少年探偵団

少年探偵 #2

by Edogawa Rampo

「黒い魔物」の噂が東京中に広がっている。次々と起きる少女誘拐事件。そして篠崎家に認び寄る黒い陰の正体とは?「のろいの宝石」の言い伝えは本当なのか?数々の謎に名探偵明智小五郎と小林少年率いる「少年探偵団」が挑む。

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, Mystery, Fiction, Detective

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), better known by the pseudonym Rampo Edogawa ( 江戸川 乱歩), sometimes romanized as "Ranpo Edogawa", was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction.

Reviews

[Angel 一匹狼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, what can I say about Rampo Edogawa and his "Shounen Tantei" series that I haven't said before? Not much, probably. But I will try.

We get back to our Kobayashi (and his pretty and rosy cheeks) and his army of primary school detectives. We get back to mysterious occurrences that you know from page one where will they lead to. We get the special appearance of famous detective Akechi. We get some of those amazing flights of fancy that are so typical in his novels (here for all the ages). We get some moments that we have seen before and we will see again in other books of the series (the biggest danger in this series is that is basically the same book over and over).

But it is still fun, some moments are really original and surprising, and there is the same cheeky, mischievous fun that permeates the whole novel and that is so typical of Edogawa's writing style and mood creation. It is not a perfect book, but it is a whole lot of fun.

The best: some creative moments; the mood and the tongue-in-cheek writing style; the characters

The worst: You have read all before with just some differences in situations and environments

Other options: any other book in the series, in particular the really funny first one; you can also read "The Three Investigators" for some old style detectives; if you are a little older, I recommend Edogawa for adults (he is just great)

7/10

(Original Japanese version)

[阿近 · Rating 4 out of 5]

　　拜劇場版之賜，這陣子一直陷在《名偵探柯南》坑裡面，就想著要看江戶川亂步的作品，就借了《少年偵探團》回來看，小說裡可以確實感受到《名偵探柯南》一些角色位置和情節設定的來源，看著小林少年我腦袋裡會浮現圓谷光彥的形象；二十面相那不按牌理出牌、總能九死一生的大盜職涯軌跡也很容易令我聯想到怪盜基德。明智偵探倒有點難以想像成江戶川柯南或毛利小五郎的印象，如果換成工藤新一好像比較能夠經常，但故事裡經常與定位近似二十面相的怪盜基德對決的是柯南。總覺得這種有點套皮的聯想會同時冒犯到兩位創作者的讀者。

　　《少年偵探團》用字遣詞讓我想到日本的紙芝居，街頭說書人用木箱和圖畫紙說故事的氣氛，文字呈現出來的氣氛很明顯地透露出筆下角色有著正被觀眾欣賞的意識，故事推進到一半，作者就像說書人一樣，突然跳離所有角色的意識，用旁白立場向觀眾說著「之後會怎麼樣呢？敬請期待」之類的話。無論寫作筆法或情節安排，都在在展現出本作故事的目標客群是兒童到少年這個年齡層的讀者之意念。

　　畢竟是成書於八十幾年前的著作，有些橋段例如怪人面相逃脫的手段是挖地道之類的，讀來就頗有一種古早味，感覺是現代社會不太容易採取的犯罪手段。《少年偵探團》旨在娛樂兒童、少年讀者，故事裡最講究的是抓捕二十面相過程裡的驚險刺激，不太會有真的很殘忍血腥的事件發生，連我以為最後被明智偵探逼到地下室，選擇自爆身亡的二十面相，最後也留下其實他再度平安脫逃的暗示。害怕殘酷、陰暗情節的人，可以沒有太多負擔享受這部稍有怪誕色彩的冒險小說，如果我是十幾歲時讀這本書，說不定也能沒想太多的沉浸於書中描繪的推理探險記吧。現在的話，理智上可以體會到情節設計的趣味性，情感上卻無法全然投入其中。