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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHow you feel about puzzles will likely color your reaction to Danielle Trussoni\u2019s new thriller, a follow-on to her well-received 2023 book, The Puzzle Master<\/em>. I love puzzles, included a puzzle box in my mystery-thriller, Architect of Courage<\/em>, and thought I\u2019d found the perfect read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mike Brink is a New York City puzzle creator who suffered a brain injury that left him with the extremely rare \u201cacquired savant\u201d syndrome. Savants have extraordinary cognitive abilities in a single field. For Mike Brink, it\u2019s solving puzzles, along with the supporting mathematics. Life and relationships aren\u2019t easy for him and, interestingly, Mike would prefer to be less \u201cspecial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Imperial family has asked a US-raised young Japanese woman, Sakura Nakamoto, to convince Mike to try to open the Dragon Puzzle Box, a feat attempted in secret only every twelve years. Renowned puzzle experts have tried and failed, and failure is fatal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Japan, a woman named Ume is training a small cadre of young women to be warriors as ruthless as herself, female samurai. They believe whatever is hidden in the Dragon Puzzle Box can restore the samurai to power. Meanwhile, another powerful antagonist also wants the Box\u2019s contents, in order to pursue one of those \u201cfate of the world hangs in the balance\u201d missions that strain my credulity. Even if Mike can open the Box without dying in the process, the dangers will be only just beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the elements of Japanese culture that Trussoni includes in this tale. She lived several years in Japan and the story environment certainly carries the feel of authenticity. A \u201cforeign\u201d setting is almost always extra exciting, simply because the rules are different there, and they are very different indeed in the Imperial court setting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Labyrinth House Murders<\/a> by Yukito Ayatsuji<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n No doubt Christie, Chandler, Sayers, Hammett, and their brethren would be quite comfortable reading this story, inspired by Golden Age traditions, the fourth of the author\u2019s Bizarre House Mysteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The house of prominent Japanese mystery writer Miyagaki Y\u014dtar\u014d was constructed as a giant labyrinth (maps are helpfully provided to the guests\u2014and readers). For his sixtieth birthday, he plans a celebration involving talented young writers he has mentored, his editor\/critic Utayama Hideyuki, and mystery fan Shimada Kiyoshi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The arriving guests meet Miyagaki\u2019s secretary who makes the astonishing revelation that their host, dying of cancer, has committed suicide. Miyagaki\u2019s posthumous instructions ask them not to call the police for five days and not to try to leave. He also asks the four authors to use the days to write the best detective story they can, which Utayama and Shimada will judge. The winner will receive half of Miyagaki\u2019s considerable estate. Initially nonplussed, the writers quickly rally and commit to the project. Thus, you have a classic locked-room mystery. It doesn\u2019t tax your imagination to guess the partygoers will begin dropping like flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Utayama and Shimada take the lead in investigating, but neither can be sure the other isn\u2019t the mysterious killer. Most puzzling is that the positioning of each body and the cause of death mimics the newly deceased\u2019s draft story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned less about Japanese culture than I might have expected and quite a bit more about the personalities of ambitious authors than I might have wanted. Miyagaki well understood what he was dealing with when he set up this unusual challenge. Each murder necessitates a lengthy deconstruction of the surrounding events, the location of other guests at the probable time of the crime, and its relation to the story begun on their word processors. It begins to feel like an overlong unravelling, but all points to a classic fair-play conclusion. Will you figure it out before Utayama and Shimada do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The art, architecture, and traditions of the Land of the Rising Sun have always fascinated me, which gives the backdrops of these stories added pleasure. The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni How you feel about puzzles will likely color your … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/The-Labyrinth-House-Murders.jpg?resize=260%2C372&ssl=1\")
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