The Decagon House Murders is a Japanese murder mystery book that follows 7 college students as they embark to a deserted island where a horrific multiple homicide has taken place 6 months prior. The students are each mailed letters that are signed by one of those victims, though they aren’t aware of it until it’s possibly too late.
Then the murders start. The students are picked off one by one, which naturally leads to a high level of distrust within the group. Will the group be able to follow the breadcrumbs to solve this mystery on time or will they fall to the same fate as the previous inhabitants?

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The characters can be a little flat, but honestly the story isn’t really so much about them as it is getting to the bottom of what exactly is happening. There are several twists that I didn’t see coming, though the clues were placed throughout. It’s 3.5-4 stars for me. The Decagon House Murders would make a pretty fun summer poolside read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I devoured this book in a day. An old school mystery full of red herrings that kept me guessing till the end. The ending was a massive AHA moment for me! A book where truly everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted!

What a page turner! The Decagon House Murders was set in Japan in the 80s when cell phones haven't been invented yet, so there was no way to get help from the outside world when a group of mystery club went to an isolated island where a massacre had occurred 6 months prior. The translation was a bit odd at times, but overall, it really captured the essences of Japanese culture and of that era (so much smoking!). The plot was intricate and well-paced. Would definitely love to read more of Yukito Ayatsuji's novels!

I was so excited to be offered a copy of this translation that I read it practically immediately. I think this book is marketed perfectly, it was such a satisfying mystery that won't leave my mind any time soon. The cover is awesome and intriguing, and I will be recommending this to fans of mystery/thrillers and translated fiction for years and years.

Seven college students, all members of their school’s Mystery Club, travel to an uninhabited island for a getaway despite it being the site of an unsolved multiple homicide. Things take a turn when mysterious letters signed by one of the murder victims begin arriving, both to the students already on the island and to two former Mystery Club members still on the mainland.

And then then murders start. As everyone begins to turn on each other, it seems as though there’s no way that the dwindling survivors will be able to stop the murderer and get off the island.

I haven’t read much in the way of translated fiction. There’s always the worry that something will be lost in translation, you know? That isn’t the case here. Translator Ho-Ling Wong maintains the Japanese origins of this book and the descriptive prose of Ayatsuji while adjusting parts of the text so that jokes land and ideas flow. I throughly enjoyed this book: the clues sprinkled through kept me guessing, the twists and turns kept me surprised, and when I thought I knew what was happening I would turn the page and realize I had no idea. Y’all, the reveal made my jaw drop. I wanted to read it again once I knew so I could pick up the clues! I think will read more of the hokaku subgenre of mystery, because the puzzle pieces is this were so fun to put together and it kept me stumped right up until the end.

I hope every mystery lover and fans of Golden Age Mystery put this book on their radar. I am so excited to read it! This is a Japanese classic finally translated to English! If loving puzzles and knowing Yukito Ayatsuji plays by the same rules as Agatha Christie, Sayer and Carr isn’t enough, I hope the synopsis will!

Ahhh to be young and ambitious... university students who formed a mystery club decide to go to this island. Why you ask? Well, that island happens to be the sight of a gruesome and still unsolved murder spree that happened the previous year. Of course, the uni students feel they can do better than the police and set off on a mission to solve that murder! If you think that it will not be easy and that they will start to be murdered one by one, you’re right. But the publishers promise this is the last thing you will guess correctly! The Decagon House Murders is described as “clever enough that you’re unlikely to guess, but simple enough that you’ll kick yourself when it’s revealed”.

Technically, I cannot fault this book. The atmosphere and ambience were amazing, and it represents not only Japanese culture, but the year in which it was written, 1987. I appreciate how Yukito stayed true to his plot. The execution was superb. All the characters were developed well and stayed true to themselves. I felt as though they leaped from the page and I was on that island with them. Ayatsuji played extremely fair, and I can promise (without spoiling the book) the solution relies only on what is on the pages.

I am so thankful for having read this book because I have just instantly become obsessed with shin honkaku and Japanese Mystery/thrillers! This book is quite literally unputdownable, the characters are annoyingly vivacious, the puzzle is hard but within reach and the pace and narrative are superb! I do not speak Japanese, but I have to say that I feel as though Ho-Ling Wong did an amazing job translating this book. I have read many translated books, and The Decagon House Murders read complete and as if nothing was lost in translation.

My only complaint is that it will not be published until May 25. I think that Pushkin Vertigo should release at least one book every May 2 from now on. I would love to make getting a new shin honkaku book part of my birthday tradition!

p.s. now I want a decagon shaped house on an isolated island!

#TheDecagonHouseMurders #NetGalley
Thank you, Pushkin Vertigo, NetGalley and Yukito Ayatsuji for an advanced copy of The Decagon House Murders in exchange for an honest review.

The members of a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly, unsolved multiple murder the year before. They're looking forward to investigating the crime, putting their passion for solving mysteries to practical use, but before long there is a fresh murder, and soon the club-members realise they are being picked off one-by-one. The remaining amateur sleuths will have to use all of their murder-mystery expertise to find the killer before they end up dead too. What an enjoyable and fun read! This was impeccably translated and nothing was lost. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie and/or locked room mysteries you will love this story. I highly recommend googling for a copy of the map in the book. It's a necessary part of the storytelling and helps to explain the end. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Dripping with delicious atmosphere, this suspenseful book is a feast for the little grey cells! As I've read hundreds upon hundreds of Golden Age mysteries, this one drew me in, hook, line and sinker. The twists and turns kept coming from the moment the characters stepped onto an isolated island until the fabulous ending. The premise is reminiscent of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None yet completely different. It was written in Japanese and translated into English.

With names such as Poe, Ellery and Leroux, the core members of a mystery club quite willingly decide to stay on an isolated island for a week. A week on an island can zip by quickly but when you're on an island where a cold case quadruple murder mystery is niggling your subconscious and weird things begin happening in the present, including murder, a week can be intense and insurmountably long. Maps in mystery books are always fun, including those in this book. To me it's details like that which elevate a good book to a great book! The descriptions are awesome and there is a plethora of red herrings.

When reading this I was practically looking behind my back for something or someone sinister. The author wrote in tension beautifully and crafted his characters marvelously. If you are hankering after a superb mystery reminiscent of the Golden Age, do read this. It would be a shame to miss.

My sincere thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading the e-ARC of this refreshing, enticing and engaging book. I absolutely adored it! Now am on the hunt for other books written by this author.

I thought this was a good rendition of the old 'And Then There Were None' trope. I would recommend it to people who enjoy these types of mysteries, where characters are killed off, one by one, and suspicion looms on them all at one point or another.

Personally, I felt that the characters weren't developed enough for me to keep track of most things regarding them. It felt very much like there was a lot of telling instead of showing. The twist and ending were great. I was engaged enough to finish the book, but not enough to get invested in the story as much as I'd have hoped.

Exactly how I like my crime stories!

That was a real page turner and I enjoyed every bit of it! If you are a fan of classic Agatha Christie, this is definitely for you. Set on an island and on the mainland, two story lines running parallel, with just the right amount of back and forth. It rarely happens that I need to read more than 90% of the book to find out what the heck is going on.

I am grateful for Pushkin Press and NetGalley for an Advance Reading Copy.

This book got me completely hooked up! I’m not really into detective literature, however I could not stop reading it. And I constantly kept built-up different theories, got one of them right! Interesting characters, mystery, confusion, false leads, very well explained details (which in my opinion is extremely important in this genre). Just a small warning... This book includes dismemberment of human bodies.

It feels like author has been inspired by Agatha Christie story “And then there were none”, but I might be wrong. Group of six students arrive on the inhabitant island where terrible murder happened a year ago. They are all members of Literary Mystery club and are here to write some new story pieces. They stay at the Decagon house, which has ten walls, ten rooms, ten angle tableware. It all feels odd. The murders start to happen. And remaining students have to either solve this mystery or be the next victims.

At the same time, ex-club members (older generation) receive mysterious letters with accusations, and start their own mystery solving. Therefore, we get to observe the story from two different points of view.

I’m impressed how detailed this book was! Timelines, motives, each character looks, tempers. Each character had famous crime author nicknames. At times it felt slightly bland, but I guess that in the end it just made that suspense feeling escalate faster. I’m sure this book would make everyone's brains work and constantly ask questions, but towards the end author gives us a complete conclusion (Which is different kind of satisfaction).

Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Vertigo for E-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Seven members of The Mystery Club go to the remote island. Six months ago that island was a scene of 4 brutal and unexplainable murders as well as one disappearance. The club members plan to stay there for a week and try to solve the crimes. But it is not long before weird things begin to happen and the members start to die one by one. Is someone else doing this to them or is it actually one of them?
I love classic murder mysteries of the Golden age, just adore them. So naturally I've read And then there were none. The Decagon House Murders is very much an homage to it. The details are different but the overall situation is pretty much the same. Agatha Christie's book is more atmospheric and bleak and this book reads lighter than that. But there is an unmistakable Japanese atmosphere to it that I absolutely loved. There was a lot of emphasis on human emotions and there they can drive us, as well as talk of the soul and destiny. You will definitely like it if you enjoy the classic mysteries.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgally, Pushkin Vertigo and Yukito Ayatsuji for the chance to read The Decagon House Murders.
The author makes a point at the start, with one character stating that a good mystery novel is an intellectual puzzle, a game between reader and author. They dismissed gritty realism, preferring the golden age classics: great detective/mansion/shady cast of residents/bloody murder/impossible crimes and never-before-seen tricks played by the murderer. And this is exactly what Ayatsuji provides us, the reader.

I'm not exactly an aficionado of golden age, locked room style mysteries. (I have the same question every time. After the first death, why would you stick around?) I feel they require too much suspension of disbelief. But...I was hooked by the author's puzzle.

This was a lot of fun. It's a quick read, with excellent pacing, that is genuinely hard to put down. It only took me a few chapters to start guessing who would be the first to die (I was right! Unfortunately, because the author did a great job setting it up so that you really felt for and even empathize with the character) and who the killer was (my first instinct was right, but I can't claim victory because at the two thirds mark, I gave up. I couldn't decide. There were just too many logical possibilities. But then when the big reveal happened, I thought, ugh, yes! It was so well plotted. The clues are all there, and it is definitely possible to solve it yourself, which I appreciate. It's always great when you come to the end of a mystery and it all just makes sense, no MacGuffins, no lazy plot twists that come out of nowhere, just a sense of satisfaction and appreciation of a really well plotted tale.

While I did have to suspend my disbelief a bit (again, after the first person died, I'd be finding a way off the island, asap. No way would I be calmly spending the night with a corpse and an unknown killer! I get that they're on an island, with no boat and no phone [again, gotta suspend my disbelief that a bunch of university educated crime enthusiasts would willingly walk into that situation...] but I'd be setting up a signal fire or something pretty much instantly), I still enjoyed it, largely because of the skillful plotting, and how nicely everything came together in the end.

The characters were an interesting bunch. Despite not having a lot of time with each of them, they still managed to come across as three-dimensional, believable people with distinct personalities and motivations. It wasn't hard to get invested in what was happening to them.

The other thing was, I wasn't sure what the translation would be like. I've never read a fiction book translated from the Japanese before. I do read a lot of translated books, generally, though, and it can be hit or miss. The translator sometimes injects too much of their native dialect, and it's distracting. That's not the case, here. While I obviously can't attest to the accuracy and faithfulness of the translation, I feel like they did a good job. I liked the narrative style, and the prose was believable.

This was a great read. Thanks again for the opportunity to check it out!

Written by a member of a University Mystery Writing Club, this book features members of a University Mystery Writing Club, all on their jollies on an isolated rocky island. It used to contain a mansion, built by a reclusive one-time wunderkind architect, but the only building there now is a peculiar decagon annex – ten lozenges of rooms between the decagonal outer wall and the decagonal inner chamber. The students are there to write, and get the aura of the place where the mansion's inhabitants were slaughtered in an unsolved crime just months previously. But they've left before checking the day's post – for they have all received letters saying the death of a girl who was in their club is on their hands. But the letters are signed by the mansion's architect, who we know was killed and burnt along with his house...

The credit of this book is that it has the same kind of clubby gang of detective aces (and cliff-top, Soldier Island-type action) as seen in the likes of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51070523-the-detection-club and also the potential to veer off into a crime where it's a crime not to pay attention to the architecture, as in this publisher's own https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42643538-murder-in-the-crooked-house. Actually, no, for the credit of this book is in how well-created it has been. You get a theory just in time for the characters to pick it apart and demolish it for you. You settle down for a good, but not spectacular, locked-room mystery and there are the hairs on the back of your neck rising. It's very easy to get the willies from these pages.

They're not perfect – having to watch multiple groups of people come to similar conclusions is something a more experienced author might not have forced us to do. Also, I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say I got triggered by some sexism, for while we had a prologue proving a male instigator, the characters didn't – yet nobody ever suspects the female the cryptic letters also could refer to. But this is still certainly very good indeed. And even if you get halfway towards the right solution, which is debatable, the feeling you need to start all over again to see which strands of wool were pulled over your eyes and where is a very strong one. One with four and a half star strength.

An all around good time. Very tidy in a way that...who knew a murder mystery could help me feel less anxious, right? But here we are.

Loved this! It was a great variation on And Then There Were None with a Japanese background
Totally fooled by the misdirection.

A fast read. Different, the characters are very passive it is hard to believe they would actually accused rack other.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is an Agatha-Christie style murder mystery that is sure to become as popular in the West as it is in Japan. In The Decagon House Murders, seven members of a Japanese university's mystery club, with nicknames like "Ellery" and "Poe," converge on a mysterious island where a group of murders happened years prior. Nakamura Seiji died on the island, but before he did, he built the titular Decagon House, a house with a unique floorplan shaped like a decagon. The seven members discuss the case of the Seiji's murder and wonder whether they will come across new evidence for the unsolved case. Unbeknownst to the group, someone is planning another group of murders during their trip.

Here is an excerpt from the prologue of the book, which sent chills up my spine and made me wonder if I really should be reading this book at night:

"Judgement. Yes, judgement.
In the name of revenge, he was going to pronounce judgement on them - on all of them!
Judgement outside the court of law.
He was not a god and so could never be forgiven for what he was about to do - he was completely conscious of that fact. The act would be called a "crime" by his fellow men and, if found out, he himself would be judged according to the law.
...
He had to kill them in order, one by one. Precisely like that story written by the famous British writer - slowly, one after the other."

Since the book's prologue alludes to And Then There Were None, a masterpiece of mystery fiction by Dame Christie, I was expecting the same level of plotting in this book. The book also alludes to other master writers of Golden-Age detective fiction, I wondered if the book was setting itself up for failure with such lofty aspirations. Would The Decagon House Murders live up to the other books that it references? In addition, the synopsis of the book touts a clever reveal that will shock the reader. I wondered if I was expecting too much from this book.

In the end, I have to rate the book an amazing 5 stars! I was hooked from the beginning to the end. I couldn't stop reading and finished the book in a day. I found this book just as good as the masterpieces of Golden-Age detective fiction. Overall, The Decagon House Murders is a stunning mystery, and I recommend it for all readers who enjoy mystery books. If you've ever enjoyed reading an Agatha Christie novel or watch Sherlock Holmes on TV, you will undoubtedly enjoy this book. You won't regret checking it out when it comes out in May!

Seven friends venture to an isolated island for a week of bonding over their shared love for detective fiction. They leave both civilisation and their real persons behind, adopting the names of their beloved, favourite writers for themselves. They also, unknowingly, take on the contents of their books, as well as the names that adorn the front covers, as events quickly turn sinister and, with no escape from the island, they only have their own astute minds to help save them from their bloody fates.

This was a twisted, little story and I greatly appreciated witnessing it unfold. Death was quickly welcomed into the plot and a And Then There Were None scenario was introduced, where both reader and remaining characters attempted to puzzle out who the criminal in their midst was.

Despite adoring the sinister plot, the dialogue appealed to me far less. Perhaps there was some elegancy that was lost in translation, but I found the character interactions to feel stilted and unnatural. Conversations would unfold in a manner that took me out of the story and often felt like scenes were created only to fill the reader in on information that should have been already known to the characters, and therefore not something they would naturally discuss. An example of this was when the captain manning the vessel that transported the friends to the island commented on their rather bizarre names. They responded that they were merely names borrowed from their idols. Pages later the friends then have a similar conversation with each other where one states the same facts concerning their self-given names. If these were names they had been using with each other for years then why would they suddenly discuss it with no other motive than to inform each other on something they should already be aware of? This might seem petty but I did find myself drawn from my immersion, on occasion, due to it.

I became disengaged with the unfolding events, about half-way through the book, as well. Events slowed and the focus returned, again and again, to the characters casting their suspicions on one another.

The end twist, however, was probably one of the best I have read! I am mad not to have loved everything that led up to it in quite the same way, as the conclusion, with its grand reveal, was utterly ingenious and highly original. I would recommend this book to any thriller reader and classic crime lover, just so they get to experience Ayatsuji's clever dupe for themselves.

Firstly, wow.

If you love the intricacies and twists of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ then you will adore the English translation of Yukito Ayatsuji’s ‘The Decagon House Murders.’

The premise is this; seven students decide to spend a week on Tsunojima Island off the coast of Japan. Six months earlier the previous residents of the island were brutally murdered, and the case remains unsolved. Soon after the students’ arrival they begin to suspect that someone intending to kill them one at a time, but their identity is currently unknown. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, a former member of the student club receives a letter blaming him for the death of a young woman who died at a party a year earlier, and the girl in question just happened to be the daughter of the murdered island owner. After learning that several other people received a similar letter, he too begins to suspect that something sinister is happening.

I had to get my pen and ‘murder board’ notebook out for this one as it was truly excellent. From start to finish you could get closer to who you think is responsible and then be sent off in a completely different direction. I think at times I was too confident in my ‘armchair detective’ role honed from seasons of Midsomer Murders, and the author somehow knew this. The second I got even remotely confident in my far-flung theory, he shot it down in an aggravatingly logical manner. However, it wasn’t impossible to work out who was responsible, as long as you looked carefully past all the threads of misdirection expertly woven around this tale. It would be too easy to claim this is a rip-off of ‘And Then There Were None’ – true it held the basic plot premise for this novel, but the twists and turns were excellently contrived and implemented.

I was eventually confident I had worked it out as I was about 2/3 of the way through the novel, circling the name viciously before I had to sit back and wonder how the hell they did it. Then came the big gasp moment, which, despite having a rough idea who was responsible, made my jaw drop and I had to put my tablet down for a second. Nothing is as it seems in the novel, both for you or the characters, and it is wrapped up excellently in the final chapter which soothes all your burning questions by tying up all the loose ends in a way that makes you kick yourself for not seeing these things before (as they were there, I checked!)

My only advice for any reader is to get yourself a copy of the map of Decagon House with their names in each room (you can get one from the first result on Google Images). This doesn’t provide any spoilers, but it definitely helped me envision the house, where people were and their relation to the other rooms (it is difficult to imagine a house with ten sides!). It was also far neater than my hastily scribbled drawing which looked like some misshapen circle instead of the precise angles of the book!

My thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the e-ARC of this translation!