『クロック城』殺人事件

城 #1

by Takekuni Kitayama

終焉をむかえつつある人類の世界。探偵・南深騎（みき）と菜美の下に、黒鴣瑠華（くろうるか）と名乗る美少女が現れた。眠り続ける美女。蠢く人面蒼。３つの時を刻む巨大な時計。謎が漂うクロック城に２人を誘う瑠華。そこに大きな鐘が鳴り響いたとき、首なし遺体が次々と現れた。驚愕のトリックが待つ、本格ミステリ。（講談社文庫）

Genres: Mystery

257 pages, Paperback Shinsho

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

Associated Names:
* Takekuni Kitayama
* 北山 猛邦 (Japanese Profile)
* ทาเกกุนิ คิตายามะ (Thai Profile)
* 北山猛邦 (Chinese Profile)

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world is ending, civilizations are falling apart, societies and orders are breaking down, cities become ruins; in such a grim backdrop, a detective and his female assistant encounter a 17 years old girl, who begs them to go to the Mansion of Clocks to solve the mysteries of the murderous Hopping Man that has haunted her family for decades.

The detective accepts her request and the three travel to the remote Mansion of Clocks, only to find the army is hot of the young girl's trail and the girl's father and the other residents of the Mansion have more or less turned their backs on her.

The world is ending, with the shortage of food and resources, murder is nothing shocking and the police system has long broken down, still a mysterious killer has chosen to strike down one victim after another and beheading all of them. Is the killer and the mysterious mystical Hopping Man one and the same? What does the killer want to achieve by killing those victims when there seems to be no future for the entire human kind?

Murder At the Mansion of Clocks is a bit of a mixed bag. The author came up with highly unusual ideas: a serial murder case with The End of the World as its backdrop (so what is the point of finding the killer when there is hardly any Law & Orders left?), an equally unusual Mansion of Clocks and its eerie residents--these are highly imaginative, plus the explanation for the impossible Perfect Crime and the set up of false alibi are clever too.

However, I'm frustrated to find the explanation for the killer's motivation and some of the strange phenomena within the Mansion to look very forced and inorganic. I know, the world is ending and many strange things can happen...still I'm dissatisfied with the ending.

PS: yet, the detective and his female assistant and the relationship between them are pretty cool.

[Genma496 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The trick is pretty damn good and the setting is amazing, but I end up feeling like so much more could have been done with it that ultimately wasn't. Characters are really dry too, and I'm still not sure what some of their arcs were supposed to be about. But I still enjoyed my time, the atmosphere is very cool and it made theorizing a lot of fun.