochlan's lively performance accentuates the brisk pace and creepy, somewhat campy atmosphere. He nicely differentiates the large cast of characters, allowing listeners to concentrate on Ayatsuji's wonderfully elaborate plot. VERDICT A sure bet for classic-mystery lovers, this well-narrated thriller (hopefully just the first of many Ayatsuji audiobooks to come) should also appeal to adult and YA horror fans.—Beth Farrell

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/04/2015
First published in 1987, Ayatsuji’s brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits. Six months after the bodies of architect Nakamura Seiji, his wife, and two servants were found in the burnt remains of a house on isolated Tsunojima, a small island off the coast of Japan, seven members of the Kyoto University Mystery Club decide to visit Tsunojima. They are to reside for a week in the bizarrely constructed Decagon House, where everything seems to have 10 sides and where they soon learn that a killer is targeting them. The tension in this sophisticated homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is expertly heightened by a parallel plot set on the mainland, where two other members of the Kyoto society have received threatening letters, ostensibly from the dead Seiji. As in the best fair-play mysteries, every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal. (July)

From the Publisher

**One of the 20 of the Best Classic Murder Mystery Books of All Time from Town & Country Magazine**
"His celebration of traditional whodunits plays with the mystery genre in a wonderfully self-referential way... With each new murder, the remaining members of the group must use their knowledge of the genre to find the killer and try to stay alive." — Esquire, The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time

"A terrific mystery, a classic of misdirection very much in the manner of Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr'" — Washington Post

"Behold, the perfect escapist drug! If I could crush this book into a powder and snort it, I would." — Vulture

"A real page-turner... Highly recommended" — Classic Mystery

"Ayatsuji's brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits... Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal" — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A stunner of a plot, with an ending which I simply could not believe when it was first revealed... Rivals Soji Shimada's The Tokyo Zodiac Murders for sheer audacity and ingenuity" — At the Scene of the Crime

"A knowing tribute to classic crime, it features all manner of puzzles, including locked rooms, jigsaws and magic tricks." — Mark Sanderson, The Times
 
"highly ingenious" — Laura Wilson, Guardian

"The Decagon House Murders, is a thrilling homage to Christie’s And Then There Were None, following a group of amateur sleuths on a trip to a lonely island, the site of several unsolved murders. In the opening chapter, one character remarks: “Enough gritty realism please! What mystery novels need are a great detective, a mansion, a shady cast of residents, bloody murders, impossible crimes and never-before-seen-tricks played by the murder.” It’s impossible not to agree." — The Guardian

“Aimed to be a murder mystery that readers can solve as they read, this book is gripping and has fun bits such as characters having nicknames based on American and European mystery writers, and of course, maps!” — United by Pop

School Library Journal

10/01/2015
Available for the first time in English, Ayatsuji's debut novel was first published in Japan in 1987, the same year as the debut of Paul Halter, another giant of locked room mysteries. Ayatsuji reinvigorates the classical English mysteries of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ellery Queen, and John Dickson Carr by stripping them down to their essentials and examining their moving parts. In this novel, six members of the Kyoto University Mystery Club—each taking the alias of a famous mystery writer—assemble on an abandoned island and take up residence in a decagonally shaped house. Naturally, soon enough the students begin to be killed off, and the race is on to discover the murderer's identity. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, two members of the club who chose not to go receive mysterious letters that lead them to believe that something is afoot on the island. Along with an enthusiastic partner, they set about trying to solve another mystery from years past, which has connections to the island. Ayatsuji leaves no doubts about his intentions, making copious references to Christie's And Then There Were None, and even the characters are well aware that they have stumbled into a work of their favorite type of fiction. The metafictional trappings are good fun, but they wouldn't mean much if the mystery itself wasn't equally fun and tricky. And it is. VERDICT For teens who love a good cozy mystery, but especially for those who have read Halter and other writers of cozy "metamystery".—Mark Flowers, Rio Vista Library, CA

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175336246
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,214,765

Read an Excerpt

The sea at night. A time of quietude.
The dull sound of the waves welled up from the endless obscurity, only to disappear again.
He sat down on the cold concrete of the breakwater and faced the expansive darkness, his body veiled by the white vapour of his breath.
He had been suffering for months. He had been brooding for weeks. He had been thinking about just one thing for days. And now his mind was focusing on one single, clearly defined goal.
Everything had been planned.
Preparations were almost complete.
All he needed to do now was to wait for them to walk into the trap.
He knew his plan was far from perfect. It was best described as shoddy rather than meticulous. But he’d never intended to plan everything out in perfect detail in the first place.
No matter how hard he tries, man will always be mere man, and never a god.
It was easy to imagine oneself as such, but he knew that as long as humans were simply humans, even the most gifted amongst them could never become a god.
And how could anyone who was not a god predict the future, shaped as it was by human psychology, human behaviour and pure chance?
Even if the world was viewed as a chessboard, and every person on it a chess piece, there would still be a limit as to how far future moves could be predicted. The most meticulous plan, plotted to the last detail, could still go wrong sometime, somewhere, somehow. Reality is brimming with too many coincidences and whimsical actions by humans for even the craftiest scheme to succeed exactly as planned.
The most desirable plan was not one that limited your own moves, but a flexible one that could adapt to circumstances: that was the conclusion he had come to.
He could not allow himself to be constrained.
It was not the plot that was vital, but the framework. A framework where it was always possible to make the best choice, depending on the circumstances at the time.
Whether he could pull it off depended on his own intellect, quick thinking and, most of all, luck.
I know Man will never become a god.
But, in a way, he was undoubtedly about to take on that role.
Judgment. Yes, judgment.
In the name of revenge, he was going to pronounce judgment on them—on all of them.
Judgment outside the court of law.
He was not a god and so could never be forgiven for what he was about to do—he was completely conscious of that fact. The act would be called “a crime” by his fellow men and, if found out, he himself would be judged according to the law.
Nevertheless, the common sense approach could no longer keep his emotions under control. Emotions? No, nothing as shallow as that. Absolutely not. This was not just some powerful feeling within him. It was the cry of his soul, his last tie to life, his reason for living.
The sea at night. A time of quietude.
No flickering of the stars, no light of the ships off-coast could disturb the darkness into which he gazed. He contemplated his plan once again.
Preparations were almost finished. Soon they, his sinful prey, would walk into his trap. A trap consisting of ten equal sides and interior angles.
They would arrive there suspecting nothing. Without any hesitation or fear they would walk into the decagonal trap, where they would be sentenced.
What awaits them there is, of course, death. It is the obvious punishment for all of them.
And no simple deaths. Blowing them all up in one go would be infinitely easier and more certain, but he should not choose that route.
He has to kill them in order, one by one. Precisely like that story written by the famous British female writer—slowly, one after the other. He shall make them know. The suffering, the sadness, the pain and terror of death.
Perhaps he had become mentally unstable. He himself would be the first to admit to that.
I know—no matter how I try to justify it, what I am planning to do is not sane.
He slowly shook his head at the pitch-black roiling sea.
His hand, thrust into his coat pocket, touched something hard. He grabbed the object and took it out, holding it in front of his eyes.
It was a small transparent bottle of green glass.
It was sealed off securely with a stopper, and bottled inside was all he had managed to gather from inside his heart: what people like to call “conscience.” A few folded sheets of paper, sealed. On it he had printed in small letters the plan he was about to execute. It had no addressee. It was a letter of confession.
I know Man will never become a god.
And precisely because he understood that, he did not want to leave the final judgment to a human to make. It didn’t matter where the bottle ended up. He just wanted to pose the question to the sea—the source of all life—whether, ultimately, he was right or not.
The wind blew harder.
A sharp coldness went down his spine and his whole body shivered.
He threw the bottle into the darkness.

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