This took me quite a while to get into and I didn't really enjoy it. I thought the idea of this closed room mystery being revealed through the same set of events but different POV's so uniquely interesting and I was intrigued but it didn't work for me. I don't think it was developed enough and it was a bit boring, possibly the translation didn't work completely but I wouldn't recommend.

The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji checks all the boxes that define a Locked-room mystery – an isolated setting, a horrible crime or two, and a limited set of people, almost all of whom are suspects – and offers something more.

Fujinuma Kiichi – son of legendary painter Fujinuma Issei – retreated to the Mill House more than a decade ago following the fatal car accident that crippled and disfigured him and killed his best friend Masaki Shingo’s fiancée. Confined to a wheelchair and forced to wear a mask all day, Kiichi leads a reclusive life in the Mill House – powered by its own water wheels that gave it the name – which stands alone in the mountains of Okayama prefecture, accessible only by a single road prone to be cut off in bad weather. In addition to Kiichi, his young and beautiful wife – Yurie – and the staff consisting of a butler and a housekeeper, the secluded house is also home to every single work that Issei had painted, which Kiichi, for undisclosed reasons, had bought back years ago to keep them hidden from the world. Every year on the death anniversary of his father, Kiichi allows four ardent devotees of the master’s work to visit the House and see the paintings. In the year 1985, the strange-but-routine visit turned became a terrible tragedy when the lady housekeeper and Masaki Shingo, who had been staying in the house for a few months at the time, were murdered, and one of the four visitors, a humble Buddhist priest named Furukawa Tsunehito, went missing with a valuable painting. Stormy weather and unrelenting rain had rendered the House inaccessible during the period, preventing the police from doing anything of use about the crimes.

Exactly a year later, three of the original devotees turn up for the yearly ritual, and the stormy weather is not far behind. This time, Kiichi is forced to host one additional guest named Shimada Kiyoshi who has connections that make it impossible for Kiichi to turn him down. Kiyoshi declares that he used to be a close friend of Tsunehito – the absconding murder suspect from the previous year – and expresses his confidence that the priest could not have committed the horrendous crimes and his intention to find out the truth. As the visit proceeds, Kiyoshi interviews all those who were present during the tragedy and tries to reconstruct the events of the fateful occasion. However, before he could make any headway, bewildering things reminiscent of the previous year’s events start to happen, and it seems that more lives will be lost unless the killer – someone among the little group – is identified and stopped.

The Mill House Murders is a winner both as a mystery and a suspense thriller, with solving the past crimes going hand-in-hand with preventing future ones. Each occupant of the Mill House – guest and host – is as peculiar as the House itself, and fully deserve the reader’s attention and curiosity. The narrative switches between the present day’s events and those of a year ago in each chapter, alternately told in first-person by the masked master of the House and in third-person by an omniscient narrator. The author expertly builds the atmosphere with vivid descriptions while enticing the reader to solve the mystery by providing clues swathed in red herrings. The denouement is utterly satisfying and unexpected, though I think I had a hazy, unformed hunch about the killer’s identity at the back of my mind. I will not deny that there were a few incredible coincidences and certain inexplicable actions by a few characters in this novel, but those are inevitable for the genre, I feel. I am happy to have had the opportunity to read this engaging piece of Japanese fiction thanks to the seamless translation by Ho-Ling Wong and the commendable efforts of Pushkin Press in bringing such gems to the world audience, and am looking forward to a lot more!

My gratitude to the publishers and NetGalley for the Digital Review Copy of The Mill House Murders in exchange for my unbiased review.

I was so happy for Yukito Ayatsuji getting another book translated. 'The Decagon House Murders', the first book in this series and his debut novel is to this day one of my favourite mysteries ever and I love the idea of 'Another' by him which I like the Anime more though.
I loved the writing style of this book and the two timelines. And even though we have timeline and persepctive changes we don't get any problems like it feeling repititive. And it overall read away like I was reading 2 novellas at the same time.
But, a big BUT, I literally guessed both of the main plottwists 16 pages and 50 pages into the book and even collected evidence. In his first book I only had the right gutfeeling but the conclusion was still INSANE and I loved it! But in this book I knew a lot of the stuff that was written and for some part I felt like Ayatsuji was overdoing it with giving hints. I hope that I just got it because I read a lot of (japanese) mystery and watch a lot of mysteries and I just know the plotdevices by now and others don't have the same experience. What kind of saved it a bit at least was the last twist that had nothing to do with the actual reveals. It just gave me the vibes I love so much about 'Another' as well.

I really loved the writing style but because the reveals where quite boring for me I can't give it more than 3.5 stars, sadly. But I hope Pushkin Vertigo will continue to tranlsate and publish this series! I love the detective and Yukito Ayatsujis writing style.

I'll upload my the my Journal spreads that I used to guess along and my phone screenshots of my immediate thoughts I jot down while reading on my instagram. You'll see that the first main plottwist was my first note ever on this book and way before any other hints. I even wrote down it must be a red herring because it's too early for that to be the resolution I was like 16pages into the book.

Thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw that the author of The Decagon House Murders had a new book being translated into English, I had to click "request" right away! The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji is unrelated to the previous book - except that they are both entertaining mysteries. The story revolves around Detective Kiyoshi Shimada who arrives at the Water Mill House to investigate a death, a disappearance, and a theft. How are these events related? Hidden secrets and mysteries abound at the castle-like Water Mill House.

Here is a mysterious excerpt from the opening chapter:

"The events of the night had already been enough to feed their fear.
A woman fallen from the tower.
A painting disappeared.
A man vanished under seemingly impossible circumstances.
Could anyone tell where they were heading, where all these events pointed?
The night was drawing to a close. A night that had toyed with them. It was only at dawn that finally, the bizarre culmination of all that had happened in the house would become apparent."

Overall, The Mill House Murders is an excellent new translation of a Japanese mystery. I think that you either like Japanese detective fiction or you don't. It's not for everyone. But as for me, I am a huge fan and will read any of this author's works that are translated into English in the future. One highlight of this book is the great reveal of the locked room mystery. I was definitely surprised by the reveal. If I had to complain about 1 thing, I would say that sometimes, it was difficult to tell which character was which. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of mysteries in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

This is a classic mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie. The Japanese aspect drew me in, but I do think if the characters' names were anglicized I wouldn't have a reason to think it was in Japan. I didn't expect the twist & I found the story fun overall. It did take me a bit to get into but it picked up pace. The female characters were almost physically painful to read about. There isn't really depth to any of the characters, but I find older mysteries to be like that. Taking that into account the female characters have even less depth than the male ones. I do find Yurie's story to be interesting in a horrible way. Written differently, she could have been at least a little cunning & the story could be a sort of warning against toxic masculinity. This book is 40 years old though, written by a man, so I don't expect much, unfortunately

This is the second book I have read by this author (the first being The Decagon House Murders, which I loved!). I am really enjoying translated locked-room mysteries, for some reason. I think I like the way the translated prose reads--it's not overly simplistic, but the language tends to be more literal and less flowery. In terms of the actual mystery, I do think that you'll never...really be able to guess/figure out what is happening, but I still had a good time. I can definitely see where people won't like this, though. Overall, this was a well-crafted, dual-timeline mystery that, though it is the second installment in this series, can be read by itself!

This is the second book I’ve read by the author and I’ve totally loved both. I’m so glad I got a chance to read it. I’ve totally fallen in love with the genre and can’t wait to do a deep dive further into the genre and more of this author’s work as well as others. This book kept me guessing the entire time and the twists and turns kept me on my toes for the entire book. I absolutely loved the atmosphere created by the author!

I never got into this. I understand what the author is trying to do in that they’re describing the same set of events from a few different POVs, but I find the story gets lost too easily. It didn’t hold my interest and I had to force myself to read it.

I appreciate access to the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Mill House Murders, with a detailed translation from Ho-Ling Wong, is a murder mystery centred around a collective of characters who figure out the culprit(s) responsible for three distinct crimes: a murder, a disappearance, and a robbery. Ayatsuji’s writing introduces the readers right away to one crime scene before taking on a non-linear narrative approach to describe the happenings at Mill House and the detective work involved to discover the criminals. The story is immersive and the detailed descriptions of the characters, their personalities, and their reasons for being at Mill House are Ayatsuji’s greatest strengths. Overall, this is an interesting take on the detective genre.

The Mill House Murders is a classic mystery novel akin to Agata Christies'. The Mill House Murders occur in the Mill House, a fictional manor built in the mountains north of the Okayama prefecture. The story has a dual timeline: one set in 1985 and the other in 1986. The plot happens in 2 days – the 28th and 29th of September, in both years. We follow a group of characters who arrive at the Mill House, owned by Fujinuma Kiichi, to attend the annual exhibition of his father's paintings. Fujinuma lives with his wife, Yurie, butler Kuramoto Shoji, and housekeeper Nozawa Tomoko.
In the beginning, we get a list of the characters and two maps of the manor. The novel is heavy with descriptions of rooms and hallways. It focuses on the spatial dimension, where we, as the reader, follow the main character as he moves through the house. The detailed descriptions eventually become repetitive. The writer chose an interesting narrative approach when telling the events in 1985 and 1986. Ayatsuji uses the third-person narration for the past timeline and the first person for the present, from Kiichi's perspective. The reasoning behind that becomes more apparent as the story progresses.

The writer narrowed down all characters to one distinct characteristic. For example, Mitamura is a handsome surgeon, Mori is a bespectacled professor, and Yurie is an unobtrusive beautiful girl. For most of the story, a lamp could replace Yurie. I am referring to the sexy lamp test, which shows how much women are present in media. If you can substitute a female character with a sexy lamp and nothing in the story changes, the story fails the test. The Mill House Murders fails the test for the most part. Yurie is a quiet, submissive, doll-like character. Her character clumsily develops in the last few chapters of the book. Besides Yurie, two other female characters are the past and present housekeepers, Negishi Fumie and Tomoko.

We get the whole backstory of Kiichi's life and how he came to live in the secluded manor with Yurie. He is peculiar because he constantly wears a mask to hide his disfigured face. Years before the events of the book, Kiichi was in a car accident with his friend Masaki and Masaki's girlfriend. Kiichi was hurt, with severe burns all over his body, while Masaki suffered head trauma. That event traumatized him, and he decided to depart from city life and society and live in the mountains with limited human contact. He reminded me of Erik (the phantom of the Paris opera).

Regarding the plot itself, it doesn't add anything new to the genre. In 1986, a series of murders, followed by the disappearance of one of the characters with one of the paintings, caused panic during the art exhibition. But the arrival of Kiyoshi Shimada to the manor will shed some light on the horrifying events. He is Hercule Poirot of this Japanese mystery. The Mill House murders are a sequel to the Decagon House Murders. They're not closely related, and you don't have to read Decagon House before Mill House. Shimada is a character that appears in both stories, and he has a connection to the architect Nakamura Seiji who designed both houses.

My overall thoughts on this book are that it was fun, easy, quick to read, and nothing more. I usually don't read mysteries, but I wanted to try this as it is a classic. I guessed half of the mystery elements while reading, so the ending was not as shocking.
Thank you Netgalley for the review copy!

I think fans of Agatha Christie and other mystery novels will enjoy this novel, it has the setup and structure of a classic mystery. The fact that it is set in Japan makes it unique and appeal to a wider audience that might not be used to reading the genre. I liked the setting of a remote castle in a rainstorm with a mysterious host and guests from different walks of life, it definitely creates a creepy feeling. The structure of a dual narration from the past and present also made it stand out from other thriller novels. I did feel like the narration made me not get to know or get attached to any of the characters as it was very plot-heavy, but it still held my interest. The ending is definitely unpredictable, and although it felt slightly over-explanatory it still made for an overall positive reading experience!

what a snoozefest. the writing was extremely plain, the plot overexplained and the objectification of women YOUNGER THAN ME was also gross as fuck. thanks netgalley for the arc, but it's a pass from me.

Now that I came to do the review I realize that it is the mangaka of Another and I was surprised. That's what I get for not being able to remember people's names. Too bad, Maggie.

Well, The Mill House Murders has things that I really liked and others that I didn't connect at all.

In the first place, I felt that many times it was tedious or that I couldn't understand what was happening. There are several characters, many different places and although a map and a list of characters are provided (that I even wrote them down with their description) it is a bit complex to go back and forth all the time to see the map. If it were physical, maybe it would be more comfortable.

Everything is a HUGE confusion until the last pages where everything happens very fast and we realize that we were NEVER going to be able to guess what happened. NEVER. Believe me they will never be able to get it out.

The way he has to explain everything that happened, the moments, and I can't say much more because it could spoil something. That was really wonderful and I had to read it several times because there were things that I still didn't understand, and maybe they think that's a bad thing... but no. When I read it again it was like everything became more clear to me and I could see the connections that I OBVIOUSLY couldn't see before.

And while this is the second book in the series, I didn't feel like he didn't understand what was going on. I'm definitely going to go for the first one.

I just can't resist a traditional locked room mystery. This is exactly that, with the added wrinkle of contemporary Japanese architecture (contemporary as of the 1970s, that is; this book takes place in the mid-1980s.) I didn't realize that this was a part of a series of Golden Age mystery tributes featuring unusual residential architecture when I requested it; I'll have to track <i>The Decagon House Murders</i> down. There's something mysterious about this fictional architect, too, even more than the murders in his houses! I liked the two-track narrative switching between the present of 1986 and the original set of murders of 1985 too. The POV adds just the right amount of obscurity.

My only quibble is that the language in this translation is rather spare, and I don't know if it's the translation itself or an artifact of the original. It reminded me of a lot of light novel translations.

Every year, a small group of people make their way to the Mill House—the only way to view the art painted by Fujinuma Kiichi’s father.

But this year, Kiyoshi Shimada arrives unexpectedly—and wants to uncover exactly what happened the year previously.

If you enjoy a well crafted mystery, this book is for you. The plot is impeccably crafted and jumps between the events of two years seamlessly. Each character develops through the course of the book and the tension slowly builds before coming to an intricate yet impactful end.

I enjoyed that the flashback chapters were perfectly interspersed with chapters where questions arose, adding to the overall flow of the narrative.

This is not the first book of this series but can be read independently (although I will absolutely be reading the first book now!)

While translations may get clunky or feel off at times, the translation here was crisp yet evocative. Kudos to the translator for this!

I actually liked the theme of the story in this book. The mix of art, disaster and mystery was fresh to me. But somehow I felt that I didn't get the atmosphere of the story in this book. The characters were not strong enough to make the tension stucked in my mind.

Another brilliant murder mystery from Ayatsuji.
The mystery unfolds simultaneously in the past and the present, a year apart, making it a very engaging reading experience. Hidden identities, mysterious houses, secret passages, clever gimmicks. Very trope-y as far as murder mysteries go but everything works well together. Looking forward to more of this series!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC!

Well, this didn't really work, did it?

I was very intrigued by everything about the book: it's Japanese literature, the cover looks cool, I love classic murder mysteries set in weird houses with a colorful cast of larger-than-life characters. You'd think The Mill House Murders should've been right up my alley, but lo and behold, it wasn't.
First off, I liked the house and how Issei's art connected the characters. I wish the book had been about him.
I don't know how you make a wheelchair-bound burn victim living in a secluded mansion in the mountains boring, but Ayatsuji somehow managed to do so. None of the characters were particularly memorable and the depiction of Yurie was downright awful. Our pov character is a 40-year-old man who's married to a 19-year-old girl. A girl he married when she was only 16. And who he took in after her parents died. When she was six. And who wasn't allowed to interact much with the outside world, e.g. going to school or watching TV, until a year ago. Yikes. Granted it's a novel from the 80s, so I didn't expect a feminist manifesto, but come the fuck on.

I don't feel like the jumping back and forth between past and present added anything to the narrative. I don't think plot twists need to come as a complete surprise (a lot of the times they are used to make a story seem smarter than it is and I much prefer a plot twist that could have been reasonably guessed or at least completely reframes the whole narrative), but I literally knew what happened on the first ten pages. I'm not even kidding. I wondered "whodunnit" for the incredible time span of 10 minutes. Plus, the abrupt ending left me kinda "????", so yeah.

Sadly, The Mill House Murders missed the mark for me. I didn't find it bad enough to dnf and got through it pretty quickly, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it. It was entertaining enough for me not to give it one star, but if you like murder mysteries, just stick with queen Agatha Christie.

“𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅. 𝑨𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕, 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔, 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓.”

I recently learned about Japanese fair play mysteries from Gigi Pandian’s The Raven Thief, which inspired me to choose this one. With its nods to secret passageways and unique architecture, I can see why Pandian highlighted the genre in her own book!

This is an English translation of the Japanese book first published in the late eighties; I feel it served me well as an introduction to the honkaku subgenre. Right away, I loved how the text is divided into sections labeled with the room and the time; it reminded me a bit of the Clue game board as characters move around the house. The mystery itself is full of tension, as pieces are revealed in the present and the past narration. There’s a circular feeling to the narration: what happens in the present also happens in the past to a degree, which helps to show certain clues in a different light, especially as you try to solve the case alongside the characters. The first person narration style reminded me a bit of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart (for good reason). The mill wheels and the unique layout of the house add to the atmosphere of isolation and confusion. The story has connections to The Decagon House Murders, being set in same universe; I didn’t know I was reading a sequel of sorts and appreciated that this could be read as a stand alone with knowledge that more in this world exists. I did feel that the characters are a bit flat. It took me quite a while to be able to tell them apart. I’m not sure if it is the original writing or the translation, but it was very choppy in spots; many sentences read very short or not fully developed.

The Mill House Murders is a story of isolation, making amends, locked rooms, disappearing acts, and memory. It is both macabre and fairy tale like throughout with a satisfying ending that both surprises and makes a lot of sense, as the puzzle pieces are assembled. It intrigued me enough that I would gladly read more of Yukito Ayatsyji’s translated work. Thank you to Pushkin Press for the ARC!

The concept drew me into this book. An eccentric artist whose career was cut short too soon. The looming threat as the storm takes hold, and the people within the Mill House struggling to figure out who they can trust and who might be next.

The last third of the book was a breathless rush, as the action unfolded into a satisfying ending, however the characters were a little dry. A good read if you're into traditional mysteries.