Hello and welcome! We have entered the third week of the book club!
As a reminder, we are following the below schedule (page counts are estimates based on standard size iPad with default font):
Week 1 + 2 : プロローグ + 第一章 (47 pages) Week 3: 第二章 (31 pages)
Week4: 第三章 (24 pages)
Week 5: 第四章 (22 pages)
Week 6: 第五章 (39 pages)
At week 6 we will vote on which of the two cadences we’d like to finish out with
Details on those, feel free to ignore til week 6
Speed up, the end is near:
Week 7: 第六章 + 第七章 + 第八章 (43 pages)
Week 8: 第九章 (55 pages)
Week 9: 第十章 + 第十一章 + 第十二章 + エピローグ (52 pages)
or Steady, generally just one chapter a week unless very short
Week 7: 第六章 + 第七章 (26 pages)
Week 8: 第八章 (17 pages)
Week 9: 第九章 (55 pages)
Week 10: 第十章 + 第十一章 (19 pages)
Week 11: 第十二章 + エピローグ (33 pages)
I will generally copy this information over thread to thread each week for ease of finding - you can always expect the schedule at the top of any weekly thread
Law and Order
Any reveals, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
Questions on vocab, grammar, nuance, and the like are both welcome and encouraged. If you’re not sure if it’s a spoiler, assume it is and use one of the above options to hide the text.
You are encouraged to speculate and guess wildly
Be kind about other peoples’ wild guesses
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.
I would also like to hold a poll to gauge participation - should’ve done this last time as well but it slipped my mind!
Are you reading week 3?
Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
I have finished this week’s reading
I’m reading, but not at the same pace as the club (am behind or ahead)
I’ve stopped reading
I wanted to join, but I didn’t start reading the book yet
I had no intentions of reading the book, but I desire to click a poll
I also started reading a bit, although I’m pretty short on time today so not much. I just got to 江南 arriving at the home of 紅次郎. I agree the writing style is much easier now. If I were not to determined to write down every name with 読み方 and light notes I’d be going much faster. But I would regret not doing so in a book with so many characters. Do we already know who 東一 is? I feel like not
No, I don’t think so. Must be one of the guys, but I don’t think we’ve heard any “real” names for them yet. And speaking of that name, does it come across as unusual to anyone else? I’m no expert in Japanese names, of course, but a single kanji for both first and last felt weird to me.
A couple of quick questions for section 1 of chapter 1:
Qs
(first page of ch. 1)
昨晩は夜を徹して、友人の下宿で麻雀に興じていた。毎度のことながら、部屋に帰り着いても騒がしい洗牌の音が、朦朧とした頭の中でまだ響きつづけていたのだが、その文面を見たとたん、すっかり目が覚めてしまった。
Phew, typed up a lot for just that beginning part of the sentence. 毎度のこと should be “each time”, right? What’s the ながら doing?
(next page, Kindle 16%)
江南は現在三回生、来月から四回生に上がるが、会のほうは去年の春にやめてしまっていた。
What exactly is being やまて’ed here?
I looove the fact that 島田 calls 河南 コナン, and he just accepts it without comment. They’re such geeks! I really like 島田’s enthusiasm - I hope that doesn’t mean he’s our instigator, though. That’s always a concern in this kind of book, haha.
I feel like this sort of outside investigation happening alongside the case really adds to the suspense! I was expecting more immediate action like in And Then There Were None, but I do not mind this one bit. I like suspense! And investigations!
Aww man. Halfway through the chapter, I believe? Looking forward to finishing off the rest, probably today!
I agree that the language remains very readable. There’s a bunch of new words I don’t feel the need to learn though, like all those Buddhist terms in part 3 or stuff like 揚子江. I do always appreciate learning about words like 風見鶏, though. They’re so charming, somehow.
I’ve been making a list as I go along with name readings and notes. I could update the home post later with these things, although I’ll leave out any spoilers and speculation.
ex:
ルルウー男性、小柄、文学部、二回生
カーー男性、法学部、三回生、浪人
中村青司ーなかむら せいじ
It will likely be later this evening though at the earliest. Although @brandon is it possible to turn a post into a wiki? I think it’d be neat to make the home thread have an editable character list so people can add readings and non-spoiler notes
Finished this week’s chapter! I really like the unexpected introduction of more characters who are investigating from the mainland. I wonder if that means that no one on the island will survive? Or maybe they will, and the investigations will converge and complement each other. .
So let me get the chronology straight: The murders on the island happened on September last year. The daughter died on January after that. It is now March, roughly a year later. Is that all correct? Or did the daughter die before the parents?
So the daughter never lived on the island? Her parents were brutally murdered, and she joins the mystery club at university, then drinks herself to death at an after-after party?
By the way, none of the theories presented so far in the book make much sense to me. There’s clearly a lot we don’t know yet. And I’m not even satisfied the bodies were all identified correctly. They were surely torally disfigured, and we weren’t told about dental records or anything conclusive like that.
I’ve also finished this weeks chapter! I’m really enjoying it but I don’t have too much more to say so far. Other than for some reason I’m a bit suspicious of 島田…seems a bit weird that he’s suddenly so in on the investigation, and him being 江次郎’s alibi also seems like something that could come up later
Agreed. It’s very weird that on the very first inquiry about the letter, 江南 just happens upon someone who knows a lot about the case, is interested in mysteries and has ample time to investigate with some student who he just met. An(other) suspicious coincidence, to be sure.
In my mind, this makes the brother suspicious. If I recall correctly, he was the one who called 島田 out of the blue for drinks on that particular day.
As a side note, I’m hoping all those scattered mentions of Buddhism won’t turn out to be significant, or I might end up hopelessly lost trying to piece together clues related to that…
That’s what I thought at first, then something made me change my mind (wasn’t the maternal side of her family entrusted with her education, I assume after her parents’ death? - probably need to reread some parts), then I was unsure again .
Fun! That would have to involve either plastic surgery or the brother being in on it (entirely possible).
But yeah, my theory is that either 青司 is alive and well, or that his own death was designed by himself in such a way as to trigger certain events.
Gah I don’t remember that at all. This is what I get for reading half the chapter half awake
Yeah my lean is towards the brother being in on it. His actions after his brother’s death, 島田 being at his house coincidentally when 江南 shows up, 島田’s general weird behavior, 島田 also seeming to have an unusually strong reaction to alcohol, etc all make me think that relationship is not what it seems
Law and Order 
But I would regret not doing so in a book with so many characters. Do we already know who 
Thanks for the link!
