“钟城”杀人事件

城 #1

by Takekuni Kitayama, 北山猛邦, 赵建勋 (Translator)

世界毁灭的刹那，你会和谁人同生共死？
“那一刻”悄悄降临的瞬间，倘若你忽然明白了谁是你最该守护的人……
为了那个人，你，会去杀人吗？

过去、现在、未来——镶嵌着三个巨大时钟的“钟城”、钟城附近时隐时现的人面树、地下室墙上浮现出的无数人脸、长睡不醒的美女、神秘钟声敲响的午夜、礼拜堂里面的无头死尸、美女房间内两个新被砍下的人头……

无法通行的情况之下，杀人如何完成？
世界末日到来之前，请您一定读读本书。
第二十四届“梅菲斯特奖”获奖作品！

Genres: Mystery

293 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Associated Names:
* Takekuni Kitayama
* 北山 猛邦 (Japanese Profile)
* ทาเกกุนิ คิตายามะ (Thai Profile)
* 北山猛邦 (Chinese Profile)

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world is ending, civilizations are falling apart, societies and orders are breaking down, cities become ruins; in such a grim backdrop, a detective and his female assistant encounter a 17 years old girl, who begs them to go to the Mansion of Clocks to solve the mysteries of the murderous Hopping Man that has haunted her family for decades.

The detective accepts her request and the three travel to the remote Mansion of Clocks, only to find the army is hot of the young girl's trail and the girl's father and the other residents of the Mansion have more or less turned their backs on her.

The world is ending, with the shortage of food and resources, murder is nothing shocking and the police system has long broken down, still a mysterious killer has chosen to strike down one victim after another and beheading all of them. Is the killer and the mysterious mystical Hopping Man one and the same? What does the killer want to achieve by killing those victims when there seems to be no future for the entire human kind?

Murder At the Mansion of Clocks is a bit of a mixed bag. The author came up with highly unusual ideas: a serial murder case with The End of the World as its backdrop (so what is the point of finding the killer when there is hardly any Law & Orders left?), an equally unusual Mansion of Clocks and its eerie residents--these are highly imaginative, plus the explanation for the impossible Perfect Crime and the set up of false alibi are clever too.

However, I'm frustrated to find the explanation for the killer's motivation and some of the strange phenomena within the Mansion to look very forced and inorganic. I know, the world is ending and many strange things can happen...still I'm dissatisfied with the ending.

PS: yet, the detective and his female assistant and the relationship between them are pretty cool.

[Genma496 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The trick is pretty damn good and the setting is amazing, but I end up feeling like so much more could have been done with it that ultimately wasn't. Characters are really dry too, and I'm still not sure what some of their arcs were supposed to be about. But I still enjoyed my time, the atmosphere is very cool and it made theorizing a lot of fun.