At first, I thought it was a bit "meh" when I started reading...but then it got good & I really enjoyed it. I very much would recommend to my fellow reading friends.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pushkin Press, and Yukito Ayatsuji for providing me with a digital copy of this book. This is my honest review.
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I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. While The Mill House Murders certainly kept me guessing, I struggled to enjoy it. I think this book had all the elements of a great whodunnit, but something didn’t quite make it through in execution. The characters fell flat for me and I didn’t get into the mystery at all until I was about three fourths of the way through. Something was missing here. I’m just not sure what it was. While this book may satisfy other readers, it simply wasn’t for me.

I am always looking to expand my knowledge of new to me authors, so when I picked up this book I had no clue that it was the second in a series. I feel though that it was easy enough to read as a stand alone, but I will be going back to read the first book. I’m a fan of creepy, eerie mysteries and this was up that alley. It had slightly different pacing than what I’m used to and I liked it. The premise is along the lines of a locked room murder mystery, which to me adds tension right off the bat. It’s a fairly solid mystery novel that I enjoyed.

Please be advised I received an Advance Reader Copy of this novel for free in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

The book itself is a little slow and keeps going back and forth in timelines. I was really annoyed at the narrator because it was purposely deceiving, which is very Agathie Christie and normally I like that, but for some reason in this book I didn't.

I also wanted to like the other characters, but I didn't find any of them to be likable. Every single character was a horrible person except for one of the victims. She was the only one I liked and we don't get to see her for hardly any of the book.

Overall, if you haven't read an Agatha Christie book OR you really like that vibe then I'd highly recommend this one to you. I normally love that vibe, but it just wasn't for me in this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

I was first taken aback by the Japanese Detective theme. Its not my type.. I'm sure there are people out there who would appreciate this storytelling but sadly not me. This is the second in this series but I don't think I will go back and read the first one. I found it a little slow and boring.

I was really excited to read this because The Decagon House Murders was a five star read for me. I loved that one so much! Unfortunately, this one fell short and I struggled with it very much, to the point that I was unable to finish the book at all. The main issue was that the plot was not engaging or interesting to me—it lacked the murder mystery feeling that creates suspense and tension; I was just bored.
I didn’t feel connected to the characters, and I really disliked the way the woman was described and talked about because it felt very objectifying.
I’m sad this didn’t work for me because this is usually a genre I love.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this second book in the "House Murders series" more than the first one. It was creepy with some horror vibes. I could not put it down. I hope that the next book will be translated ASAP.

While I haven't read the original novel for The Decagon House Murders, the manga series was one of my favourite reads of last year. Admittedly, I went into The Mill House Murders with high expectations, and unfortunately they were not met. I liked the setup of the story and the non-linear storytelling - I think Ayatsuji is really great at coming up with intricate and connected mysteries, and that is still something that really shines in this book. However, I felt like the characters were incredibly flat and underdeveloped - most of the main cast were honestly indistinguishable from one another, and had no personality whatsoever. Yurie had no agency whatsoever and was just there to be objectified, which frustrated me because I didn't feel like the female characters in Decagon House Murders were portrayed in this way. And I think most importantly, I found this book to be extremely predictable, which was the complete opposite of my experience with Decagon House Murders, and I was so disappointed by this. That being said, I did still enjoy the writing and the vibes of the book - it has that very classic murder mystery vibe that I love, so I did still enjoy my time with this book despite my issues with it. I definitely think that my disappointment lies mostly with the book not living up to my expectations than anything else.

I loved The Decagon House Murders so was happy when I got The Mill House Murders from NetGalley. Again we have an atmospheric and intricate locked room/house murder mystery with a small, set group of potential killers. Again I correctly guessed the who and the why pretty much from the start but again I couldn’t quite figure out the how. Highly recommend this for mystery fans especially if you’re looking for something a bit unique and original.


**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc I received 8n exchange for my honest review**

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I would say this is a decent mystery read. It doesnt feel as cohesive as I want it to be. It felt repetitive with the flashbacks and the connection between past and present felt stale. Not much plot progression and characters are forgettable. I kinda know who the culprit is before the reveal so disappointed in it. I wished i like this more since i have high expectation on this considering i loveeee decagon house murders so much so this was a letdown.

I hate to say this but i found this to be underwhelming in terms of plot, execution and characters. Even the mysteries are bland. As much as i love the first book and his horror work, Another, this one failed to meet my expectation.

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy!

I have heard so much about the Decagon House Murders and so when this was available on the website, I didn't throw away the chance. I liked a few things about this book, mainly the format of the mystery. It still feels like a classic who-dun-it, but twisted into a way interesting format. I also liked the double timeline.

And yet, this didn't grip me in the way I wanted it too. It may have been because we only see it from 1 single perspective, but the characters (which for me in a mystery is an important piece) weren't interesting to me, and because I care for none of the characters, the mystery didn't intrigue me the way it should've. And not being intrigued to the main theme of the book makes me lose interest while reading it.

As a huge fan of the previous book (especially the manga, honestly it has one of the plot twist in a while and it just worked sooo well with that media) I was really excited to read more from the author and even though I like it I was also a little bit disappointed, since I couldn't stop myself from comparing it with the previous book.

It starts up slow but from 20% onwards it was really enjoyable. I liked the fact that the connecting point between both novels was the architect and his different weird constructions (I really hope this turns into a longer series). And since I don’t really want to talk about the plot, I’ll say that it was the perfect mix between The Decagon House Murders and Murder in the Crooked House. Again, the plot twist was fantastic as always.

As an overall thought I would recommend this one to lovers of mystery and mostly close rooms murders. I really hope we get some adaptations of this one as well.

Actual Rating: 3.5
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I’ve been wanting to try out some more Japanese fiction, so I knew I had to read this when I saw the beautiful cover and read the description! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Going into this short mystery novel, I was immediately intrigued by the “locked room”-esque setup, and the dual timeline was a great way to keep the intrigue high throughout the entire story!

Unfortunately the character work felt very sloppy, making it extremely difficult to distinguish between characters and keep track of their movements throughout the Mill House. This also made it impossible for me to stay invested enough in the story to feel any suspense throughout the story.

Adding to this, I also had a feeling that I had already solved the mystery in the prologue … I desperately hoped it’d be a red herring, but I turned out to be almost exactly right. While it definitely influence my enjoyment that I had solved the mystery so quickly, the solution was still very satisfying, as there were some elements I hadn’t quite been able to sort out!

All in all, this was a quick and entertaining read, but not much more than that.

The Mill House Murders is out TODAY, so be sure to check it out if it sounds like a book for you!

Allow me to lay out my reading process for this one. I knew it was a murder-mystery and wanted to see if I could guess what was going on. I got a cardboard block, some string, some tacks, and some sticky notes. Id read some, go to my board, and try to figure it out. It was a fun, great experience. I had such a great time. It was well-written, though there were moments that felt clunky or off - which I feel is relatively normal seeing as it is translated. It's never bad. If you want to feel close to characters, this one may not be for you. It's more like trying to solve what's going on, solving a riddle, rather than something where you genuinely care about the characters.

Wow, I was really surprised by this book! I had never read a book translated from Japanese and was nervous about understanding the cultural significance of things but this story was well written and easy to follow! My only problem was the e-book couldn’t change text size and it was super tiny, so I had to zoom in on every page. But it was a great read!

The second novel in Ayatsuji’s classic locked room murder mystery series, The Millhouse Murders introduces a small group of acquaintances that meet annually at the home of a masked recluse, his young wife, and the exclusive collection of his late father’s art - The Millhouse.

“An impossible disappearance, the theft of a painting, and a baffling series of murders” take place during a stormy night on one of these annual visits. The following year, those that survived the night find themselves at The Millhouse again with unexpected guest Kiyoshi Shimada.

I love a good, claustrophobic murder mystery story! The setting is creepy, the murders are macabre, and there is just a general sense throughout the whole novel that things are not as they seem. I did have a good idea what happened early in the story, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment of it and reading on to see how Ayatsuji would (or would not) bring our characters to the final conclusions of the novel.

The first novel in this series, The Decagon House Murders, has been on my radar for a long while, and now I'm even more excited to read it. I will note that I do wish I'd read The Decagon House Murders first as Shimada is introduced there and there were a few comments alluding to it in The Millhouse Murders.

I hope we get more of this series in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Vertigo for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders, though I felt that one was a little needlessly melodramatic in its denouement. The Mill House Murders offers a lot of tantalizingly bizarre puzzle pieces, but they way they come together isn't quite fully satisfying.

At the beginning, there were so many characters and the two timelines. This and the habit of sometimes calling them by their family name and sometimes calling them by their individual names made it difficult to follow the first part of the book. I think it would have been easier if I had a physical copy of the book, so I could flip back and forth between pages as needed. As I kept reading, I was able to better figure out who was who.
As to the mystery, I was able to figure out part of it early on. However, there were other details that were not even on my radar. So I liked that surprise. There was also a twist as to the 'bad guy' that I didn't see coming. I thought that was very clever as well.
I was also intrigued by the way that gender played out in the book. There were moments that felt like traditional Western gender roles were being fulfilled and other times when they felt like they were being subverted. Considering this is a Japanese novel, the fact that there was a difference was not surprising. However the way that difference played out was more enjoyable than I expected.
I have heard about people talk reverently about Japanese murder mysteries and I'm glad I was finally able to pick this one up. I will definitely be looking for more like this.

"The Mill House Murders" is a pretty straightforward mystery: we have a dead body (or two), a person who disappeared, different characters with their own motives to commit murder and a house with its own secrets. And for the most part Ayatsuji just goes by the numbers, with the sometimes annoying, sometimes entertaining, time jumps that bring the action back to the present, back to the night when everything happened. The reason for all these time jumps is Shimada, a friend of the disappeared suspect of murder who has decided to investigate and see if his friend did really kill two people to steal a pretty expensive painting. Little by little, even if the characters are all a little stereotypical, and even if there is nothing particularly surprising Ayatsuji develops the story in a way that is standard, but engrossing. You will be waiting for that 'it is sure it is going to come' twist. However the 'twist' is just pretty average and I found it actually took from the enjoyment I had had with the story. Some people may like it, but, for me, again, nothing really jaw-dropping.

But if you are in the mood for a solid old-style mystery book, this could be a good option.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Pushkin Vertigo for a digital ARC - pub date 5/2/2023.

I am not sure if it was a matter of the translator's skill or the actual story itself but I regret that this dual timeline mystery fell flat for me. I will say it is more a 2.5 than a straight 2, though. The concept is interesting. The atmosphere is suitably unreal and vivid almost to the point where I half expected an element of horror movie to edge into the plot (spoiler: it didn't). I also really found the idea of telling the story as alternating chapters of past and present and clearly marking locations to be interesting; it exposed the parallel nature of then and now in a way that raised the unsettling vibe.

Most of the characters are fairly basic, drawn out in broad strokes and tropes, so that I did not care particularly about their actual fates but yet they harkened back to the stereotypes of favorite old mysteries ala Christie. Some of the characters were outright awful, too.

I think my biggest concern was that I actually knew the killer and most of the ending by about a third in. Not every single bit, mind you, but enough that I had a mild feeling of success at the end. I don't know if that is because I have sharpened my literary detective skills over the years (thank you, Nancy Drew) or if it was that clear. I would be interested to see if other readers also picked it up.