Kiyoshi Shimada
Created by: Yukito Ayatsuji
An enigmatic figure who dreams out outlandish but logical deductions, Kiyoshi Shimada, is a reoccuring detective character in Yukito Ayatsuji's mansion murders series, which is about tragedies that occured in bizarre and unique mansions filled with secret rooms and traps. Shimada isn't exactly the main character in these mysteries. He's sort of an outsider who knows someone connected to the "closed circle" of the main mystery and gives his theories on what he thinks happened. He's described as being a tall and thin man with slightly droopy eyes and a hooked nose. His appearance apparently gives of the vibes of a "dark and a bad-tempered man" which contrasts with his actual personality. He's a kind and polite guy who's into detective novels. A fun fact about his name is that it is a combination of Kiyoshi Mitarai and his creator Soji Shimada.
Books
The Bizzare House Mystery series has 9 books, 4 are officially translated to english.
The Decagon House Murders
Book #1
Seven students from a Mystery Club stay in a secluded island and live in the "Decagon House" which was built by an eccentric architect
named Seiji Nakamura who formerly lived in the island and is said to have died after a horrible massacre six months earlier.
Trouble starts when each of the students gets taken out one by one by a killer.
i reread Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" before reading this novel, since the premise of this book where people staying in an island
slowly killed of one by one is inspired from that. And right from the start of "The Decagon House Murders", it calls back to the end of
"And Then There Were None" with the culprit putting his confession inside a bottle and throwing it to the ocean. Which made a nice transition for
my back-to-back read. However, just like its predecessor this book kind of fails in giving a truly satisfying for such a behemoth of a premise. i would
say though that i liked the overall solution in this book better compared to "And Then There Were None", it's a neat literary trick that floored me
and feels a little less unfair. But the overall tension, consistency with the characters, and the ending is a bit weaker for this one. Overall,
i still enjoyed reading this book despite its flaws, the setting for this one and the mystery involving the architect were really intriguing.
