The Decagon House Murders

"My love for closed room mysteries led me to this brilliant book 📖. Quite an assessment given that I am only a few chapters in. This Classic mystery is translated from Japanese and is one of the first from a group named The Honkaku Mystery Writers Club. Join me! Or if you have read any of these fill me in and teach me more about them. 😀"

"I didn't think I'd like this book as much as I did but I really quite enjoyed it! The ending was unexpected!"

"Too good! Could not put it down! "

"It's a good mystery novel if you can get over the horrible way the only two female characters are depicted. Even though I hated all the "she replied hysterically", I did enjoy the story. "

"(3.5 stars, rounded up) I had trouble getting into this one at first, it felt like not much was happening related to the murders. The “mainland” chapters also felt like nothing was going on in them, and it was weird how they just stopped appearing suddenly. About halfway, the story then suddenly picked up and it got very suspenseful and shocking, the ending was also unpredictable (but I might have gotten the identity of the murderer wrong because of the confusing Japanese names and nicknames lol.) I can definitely see the “And Then There Were None” influence, there was a similar idea with multiple people dying one at a time in a secluded setting, but this had its own storyline too. If you can handle waiting for things to happen, I recommend this for a unique, niche murder mystery."

"5/5 stars. one of my new favorite books"

"Well I do like a good mystery. And this one had me fooled! What a clever way of “retelling” the Agatha Christie classic, And Then There Were None, while being a wholly original story. I first came across this book via a Book Riot article (link below) discussing global styles of mystery novels, and the only genre I hadn’t read was Shin Honkaku. You can imagine my pleasure when this came up as a choice in my own mystery book club (pretty meta is you think about it), and I’m glad I read it despite missing the meeting.<br/><br/>While it was slow reading for me, despite being a fairly short novel, I did enjoy the logical process that is a defining aspect of this genre of books. I’m curious to read more shin honkaku novels, and I’m glad I started with a landmark story that jumpstarted the popularity of the style. Like the golden age books it honors, this is proof that murder mysteries are ever evolving and there is always something new to be introduced, despite the 100+ years of history. <br/><br/>https://bookriot.com/global-styles-of-mystery-novels/"

"10/10! I had a hard time keeping their Japanese names and English names together. I would recommend writing their names down on a bookmark"

"As much as I wanted to love this book, it wasn’t right for me. I like my mysteries with clues scattered throughout them. At the end, I want to slap my forehead at all the information, right in front of me, that I neglected, believing it had no weight in determining the stories conclusion. This book was like trying to play a game of chess blindfolded. <br/><br/>Ultimately, I gave it a 3/5 because the author obviously did try to pay homage to some of the great mystery writers but between the clunky dialogue that I assume was a translation issue and having no clue who said what most of the time, I can’t call this one of my favorites. The ending was a supreme letdown too.."

"It was a Puzzle mystery that I enjoyed trying to solve"