冰冷密室與博士們

S&M series #2

by Hiroshi Mori, 森博嗣, 涂愫芸 (Translator)

N大工學院助理教授犀川創平，應同事土木工學院助理教授喜多北斗之邀，去參觀「極地環境研究所」進行的實驗。於是，他帶著學生西之園萌繪一起前往。然而，卻有人在這看似天真卻意義深遠的實驗中，策劃了大膽且不可思議的「完全密室」雙重殺人事件。

實驗室是零下二十度，實驗室內部情況只能從測量室透過螢幕監看，進出實驗室也必須穿上太空服般誇張的防寒裝備。根據喜多、犀川、萌繪的判斷，應該沒有人可以隨意進入建築物中。犯人與被害人究竟如何進入密室，又是如何逃脫呢？

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 1999

About the author

See 森 博嗣

Reviews

[Genma496 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was apparently the first novel that Mori actually wrote, but I think Kodansha's decision to publish The Perfect Insider first was the correct one. While not bad by any means, it just doesn't have the impact that The Perfect Insider does, and the trick is not nearly as revolutionairy. It feels like a much more traditional mystery novel with a more commonplace trick, and the science elements aren't even that pronounced, comparatively.

It feels a lot more like a low-stakes case to get us used to Saikawa and Moe's daily lives and the campus setting that they normal inhabit, and it does its job at that. It also introduces us to Saikawa's best buddy Kita, who has a fun dynamic with our main man, though I wish he was used a bit more (but I'm sure we'll see him again).

Unfortunately I think the book is bogged down by a very lackluster first half. While the setting and character introductions are all fine, once we get to the investigation portion, it kinda just becomes an info dump of reports and conversations between our characters that are entirely removed from the closed circle of suspects. That not only makes it a bit boring, but also makes it so we can never interact with the cast and learn about them organically, which makes it way harder to deliver a good mystery involving them for me. Compare that to the investigation in The Perfect Insider, which had us investigating a novel and mysterious setting and even feeling a bit of tension and danger, which made it more engaging.

Fortunately, the book does pick up in the second half, with some pretty memorable moments, though I think without the proper grounding with the characters the ultimate twist doesn't hit as hard as it should have (and the motive is barely foreshadowed, which I don't like). So while the book does try to do some thematic ties to Saikawa's mindset, it doesn't quite carry the point across very well.

But hey, it's Mori's first book, I gotta cut him some slack, especially when it's clear from the interview that he himself doesn't particularly see this book in that great a light. And it was still very fun to see more of Saikawa and Moe and their usual interactions, though I'm hoping that next time around we can have a character at least half as interesting as Shiki.

P.S. It is very clear to me that the interview section isn't translated but rather conducted in english from the get-go, because Mori's english is noticeably so much better than Ryuusui's lmao. No shade to Ryuusui, still grateful for the translation (which I think was actually a lot better than the previous one) but I feel like Mori himself could have done a better job, which is a little ironic.

[Anto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctors in isolated rooms is a prequel to Hiroshi Mori's previous entry to the S&M series, "The perfect insider". Despite Doctors being written first, The perfect insider was the first novel Mori's publisher considered a worthy entry into the series, which was a decision I absolutely agree with.
While i found myself liking the beginning of the novel for its interesting setup, i found that Doctors faced the same issue that The prefect insider had before it, which is primarily that the novels had a hard time keeping a consistent sense for keeping the reader interested around it's "mid game" (that is to say the middle portion of the story). Though I would still praise Doctors for having a more engaging middle portion that The perfect insider did.
The other issue I had with the novel was also consistent between the two entries, which is the sheer abundance of uninteresting and irrelevant characters. With roughly 20 named characters in this novel, I'd consider only about five of them to be solid and fleshed out. My feelings on the matter are that Mori likes to practice the principle of "tell, don't show" with his cast, wherein he will give a lore dump on who a character is, what their hobbies are and what they do for a living, while those same characters serve no purpose in the plot besides asking other, more fleshed out characters: "who", "what", or "why". While they aren't even worth considering as potential culprits by their lack of characterization.
Just as it was the case with The perfect insider, by the end of the book I couldn't give you the names of any (with the exception of one) of the students in PERC. And that doesn't apply just to their names, I couldn't give you information on any of their hobbies, relationships or quirks since they were so damn irrelevant to the plot at hand, making the lore dump on them feel useless.
Despite that I found the core characters of the cast such as Moe, Saikawa and Kita a pleasure to read, and honestly wished that Mori just cut the cast in half and distributed the "screen time" of the characters more accordingly.
Another minor grievance I have, which for once does not apply to The perfect insider, was just how this novel was dependent on the intricacies of the locked room at hand, which even though I'm not someone who's overly crazy about maps and floorplans in mystery novels, made the think that this is one novel that really could have benefited from having an illustration of the lab.
While I do have a lot of negative things to say about Doctors in isolated rooms, I still found it a very enjoyable read with a solid locked room trick, which makes me look forward to the next entry of the S&M series.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gefiel mir besser als der erste Teil!