I just finished this week’s reading (and to clear up any possible confusion, I don’t read very fast, I just have a decent amount of free time and I’m not in a bazillion book clubs like some people).
There were some interesting developments this week, and we finally get to know what the 事件 is about.
I was surprised by the introduction of 喜多’s point of view. I was very used to the narrator switching between 犀川 and 萌絵. And btw, the distinction is sometimes quite subtle when they’re both in the scene. I enjoyed the end of the second chapter with the parallel descriptions of Saikawa at home, Moe at home and Kita at the research center.
Also, despite the character sheet, I’ve officially lost track of two thirds of the characters.
Thank you for the tag so that I would come here, see the first post again, and realize that in fact I didn’t finish the reading for last week because I forgot we were switching to two chapters.
Thanks for checking back with us! I’m not really sure whether I would like to keep the pace or switch to alternating between 1 and 2 chapters. I think I will finish this week’s reading today (still in time ) and I hope that the next weeks will not be as crazy for me work-wise as this one
So I’m still willing to stick to the fast schedule for now, I guess.
Some thoughts and speculations. Near the end of this week’s portion: After Saikawa got home and searched up people, he thought there was something “mushy and ungrab-able” (like yoghurt) he was forgetting about that got his attention earlier. Could it be the loud ドン sound as the locked door was opened? Or the camera in the corner recording the party? I imagined that it was pointing towards the area of the locked door, though I can’t remember if that was specified - maybe it was located near the door and pointed away from it instead.
About the 事件. Interesting that there’s two victims inside the locked room. I don’t think I’ve heard of such a case before. (And I’ve seen quite a few episodes of Detective Conan far from the whole series though). My first suspicion is that one of the victims was involved in the planning / killing part of the other victim somehow. I remember one of the girls (Funami Machiko?) commented as the party was interrupted by car lady (Suzumura?) that the female victim (Hattori Tamako?) was acting strange earlier, so I was thinking maybe the female victim had a part in this case somehow. Wait, did the students say that the two victims were dating? hmm… Not sure what to make of it.
Just going to throw in some speculations about motives from what we know so far. There was that Hachikawa technical officer dude who commented something negatively about Hattori when she was doing stuff during the experiment. To me, it seemed like he disliked her. Hachikawa was one of the two who left early. And then we have Assist. Prof. Ichinose who didn’t drink a drop of alcohol - maybe she just doesn’t like to or wanted to be the “responsible” non-drinker of the group. If she had a part in the case, could be she didn’t drink so she wouldn’t lose control of the situation in any way, if that makes sense. She also seemed relatively calm and composed when they opened the locked door. She reacted way more when they found the third person. Though, it was getting quite late at that point, so that’s understandable.
During the first chapter at the family restaurant, didn’t Moe and Kita talk only about stuff leading up to the 事件? I wonder what they were talking about exactly.
I assumed they were talking about everything that happened before the bodies were discovered.
Sorry I haven’t read everything else you wrote, I prefer not to read other people’s speculations (edit: and thanks for clearly marking it as speculation!) Otherwise if you get it right I feel like I got spoiled I’m very bad at speculating myself so I always get surprised by the book, but I actually like it this way. I know some people really like to play the detective and to be able to solve the mystery at the same time as or even before the characters. Multiple ways to read a mystery novel!
Wasn’t it rather two victims in two locked rooms? One in the storage (?) room and the other in the experiment room?
Yep, same here That would probably be too confusing to get solved in 25 minutes
I don’t think they explicitly mentioned it, but somebody wondered whether he might have taken her with him in his car (at the time the leftover car was discovered) (or was it the other way around? omg so many people and events ) so I also thought maybe they are dating? But maybe the person wondering was just Saikawa trying to think through all the options and then it wouldn’t mean anything as he is not familiar with the people anyways.
Anyways, I’m super curious how the death/murder of the third student will tie into the whole story!
Yeah, maybe I’m influenced by Saikawa’s point of view, I just thought that conversation took surprisingly long now that we know what happened up to that point.
Will make sure to continue marking speculations as such, and try to make a better distinction between speculations and other stuff
The door to the preparation room was certainly locked, but I believe the door to the storage room wasn’t locked, just closed Kita used a handkerchief to open it so not to leave any fingerprints. Other than that, all the entryways to those two rooms were locked, yeah - the door between the lab and preparation room, the emergency exit, and the broken shutter for delivery of goods. I could be wrong about the middle door between the two rooms tho
Wow, that took a while to finally happen, but then it really happened.
Speculations about who dunnit~
After the first part, I was beginning to wonder if that thought 犀川 can’t quite grasp might be related to his friend, 喜多. Like, he was subconsciously avoiding thinking about it, or blocking himself from considering him suspect in any way.
But then we switched to his pov, so I guess that’s not it after all.
Other than him, the ones I’ve been eying are 市ノ瀬 and 木熊. Maybe the motive is related to the published theses of the professors? I’m mostly thinking that because there better be a reason we were made to read about those. 市ノ瀬 and 木熊 have worked on quite a few together, which might be related as well. like, maybe there’s some fraud in their past, or they got credit for a students work or something.
But who knows.
Speculations on the method.
As for how the perpetrator got out - those cold suits are awfully convenient for that, aren’t they? I also noticed that the dude who went in first came out walking funny (like maybe the suit didn’t quite fit?) And didn’t say a word to anyone (like maybe it’d be the wrong voice?). Also, the cold might make it hard to accurate judge time of death.
I’m reading this quite a bit faster than I thought I would~
Great to watch you catch up!
I must say that I can read this series the fastest of all (non-trivial) books I’ve read so far, and I don’t really understand why. Did I get so used to the vocab and writing style? Is it so gripping? No idea tbh
I do think it’s on the easier side, grammar and vocab wise. No long-winded complicated sentences, and I add a lot less vocab to Anki when I’m reading it than with most other books. 容疑者x was similar I feel.
Ah, good to know that y’all feel similar about the books (this series and also 容疑者x). I remember that the first book had pretty long descriptions full of (to me) unknown words, like when they went into her flat and looked at her workshop with all the tools But yeah, I guess once one gets used to the standard vocab set the author is using, then it’s rather smooth sailing from there on.
For the record: I don’t add all the unknown vocab that I find to my Anki deck, but it turns out that for the first two books I added almost the exact same amount of words (154 vs. 155). For this one, I added 143 words so far. (Note that this may include duplicate words that I had not gotten around to learning yet.)
) and I hope that the next weeks will not be as crazy for me work-wise as this one 
I imagined that it was pointing towards the area of the locked door, though I can’t remember if that was specified - maybe it was located near the door and pointed away from it instead. 
far from the whole series though). My first suspicion is that one of the victims was involved in the planning / killing part of the other victim somehow. I remember one of the girls (Funami Machiko?) commented as the party was interrupted by car lady (Suzumura?) that the female victim (Hattori Tamako?) was acting strange earlier, so I was thinking maybe the female victim had a part in this case somehow. Wait, did the students say that the two victims were dating? 
hmm… Not sure what to make of it. 
I’m very bad at speculating myself so I always get surprised by the book, but I actually like it this way. I know some people really like to play the detective and to be able to solve the mystery at the same time as or even before the characters. Multiple ways to read a mystery novel!
) so I also thought maybe they are dating? But maybe the person wondering was just Saikawa trying to think through all the options and then it wouldn’t mean anything as he is not familiar with the people anyways.
市ノ瀬 and 木熊 have worked on quite a few together, which might be related as well. 
