I finished the book a while ago but my notes for this chapter were “saikawa didn’t get anyone nearly killed and didn’t go on huge tangents, good job”
But this is still not the book where Moe solves the case
I think that some people will find this an anticlimactic solution to the mystery. Continuing the trend that started in the previous book. It’s not so much the mystery itself that’s important, but moreso what is happening around the mystery, and the process of thinking through the mystery. Just like how Saikawa lays out the relevant details but not the answer… and then tells the police it’s solved. The details are all that matters, the answer is more or less irrelevant.
This chapter completely ignored Saikawa and Moe’s marriage, focusing entirely on the mystery for once. I predict that the final chapter will see their relationship take center stage again.
I thought for sure if it was a murder, the culprit would be Ayao, because Takashi and Marimo were suspected previously and Fumi didn’t receive nearly enough screentime/development
I was wondering if it was possible to vacuum-seal the room, but thought that would be silly, and also (for some reason) was imagining it with a sliding door… Although if the air in the room contracted, wouldn’t that mean the door was opening outward? Don’t exit doors open inward so that hinges are on the inside?
Man, I thought I had figured something out with the orientation of the road when Marimo got in her accident, but nope, just a completely separate second accident. (I was also imagining that part of the road as straight, so not sure how that accident happened…) The biggest issue I have is probably with Rinsui in this time. After getting stabbed in the heart and bleeding out for an hour or two and then getting into an accident that breaks several of Marimo’s bones, he just… gets up and walks away without a scratch (or blood trail)? I know I suggested he was ejected from the car in the accident, but if I remember correctly they didn’t find any other particular injuries/trauma on his corpse which is why I thought I was wrong or missing a major component of it.
I think I’ll be happy as long as the key-in-a-jar puzzle is resolved satisfactorily. Definitely a very different vibe from The Perfect Insider though .
Google Images has some examples of 蔵 with outward-opening doors, so I guess it’s a thing.
Well, didn’t you say that it would be weird for her to swerve right instead of left? And in the actual accident, she did in fact swerve left.
I’ve heard that miswriting 完璧 as 完壁 is a common mistake even for Japanese natives. So I guess the joke is that even Moe isn’t 完璧.
I think the 完璧 “joke” was playing into the Japanese concept of beauty as something incomplete or asymmetrical, which is also a major part of the mystery here. It’s brought up a few times earlier in the book, but I think it finally starts to make sense now that the mystery has come into full view. If you want to see Saikawa in a positive light, you could read this as a compliment, like he’s saying that Moe’s imperfections are part of what makes her beautiful. Or you could just read it as a joke at her expense in front of a lot of important people. Depends on how you want to feel about Saikawa…
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