冷たい密室と博士たち Doctors In Isolated Room

S&M series #2

by Hiroshi Mori

同僚の誘いで低温度実験室を訪ねた犀川助教授とお嬢様学生の西之園萌絵。だがその夜、衆人環視かつ密室状態の実験室の中で、男女２名の大学院生が死体となって発見された。被害者は、そして犯人は、どうやって中に入ったのか!?　人気の師弟コンビが事件を推理し真相に迫るが……。究極の森ミステリィ第２弾。

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Fiction

422 pages, Paperback Bunko

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.

[singingdalong · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

森博嗣のS&Mシリーズ第2作目にあたる『冷たい密室と博士たち』は、金属のような冷気を放つ論理と理系ミステリの魅力が詰まった一冊です。本作の探偵役である犀川教授は、犯罪の動機や人間の感情には無頓着で、密室トリックをまるで「純粋な数学の難問」のように解き明かしていく徹底した「思考機械」です。そんな彼を急かし、卓越した観察眼と行動力で情報を集めるお嬢様学生・西之園萌絵とのコンビネーションが、この冷徹な物語に絶妙な推進力と面白さを与えています。

実は前作『すべてがFになる』よりも先に初稿が書かれていた本作ですが、ミステリとしては読者に「自分にも自力で解けるかもしれない」と思わせる適度な難易度が特徴です。到底手が出せない難問よりも、読者の挑戦意欲を熱く刺激し、傲慢なまでにクールな探偵と一緒に謎解きへと没入させてくれます。

本作の最大の魅力は、最後のページを閉じた後、思わずもう一度本を開いて読み返したくなる引力があることです。すべての真相を知ってから振り返ると、窓のない準備室や構造図に隠された意図、そして犯人の心理状態を暗示する伏線が、いかにテキスト内に巧みに散りばめられていたかに気づかされるはずです。理系の知性が生み出した冷たくも美しい論理のパズルを、ぜひ堪能してみてください。（星3.5評価）

ブログで詳しいレビューを読む

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gefiel mir besser als der erste Teil!