It seems that @NicoleIsEnough was right about the importance of the flower vase! Well done.
By the way, back when we were reading book1 I asked “when 博士 is after a name, like 真賀田博士, is it read はかせ or はくし?” and @Naphthalene said it’s read はかせ.
I talked about the difference between the two words with a teacher or italki and she said that はくし is specifically for someone who has a PhD, especially if it’s science related, while はかせ is more generic, like an “expert”, which you can even use when talking about kids like 昆虫博士. If someone doesn’t have a PhD, it’s a mistake to call them はくし. However, if they have a PhD, you could also call them はかせ…
I asked specifically about the reading after a name, and she was a bit unsure but said it could still be pronounced both ways. And if it was a mathematician she would probably read it はくし.
But she was a bit unsure about the whole thing. She said in general it’s rare to call people 博士 (even though they do it all the time in this series!). E.g. at university you call people (EDIT:) 先生, or 教授, 准教授, etc. She also encouraged me to get a second opinion from a different teacher which I haven’t done yet.
No you don’t. You usually say 先生. Source: I’ve been in the Japanese university system for more than 10 years, and a 先生 myself for like 7 years.
Using 教授 or 博士 as a name ender is really formal. I’ve heard it (and it has been used for me) at large Japanese conference, but that’s about it. The use of 助教, 准教授, etc is usually preferred to 博士, so 博士 is mostly used for researchers who are not working at a university (or postdocs, I guess).
E.g.: お茶の水博士 (note that the reading is はかせ) https://tezukaosamu.net/jp/character/144.html
Getting through the long architectural descriptions of buildings and rooms is always such a slog for me… I’m very bad at vividly depicting the layout of things, so I mostly just gloss over it and hope it comes up often enough later to create a better visual image, or that it’s unimportant enough and doesn’t get mentioned anymore. I do expect the layout of the building and the 地下室 to play a bigger role in solving the case, though.
Ryoko is getting quite suspicious? (at least I think the author wants us to think that.) Akira sabotaged Sotaro‘s car on behalf of either Ryoko or Ritsuko. He then sent the manuscript to Ryoko. Probably because he felt that he could trust her? Which would lead me to think that she was the one who asked for Sotaro to be killed. Ryoko could also have written the letter to Kimie. And now all of the Tennoji family are dead - therefore it makes sense that someone from the Katayama family aimed to kill them all. Probably money/inheritance related motive? Maybe there’s an even deeper motive there, maybe there was some いやがらせ towards Ryoko‘s late husband Kisei done by the Tennoji family? (He never showed up to family gatherings either iirc? Basically never saw his own work in its finished state)
Ryoko saying „she was already sleeping“ at the time Shun’ichi was murdered is also sus. But then lots of general questions remain regarding Ritsuko‘s. How did she get from Noboru‘s room outside? Did Ryoko know she wouldn’t be in her room? And how did she get Akira to sabotage the brakes? Why would he do that?
