I have pretty much the same experience. Stopping every two lines to look up any and all references is exhausting, and more than that, disrupts my reading flow… and the story, apart from the pedantry aspect, is very engaging. So much like you, I just read the book, and just highlight (on a digital copy) the parts that either need a reference or a comment later on. I then re-read the chapter a couple of days later, look up all the references, and try to set up the thread (but I’m late with chapter 2, because I just wanted to keep reading. I’ll put up the references posts, if all goes well, for the whole of chapter two and maybe the start of chapter three later this week).
Very much so ! but you kind of get used to the style, and, well, once we’ve read that, I think we can read pretty much anything !
Grete Danneberg died of potassium cyanide poisoning… a murder, not a suicide. She was taken ill at the beginning of a séance, and rested in an adjacent chamber, apparently for the whole night. At her request, she was brought a platter of fruits, and even though her favorite were pears, she for some unknown reason chose a blood orange, inside which the poison had been hidden; notwithstanding the fact that the orange would poorly disguise the taste of cyanide. At the instant of her death, the culprit carved the 降矢木 crest on her skin, being extra careful with the timing and depth of the wound, so that the crest wouldn’t be soiled by blood (and presumably would stay legible). However, Grete Danneberg had the time to leave a message incriminating her killer : Thérèse, the dead wife of 算哲 … or more probably the mechanical doll of Thérèse. Why the corpse is glowing is still, unfortunately, unclear at this point, though 法水 did some experiment with the room’s lighting, and presumably has a theory. However, before anything else, our detectives go looking for the mechanical doll… she is in a closed room, though footsteps might indicate that she indeed left it… or at least was made to look as if she did, though an intricate mechanism that also allowed for the room to be closed from the inside. But… more mysteries await when the detectives go back to the murder room. The butler, 易介, has disappeared. And the librarian, 久我鎮子 comes forward with information…
Alrighty; I’ve finished the prologue and made my way through part of 1.1, and I think I’ll go ahead and gracefully bow out. It hasn’t been all that long since the book started, granted, but I feel like I have a pretty good feel for what I’d be in for if I were to continue, and to be quite honest I don’t know if continuing would be worth it for me. The details surrounding the book are fascinating, but something like this would probably be a hard sell for me even in English. I hope everyone who continues has fun! I’ll probably be peeking in every now and then to see how everyone’s doing.
I realized I could read the aozora text while the physical book is safe in my trunk so I’m only now slowly starting to make my way through 1.2. Norimizu et al just broke down (part of) the door to the dolls room.
@Magyarapointe Don’t worry about it if it’s troublesome, but I was wondering if you could tell me what page part 1.2 ends on in the big book for my tracking purposes.
I can’t tell you until tomorrow night unfortunately, because the book is back at my weekend home and I’m at my work-home, but I’ll tell you as soon as I can
Hey all! Just writing to let you know that I don’t feel I can currently spend the mental capacity and time that this book obviously deserves (going off of your comments)
So I’ve decided to drop it for now. I think I can serve myself better with reading easier things right now. So I’m not holding you back any longer if you prefer to go faster with this club
We start to get some explanation about the setting : The room Grete Danneberg died in is actually the same room where all previous deaths occured. There seems to be an atmosphere of paranoia at the manor since the death of 算哲. The night before the murder, all the members of the family took part in a séance involving a Hand-of-Glory that was among the occult artifacts 算哲 brought back from England. Grete Danneberg was singled out, or thought she was singled out, and chose to seclude herself in the room, that had before then been sealed.
She received food and drink, had them tested as she usually did because she thought someone could be out to poison her, and finally locked herself in. The other family members slept peacefully, and she died from cyanure poisoning after eating the blood orange. Impossible as it may seem, clues point to the Therese mechanical doll as the culprit; Therese was considered an evil spirit of the manor, and hated (probably feared too) by Grete Danneberg. Various ominous and occult signs are also to be found in the room; and Shizuko reveals a prophecy, by which all six members of the household will die horrible deaths. Grete Danneberg has died, as the prophecy announced, “in the light of glory”…
For the moment, this is shaping out to be more of a gothic horror story, though I imagine that, somehow like the Hound of the Baskervilles, there will be a human twist at some point. I really liked the back and forth between 法水 and 鎮子. And I was wondering why Grete Danneberg chose to seclude herself in this room. After all, she has been living in the manor for the past 40 years, she must have a bedroom of her own. I’m not absolutely sure that hiding in a closed room where 3 suspicious deaths took place is very wise if you think someone or something is out to get you, but I have probably seen more horror movies than poor Grete ! I’d also like to know how 鎮子 came to have the drawing of the prophecy…
Apart from the story itself : I had to read several times the explanations about the carpet to understand how it worked (same as with the mechanical doll last week). This is not so much a japanese problem as a mechanics problem… and this book is very much european-centric. Somehow I think some references might actually be slightly less difficult for western readers. I wonder what the average japanese reader makes of it…
Thank you so much for the character table! I found it really helpful because I had a hard time remembering who was who and the pronunciation of their names. I made some notes in my ereader in romaji, but it’s still difficult to refer to them there. So, this table is truly invaluable!
I’m almost done with the prologue now.
Thank you for the summary of the prologue, as I didn’t quite grasp everything on my own.
By the way, I was wondering if you could also post the same reference for each part on these monthly threads in addition to posting in the Reference thread? That way, it would be easier to quote and reply here when it’s related to this month’s thread.
So, this table is truly invaluable! 
