Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I have consistently enjoyed the books I have read from Pushkin Vertigo, so I was looking forward to this one. Murder in the Crooked House is set in the far northern reaches of Japan in the early 1980s. Reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, the cast of characters gathers at an unusual and very remote house at the invitation of an eccentric millionaire. Creepy masks, an even creepier doll, and a uniquely intriguing house plan have the potential to make a spine-chilling mystery. Unfortunately, stilted dialogue and outdated (even at the time of publication) cliches detract from the story.
When a seemingly impossible murder occurs in a locked room of the house, police detectives immediately arrive on the scene. These detectives are of the bumbling variety so common in American crime fiction of the early 20th century, and, like their predecessors, their bumbling quickly becomes repetitive and dull. It is not until late in the story that a needlessly eccentric detective arrives to miraculously solve the case. At this point, the narration changes (again needlessly) from a third person omniscient point of view to a first person point of view. The dialogue throughout the book is wooden and unnatural. That may be a cultural misunderstanding on my part, but I have read other Japanese novels and not had the same experience. Overall, the book was a bit of a slog, but the mystery itself, and its conclusion, was interesting and unique enough to keep me reading.

Set in a remote place on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, Kozaburo Hamamoto, a wealthy hermit and his daughter, Eiko have invited friends and acquaintances to their eccentric house for a Christmas celebration. The next day after they arrive, one of the guests is in his room, dead from a stab wound. Inspector Saburo Ushikoshi and his sidekick, Detective Ozaki are called in to investigate. While the police are trying to figure out the motive behind the murder, another guest turns up dead.
Murder in the Crooked House is a locked-room murder mystery that will keep you guessing till the end. I enjoyed the setting of the crooked house and its odd layout.
Overall interesting and I would recommend.

Thank you to Soji Shimada, Pushkin Vertigo, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an unusual and creative locked room mystery! This book plays with the distinction between public and private face (honne - "true sound", and tatemae - "built in front") in Japanese culture: The characters who gather in Kozaburo Hamamoto eccentric maze of a mansion behave a certain way towards each other, but if you look closely, their façades slip from time to time to reveal their true desires. When one of Hamamoto's guests is murdered in a closed room, the police detective who tries to solve the case has to look very closely in order to perceive the clues as what they really are...

This book is full of descriptive prose and theorizing, and it probably has to be considering the genre. Unfortunately, I guess I am not the ideal reader for this kind of text, but this is not the book's fault: Even for me, a brute when it comes to thrillers and mysteries, it is apparent why this book is a classic. It is smart, different and reflects the time and the setting.

How did I not see it coming? All the clues were there. Mind you, they were not obvious, but they were all there for all to see. Yet, the ending surprised me, even when it made so much sense. Murder in the Crooked House reminds the reader of Agatha Christie (even in the title). There is not just one, but two locked room murders, a cast of suspects and a plot so tight that it’s impossible to put down the book. And these characters are not stereotypical of whodunits, but real, breathing people with backstories and quirks. Not all of them are likable but none are clearly murderers. The detective who finally solves the case is extravagant and crazy like a fox. But it’s the house that really made me pay attention. Almost another character, this crooked house is so lovingly described and beautiful and scary at the same time. Some parts were also so creepy that they could give nightmares to anyone (automatons, dummies and-gasp! clowns). This is a classic whodunit in the best tradition and a masterpiece of storytelling.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Pushkin Vertigo!

This is not a book for everyone. This is a book for those, who read mystery novels, trying to solve the crime before the main character. Why is it? Because Shimada writes his books as puzzles, They are not about nuanced characters or deconstruction of society, they are the purest type of mysteries. Here we have an eccentric millionaire, who build a strange house, and a body is found in one of the rooms. We have a classic locked room mystery to enjoy (and solve). The game is afoot!

A superb locked room mystery by Soji Shimada. Murder in the Crooked House is in the august and best tradition of Agatha Christie.

This is one of the more unusual books I have read in a while. While it starts out as a classic locked room mystery being solved by the Japanese version of Hercule Poirot, it evolves into more of a battle of the wits between you, the reader, and the author. There was some distracting detail and references to famous buildings and architecture that seemed somewhat unnecessary. I also had a hard time keeping the characters straight and some of that came from the translation and the fact that this is a Japanese mystery. This book kept me guessing in a lot of different ways and by the time it ended I realized how much I enjoyed it. This isn’t for everyone and if you are looking for a cozy mystery or a thriller, this is not it. But if you enjoy mystery stories written back in the golden age of mystery writing then you will really like this......with all its quirks! Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

o Crooked House in the northernmost island of Japan.
o 13 people in the crooked house for Christmas Party.
o 2 murders in locked rooms.

Nobody had a motive yet the perfect crime had been committed.
This is the first time I was reading a Japanese book (translated in English). In the beginning, the novel gave insights into the differences between western and Asian styles. There are 8 guests who came to the island of Hokkaido to celebrate Christmas. The island is in the northernmost tip of Japan. The crooked house is a masterpiece of complex design. It has elements of both western and Asian cultures. Kazaburo Hamamoto the owner of Hama Diesel and the host of this party. He built the house similar to the Leaning Tower of Pi
The setting didn’t change much throughout the story. There’s a vivid description of each of the rooms including the placements of the furniture. But the reader might need an extra sense of imagination!
The author narrated the book in third person (not a resident), thus it gives more credibility while explaining the nitty- gritty of the house. The book develops the pace gingerly which paints a better picture of the backdrop. That helps the author build further suspense.
That brings me to the characters of the books, which I believe is a major drawback here. They have an identity but lack in depth in the sense of their personality development. There was a great deal of attention given to the environment, thus the characters look slight little bland.
Overall, it’s a wonderful book because the author could create a fantastic puzzle through the murder mystery. And as a reader one needs to pay attention to each of the description provided for the rooms and the settings if you miss the clue then you might miss an important clue to it. The ending was a complete surprise. That’s again a bonus. The suspense will flabbergast the readers.
I will give it 3.5 stars.

Even though the book could be really baffling with the names and the places and the very weird and eccentric setting of a crooked house, the explanations given were very logical and believable albeit a little confusing. For most part of the book, the pages kept turning themselves because it was that engrossing. It became a bit predictable towards the end, but the climax was still as surprising as ever.
Far fetching and somewhat unbelievable it maybe, but the story did not lack character nor did it lack a mystery to die for. On the otherhand, the characters where disparate, eccentric and very lively. The best thing was none of them was perfect, everyone had flaws and so anyone could be the killer.
The book is based in north Japan in a very weirdly built house by a wealthy and eccentric businessman, Kozaburo Hamamoto, who lived there with his daughter. In the time of holidays, when they were celebrating Christmas with some friends and guests, they receive unwelcome news. One of the guests is found dead inside their LOCKED room. A houseful of suspects but no motive and no apparent way to have achieved the impossible. This book was thrilling, unexplainable and intriguing but it was also confusing and implausible.
My rating : 3/5

I would like to thank NetGalley and the author for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. I chose this book because I didn’t know the author and set in Japan. Obviously I read it in English.

There is a house on the island of Hokkaido, it is big, 4 floors, 16 rooms and a tower that resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The house is crooked and the staircases strangely placed. The owner, an eccentric Japanese millionaire, Mr Kozaburo Hamamoto, lives here with his daughter Eiko.

It is winter and his guests are invited during Christmas for a holiday in this crooked house. Kozaburo invites his guests to solve a riddle. But on the first night, one of the guests is killed. Who did it?

I like the fact that the story looks like a Cluedo game, even if I’ve never played it I know more or less how it works. A house full of possible killers to investigate and the policeman on duty Saburo Ushikoshi who suspects everyone.

The various characters are very different from each other. At the beginning I said “it is that person who will be killed” and in fact I was right, the fact that the author doesn’t present that character and the person is always on the sidelines were giant clues. I have to say that I do not like all the characters, I do not like Eiko and her attitude of “I’m just so good” and Eikichi Kikuoka and his “you have to a bully to be considered”, especially in this period his attitude is really annoying.

The second murder was a surprise but not the third one because I was expecting it even if at the beginning I felt sorry for this third person, but not in the end (and you’ll understand why if you read the book).

I liked the book, because it has an interesting case and as I said because it seems like a Cluedo game, but I don’t like Kiyoshi Mitarai the main character. He should be the protagonist since the series is dedicated to him, but he is only at the end, in two seconds he arrives with a somewhat irritating attitude and solves the case. Also I don’t like the chapters in the library, too long and too “word-vomit”; how many times should the policemen say they do not know what to think about the case?

It has been a different reading from what I’m used, it isn’t that I didn’t like it, the beginning and the end are really “what the hell is going on, I want to continue reading”, it’s the middle of the book that leaves you a little bit disappointed.

I thought about buying the first book in the series, it was already in the cart when I got to the middle of the book that disappointed me a bit so I don’t think I’ll buy it (pity because the case of the first book seems interesting).

More than anything else, Murder in the Crooked House is a puzzle, a tease, a game between author and reader.

On a snowy plain in northern Hokkaido stands the Ice Floe Mansion: a peculiar glass house with sloping floors, a leaning tower, and a maze-like interior. The reclusive owner invites eight guests to spend Christmas with him - a number that dwindles with murder…

I’ve always loved books in which the author breaks through the membrane of the fictional world and directly heckles the reader. In Soji Shimada’s Murder in the Crooked House the explicit challenge to the reader is: solve the murder before the grand reveal. “The clues are all there. Can you solve this case?”

This is not a multi-level novel with rich characterisation, raw socio-politics, and a winsome hero. Not at all. Murder in the Crooked House is foremost a puzzle; a game between author and reader. It’s a classic locked-room mystery with clues cunningly presented and an old-fashioned air reminiscent of the inter-war whodunits. It requires the reader to pay careful attention, exercise imagination, and suspend disbelief. Like a true armchair sleuth, I read the whole thing with pencil and paper on knee - jotting down clues and theories while slipping on red herrings.

As a reader who relishes metafiction, the most enjoyable aspect of the novel for me was the self-awareness of the narrative. There are references to Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, and Edgar Allen Poe. There are warm-up puzzles before the murder. The detectives liken their perplexity to fiction: “…it’s starting to get a bit like a murder mystery novel.” And the narrator makes numerous comments on the progress of the narrative: “To bring it to anything but an extraordinary climax would be insulting to the artist who created it.” The resolution is appropriately far-fetched.

Murder in the Crooked House is part of a contemporary Japanese revival of the classic whodunnit and will appeal to fans of Golden Age detective fiction, locked-room mysteries, and cryptic puzzles.

I found this book very interesting as in the fact that it was a locked room mystery, but unfortunately it required a good imagination of the set up of the house, there were some diagrams but visually it was hard. I got a little confused with the names, but only as Japanese names are unfamiliar to me, it was hard to work out who was who. The story was a typical locked room mystery, but for its day it would have been inventive, as was the motive.
Try it certainly is a little different