tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post192586004973795036..comments2023-09-15T12:32:12.503+02:00Comments on Mysteries, Short and Sweet: The Ginza Ghost - Keikichi OsakaChristian_Henrikssonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013383718388416698noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-59478126698893711952019-03-05T16:48:43.419+01:002019-03-05T16:48:43.419+01:00Hehe, it's always comforting to realise that o...Hehe, it's always comforting to realise that one isn't alone. :)Christian_Henrikssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13013383718388416698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-18122748377796166662019-03-05T04:09:11.851+01:002019-03-05T04:09:11.851+01:00I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who f...I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who feels that the standard is a little variable in this collection - I felt a little like an outlier when I shared my own thoughts on this one!Aidan @ Mysteries Ahoy!https://www.blogger.com/profile/00106936772297649003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-11615438573107847302019-02-10T20:41:48.142+01:002019-02-10T20:41:48.142+01:00This is a bit spoiler-y, so be forewarned:
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...This is a bit spoiler-y, so be forewarned:<br /><br />S<br />P<br />O<br />I<br />L<br />E<br />R<br /><br />The bit I found a bit of a cheat is the fact that when the narrator arrives at the house where the murders were committed, he reveals nothing about the "lay of the land" - we are specifically not told that there are tracks, let alone ski tracks, on that side of the house as well. Had we been told that, I'm fairly certain it would have been much easier to question why the ski tracks at the back of the house had to be leading _away_ from the house.Christian_Henrikssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13013383718388416698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-90013718193458775022019-02-10T06:32:34.795+01:002019-02-10T06:32:34.795+01:00This is actually my next review, so it'll be i...This is actually my next review, so it'll be interesting to compare opinions! I liked "The Cold Night's Clearing" a lot more than you did apparently. Where did you see a cheat? I thought it was an amazing story and I got the collection assuming every story would be like it! An elegant reversal.<br /><br />I think I enjoyed "The Mourning Locomotive" because of how...banal the motive is, once all is said and done. The melodrama of the ending gets in the way a bit, but. "The Demon in the Mine" cheats near the start, but is definitely good. I'd argue you can see Osaka (and the Japanese detective story as a whole) developing into what we recognize as Golden Age mystery stories.<br />Very interesting stories, on the whole.The Dark Onehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03453733187338447742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-66226242298719085402019-02-06T21:45:08.076+01:002019-02-06T21:45:08.076+01:00Yeah, and I know about Korean "fan death"...Yeah, and I know about Korean "fan death" as well. But just like too much overt religion, too much overt superstition gets to me. It's a quirk of mine.<br /><br />I don't have the book handy at the moment, but as for "The Mourning Locomotive", I seem to remember that this was the story with the narrator who was incredibly hard to follow because from one paragraph to another he jumped to something completely different with just an "anyway" or similar - incredibly difficult to follow. <br /><br />However, as I've watched "Detective Academy Q" for a couple of days, I've come to realise that this is actually how parts of that story are narrated as well - incredibly jumpy non sequiteurs. Maybe it's a cultural thing again.<br /><br />Also, the whole bit about leaving a pig on the railway tracks. Ehm. Maybe that is what an obsessed person does, I don't know. It's not something I want as part of a solution to an impossible crime, to be honest. <br /><br />I guess it's imaginative and all, but I like my impossible crimes to have a solution that is more grounded than that. You've probably noticed that I'm not too fond of too much melodrama - that's my main sticking point with the early Carrs, for example.<br /><br />On the subject of Meade/Eustace... So far, all their impossible stories have been disappointing to me, as you might have seen from my discussions on them here and there on the blog. There's just one story of theirs I've liked, and it's not been reviewed here - yet! (But it will appear in a coming post.) <br /><br />I will celebrate them for their part as trailblazers in the impossible crime genre, as I will with Futrelle and Chesterton, but on the whole I'm not entirely impressed with their works. But I see that Project Gutenberg has their collection available. I might check it out since it's free. :)Christian_Henrikssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13013383718388416698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-83444706270141177612019-02-06T18:59:56.130+01:002019-02-06T18:59:56.130+01:00I completely agree with JJ here and compared the s...I completely agree with JJ here and compared the stories in my review (thanks for the mention) to the turn-of-the-century detective fiction of L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace, especially their short story collection <i>A Master of Mysteries</i>, which you should review. To my knowledge, it's the very first volume of impossible crime fiction that moved away from the secret passages of the 1800s. <br /><br />I'm not exactly sure what your problem is with "The Mourning Locomotive." If I remember correctly, you're referring to the obsession of one of the characters? But how do you expect an obsessed person to behave? <br /><br />"<i>There's some overreliance on superstition here, and I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing, but I just don't see how so many people, particularly professional police officers, should be so gullible and believing in that stuff.</i>"<br /><br />You'd be surprised. There are skyscrapers in Hong Kong with so-called dragon holes in them to prevent the building from blocking the path of a dragon, which is believed to be bring bad luck. I believe China leaves enough room between their high-rise buildings so dragons can safely fly between them. And that's happening today.TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-7161959280952755302019-02-06T14:44:16.335+01:002019-02-06T14:44:16.335+01:00I'm glad you liked it so much. I will agree th...I'm glad you liked it so much. I will agree that from time to time it's interesting to read things that seem a bit off the beaten path. I just found it a bit too much here. There are other Japanese mysteries that worked better for me in that regard.Christian_Henrikssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13013383718388416698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8843736442009425916.post-67676260126876642762019-02-06T13:03:39.107+01:002019-02-06T13:03:39.107+01:00I'm a fan of the weirdness worked in here -- &...I'm a fan of the weirdness worked in here -- 'The Monster of the Lighthouse', 'The Hungry Letter-Box' -- and would be interested in anything else Osaka wrote. I know what you mean about the possible cultural crossovers sometimes distracting from the "usual" mystery trappings, but I get to read plenty of "usual" mysteries and welcome something not cut from normal cloth.JJ @ The Invisible Eventhttps://theinvisibleevent.comnoreply@blogger.com