Chapter 18 postscript

Allow me to venture into some personal matters.For me, the bible of mysteries is the "Retired Detective" series that I read for the first time in high school, and then reviewed the new book version and the library version successively.When the author Michio Tsuzuki introduced the characters he created, he defined the easy chair detective novel as follows. "In terms of form, this series can be classified as an easy-chair detective novel. The protagonist in the story reasoning about murder or other crimes, but he neither went to the crime scene nor directly listened to the relevant people. Mentioned by those who are familiar with the case, the case can be solved. This kind of detective sits in a chair and does not take action, so it is called the easy chair detective. There is no doubt that the origin of this form is ancient. Folktales—where wise men resolve disputes immediately after listening to the appeals of the people—are a simpler and more unadorned form of wisdom story." (Excerpt from the postscript of Tokuma Bunko's 'Retired Detective' Bunko Edition)

Then the master introduced masterpieces in this form - "The Mystery of Marie Roget" by Edger Allan Poe, "The Old Man in the Corner" by Baroness Orczy. Manin the Corner)' series, as well as representative easy-chair detective novels such as James Yaffe's "My Mother, the Detective" series, which Master Du Zhu himself claims to have followed the setting of his series; in this article, What impressed me the most is the following part. "Among the novels, 'The Daughter of Time' by British writer Josephine Tey is the most famous; Japanese writer Binguang Takagi's 'Secret of Genghis Khan' and 'Secret of Yamatai Kingdom' are also based on Written in this form. These works are based on past history; this is due to the technical difficulties of describing ongoing crimes in the form of long-form easy-chair detective stories. This form is only suitable for short stories. Works, before me, no writer in Japan even tried to write a series of purely this type of work.” (Excerpted from the postscript of Tokuma Bunko's "Retired Detective" Bunko Edition)

It turns out that easy-chair detective novels are only suitable for short stories. If you plan to describe crimes in progress in long-length novels, there are technical difficulties in implementing them—I suddenly realized that I patted my knee.I don't think I'm particularly a naysayer, but it's an indisputable fact that I always "know that there are tigers in the mountains, but I prefer to travel to the tigers".So, I began to try to write long-form easy-chair detective novels that did not deal with past history. And what I want to emulate is Harry Kemelman's short story collection 'The Nine Mile Walk', which the master calls "the masterpiece of easy-chair detective fiction".This short work is quite famous among fans of mystery novels; "It's not easy to walk nine miles, and it's harder in the rain" - from this short sentence draws all possible inferences, and uncovers the previous story. The truth of the murder case in one night is a story that makes people feel amazing.The mystery of this "pure logic" is that the origin of the logical development has nothing to do with the case itself on the surface; I naively (or rather foolishly) think that as long as this "pure logic" is applied, Perhaps a full-length easy-chair detective novel could be written about a crime in progress.

This work is a conclusion drawn through trial and error.Generally speaking, easy-chair detectives are "forbidden" to go to the crime scene to verify inferences; but I believe readers who have finished reading this book have found that this work has slightly exceeded this prohibition, which can be said to make me feel most regretful. This work is slightly different from my previous works. If it can bring readers more or less fun, it will be my greatest honor.And because this work is based on beer, if you are an adult and do not dislike beer, please be sure to read this work leisurely while having a drink.

In addition, Takumi Chiaki and Hisami Yusuke, who play the role of detectives, are also the main characters in my debut work; and the "summer incident" that is slightly mentioned in this work is described in detail in the previous work.If readers have time, they may wish to read the three works together. Finally, at the end of the article, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Uyama Hinodeomi from the Third Publishing Department of Kodansha Literature and Art Books, who loves beer and gave me great inspiration when I created this book, and Mr. Takeo Sasaki, the responsible editor.