The Ginza Ghost

by Keikichi Ōsaka, Taku Ashibe (Introduction), Ho-Ling Wong (Translator)

Publishers Weekly “Time after time … Osaka grabs the reader’s attention by setting up incredible situations that he eventually resolves logically. He excels in atmosphere.” Although the Japanese form of Golden Age detective fiction was re-launched in the early 1980s as shin honkaku by Soji Shimada and Yukito Ajatsuji, the original honkaku dates from the 1930s and one of its pioneers was Keikichi Osaka. The Ginza Ghost is a collection of twelve of his best stories, almost all impossible crimes. Although the solutions are strictly fair-play, there is an unreal, almost hallucinatory quality to them. Osaka, who died tragically young, was an early pioneer and master of the genre, whose work is only now starting to be re-discovered. Readers of LRI’s The Decagon house Murders and The Maoi Island Puzzle will not be disappointed. Locked Room International discovers and publishes impossible crime mysteries from all over the world, by authors past and present.

Genres: Mystery, Japan, Short Stories, Japanese Literature, Crime, Detective, Fiction

206 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Oguzcan Yesilyaprak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok başarılı bir kitap. Birçok japon klasiği ve japon edebiyatında olan kitaplar gibi parça parça sherlock holmes hikayeleri tadında sonu şaşırtan konulardan oluşuyor.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. An exceptional collection of honkaku stories by a master of the form.

At more than 300 pages and featuring twelve stories, the selection is generous and varied, appearing to represent Ōsaka's work in the orthodox detective story in nearly all its facets. Settings range from the mundane (a tobacconist's shop, a department store, a quiet residential street) to the more exotic (a coal mine, a locomotive, lighthouses, a mountain pass), but each is given equal attention as the setting nearly always plays an important part in the solution of the mystery (and sometimes in the execution of the crime). Ōsaka's narrative palette is somewhat more limited, confined mainly to two distinct styles: first-person accounts that are strongly emotional and often melancholy, detailing stories that have an eerie, gothic character that evokes the supernatural despite the mystery's obligatory firm basis in logic and the natural world ("The Mourning Locomotive", "The Phantom Wife", "The Cold Night's Clearing"); and very detailed, frequently action-oriented accounts written in a mostly omniscient third-person. These latter stories ("The Demon in the Mine", "The Mesmerising Light", "The Phantasm of the Stone Wall") tend to be the most "orthodox" and focus largely on the mechanics of the plot, ingeniously solving implausible, "impossible" mysteries through brilliant feats of logic and deduction. There is crossover, though (the first story, "The Hangman of the Departed" is narrated in first person but is a fine example of the purely orthodox detective style, while the stunning, psychologically complex, "The Three Madmen" occasionally mentions a "me" or "we" but is written in the most distant, detached first person I've ever encountered) and it's clear that Ōsaka could and did manipulate narrative points of view as necessary to make his stories effective.

This collection includes an excellent preface by Taku Ashibe and helpful footnotes. I can't recommend it highly enough for fans of this subgenre.

[Meltem Sağlam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok güzel öyküler. Bir nefeste okunuyor. Sherlock Holmes öykülerinin Japon versiyonu. Çok eğlenceli.

Çeviri çok güzel. Hem güzel bir Türkçe, hem de akıcı bir dil. Tebrik ederim.

“… Bu olaydan çıkarılacak çok ders var bizler için… İnsan kimseye körü körüne güvenmemeli.”, sf; 228.

[Tuğba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yazarın çok genç yaşta ölmesine derinden üzüldüm. Muazzam bir kalemi var. Yazıldığı dönem için de şimdiki zaman içinde eşine az rastlanır bir anlatısı var. Yalın bir dil ama hayatında içinde herkesin başına gelebilecek olaylar. Esrarengiz ve doğaüstü gibi görünen olayları mantıkla çözen Japon Sherlock Holmes.

[Murat Dural · Rating 4 out of 5]

20. yüzyılın çok erken dönemleri, Japonya ve böylesi korku, gerilim, hatta fantastik sosuyla başlayıp iyi birer polisiyeye dönüşen öyküler. O dönemin Sherlock ve Edgar Allen Poe karakterlerinden etkilenmesi bir yana amatör tüm dedektifleri sivri, farklı bakış açısına sahip. Özellikle polisiye sevenlerin edinmesi gereken bir kitap olduğuna inanıyorum. Keikichi Osaka'nın öyküleri başka bir kültürün lezzetini taşıyor.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains following stories, ably translated by Ho-Ling Wang~
1. The hangman of the Department Store;
2. The Phantasm of the Stone Wall;
3. The Mourning Locomotive;
4. The Monster of the Lighthouse;
5. The Phantom Wife;
6. The Mesmerising Light;
7. The Cold Night's Clearing;
8. The Three Madmen;
9. The Guardian of the Lighthouse;
10. The Demon in the Mine;
11. The Hungry Letter-Box;
12. The Ginza Ghost.
Almost all these stories are examples of 'honkaku' style where all observed and gathered information are shared with the reader and they are non-verbally asked to solve an almost impossible crime. Many of these cases also had gothic or otherwise trappings that rendered an almost supernatural element to them. But...
Except one, all these stories had a tragedy at their core, that completely overshadowed the mystery or detection parts. It almost makes one think, what's the point?
Too much information— often gruesome— drowned several stories. They became boring.
The mechanical/engineering explanations of several 'anomalies' as mentioned in these cases are impossible and unbelievable.
But...
These are tales of broken men and women and the terrible danger that they pose to others and themselves. The author deals with them with utmost sympathy. In the process we get to know a lot about Japan between the wars.
The book also has a very informative and sympathetic 'Introduction' that puts the brief life of Osaka in perspective.
Overall, these are good tales with haunting atomosphere and bizarre cases that ends in tragedy and mourning. Whether to go for them or not...
Your call, please.

[Samichtime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled to solve any of the mysteries. But they were well written, and the stories were quite timeless- whether a result of Osaka or the famous translator Ho-Ling Wong, I’m not sure.🗻

[Ad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keikichi Osaka (1912-1945) was born too late. He wrote his first detective story in 1932 (published thanks to the help of established detective author Koga Saburo), but in 1937 Japan entered the war and society started frowning upon Western-style detective stories as undesirable. Osaka had to switch to spy stories and comical stuff, and was unable to write anything of value. On top of that, he was drafted in 1943 and sent to the Philippines where he succumbed to disease under harsh circumstances (for an impression of those circumstances, just read Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka). So he only wrote detective stories for a short five years and was forgotten after his death. Happily, we now see a re-appreciation of his work which foreshadows the puzzle mystery boom from just after the war. We even have a volume of his stories in English, for which translator Ho-Ling Wong is to be applauded.

The book contains 12 stories, in a representative selection (modern Japanese editions contain together about 30 stories, which is probably all there is). When you have seen other reviews by me about Japanese detective stories (such as Murder in the Crooked House), you know already I am not a great fan of pure puzzle mysteries, but happily Osaka rises above that limitation.

The earliest story in the collection - and the first one published by Osaka - is "The Hangman of the Department Store," and there we still find the kind unrealistic solution that is typical of so many puzzle stories. But all other stories are better, with the sole exception of "The Hungry Letter-Box," which is one of the comical spy stories written in the late 1930s, and indeed negligible. The title story, by the way, rests also on a trick (of the way of looking at things in a different manner) and is not as strong as the following stories which are my favorites:

By far the best story in the book is "The Mourning Locomotive," a story which has nothing to do with puzzles or "honkaku." It is a sad and tragic tale, without a crime, but it contains a mystery behind which we find deep human feelings. The story is set in a railway depot, where the workers have to clean up the trains after deadly accidents have happened by running over suicidal people. They are surprised when at a given time the trains start running over pigs, always at the same location, and with the same driver. Their search leads them to a shop selling funeral wreaths and a mysterious girl peeping through the doors at the back of the shop...

Very good is also "The Three Madmen", seemingly a traditional whodunit, but which by playing with notions of sanity and insanity leads to a great surprise at the end.

I also liked Osaka's final story "The Demon in the Mine," set inside a coal mine with very harsh working conditions. When one miner is sacrificed in the name of safety for the others, it seems as if his ghost is killing those who have sealed him up inside a tunnel...

Impressive is also "The Monster of the Lighthouse," in which a series of baffling happenings seems to point at something supernatural, but there is of course a logical explanation. Although this one is rather unrealistic, the story thrilled me because of the painful human drama.

Another eerie take is "A Cold Night's Clearing," set on a snowy night. The ski tracks leading away from the house where a murder has happened, gradually disappear, as if the murderer had flown up to the sky. The fate of the child in the story is heartbreaking...

The best of Osaka Keikichi's stories have an unusual atmosphere and even hallucinatory quality, but the strong point - in marked contrast to much (Shin) Honkaku fiction - is that he doesn't need any weird-shaped mansions or desert islands, but sets his stories in our unremarkable, daily-life world where his imagination finds weirdness behind the veil.

There is a good introduction by Taku Ashibe (writer of Murder in the Red Chamber).

An excellent book which fully deserves four stars.

(Please see my blog at https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/)

[Fikriah Azhari · Rating 4 out of 5]

❝Memangnya Fusae muncul lagi sebagai hantu? Hantunya membunuh?! Di tengah Ginza, di tengah kota yang penuh dengan musik jazz, muncul di tengah keramaian?! Aduh, ini pasti akan jadi berita besar bagi para wartawan...❞

Hantu Ginza memuat enam cerita pendek karya Osaka Keikichi yang mengajak pembaca menjalankan logika masing-masing untuk mencari tahu kebenaran dari setiap misteri yang disuguhkan. Sebab, selalu ada celah tak terlihat—dan masih diterima nalar—yang menjadi alasan dari semua kejadian yang ada.

👩‍❤️‍👨 Istri Hantu yang menjemput ajal mantan suaminya setelah perceraian penuh derita dan tuduhan pengkhianatan
🏬 Tewasnya pegawai berlumuran darah menyebabkan dilakukan penyelidikan terhadap Pencekik di Toserba
👻 Hantu Ginza yang bergentayangan membunuh pelayan tokonya sendiri sebelum jasad sang hantu ditemukan di dalam lemari
🛣️ Keberadaan Momok Putih yang muncul dan menghilang tanpa jejak
👩🏻‍⚖️ Nyonya yang kerap menjadi saksi di Pengadilan Main-main
🚂 Surat terakhir sebagai penutup duka yang menyelimuti Lokomotif Pemakaman

Keputusan untuk menaruh Istri Hantu sebagai cerpen pembuka menurutku merupakan keputusan paling tepat. Sebab kesan pertama yang diberikan sangat kuat dan membuatku berpikir “Oooh! Jadi cerita seperti ini yang akan kutemui di lima cerpen selanjutnya!”

Pembaca menyaksikan kejahatan yang membingungkan dan tampak mustahil, lalu bersama tokoh yang bercerita—sekaligus berposisi sebagai investigator—kita digiring untuk menelisik petunjuk yang ditinggalkan penulis. Di sini kemudian terjadi permainan kecerdasan antara penulis dan pembaca, ketika pembaca ditekan agar selalu berpegang pada logika dan membuka mata selebar mungkin meski keadaan menggoda kita untuk menuduh keterlibatan hal-hal mistis. Khususnya lagi pada cerita Hantu Ginza yang dijadikan judul utama kumpulan cerpen ini.

Cerita favoritku adalah Momok Putih. Plotnya sebenarnya tidak begitu rumit dan pelakunya bukan sosok yang mengejutkan, tetapi perjalanan untuk menemukannya terasa menyenangkan! Aku merasa tertantang ingin mengungkap keberadaan pelaku yang terkesan lenyap begitu saja. Petunjuk yang diberikan sungguh cerdas, dan sama seperti Otsuki, aku ikut tertipu dibuatnya.

[QHuong(BookSpy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mình thích cuốn này. Các truyện ngắn vừa phải, thường là những vụ án đơn giản nhưng cảm giác như không có lời giải. Người phá án thường là những thám tử nghiệp dư hoặc một công dân có hứng thú với vụ án. Thủ pháp gây án khá độc đáo, đa phần các truyện lợi dụng ánh sáng để gây án, các thủ thuật tưởng như khá là bất khả thi nhưng nhờ có ánh sáng mà gây án được. Vì là có yếu tố khoa học nên phần giải thích đôi chỗ sẽ hơi khó hình dung.

[Hadissa Primanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

waaaaaah gila sih ini bagus bagus banget cerpennya!

sekarang aku paham kenapa Osaka Keikichi ini dijadikan legenda dan acuan penulis misteri setelahnya, termasuk Keigo Higashino.

idenya unik, deskripsinya detil minim dialog, membuat kita berasa dituntun pelan-pelan masuk ke tiap cerita, dan dibuat bingung dengan fakta demi fakta yang muncul, terus penasaran ini ada apa-kenapa/bagaimana sampai boom di bagian akhir baru terungkap semuanya.

keenam cerita di buku ini punya pola yang mirip semua, jadi benar-benar harus sabar (karena aku gak punya kemampuan tebak-tebakan) untuk tau akhirnya.

beberapa cerita ada yang bikin gong 😱 tapi ada juga yang setelah suasana dibangun cukup intens penyelesaiannya cuma "yampun gitu aja" 🙂

favoritku: Lokomotif Pemakaman - pas banget ditaruh di ending karena kayak....ternyata bukan cerita tentang babi.

Pengadilan Main Main juga seru buatku, ternyata pencandu judi emang udah pada kehilangan akal.

Pencekik di Toserba jujur kayak kena prank, Istri Hantu awalnya udah dibikin merinding ternyata hanya karena Sumo. Momok Putih adalah cerita yang masih meninggalkan tanda tanya buatku..jadi anak perempuannya kemanaa?

aku hormat banget sama penulisnya! 🙇🏼‍♀️

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have I mentioned that I hate reviewing anthologies? Collections of stories by the same author are easier to review than ones with stories by many authors, but I’d still rather review individual novels, novellas, and short stories.

Anyway, this made it onto my TBR after I finished Soji Shimada’s The Tokyo Zodiac Murders and went hunting for similar books. The Ginza Ghost starts with an introduction about Osaka and his stories. Like Shimada, Osaka was an author of honkaku (orthodox) mysteries. He was born in 1912 and began prolifically publishing mystery stories starting in 1932. Unfortunately, this was a time when honkaku mysteries were looked at unfavorably in Japan, and so he eventually had to switch to comedy and spy stories. In 1943 he was drafted, and he died of disease sometime in 1945.

The collection includes twelve stories organized semi-chronologically by publication date. I’m not sure why there were a few exceptions mixed in. Perhaps to make sure the volume ended as strongly as possible? “The Phantom Wife” wouldn’t have made for as good a stopping point as “The Ginza Ghost.”

I’d highly advise skipping the portion of the introduction that discusses the individual stories. I made the mistake of reading the first few and, although they didn’t quite include spoilers, they contained enough information to affect the way I interpreted the stories and the evidence.

The first story was a fairly basic mystery. It wasn’t until later in the collection that one of Osaka’s signature elements, the possibility of supernatural involvement, came into play. Although none of his stories contained true supernatural elements, many of them were designed to look like they might. In “The Phantom Wife,” it appeared that a man was killed by his vengeful dead wife. The murder in “The Monster of the Lighthouse” seemed to have been committed by an enormously strong red octopus-like monster. In “The Ginza Ghost,” a young woman seemed to have been murdered by the ghost of a jealous wife. In “The Cold Night’s Clearing,” the murderer looked to be none other than Santa Claus himself.

Another thing that came up a lot in Osaka’s stories was optical illusions. While the way these illusions were uncovered didn’t always work for me, they were certainly interesting. One part, in particular, brought to mind 2015’s “The Dress,” the one that either looked blue and black or white and gold depending on who you asked.

I liked but didn’t necessarily love most of the collection. My particular favorites were “The Mourning Locomotive” (even though it relied heavily on information found in a letter after everything was all over), “The Ginza Ghost,” “The Guardian of the Lighthouse” (tragic and horrific), and “The Demon in the Mine" (wonderful incorporation of the setting). “The Cold Night’s Clearing” was also quite good, as long as you’re okay with your Christmas stories being very depressing. And “The Hungry Letter-Box” was a nice change of pace, the only mystery that didn’t involve a death of some kind. I later learned, after reading the bit about this story in the introduction, that this was the one story in the collection written after Osaka switched to spy stories and comedies.

There were other stories I didn't like quite as much. “The Phantasm of the Stone Wall” was a little boring, and the deductions in “The Mesmerising Light” were largely unnecessary and could have been done away with if one of the characters had come up with better questions. “The Three Madmen” and “The Hangman of the Department Store” were both nice enough mysteries, but not the best or most intriguing mysteries in the collection. “The Monster of the Lighthouse” started off okay but became, for me, the worst story in the collection by the end. Its placement right after “The Mourning Locomotive” probably didn’t help.

Ah, and I feel I should mention really quick that some of the stories have very gory and descriptive crime scenes. The ones that made me cringe the most were “The Mourning Locomotive” and “The Three Madmen.” The first had many grisly deaths by train, including the aftermath of trying to clean up, and the second included a victim whose brain had been removed.

Those with more of a taste for short stories might like this collection more than I did, but it wasn’t bad. “The Demon in the Mine,” the longest story in the book, made me wish that Osaka’s one novel, Yacht of Death, had been translated. The story’s greater number of pages gave him more time to really set up the situation (although the characters still weren’t fleshed out at all), and I loved the way he incorporated the specifics of the mine into the mystery.

The book included a publisher’s note on Japanese weights and measures, as well as a few translator’s notes. I wouldn’t have minded if there had been a few more translator’s notes - there were at least a couple things I was curious about that didn’t get notes.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Ayushi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5

I almost gave up reading this book, almost. Then I realized I only had 3 more stories to go, so I decided to finish it anyway, and the last 3 stories were really good, so I am glad I kept up with them.

There are 12 stories, 12 scenarios of impossible crimes/misfortunes, and embedded with red herrings, a resolution you don't quite see coming. A lot of these crimes could be explained by physics and that's a consistent pattern over the stories. Some stories were hard to follow because of the technicalities but the overall flavour came out to be nice.

[Zeynep Güvenilir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ben polisiye sevemiyorum, basit bir yorum, hiç başlamasam daha mutlu olurdum bir ay başka bir şey okumama engel oldu. Bana ne? Gerçekten polisiyeye tüm yorumun gerçekten bu oluyor, hiç ama hiç merak etmiyorum. Nazaran uzun bir roman olsa belki can sıkıntısından meraklanırdım fakat öykü şeklinde iyice bana ne 4 sayfa sonra açıklanacak sadede gelin türevi çocuksu duygularla kaplanıyorum

[Burcununkitaplari Burcugül Durmaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ciddi anlamda çok sıkılarak okudum. Öykü okumayı severim fakat bu öyküler sade ve duru anlatımda bir tık anlamsızlık seviyesinde kalmış. Çok benlik değildi.

[Thành Ngọc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xuất sắc

[Kelvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful group of short stories. They are all Japanese locked room mysteries written in the 1930s and have been translated into English. The plots are all quite clever and all have scientific explanations. There is also a very good introduction at the beginning regarding the life and history of Keikichi Osaka and his short writing career.

[Nov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mengawali tahun ini dengan genre honkaku dari penulis yang jujur saja namanya juga baru kuketahui dari buku ini, berasa diajak olahraga otak menebak-nebak siapa sih pelakunya.
Kumcer ini terdiri dari enam cerita: Istri Hantu, Pencekik di Toserba, Hantu Ginza, Momok Putih, Pengadilan Main-main, dan Lokomotif Pemakaman. Favoritku tentu saja Lokomotif Pemakaman karena *tragis*, dan juga satu cerita yang bukan hanya detektifnya saja, tapi pembacanya juga berasa di-prank karena pelakunya ternyata ... itu.
Setelah membaca sampai habis lalu kembali membaca Ruang Teh di bagian depan, jadi "ooh iya juga ya, oh penerjemahnya udah kasih hint juga, kok kelewat sih wkwkwk"
Perjalanan membaca yang asik, semoga sisa enam cerita yang lain juga diterjemahkan oleh Penerbit Mai (ngarep banget ini mah)

[pt_NuBe · Rating 4 out of 5]

9 hikaye sizleri bekliyor bu kitapta. Bazıları doğaüstü gibi gözüküyor olsa da günün sonunda taşlar yerine oturuyor. Bir Sherlock edasıyla dahil oluyorsunuz bazen hikayelere. Kim suçlu, ne niçin olmuş olabilir diye sorarken kendinize bir anda bambaşka bir son ile karşılaşıyorsunuz.

[Hương Trần · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[b ü ş r a · Rating 5 out of 5]

çok güzeldi japon klasiklerini okumayı çok seviyorum ☺️

[ceren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tarzım değil + sıkıcıydı.

[Gabriele Crescenzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Ginza ghost" è una gradevole raccolta di racconti scritta dall'autore giapponese Keikichi Osaka, grande giallista dimenticato e creatore di piccoli capolavori pieni di atmosfere cupe ma allo stesso tempo molto umane e toccanti. Ecco una lista di miei giudizi:

THE HANGMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT STORE: 4 stelle
Un bel racconto incentrato sullo strangolamento di un impiegato di un grande centro commerciale, il cui corpo è stato poi successivamente gettato dal tetto dell'edificio. Un piacevole divertissement, con una soluzione fantasiosa e carina.

THE PHANTASM OF THE STONE WALL: 5 stelle
Un uomo vede accadere un omicidio davanti ai suoi occhi, cerca di inseguire i due individui che sono fuggiti dal luogo del crimine e che paiono entrati nell'abitazione davanti cui è avvenuto il delitto. All'interno trovano le orme dei presunti colpevoli, e guarda caso, ci sono anche due gemelli, le cui impronte sono trovate sul pugnale. Caso risolto sembrerebbe, se non fosse per un piccolo dettaglio che scardina il piano del colpevole, aiutato per altro da un miracolo ottico. Davvero geniale nella sua semplicità.

THE MOURNING LOCOMOTIVE: 3 stelle
Perché qualcuno lega dei maiali in prossimità di alcuni binari facendoli morire sotto un treno, già tristemente noto per il gran numero di incidenti che ha subito? Su questo quesito si snoda una trama fatta di sofferenza ed amore. Un testo poco giallo ma molto intenso.

THE MONSTER IN THE LIGHTHOUSE: 5 stelle
Considerato il capolavoro di Keikichi Osaka, questo breve racconto fonde in sé deduzione, il gusto per il macabro ed il soprannaturale. Infatti la vicenda prende le mosse da un delitto sulla cima di un faro che pare essere stato commesso da una piovra gigante! La spiegazione di questa sorta di delitto impossibile è ingegnosa e la verità dietro il crimine è struggente. L'autore riesce ad essere persino attuale in alcuni temi che affronta(considerando che è dei primi anni del 1900)

THE PHANTOM WIFE: 2 stelle
Storia incentrata su un delitto di un insegnante che sembra sia stato perpetrato dal fantasma di sua moglie. Un racconto debole, troppo orientale per poter essere appieno compreso qui.

THE MESMERISING LIGHT: 3 stelle
Racconto che inizia come una sparizione impossibile di un veicolo nel mezzo di una strada senza uscite, ma che alla fine non si rivela tale. Buona la tensione iniziale ma la soluzione è troppo scialba e gli indizi che portano al colpevole sono opinabili.

THE COLD NIGHT'S CLEARING: 5 stelle
Uno splendido racconto sulla scomparsa in un campo aperto coperto di neve vergine delle impronte degli sci di un presunto rapitore e assassino. L'atmosfera del racconto è tragica, così come il disvelamento della soluzione. Tutti gli indizi sono presenti per capire la verità dietro questo "miracolo", miracolo molto cupo.

THE THREE MADMEN: 4 stelle
Storia incentrata su un brutale omicidio che pare sia stato commesso da tre ricoverati in una clinica psichiatrica. All'inizio pare tutto fuorché un giallo classico, piuttosto un racconto d'azione, ma infine viene rivelato un piano crudele e spietato. Ottimo lo stile di narrazione.

THE GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE: 3 stelle
Altro racconto ambientato su un faro in cui, in una notte di tempesta, scompare misteriosamente il figlio del custode. Soluziome carina ma facilmente intuibile (soprattutto dopo aver compreso il meccanismo del faro, già incontrato nel racconto "The monster in the lighthouse").

THE DEMON IN THE MINE: 5 stelle
Uno splendido racconto incentrato su una serie di omicidi in un miniera che paiono essere compiuti da uno dei lavoratori da poco morti a causa di un incendio in una delle gallerie. Delitti impossibili con soluzione grandiosa e logica.

THE HUNGRY LETTER-BOX: 4 stelle
Una storia molto carina su una cassetta delle lettere che paia "inghiottire" le epistole in essa poste. Lo sventurato protagonista dovrà spremere le meningi per capire l'inghippo, dovendo assolutamente recuperare la sua prima lettera d'amore.

THE GINZA GHOST: 4 stelle
Racconto atmosferico su una persona defunta che pare aver ucciso la sua rivale in amore. Il tutto si gioca su un curioso effetto ottico. (Ho notato che l'autore ama questo tipo di illusioni che portano i testimoni a vedere le cose in modo distorto).

Facendo una media matematica, il voto complessivo che do all'opera è 4 stelle.

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of stories was recently brought to my attention by a fellow blogger at A Crime is Afoot. The stories are essentially mysteries, not necessarily murders. Most of them present "impossible" scenarios, with unusual/unpredictable solutions, some featuring illusions or ghosts.

THE HANGMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT STORE, 1932, debut work featuring detective Kyosuke Aoyama
THE PHANTASM OF THE STONE WALL, 1935, Kyosuke Aoyama
THE MOURNING LOCOMOTIVE, 1934
THE MONSTER OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, 1935
THE PHANTOM WIFE, 1947, published posthumously
THE MESMERISING LIGHT, 1936
THE COLD NIGHT'S CLEARING, 1936
THE THREE MADMEN, 1936
THE GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, 1936
THE DEMON IN THE MINE, 1937
THE HUNGRY LETTER-BOX, 1939
THE GINZA GHOST, 1936

These stories could have been written in any language, but at the same time you are aware that the settings are a "different" culture, and notes are provided to explain Japanese weights and measures, as well as cultural terms. The ones that stick with me are THE HANGMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT STORE, where a thief is "hoist on his own petard", THE MOURNING LOCOMOTIVE, about a train that keeps killing people, and THE THREE MADMEN, which is truly horrific.

[ngocdiepp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lâu lắm rồi mới đọc một quyển phải đặt dấu hỏi chấm như này. Mở đầu bằng câu chuyện ba kẻ tâm thần khá là hay và cuốn hút, đúng gu mình nên mình đã expect các phần sau cũng sẽ như vậy. Nhưng không, nó lãng xẹt, tác giả giải quyết các tình huống theo các hiện tượng khoa học nhưng mình thấy khó hiểu, và cũng không đủ kịch tính. Mình khá khó chịu kiểu kể sắp tới sẽ là chuyện kinh khủng lắm, kiểu mở đầu hùng hồn hứa hẹn (cuộc đời chưa gặp chuyện như này bao giờ, chuyện kì lạ nhất, nhớ đến là sợ…bla bla, mình thấy tác giả viết mấy câu này thừa và đôi khi lấn cả phần nội dung í😀) xong sau đó phần kể ra thì thấy chả có gì hay đến vậy, nó chán đến mức mình đọc mấy tháng mới xong dù ngắn🥲. Thật sự thất vọng luôn huhu

[Anh Mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vì vốn là truyện ngắn nên cũng không đòi hỏi nhiều về tình tiết và diễn biến cốt truyện. Truyện chia thành nhiều mẫu truyện nhỏ nhưng thực sự không có cái nào mình đọc mà gây ấn tượng cho mình lắm, có mẫu truyện thì dễ đoán, có những cái thì đọc hẳn 2 3 lần mình mới hiểu được cái thủ pháp gây án vì nó liên quan khá nhiều tới vật lý (này không biết do khả năng đọc của mình hay là do cách diễn đạt của truyện), còn có những cái đâu ra xuất hiện nhân vật phán như thần luôn. Nói chung là diễn biến quá ngắn nên lúc nhân vật chính đoán được cách gây án thì mình cũng kiểu ủa đâu ra mà đoán hay vậy =)))???

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book on a whim as part of Kindle Unlimited and what a fantastic collection of mystery stories. I went into it blind and thoroughly enjoyed each story. What often appears supernatural has a very human and basic solution.

Some of the stories I concluded the truth before all was revealed but still very enjoyable and opens up a new world of mystery fiction for me. Looking forward to reading more of the same in the future.

[S.T. Karnick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of impossible crime mysteries

Osaka is one of the great Japanese g9nkaku mystery writers, writing mostly in the 1930s during the Golden Age of the genre. His puzzles are excellent and well clued,. The stories consistently have strong motivations for the characters, and several have a tragic cast.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories from the ‘30s may be important for the history of Japanese genre fiction and the puzzle mystery but they’re not very compelling as mysteries, perhaps the short story format is too truncated. The tricks - atmospheric mirages etc. - are outlandish. And “Mourning Locomotive”, with its slaughtered pigs and dismembered bodies, is off putting.

[Vini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honkaku style mystery collection, and some of them are scary.