硝子のハンマー [Garasu no hanmā]

Kei Enomoto #1

by Yusuke Kishi, 貴志 祐介

日曜日の昼下がり、株式上場を間近に控えた介護サービス会社で、社長の撲殺死体が発見された。エレベーターには暗証番号、廊下には監視カメラ、窓には強化ガラス。オフィスは厳重なセキュリティを誇っていた。監視カメラには誰も映っておらず、続き扉の向こう側で仮眠をとっていた専務が逮捕されて……。弁護士・青砥純子と防犯コンサルタント・榎本径のコンビが、難攻不落の密室の謎に挑む。日本推理作家協会賞受賞作。

Genres: Mystery, Japanese Literature

493 pages, Tankobon Hardcover

First published April 21, 2004

About the author

He graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in Economics. After working for a life insurance company for several years, Kishi started his writing career as a freelancer. He has twice won the Japan Horror Novel Award, and boasts bestselling status in Japan with multiple works adapted to the screen. The Crimson Labyrinth marks his American debut.

Awards given to his works:
Japan Horror Novel Award 1997 (Black House), Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel 2005 (Glass Hammer), Japan SF Taisho Award 2008 (From the New World), Yamada Futaro Award 2010 (Lesson of the Evil), [Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!] Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year 2011 (Lesson of the Evil).

Reviews

[Angel 一匹狼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only I had read some of Yusuke Kishi’s previous books (the dark ones, around the evil that we all may have inside, the horror stories that first gave him fame), but I had also watched the TV show that was on Japanese TV in 2012 that was based on the characters from this book and its continuations (the last two episodes of that TV show were based on the story from this book). So, I was biased for good and for bad (because I really enjoyed the TV show and I have also liked Yusuke Kishi’s books so far).

The problem with high expectations is… well, that they are high. And “ 硝子のハンマー” cannot overcome that problem, even if at some moments it comes close. It ends up being a funny mystery novel, but too long, overwrought and, in some passages, a little bit boring.

The president of a company is killed, but no one knows how. The body was on the floor, dead, but there was no weapon. There are two doors to the room, but the one that gives to the corridor is right next to the secretaries’ room (on top of there being a security camera). Of course, the police decides that the killer must have entered through the other door. But there the managing director was taking a nap and no one else seems to have entered the room (the managing director’s room also connects to the corridor, so, if someone had entered through it, the camera and the secretaries would have seen that person). On top of that, the place was heavily protected. An unknown person would have been easily discovered. The managing direct is detained, but there are lots of doubts around the case. His lawyer, Junko Aoto, decides to ask for help to security expert Kei Enomoto. Cue the couple trying to find the truth.

The story is your typical mystery novel, and Kishi’s strengths show from the very beginning, with a very moody atmosphere, neat and engaging writing style and a high pace at the start of the story. The characters and the plot are neatly introduced, and the first part is a page-turner. However, around the middle of the first part, the story hits a wall, and the pace starts to crawl slower and slower, till it starts to drag. Kishi has two problems with his novels: first, his unnecessary need to explain everything to the minutest detail, which makes some situations be explained from three or four different points of view, with lots of talk, description, and repetition. The second, his ‘the-character-searches-on-the-Internet’ moment that may stretch for around 20 pages, and that, having read some of his novels before, is not original anymore. The novel clocks to almost 600 pages (excluding an interview to the author after the end), and some cutting may have helped it. Luckily for the reader, the last part improves, and the resolution, even if not surprising, is presented in Kishi’s traditional ambiguous style: why are we violent, what makes us human use evil means for our ends… He always uses more or less the same ideas, but they are interesting and are presented in an original manner. This ending helps the novel rise again, but it is not one of his best.

6/10

(Original Japanese version)

[Annemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so this book was almost 600 pages, and it did not need that many. Had this been cut down to 300 this would have been an absolutely amazing book. I watched the TV series before I read the book, and while this is rarely the case for American/European adaptations, I think Japan has a great way of making the TV series better than the books. Kishi Yusuke is a good writer, but his stories are always extremely slow, and long-winded. There's a lot of telling and not a lot of showing, which is almost always the case in his books (and a lot of the Japanese books I have read).
The beginning was slow and a bit boring. Then once the mystery started and we followed Enamoto and Junko it was actually super fun. Then suddenly we got the life-story of the criminal in excruciating detail, which was again, slow and boring. The ending was really great as well. Whenever I read Kishi Yusuke's books it's always the same: boring parts and super amazing parts. If they cut the boring parts down and kept all the amazing parts this would have been a 4 or 5 star book. Heck, that's why I liked the TV series so much.
The story itself is really far-fetched as well, which didn't really help either.

[Riemann Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

稍嫌過譽。

《玻璃之鎚》的物理詭計只能說是有想像力，但設計的水準也就《名偵探柯南》之流，而且這個手法對於讀者而言也不太公平，不是每個人都會知道詭計裡的某個道具的原理，還有這種詭計的設計會讓讀者產生一個質疑：讀者被隱瞞就算了，為什麼書裡的角色都發現不了一個如此明顯的線索？尤其主角榎本更是一個性格嚴謹到強迫症程度的人，怎會意識不到這件事？

謎面不斷強調監控有多嚴密，兇手要如何突破重重保全下形成的密室，但最後卻沒在這個idea上設計手法，反而是用了一種逃避正面對決，相對迂迴的方式。也不能說不合理，但絕對缺少了真相揭露的震撼，甚至會讓人覺得自己被捉弄了，前面的鋪陳也顯得故弄玄虛。不僅是《玻璃之鎚》，貴志祐介其它的密室詭計也差不多都是用了一種非常取巧的方式去設計（印象中好像只有幾個短篇是堂堂正正設計密室，和讀者直球對決），這種作法其實有一點大山誠一郎式的反高潮。

另外一個最大的問題就是敘事的形式和節奏，只能說這絕對不是一種好的寫法。後半段直接換了敘事者視角，帶來的效果只能用割裂來形容，前半部分本格，後半部分突然社會派，兩者被很生硬地拼接在了一起。如果能夠把後半段敘事者的主觀視角與前半部分的偵探視角相互交叉，又或者把後半部分儘量保持在一個相對較短的篇幅，可能比較不會把前面的懸念給打散。

[Hailong Hao]

关于诡计实现方式的的讲述过于复杂了，应该有更简单的办法讲清楚。

[Shea Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

一般般，第一部还算有趣，第二部开始就有点读不下去了，400页真的难读，最后谜底也没啥意思。
另：读客封面史诗级难看！！！

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

有几处妙语，看了不禁莞尔。

[Goosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

好久没看到这么纯粹的本格推理了，到最后才发现谜案就在书名里

[Lucida · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring

[幽灵与飞烬 · Rating 4 out of 5]

相当简洁漂亮的诡计，用多种不可能去探求唯一可能，反倒更凸显出核心诡计的漂亮

[Life · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Youth in any era is a bundle of hopeless contradictions. They have enough explosive energy to change society, yet they are so easily hurt and break over small things that an adult would be able to withstand. ...Like a weapon made of glass.”
“That may be so. But the problem is that you can bludgeon someone to death even with a glass hammer.”

The actual locked-room trick is quite clever, and I love the constant theorising that the novel undertakes. However the second part focusing on the culprit's past is basically unnecessary on a plotting level (though it may be thematically relevant), and only hurts the book's pacing more than anything. I think it would've been better to just have the part with Enomoto instead and present the themes in that instead.