Don’t worry, it IS a mystery, and I guess it’s one I’m not able to solve in my lifetime 
I should really add a pic of my desk but I should rather not because it’s too embarrassing
I found it while aimlessly clicking around on audiobook.jp: すごい片づけ | 日本最大級のオーディオブック配信サービス audiobook.jp
The mystery of tidying up? Yeah, I haven’t solved that either. And I’m not posting a picture of my desk even if you paid me. No amount of self-help books can help with that. They’d just be an (unread) untidy pile somewhere on my desk themselves.
Hello soulmate 
Well, I was wrong. Here is an empty seat with no mystery:
I haven’t read the book, but I saw the movie, and I’d say it’s roughly the same feel and theme as this, even if there’s no table to dispel the mystery 
:
The lack of mystery is the mystery.
Benches just lack that murderin’ feeling.
Ah, but not all of them. There’s supposed to be a serial killer in this one:
Don’t trust benches!
That’s by the author I was ranting about in the read every day thread 
Current book in reading by him is a good concept, absolutely wrecked the execution.
I know. That’s actually why I looked him up, so that I would know his books by sight and know to avoid them
Long time no see! I thought I had started to understand how Japanese covers work, but today I came across one that should really be in this thread.
It’s mystery horror.
And another one:
It’s horror
Mystery was my first guess for the first one. But it’s not an option 
It was? I’m impressed! You understand Japanese covers way better than I do 
Nah, I just thought she either couldn’t figure out which shoes belonged to who or she murdered everyone who wore those shoes and the shoes were her trophies.
I’m obsessed with the cover of かにみそ, the crab 
Why is it so cute 
全てに無気力な私が拾った小さな蟹。何でも食べるそれは、頭が良く、人語も解する。食事を与え、蟹と喋る日常。そんなある日、私は恋人の女を殺してしまうが……。私と不思議な蟹との、奇妙で切ない泣けるホラー。
It started out so cute, but then I got to the second-to-last sentence and I was like…well, that’s less cute
I honestly want to read it now, if my reading speed weren’t so snail’s pace I would pick it up right now 
Apparently there’s a trend for cover photos/pics to be placed sideways. I’m currently reading a book with a cover like that, but I keep randomly coming across more:
And some more for the Empty Chair category:
Another trend is feet, or at least, ground level shots:
And look, more empty chairs!
Not quite the same thing, but the covers of the Aria manga are all in landscape, for some reason.
Maybe because they have landscapes on them…
I’d argue that スマホを落とした at least has a good reason for having that picture. You don’t know who the killer is, but you know he is the one who picked up the phone. The knife in one hand and the other grabbing the dropped phone makes very clear the type of book you’re getting.
Today’s theme is fish happily swimming out of the water - to my knowledge, the books aren’t even about fish.
Bonus, a book with fish swimming out of water in the title, but not pictured on the cover:
:o Top 10 anime betrayals
I love the Tokyo Aquarium one though, it looks delightfully surreal and magical Sadly, it doesn’t sound like there’s much chance of fish actually swimming through the air in the book
