I became aware of the author 北村 薫 from this post. I found and read the story referenced, and I quite liked the writing. According to Wikipedia, 'Kitamura is known as a writer of mysteries, and rather than the detective and crime stories of traditional mystery, his work mainly focuses on the logical resolution of more “ordinary” puzzles and questions encountered in everyday life. He is considered a pioneer of this style of mystery in Japan, called “everyday mystery” '.
I wanted to nominate either 夜の蝉, which won the 44th Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1991 or ニッポン硬貨の謎, which won both the 6th Honkaku Mystery Award in 2006 and the 2006 Baka-Misu Award. Read Real Japanese, the book where I read his 百物語 story, has this to say about ニッポン硬貨の謎: ‘a marvelously wacky pastiche, complete with footnotes, that purports - as its subtitle, “Ellery Queen’s Last Case” suggests - to be a translation of the unpublished final work, set in Japan, of the celebrated pseudonymous mystery author and detective, Ellery Queen. This work was also given the Bakamisu prize, which might be translated as the “Are you kidding me!? Mystery Prize,” awarded annually to mysteries with the most mind-boggling, flabbergasting, or ridiculous plots or endings.’
As you see, it sounded like fun, and a good segue to our current reading which also is a homage to, among others, Ellery Queen. But alas, no ebook available, which at least for me, is a major problem. So instead, I thought I’d nominate a relay mystery where he participates, and which is available as an ebook. I tend to not prefer relay mysteries because obviously there can’t have been much careful planning behind the plot, but on the other hand they’re fun in their own way, and a good way to get to know multiple authors at once while still reading one novel instead of a collection of short stories.
