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紅楼夢の殺人
ところは中国、栄華を極めた大貴族の邸内に築かれた人工庭園「大観園」。類稀なる貴公子と美しき少女たちが遊ぶ理想郷で、奇々怪々な連続殺人が勃発します。衆人環視の中で消え失せる犯人。空を飛ぶ被害者…。中国最大の奇書『紅楼夢』を舞台にした絢爛たる犯罪絵巻は、中国古典ファンも必読の傑作ミステリー。
452 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2004
5 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
Taku Ashibe
64 books9 followersTaku is a Japanese mystery writer. He is a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 27, 2019
This was a tough book to review. It is an English translation of a Japanese novel about Chinese nobility. While billed as a detective novel, it reads more like a historical fiction.
Most of the novel is about the glory and demise of a noble family during the Qing dynasty, a family with direct connection to the imperial court. After a very long prelude, the reader is introduced to a series of murders that occur in the vast mansion grounds of this family, and the attempt by a lame detective to solve these crimes. The reader is presented with very little clues or actual detective work. After a brief overview of every murder, the reader is overwhelmed with pages upon pages of a boring and elaborate presentation of the family and its many characters; how they live, their dress, the mansion, their maids, how they talk, what they do, etc. There is nothing grand about this novel. It is quite boring.
Aside from a misleading title, I found two issues to be particularly annoying; the emotionless response of the characters to the murders (of their supposedly loved ones), and the apparent lack of any sense of time progression. There is no link between ensuing chapters, and you could never guess how many hours or days have passed between the events of a previous chapter (or sometimes paragraph) to the next. You could find the detective talking to someone, and then suddenly you would find him attending an event somewhere else at some other time. I am wondering if these shortcomings were intended by the author in the original Japanese version or simply a poor translation work.
Most of the novel is about the glory and demise of a noble family during the Qing dynasty, a family with direct connection to the imperial court. After a very long prelude, the reader is introduced to a series of murders that occur in the vast mansion grounds of this family, and the attempt by a lame detective to solve these crimes. The reader is presented with very little clues or actual detective work. After a brief overview of every murder, the reader is overwhelmed with pages upon pages of a boring and elaborate presentation of the family and its many characters; how they live, their dress, the mansion, their maids, how they talk, what they do, etc. There is nothing grand about this novel. It is quite boring.
Aside from a misleading title, I found two issues to be particularly annoying; the emotionless response of the characters to the murders (of their supposedly loved ones), and the apparent lack of any sense of time progression. There is no link between ensuing chapters, and you could never guess how many hours or days have passed between the events of a previous chapter (or sometimes paragraph) to the next. You could find the detective talking to someone, and then suddenly you would find him attending an event somewhere else at some other time. I am wondering if these shortcomings were intended by the author in the original Japanese version or simply a poor translation work.
May 19, 2015
It's rare for a novel translated into English to have the translator's name on the sleeve, and even rarer when it's a work of popular fiction translated by an emerging translator. (Side note: Goodreads needs to lift their game. Can I get a librarian to add Tyran Grillo's name as the translator of this book?)
A complex and beautiful work of detective fiction, which Tyran Grillo's translation brings to us despite the original Dream of the Red Chamber being distant from most English readers. The translator's skillful mix of Chinese and English cliches in the opening chapters foreshadow the way in which the author references and subverts the conventions of Eastern and Western detective fiction in the later chapters, as the bodies pile up and the killer is finally revealed. There are sniffs of Edogawa Rampo, who of course wore his influences on his sleeve, as well as references to the classic and sometimes-supernatural tradition of detective fiction in China.
Kurodahan Press does a good job of publishing genre fiction translated from Japanese, and I'd love to see them put out more crime fiction (I know I've said that before), particularly works as original and richly detailed as this.
A complex and beautiful work of detective fiction, which Tyran Grillo's translation brings to us despite the original Dream of the Red Chamber being distant from most English readers. The translator's skillful mix of Chinese and English cliches in the opening chapters foreshadow the way in which the author references and subverts the conventions of Eastern and Western detective fiction in the later chapters, as the bodies pile up and the killer is finally revealed. There are sniffs of Edogawa Rampo, who of course wore his influences on his sleeve, as well as references to the classic and sometimes-supernatural tradition of detective fiction in China.
Kurodahan Press does a good job of publishing genre fiction translated from Japanese, and I'd love to see them put out more crime fiction (I know I've said that before), particularly works as original and richly detailed as this.
March 20, 2017
Short review.
Misterinya cukup menarik. Kita disuguhi pembunuhan berantai yang dibumbui unsur impossible circumstances. Pembunuh yang menghilang tanpa jejak. Mayat yang tiba-tiba muncul di tempat terbuka. Dan tentunya pembunuhan ruang tertutup. Sebenarnya masih ada beberapa kejadian tidak mungkin lainnya, bagi yang penasaran silakan baca bukunya. Hehe
Meskipun banyak dibumbui oleh misteri ruang tertutup dan impossible circumstances, penjelasan how untuk aspek itu justru menjadi bagian paling lemah dari novel ini. Bagi saya yang paling menarik adalah penjelasan why dari kejadian tidak mungkin tersebut.
Mengapa ada yang repot2 menggunakan trik untuk mewujudkan kejadian2 aneh itu? Ashibe Taku memberikan penjelasan yang seolah-olah mendekonstruksi trope dalam genre detektif, terutama dalam hal penggunaan trik untuk mengaburkan pembunuhan. Penggemar berat novel misteri/detektif pasti akan sangat menyukai bagian penjelasan di atas.
Murder in the Red Chamber adalah novel unik yang menawarkan misteri ruang tertutup, namun punya hidangan rahasia yang ternyata adalah menu utamanya. 4 Stars!
Misterinya cukup menarik. Kita disuguhi pembunuhan berantai yang dibumbui unsur impossible circumstances. Pembunuh yang menghilang tanpa jejak. Mayat yang tiba-tiba muncul di tempat terbuka. Dan tentunya pembunuhan ruang tertutup. Sebenarnya masih ada beberapa kejadian tidak mungkin lainnya, bagi yang penasaran silakan baca bukunya. Hehe
Meskipun banyak dibumbui oleh misteri ruang tertutup dan impossible circumstances, penjelasan how untuk aspek itu justru menjadi bagian paling lemah dari novel ini. Bagi saya yang paling menarik adalah penjelasan why dari kejadian tidak mungkin tersebut.
Mengapa ada yang repot2 menggunakan trik untuk mewujudkan kejadian2 aneh itu? Ashibe Taku memberikan penjelasan yang seolah-olah mendekonstruksi trope dalam genre detektif, terutama dalam hal penggunaan trik untuk mengaburkan pembunuhan. Penggemar berat novel misteri/detektif pasti akan sangat menyukai bagian penjelasan di atas.
Murder in the Red Chamber adalah novel unik yang menawarkan misteri ruang tertutup, namun punya hidangan rahasia yang ternyata adalah menu utamanya. 4 Stars!
November 23, 2013
I think Ashibe-san was quite successful in presenting a murder story in Chinese bygone era with western style detective work. A very sad story though.
Want to read
April 7, 2019Synopsis: Jia Yuan-Chun, newly installed concubine to the emperor, encounters horrors on her journey to the capital.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews