Wait, ummmmmm. I’m not sure how I initially got the impression that there was a female detective in this series, but I’m thinking that was maybe completely wrong. Especially since the person after whom the series is named finally appeared this week and is the second son!
I was wondering about this but I wasn’t really paying attention to the summary when we picked this series so I just assumed I missed that part and was rolling with it
I’m done with the week since yesterday evening.
I have to say, the difficulty spikes in the book can be brutal for me. Creative use of rare Kanji, absolutely area specific vocabulary, mixed with place and people names without Furigana. On top, we even have verbs that I never encountered before… When the history teacher was talking I think I needed over 1h for just 5 pages
I’m honestly tempted to show it to some Japanese friends and asking them to read it out loud, just to see if they would struggle. I also really don’t think 野上 would be able to follow that without the help of some Kanji assistance ^^.
I see, I see. People who seem nice are the most suspicious . Next to the doctor you are talking about I honestly don’t think the history teacher will be it either. Even though 野上 is leaning in that direction at the moment. I myself am still the most suspicious of the old bookkeeper that sold the book ^^.
I do generally like the scenes of investigation with Nogami. It has an okay flow to it. But I do have to say that it felt like he hit some really lucky breaks this week.
Mmm, it’s interesting how long it’s taken for the series hero to make an appearance; so far the focus has entirely been on 野上. (Incidentally I have to make an effort not to misread his name as うえの half the time…)
浅見 is mentioned here as having some kind of sports car. The author gave 浅見 the same model of car he drove himself, because he liked it so much. If you go to the 浅見光彦 museum in Karuizawa you can see both of the ソアラ cars the author owned (exhibit 7 on that page)…
This week was quite a long read, but frustratingly little development. I’m amused by how incredibly prickly 桐山部長 is. Wasting travel money!!! Also I assume not the same person, but it’d be entertaining if the cop in the family mentioned by the grumpy mom of the deceased girl (the one who died in the landslide) was somehow involved in this case
I must express myself about 池田 ! Annoying me so much with his dumb act. Like I just figured I was cursed by the grim reaper but you don’t think they could be connected in some way, do you? also, yes, I do make plans to meet up with literally any stranger who calls and I never ask why.
Slow start but caught up now. This book has felt kinda weird cuz the focus has been on the police, like a police procedural? It also feels like it wants to be a travel mystery with all the focus on geography but it isn’t actually showing the places off and doesn’t feel like the location actually matters (other than the connection to Gotoba, which feels more thematic but will presumably be more important by the end?). The obsession with Gotoba also still feels a bit odd. Like a random person getting interested in a random historic figure isn’t odd, but having all these people independently passionate about the same one kinda is. The long passages on train schedules are boring (I wonder if Japanese people know what all these towns are and are able to follow along?) and the history lectures are brutal but dialogue scenes are surprisingly flowy. Meeting on top of the bridge in the train station is a bit odd, wouldn’t that require the person to buy/have a train ticket? (Well, if she only had a ticket from whatsitscalled to Tokyo maybe she was trying to just make a detour without leaving the ticketed area… and somehow convinced the person to buy a cheap ticket to get in…) I guess we’ll see how Ikeda’s suspiciously perfect alibis work out and why so many people are getting killed over this book.
Admittedly it didn’t click for me right from the first mention, but when his full name was mentioned towards the end of that subchapter, I was like “Wait a minute!”
I was a bit annoyed by this trope, but as it’s not mentioned too frequently, I can take it with a shrug…
I’m pretty sure he is somehow involved - why mention this otherwise?
I take it to be THE event of a thousand years - imagine an Emperor having lived in your region. Wouldn’t that be quite the hype?
I used to live in a region in Germany where a German emperor (Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa) resided way back when, and even now the city calls itself a Barbarossa town, and everything is named after him, from the town hall to the local bakery chain to you-name-it. Which gets a bit annoying after a while but I can kind of relate to the hype in this book as well.
You can buy a platform ticket which allows you to cross the barrier but not to board a train.
I’m also veeeery reluctant to buy these - especially the exam thief story is really fishy. I wonder whether he could have used some trick to make the time of death appear later than it really was.
Anyway, I think right now that Ikeda is the most sus person - which speaks for him being innocent
We don’t know which of the two suggested the meeting place. Given that Miyako is the stranger to the area it would seem more likely that Ikeda suggested it, similarly to how he set the location for his conversation with the detective.
Especially since 
. Next to the 
I just figured I was cursed by the grim reaper 
but I can kind of relate to the hype in this book as well.