The Red Locked Room Read online

  THE RED LOCKED ROOM

  Paul Halter books from LRI:

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  The Fourth Door (2011)

  The Seven Wonders of Crime (2011)

  The Demon of Dartmoor (2012)

  The Seventh Hypothesis (2012)

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  The Night of the Wolf collection (2013)

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  The Man Who Loved Clouds (2018)

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  The Riddle of Monte Verita (Jean-Paul Török) 2012

  The Killing Needle (Henry Cauvin) 2014

  The Derek Smith Omnibus (Derek Smith) 2014

  The House That Kills (Noel Vindry) 2015

  The Decagon House Murders (Yukito Ayatsuji) 2015

  Hard Cheese (Ulf Durling) 2015

  The Moai Island Puzzle (Alice Arisugawa) 2016

  The Howling Beast (Noel Vindry) 2016

  Death in the Dark (Stacey Bishop) 2017

  The Ginza Ghost collection (Keikichi Osaka) 2017

  Death in the House of Rain (Szu-Yen Lin) 2017

  The Double Alibi (Noel Vindry) 2018

  The 8 Mansion Murders (Takemaru Abiko) 2018

  The Seventh Guest (Gaston Boca) 2018

  The Flying Boat Mystery (Franco Vailati) 2019

  Death out of Nowhere (Alexis Gensoul & Charles Garnier) 2020

  Bibliographies

  Locked Room Murders Second Edition, Revised 2018

  Locked Room Murders Supplement 2019

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  THE RED LOCKED ROOM

  Tetsuya Ayukawa

  Translated by Ho-Ling Wong

  The Red Locked Room

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First published in Japanese in Hōseki and Tantei Kurabu, between 1954 and 1961.

  THE RED LOCKED ROOM

  Copyright © Sumiyo Koike

  English translation rights arranged with Sumiyo Koike c/o Tokyo Sogensha Co., Ltd.

  English translation copyright © by John Pugmire 2020.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Cover picture: one of the “Eight Hells of Beppu” hot springs, Japan

  For information, contact: [email protected]

  FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  Ayukawa, Tetsuya

  [Seven short stories]

  The Red Locked Room / Tetsuya Ayukawa

  Translated from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  The White Locked Room

  Whose Body?

  The Blue Locked Room

  Death in Early Spring

  The Clown in the Tunnel

  The Five Clocks

  The Red Locked Room

  Introduction

  Taku Ashibe

  Anthony Boucher famously wrote “Ellery Queen is the American detective story,” and if one were to borrow his saying, one could also claim that Tetsuya Ayukawa is the Japanese honkaku mystery story.

  The Japanese word honkaku on its own translates to ‘orthodox’ or ‘standard.’ The term ‘honkaku mystery fiction’ on the other hand corresponds to ‘classic fair-play mystery’ in the English-language world. In the past, mysteries were grouped together with tales of horror, fantasy and adventure under the common term tantei shōsetsu (detective story), but the classic mystery novel was eventually differentiated from the other genres through the introduction of the word honkaku. It was mystery author Saburō Kōga who first coined the phrase in 1926.

  It was also around that period that the S.S. Van Dine boom in the United States reached Japanese shores. Van Dine’s writing style, which focused solely on a core mystery plot and eliminated all other redundant story elements—save for snobbery and pedantry---was considered both surprising and refreshing.

  Translations of the works of the writers responsible for the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in the west followed. Stories by Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, F. W. Crofts, E. D. Biggers, E. C. Bentley, A. A. Milne and others helped solidify the shared idea of what a honkaku mystery story entailed. However, the time was not yet ripe for Japanese authors to follow.

  Neither Edogawa Rampo, the father of the Japanese detective story who had quickly grasped the charm of honkaku mystery and realised it would become the mainstream style of the genre, nor Saburō Kōga, who had created the term honkaku mystery, were able to switch over to this new style. They had been influenced strongly by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Maurice Leblanc and had already obtained a certain reputation as mystery writers, so this new change would have made it necessary for them to alter their writing style.

  The first to embrace this new trend was the new generation, which included writers like Yū Aoi and most notably Keikichi Ōsaka, a collection of whose short stories is already available via Locked Room International. Despite their efforts, honkaku did not become the mainstream style because the upcoming World War nipped the movement in the bud. Ōsaka died in the war, while his mentor Kōga died of a sudden illness while travelling, due to scarcity of medicine.

  Ironically, losing the devastating war in 1945 actually liberated the Japanese literary scene. During the war it had been forbidden to write detective stories, as they were considered subversive literature, but once the war was over writers could start publishing their stories again, including honkaku mystery fiction.

  Seishi Yokomizo, who had been an editor before the war, as well as a writer of fantasy and thrillers, brought much foreign mystery fiction into Japan. He had read John Dickson Carr’s works during the war, which now inspired him to write The Honjin Murders, quickly followed by other masterpieces such as The Butterfly Murder Case (Chōchō Satsujin Jiken) and Gokumon Island (Gokumontō). Together, they made Yokomizo one of the pioneers of the honkaku mystery novel. Many of the genre’s major works were written in the early post-war period. Kikuo Tsunoda, who had previously written romantic and mysterious period stories, published The Tragedy of the Takagi Clan (Takagike no Sangeki) featuring Superintendent Keisuke Kagami, and Ango Sakaguchi, a pure literature author belonging to the Buraiha Decadent School, wrote The Non-Serial Murders (Furenzoku Satsujin Jiken).

  Much was expected from the younger generation. Edogawa Rampo, who by that time was mostly focusing on genre research and criticism, was so impressed by a manuscript sent to him that he convinced a major publisher to print it. This was Akimitsu Takagi’s The Tattoo Murder Case. The mystery, which involved the discovery of a female corpse minus the torso in a bathroom locked from the inside, could not have been written before the war, or by anyone of the older generation.

  The unique circumstances in Japan at the time were an important factor in the growth of the genre’s popularity. Due to the long war and the controlling society that had facilitated it, people had been starved of books, whether about philosophy, art or plain entertainment. Period novels were popular among the wider audience, but publishers were
hesitant because they were thought to promote feudalist and anti-democratic ideas. On the other hand, mystery stories, which embraced the novelties of the new era, were welcome. (Parenthetically, the Allied occupation forces had established clear regulations for films. Actors who had once starred as heroic samurai warriors were thus forced to play police detectives, coast guards or private detectives.)

  Although Tetsuya Ayukawa did not stand out at first, he slowly made his way to the forefront of the new era and remained loyal to the honkaku mystery story to the end. Even when the genre was abandoned and even dismissed, he kept on writing stories of mystery and logical deduction, and with time he became a peerless figure, respected by readers and younger writers alike.

  Tetsuya Ayukawa (real name: Tōru Nakagawa) was born in 1919 in Tōkyō. When he was in elementary school he was forced to move to mainland China, because of his father’s job as an engineer for the South Manchuria Railway Company. Most of his life between boyhood and adolescence was spent in Dalian, a city in Northeast China, although he did return several times to Japan to go to school in Tōkyō. Dalian was a unique metropolis, where Chinese, Japanese and Russians lived together, a melting pot between East and West, the past and the present. The exotic scenery of that city, which would disappear with the end of the war, indubitably made a tremendous impression on young Ayukawa.

  When he was in middle school, a senior student told him about the stories of Sherlock Holmes. He was captivated by them and soon thereafter he went on to read R. Austin Freeman’s Dr. Thorndyke stories. After that he could not find anything more in local libraries and was obliged to travel to neighbouring towns or even faraway cities to read the translated tales of Poe, Chesterton and Van Dine.

  In the beginning he liked stories where a brilliant detective would solve a tricky case, but after reading Croft’s The Ponson Case, he realised that having a normal detective patiently solving a case through simple trial and error also had its charm. After coming across the timetable of the South Manchurian Railways and noticing the interesting manner in which certain trains connected, he decided to write a mystery story himself.

  Ayukawa’s family had returned to Japan before the end of the war, so he did not experience the tragic fall of Manchuria, but he did lose the manuscript of his story in the chaos following Japan’s defeat. He also found himself suffering from a lung disease and had to spend time in recuperation, only working sporadically. With his creative urge growing, he started submitting stories to magazines. He made his debut in 1948 with an exotic fantasy short story titled Tsukishiro. In the same year, he published his first mystery story The Snake and The Wild Boar (Hebi to Inoshishi.)

  Soon afterwards, the post-war detective story boom offered him the opportunity of a lifetime. He had entered an important novel competition organised by the magazine Hōseki. His novel The Petrov Affair (Petrov Jiken), which he had submitted under his real name Tōru Nakagawa, won first place. The novel was a rewrite of the manuscript he had lost in the war and it would become the first novel starring Chief Inspector Onitsura, a Japanese police detective who at the time was in the police force of Dalian.

  The alluring story brimmed with nostalgia and exoticism and was set in an international metropolis long gone. The skilled manner in which the complex, perfect alibi was broken down in the tale was a bellwether of the arrival of a new generation of honkaku mystery writers.

  Unfortunately, the publisher of Hōseki could not pay him the prize money due to financial problems. When he protested, he was sent packing and his book was not published.

  Ayukawa turned his hand to writing short stories for the several second-rate magazines in existence at the time and he also tried to strengthen his ties with societies of mystery aficionados.

  Meanwhile, he continued to work on his second full-length novel. Back then it was rare for a no-name newcomer to have a full-length novel published, but his never-ending efforts would pay off. In 1955, publisher Kōdansha was publishing a series of newly written detective novels. The final volume The Thirteenth Seat was open for submissions from newcomers, and his submission, The Black Trunk (Kuroi Toranku), won. It was the first time he had used the pen name Tetsuya Ayukawa, and his second debut had been a rousing success.

  Shortly thereafter, Hōseki also had a restart, and this time it had Edogawa Rampo aboard as well. He invested his own funds, devised a renewal plan and even sought new talent to write for the magazine. One of the new stars of honkaku mystery he had his eye on was Ayukawa.

  The mystery genre in Japan had seen tremendous growth, thanks to authors like Seichō Matsumoto and Etsuko Niki, but in their hands the emphasis changed to the motive for the crime and the psychology of the criminal. The former openly disapproved of stories about brilliant detectives solving fantastic crimes by pure logical deduction, and as a result, readers’ interest shifted to realism and contemporary issues.

  Despite this change in readers’ tastes, Ayukawa remained focused on honkaku mystery and kept on writing impressive, high-quality works. His earnest work attitude earned him the trust of his readers and would also influence later generations of writers. It can be confidently stated that there is not one writer belonging to the shin honkaku movement who does not hold Tetsuya Ayukawa in the utmost regard. The fact that all the titles on the following list of Ayukawa’s novels are true honkaku mystery stories is absolutely stunning.

  The Petrov Affair (Petrov Jiken, 1950)

  The Black Trunk (Kuroi Toranku, 1956)

  The Villa Lilac Case (Rira-sō Jiken, 1958)*

  A Fossil of Hate (Zō’o no Kaseki, 1959)

  White Fear (Shiro no Kyōfu, 1959)*

  The Black Swan (Kuro no Hakuchō, 1960)

  What People Call Love Suicide (Hito Sore wo Jōshi to Yobu, 1961)

  Gravestone in the Shadows (Kage Aru Bohyō, 1962)*

  Castle of Sand (Suna no Shiro, 1963)

  The Fake Grave (Itsuwari no Funbo, 1963)

  Whipping the Dead (Shisha wo Muchi Ute, 1964)*

  A Deadly Scenery (Shi no Aru Fūkei, 1965)

  Destination Unknown (Atesaki Fumei, 1965)

  The Semi Express Nagara (Junkyū Nagara, 1966)

  A Tower of Blocks (Tsumiki no Tō, 1966)

  A Door Without a Keyhole (Kagiana no Nai Tobira, 1969)

  Testimony of Wind (Kaze no Shōgen, 1971)

  What Did the Inugami See? (Inugami wa Nani wo Mita Ka, 1976)

  A Box of Silence (Chinmoku no Hako, 1979)

  The Last Writing in Blood-Red (Shu no Zeppitsu, 1979)*

  Find the King (Ō wo Sagase, 1979)

  Seat of the Dead (Shibito no Za, 1983)

  The titles feature Chief Inspector Onitsura, except those marked *, which either feature the amateur detective Ryūzō Hoshikage, or don’t belong to any series. Ayukawa also wrote a series starring the bartender of the bar Number 3. He had been working on the Number 3 series’ first novel, entitled The White Birch House Affair (Shirakabasō Jiken), when he died without finishing the novel.

  If one were to point out the characteristics of Ayukawa’s two main series, one can say that the Ryūzō Hoshikage series feature a classic, whodunit/howdunit puzzle style, while the more prolific Onitsura is mostly occupied with breaking down alibis. Due to the latter’s larger output, Ayukawa’s novels are often categorised as realistic police procedurals, but these stories are actually brimming with original tricks and impressive lines of logic. Onitsura is perhaps best described as “Ellery Queen wearing the face of Inspector French.”

  But why is Onitsura always busy cracking alibis? As stated previously, in the period post 1960, detective novels in Japan focused on the motive for the crime and the psychology of the criminal and eschewed the brilliant detective, the murder in the country house and fantastic murder schemes. Ayukawa therefore decided to focus on the web of railways that covered the islands of Japan, and the diverse trains that ran along the rails with impeccable timing. Such trains would provide the stage for his tales of mystery and logic. It was far more
realistic to portray a clever criminal who, in order to evade the hands of justice, would come up with an iron-clad alibi for themselves, rather than create some kind of locked room. Railway mysteries were thus able to offer a unique experience, by portraying Japanese locales in the second half of the twentieth century and the people who lived there, while at the same time also presenting daring murder schemes.

  From 1975 on, Ayukawa started taking up new interests besides his career as a novelist, first by compiling dozens of mystery anthologies. He also started locating forgotten writers through interviews and research. Finally, he gave new writers a hand, helping them make their professional debut. All these achievements can probably be traced back to his own experiences starting out as a writer and to the fact that he had seen how many writers and their work had been forgotten by time.

  In 1990, the annual Tetsuya Ayukawa Award was established. Ayukawa passed away in 2002, but even now, this award is still the gateway to success for writers of honkaku mystery in Japan and it will be awarded for the thirtieth time this year. The award has indeed become a synonym for honkaku mystery. The book you are holding now comprises a selection of short stories featuring the master’s two best-known detectives and is the first time they have appeared in the English-speaking world.

  To introduce the amateur detective Ryūzō Hoshikage first: this obnoxious merchant with a snobbish moustache and a love for pipes was originally conceived as a caricature of the classic great detective. When Ayukawa was deprived of the opportunity to publish his first novel, he submitted a story to the club magazine of the most famous mystery aficionado society in Japan, SR no Kai (SR stands for ‘Sealed Room.’) In that story, Hoshikage appeared as a rival to Onitsura. Hoshikage lost the battle horribly then, but Ayukawa decided to use the character when he wanted to write fantastical impossible crime stories which wouldn’t fit the character of Onitsura. It is funny how, despite his origins, Hoshikage managed to grow into one of Japan’s greatest fictional detectives, to whom Chief Inspector Tadokoro turns in much the same way Inspector Lestrade turned to Sherlock Holmes.