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WORK TITLE: The Moai Island Puzzle
WORK NOTES: trans by Ho-Ling Wong
PSEUDONYM(S): Uehara, Masahide
BIRTHDATE: 4/26/1959
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Arisugawa * https://theinvisibleevent.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/91-the-moai-island-puzzle-1989-by-alice-arisugawa-trans-ho-ling-wong-2016/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 26, 1959, Osaka, Japan.
EDUCATION:Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, bachelor of law.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, and short-story writer.
MEMBER:The Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan (served as first chairperson, 2000-05).
AWARDS:Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel, 2003, for Mare Tetsudo no Nazo (“The Malayan Railway Mystery”); Honkaku Mystery Award for Best Fiction, 2008, for Jo-okoku no Shiro (“The Castle of the Queendom”).
WRITINGS
Also author of several series and other stand alone novels, including the “Amateur Detective Egami” series novels: Gekko Gemu, 1989; Soto no Akuma (Double-Headed Devil), 1992; Jookoku no iroiro (“The Castle of the Queendom”), 2007; and the short story collection, 2012. The “Criminology Professor Himura” series include Yonju Roku-banme no Misshitsu, 1992; Dari no Mayu, 1993; Umi no Aru Nara ni Shisu, 1995; Suweden makata no Nazo (“The Swedish House Mystery), 1995; Shuiro no Kenkyu, 1997; Mare Tetsudo no Nazo (“The Malayan Railway Mystery”), 2002; Ran’a no Shima, 2006; and Kagi no Kakatta Otoko, 2015; short story collections in the series include Roshia Kocha no Nazo (“The Russian Tea Mystery”), 1994; Burajiru Cho no Nazo (“The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery”), 1996; Eikoku Teien no Nazo (“The English Garden Mystery”), 1997; Perusha Neko no Nazo (“The Persian Cat Mystery”), 1999; Kurai Yado, 2001; Zekkyo Jo Satsujin Jiken, 2001;Suisu-dokei no Nazo (“The Swiss Watch Mystery”), 2003;Shiroi Usagi ga Nigeru, 2003; Morokko Suisho no Nazo (“The Moroccan Crystal Mystery”), 2005; Kisaki wa Fune o Shizumeru, 2008; Himura Hideo ni Sasageru Hanzai, 2008; Nagai Roka ga Aru Ie, 2010; Kogen no Fudanitto, 2012; Bodaijuso no Satsujin, 2013; and Ayashii Mise, 2014. The “Girl Detective Sora” series includes Yami no Rappa, 2010; Mayonaka no Tantei, 2011; and Ronri Bakudan, 2012. Standalone novels include: Majikku Mira, 1990; Genso Unga, 1996; Yurei Deka, 2000; Mahoro-shi no Satsujin Fuyu: Shinkiro ni Te o Furu, 2002; and Nijihate-mura no Himitsu, 2003. Short story collections include Yamabushi Jizobo no Horo, 1996; Jurietto no Himei, 1998; Sakka Shosetsu, 2001; Kabenuke Otoko no Nazo, 2008; Akai Tsuki, Haieki no Ue ni, 2009; and Maboroshi-zaka,2013.
SIDELIGHTS
Alice Arisugawa is the pseudonym used by the male Japanese writer Masahide Uehara. Arisugawa is a prolific novelist who primarily writes mysteries but also writes thriller an horror books and is the author of various series, including the “Amateur Detective Egami” series; the “Criminology Professor Himura” series; and the “Girl Detective Sora” series. Considered mart of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing, Arisugawa made his literary debut in 1989 and served as the first president of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.
His first mystery novel translated into English is titled The Moai Island Puzzle. The story takes place on an island and is narrated by an 18-year-old university student named Alice Arisugawa, who belongs to a mystery fiction lovers club at her school, Eito University in Kyoto Japan. Alice is invited by classmate Maria Arima to visit Kashikijima, an island that contains twenty-five Moai sculpted heads like the famous heads on Easter Island. The heads were carved by Alice’s grandfather, who revealed in his will that he had buried 500 million yen’s worth of diamonds on the island. An entire group of students from the club travel to Kashikijima with the intend of solving the mystery of the buried diamonds. They believe the Moai statues contain the clues to the diamonds’ location.
“Unfortunately the secret has a dark past – the last person who came close to finding it out was found dead on the island’s idyllic shores the next day, in what appears to be a case of murder,” wrote a contributor to the Crime Fiction Lover Web site. The person who died and previously claimed to have almost found the diamonds was Alice’s cousin, Hideto, who drowned. In addition to Alice’s fellow club members, the island is also a summer retreat for several other visitors, who stay at two villas located on the island. As Alice and and Maria begin to hunt for the hidden diamonds and believe they are getting close to finding them, two people are murdered, and the duo soon find themselves enmeshed in a closed-door mystery. The Crime Fiction Lover Web site contributor called Alice and Maria “a variation on the old Holmes and Watson team – a duo as popular in Japan as anywhere else in the world.”
Meanwhile, a typhoon has hit the island, isolating everyone from the outside world, especially after their radio is destroyed. With help from their fellow students, Alice and Maria are nevertheless determined to solve the both mysteries, the missing diamonds and the murders, even as it becomes obvious that the murderer may not be finished. To solve the mysteries, the duo most contend with “a dizzying confection of cipher, locked room puzzle, and dying message clues,” as noted by a Do You Write under Your Own Name Web site contributor. An Invisible Event Web site contributor remarked: “You’re promised a puzzle up front, and boy do you get puzzles: literal jigsaw puzzles, an island-based treasure hunt puzzle, a ‘four years previously’ family tragedy puzzle, and – hooray! – the locked room murder[s],” adding: “There’s even a combination of puzzles within puzzles where the scattering of jigsaw pieces appears to indicate a dying message that no-one can interpret.”
The Crime Fiction Lover contributor noted that the mystery novel follows the honaku, or orthodox, school of mystery writing in Japan and can be considered a Golden Age mystery novel formula. This formula relates to classic murder mysteries so popular during the 1920s and the 1930s and were written in similar styles. “The authorial challenge to the reader before the final revelation is eminently fair, given the thoughtful concealment of the clues,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor in a review of The Moai Island Puzzle.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2016, review of The Moai Island Puzzle, p. 41.
ONLINE
Crime Fiction Lover, http://www.crimefictionlover.com/ (July 24, 2016,) review of The Maoi Island Puzzle.
Do You Write under Your Own Name, http://doyouwriteunderyourownname.blogspot.com (September 5, 2016), review of The Maoi Island Puzzle.
Invisible Event, https://theinvisibleevent.wordpress.com/ (May 25, 2016), review of The Moai Island Puzzle. *
#91: The Moai Island Puzzle (1989) by Alice Arisugawa [trans. Ho-Ling Wong 2016]
May 25, 2016 / JJ
Moai Island PuzzleChildren, incarnations of The Doctor, phases of the moon…generally I try not to play favourites. But if I had to pick one crime fiction conceit above all others it would undoubtedly be a group of people on an island getting killed off one by one. Sure, isolate them in some ancestral mansion via thunderstorm or on a train via unexpected snow and the effect is arguably the same, but there’s something about the island in itself that renders the idea all the more thrilling to my senses. And so this Japanese island-set puzzle, the second collaboration between Locked Room International’s John Pugmire and translator and crime fiction blogger Ho-Ling Wong after last year’s excellent The Decagon House Murders, would be just what the doctor ordered if the medical profession ever thought of prescribing books for those of us with the thrill of fictional murder in our hearts.
You’re promised a puzzle up front, and boy do you get puzzles: literal jigsaw puzzles, an island-based treasure hunt puzzle, a ‘four years previously’ family tragedy puzzle, and – hooray! – the locked room murder of two of those gathered on the horseshoe-shaped island of Kashikijima. There’s even a combination of puzzles within puzzles where the scattering of jigsaw pieces appears to indicate a dying message that no-one can interpret. Suffice to say, this isn’t a character study, and anyone hoping for such is in the wrong place. A superbly long run-in to the first crime is, however, really quite enjoyable for the rising expectation – you know something is coming, of course, and the wait is cleverly used to play out the threads that will pay off later – and the revelation of that first crime has an aspect of retrospective analysis that is all the more enjoyable for having been staring you in the face. And from that point on…well, prepare yourself…
What is particularly impressive for me about this is how cleanly the lines of each plot strand intersect each other. Even now, having proof-read this a couple of months ago, I still have a very clear idea of how everything fits and the book is remarkably uncluttered considering how much is going on. It’s not an overly long book by any means, but still practically every element is given the required time to build and pay off; in fact, the only aspect of it that felt rushed to me – concerning, let’s say, some element of the murderer’s motive – actually makes sense when done in that way rather than being dragged out interminably to fit the other aspects of pacing.
Alice Arisugawa – to my understanding, this is his first work translated into English – has done a superb job keeping the fifteen characters involved distinct and clear in their roles and actions. His first-person narrator is 18 year-old university student…Alice Arisugawa (there’s an Ellery Queen name check early on) but the main brunt of the detection falls to college senior Jiro Egami. If you’re able to solve the Moai statue puzzle – think the Easter Island statues writ small – you’re a better reader than I, and mainly that thread should be treated as just a hugely inventive bit of fun. Maps in several different forms are provided to help in understanding – it’s not difficult to follow the reasoning once it’s explained – and this kind of ‘sit back and watch’ element feels like a bonus on top of the solution to the murders themselves.
Because the solution to murders is an entirely different prospect. Several aspects play into the solution overall, but chiefly there is one superb piece of extended ratiocination from Egami that ties everything together and really has to be seen to be believed…and has a beautifully simple origin that I’d hate to say anything about and possibly spoil even a tiny bit. I’m not going to make favourable Ellery Queen comparisons based on this one book vs the however many Queens I’ve read, but it really is the kind of sequence you can see Ellery sitting everyone down to listen to while his father sits in the corner and beams with pride. For a book that is so obviously about the puzzles, and for puzzles in this form to be all about their solutions, this is a solution that does not disappoint.
Massive kudos to everyone involved in bringing this to us: obviously Arisugawa for dreaming it up, but also Ho-Ling Wong for the on-point and accessible translation and John Pugmire for publishing it through LRI. If you’re a puzzle fan, my advice is to get hold of it before reading too many reviews so that you get to enjoy it fresh. And let’s hope hope hope that more shin honkaku novels of the quality of this and The Decagon House Murders are on the way…
Born in 1959 in Osaka, Japan, Alice Arisugawa obtained a Bachelor of Law from Doshisha University. In 1989, he made a literary debut with "Gekko Game" (The Moonlight Game). In 2003, he won The Mystery Writers of Japan Award with "Malay Tetsudo no Nazo" (The Malayan Railway Mystery); and in 2008, he won The Honkaku Mystery Award with "Jo-okoku no Shiro" (The Castle of the Queendom). His other works include "Soto no Akuma" (Double-Headed Devil), "Yamabushi Jizobo no Horo (Bohemian Dreams), and many others. He served as the first chairperson for The Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.
Alice Arisugawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Masahide Uehara
Born April 26, 1959 (age 57)
Osaka, Japan
Pen name Alice Arisugawa
Occupation Writer
Language Japanese
Period 1989–present
Genre Whodunit, closed circle mystery, mystery fiction, thriller, horror
Literary movement The new traditionalist movement
Notable awards Mystery Writers of Japan Award (2003)
Honkaku Mystery Award (2008)
In this Japanese name, the family name is Arisugawa.
Masahide Uehara (上原 正英 Uehara Masahide?, born April 26, 1959), mainly known by his pseudonym Alice Arisugawa (有栖川有栖 Arisugawa Arisu?), is a Japanese mystery writer. He is one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing and was the first president of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan from 2000 to 2005.[1]
Contents
1 Works in English translation
2 Awards and nominations
3 Bibliography
3.1 Amateur Detective Egami series
3.2 Criminology Professor Himura series
3.3 Girl Detective Sora series
3.4 Standalone novels
3.5 Short story collections
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Works in English translation
The Moai Island Puzzle (original title: Kotō Pazuru), trans. Ho-Ling Wong (Locked Room International, 2016)
Awards and nominations
1996 – Nominee for Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Short Story: "Chocho ga Habataku"[2]
2003 – Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel: Mare Tetsudo no Nazo (The Malayan Railway Mystery)[3]
2003 – Nominee for Honkaku Mystery Award for Best Fiction: Mare Tetsudo no Nazo (The Malayan Railway Mystery)[4]
2004 – Nominee for Honkaku Mystery Award for Best Fiction: Suisu-dokei no Nazo (The Swiss Watch Mystery)[5]
2007 – The Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year (2007 Honkaku Mystery Best 10): Ran'a no Shima
2008 – Honkaku Mystery Award for Best Fiction: Jookoku no Shiro (The Castle of the Queendom)[6]
2008 – The Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year (2008 Honkaku Mystery Best 10): Jookoku no Shiro (The Castle of the Queendom)
Bibliography
Amateur Detective Egami series
Novels
Gekko Gemu (月光ゲーム Yの悲劇'88?), 1989 (The Moonlight Game: The Tragedy of Y 1988)
Koto Pazuru (孤島パズル?), 1989 (The Moai Island Puzzle. Locked Room International. 2016)
Soto no Akuma (双頭の悪魔?), 1992 (Double-Headed Devil)
Jookoku no Shiro (女王国の城?), 2007 (The Castle of the Queendom)
Short story collection
Egami Jiro no Dosatsu (江神二郎の洞察?), 2012
Criminology Professor Himura series
Novels
Yonju Roku-banme no Misshitsu (46番目の密室?), 1992
Dari no Mayu (ダリの繭?), 1993
Umi no Aru Nara ni Shisu (海のある奈良に死す?), 1995
Suweden Yakata no Nazo (スウェーデン館の謎?), 1995 (The Swedish House Mystery)
Shuiro no Kenkyu (朱色の研究?), 1997
Mare Tetsudo no Nazo (マレー鉄道の謎?), 2002 (The Malayan Railway Mystery)
Ran'a no Shima (乱鴉の島?), 2006
Kagi no Kakatta Otoko (鍵の掛かった男?), 2015
Short story collections
Roshia Kocha no Nazo (ロシア紅茶の謎?), 1994 (The Russian Tea Mystery)
Burajiru Cho no Nazo (ブラジル蝶の謎?), 1996 (The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery)
Eikoku Teien no Nazo (英国庭園の謎?), 1997 (The English Garden Mystery)
Perusha Neko no Nazo (ペルシャ猫の謎?), 1999 (The Persian Cat Mystery)
Kurai Yado (暗い宿?), 2001
Zekkyo Jo Satsujin Jiken (絶叫城殺人事件?), 2001
Suisu-dokei no Nazo (スイス時計の謎?), 2003 (The Swiss Watch Mystery)
Shiroi Usagi ga Nigeru (白い兎が逃げる?), 2003
Morokko Suisho no Nazo (モロッコ水晶の謎?), 2005 (The Moroccan Crystal Mystery)
Kisaki wa Fune o Shizumeru (妃は船を沈める?), 2008
Himura Hideo ni Sasageru Hanzai (火村英生に捧げる犯罪?), 2008
Nagai Roka ga Aru Ie (長い廊下がある家?), 2010
Kogen no Fudanitto (高原のフーダニット?), 2012
Bodaijuso no Satsujin (菩提樹荘の殺人?), 2013
Ayashii Mise (怪しい店?), 2014
Girl Detective Sora series
Yami no Rappa (闇の喇叭?), 2010
Mayonaka no Tantei (真夜中の探偵?), 2011
Ronri Bakudan (論理爆弾?), 2012
Standalone novels
Majikku Mira (マジックミラー?), 1990
Genso Unga (幻想運河?), 1996
Yurei Deka (幽霊刑事?), 2000
Mahoro-shi no Satsujin Fuyu: Shinkiro ni Te o Furu (まほろ市の殺人 冬―蜃気楼に手を振る?), 2002
Nijihate-mura no Himitsu (虹果て村の秘密?), 2003
Short story collections
Yamabushi Jizobo no Horo (山伏地蔵坊の放浪?), 1996
Jurietto no Himei (ジュリエットの悲鳴?), 1998
Sakka Shosetsu (作家小説?), 2001
Kabenuke Otoko no Nazo (壁抜け男の謎?), 2008
Akai Tsuki, Haieki no Ue ni (赤い月、廃駅の上に?), 2009
Maboroshi-zaka (幻坂?), 2013
The Moai Island Puzzle
Publishers Weekly. 263.15 (Apr. 11, 2016): p41.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* The Moai Island Puzzle
Alice Arisugawa, trans. from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong. Locked Room International, $19.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1523935-13-0
College student Alice Arisugawa, the namesake narrator of this artful locked-room whodunit from Arisugawa (Mystery of Brazilian Butterfly), is a member of a club devoted to mystery fiction at Kyoto's Eito University. Alice has a chance to tackle a real-life mystery after accepting an invitation from classmate Maria Arima to visit the island of Kashikijima, populated with 25 moai sculpted heads resembling those of Easter Island. The statues were erected on Kashikijima by Maria's eccentric grandfather, whose will revealed that he'd buried diamonds worth 500 million yen on the island. The jewels remain hidden, although Maria's cousin Hideto claimed to be close to finding them three years earlier, shortly before he drowned. Hideto's theory--that the key to the puzzle lies in deciphering the arrangement of the moai--intrigues Alice and Maria, but they find themselves with an impossible murder to resolve as well. The authorial challenge to the reader before the final revelation is eminently fair, given the thoughtful concealment of the clues. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Moai Island Puzzle." Publishers Weekly, 11 Apr. 2016, p. 41. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449662960&it=r&asid=036054ccb1173b0db78086b7e0febaf2. Accessed 19 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449662960
Monday, 5 September 2016
The Moai Island Puzzle
Product Details
The Moai Island Puzzle by Alice Arisugawa is a Japanese mystery in the classic Golden Age vein which has recently been translated by Ho-Ling Wong into English and published by John Pugmire's excellent imprint Locked Room International. This edition benefits from an extremely interesting foreword by a leading exponent of the classic Japanese mystery, Soji Shimada.
The story is told by Alice Arisugawa, who is a university student and detective fiction enthusiast. He (yep, Alice is male) is a member of a small Mystery Club - and Ellery Queen and The Nine Tailors are referenced on the second page of the prologue, making it clear that the reader who is a Golden Age fan is in for a treat - a homage to the twisty murder mystery of days gone by.
The set-up is itself classical. Alice and his friend Maria make up a small party who travel to a tiny island off the coast of Japan in search of hidden treasure. The island is fictitious, but as the book's title makes clear, it is populated by a large number of moai, whose construction was influenced by the moai of Easter Island. And soon the moai themselves become clues to the puzzle.
Death has occurred on the island in the recent past, and soon crime returns. We are presented with a dizzying confection of cipher, locked room puzzle, and dying message clues as Alice and Maria try to work out what is going on. It's a well-constructed story with a satisfying pay-off, and there's even a mini-lecture on Dying Message Clues (in the tradition of Dr Fell's Locked Room Lecture). Great fun.
The Moai Island Puzzle
July 24, 2016
Written by nagaisayonara
Published in Kindle, Print, Reviews
1 comment
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moaiislandpuzzleWritten by Alice Arisugawa, translated by Ho-Ling Wong — Golden Age mysteries are formulaic and, far from being a flaw, it’s a major part of their appeal. The stories follow patterns, and the reward for readers is not in being tricked by a new and entirely original creation, but working roughly within the formula and using the clues in order to work out the mystery along with the detective. In this way, they’re a lot like puzzles.
The Moai Island Puzzle is a mystery that plays on that relationship between Golden Age novels and puzzles, and follows the traditional rules much like other stories from Japan’s honkaku (orthodox) school of mystery writing. Much like the honkaku authors Soji Shimada and Yukito Ayatsuji, Arisugawa’s work wears its influences on its sleeve, to the point of being pastiche. Lovers of Golden Age will find a lot to love in The Moai Island Puzzle, and Arisugawa knows this well, and plays it.
The Moai Island Puzzle is in fact a series of puzzles. A group of university students from the Eito University Mystery Club travel to Kashikijima, a secluded island paradise, hoping to investigate a mystery left behind by the grandfather of one of their members, Maria Arima. A series of Moai statues, modelled after those on Easter Island, have been placed on the island by Maria’s grandfather to provide the answer to the location of his stash of diamonds. One summer several members of the club travel to the island hoping to find the secret. But unfortunately the secret has a dark past – the last person who came close to finding it out was found dead on the island’s idyllic shores the next day, in what appears to be a case of murder.
The group summering on the island is varied. Along with the university mystery club, led by narrator Alice (sharing the author’s penname; both are male) there is an odd assortment of characters who usually spend their summers in the island’s two villas. Other than Maria and Alice most have regular Japanese names. The pair are a variation on the old Holmes and Watson team – a duo as popular in Japan as anywhere else in the world. Arisugawa’s work is experiencing a boom in Japan following the release of a TV series based on his novels, featuring the titular Alice as a kind of bumbling, Beatles-hairstyled detective.
As the pair get closer to finding the truth behind the Moai statues the murders start to pile up. When they feel they’ve made a big step towards the secret, a typhoon descends upon the island, cutting them off from the outside world for what could be days. As the storm passes over them, the group wake to find two of their members murdered in a locked room, and the radio which provides their only contact with the outside world destroyed.
The locked-room mystery as a genre has reached the point where self-awareness has become its defining feature. Every locked-room I’ve read recently features a detective who’s tired of reading locked-room mysteries – this goes right back to Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s The Locked Room – the eighth in their Martin Beck series. In Adrian McKinty’s Rain Dogs, the detective himself is tired of locked-room mysteries! Such self-awareness can be a burden, when not coupled with an original mystery. Thankfully The Moai Island Puzzle is original, despite how blatantly it utilises the Golden Age mystery formula. It also features a varied plot, proving that this style of storytelling is still well and truly alive.
Locked Room International
Print/Kindle
£6.89