One thing that I expected to get more info on at one point but I don’t think we really did (unless I missed it which is very possible) is the exact details around 千織’s death. Like we are told that she dies of alcohol poisoning but I kind of thought all along that there would be more to it that would make the other club members more directly blameworthy other than I guess egging her on to drink more? Like, I’m not saying it’s a good thing to peer pressure someone into drinking but seems a step removed from murder and more like a stupid sad accident. I kind of had been guessing that maybe she was actually poisoned or something but it seems not. Though I guess would kind of tie it back to the ‘And then there were none’ kind of ‘punishing sins that won’t be punished by the law’ but I feel like in this case it seems more open to what extent ヴァン just wanted someone to blame for an accidental death.
I highly encourage people to read the samples before voting if difficulty is a concern. IIRC brandon loaded in a bunch of prize winners all at 30 and I know that’s my default for most books I request that I haven’t started reading yet.
That said I did nominate one that will probably be under 30 (although not 25?? Haha) and the 赤川次郎 book is 30?? but will likely be actually 30 or a smidge lower. I think there’s a couple other 28s in there too.
Agreed. I did expect much more on both 千織’s death and the first series of murders on the island. I suppose it is implied that the club members’ “crime” was really nothing more than failing to look out for her - and in truth ヴァン could/should accuse himself of exactly the same crime. I kind of like this unexpected direction the book took, though. There was no neat little bow to tie everything up. The murderer committed horrible crimes for no good reason, felt disgusted with himself in the process, and got no sense of vindication or fulfillment in the end. (Not even the “detectives” got the thrill of figuring it out - one of them just found the solution in a bottle) 千織’s death was a stupid accident, the first island massacre apparently a murder-suicide driven by passion and madness (but why was one body in a secret underground room?), the second island massacre a stupid, needless crime inspired by the first crime in order to avenge the aforementioned accident. All very unsatisfying, and therefore way more realistic than what I expected from such a book.
That’s actually a good point that I hadn’t considered in that light! It does make me think more positively of the ending when I consider it that way.
Somewhat of an aside, but it reminds me a bit of an interview with the writers for one of my favourite shows (I won’t say what show for risk of spoilers). They were talking about the choices they made in plotting out the lead up to a major character death (triggered by the actor wanting to leave the show) . Instead of trying to ‘wrap up’ all of that characters plot lines, they purposefully still had him involved in lots of things that because of his death, would never get resolution. I thought it was quite interesting as I’ve certainly had that sense watching other shows of ‘oh, everything has been resolved for this character before X big fight…three guesses as to who won’t make it out of this’. I guess there is sometimes more realism added by having things be a bit messy 
Was finally able to finish this book after so many things got in the way. (Work’s been very busy and spent the long weekend on a bike trip.)
That really was such a great read. I literally gasped at the reveal but I’m honestly a little disappointed by a few things.
First of all that the last chapter was just info-dump of his whole scheme when we (the readers) had already worked it all out based on context. Was hoping for the to be revealed at least through some kind of conversation.
Second of all, that we never found out how Chiori died. I was expecting them to reveal it hadn’t been an accident, or at least that the others had been responsible for her death.
And thirdly that it would be tired to the mysterious death of Chiori’s parents. A crime of passion was a little disappointing.
But I guess the book has to end somehow and that was overall a really strong story.
(Now I can go read And Then There Were None!)
The spoiler tag doesn’t work across paragraphs for whatever reason, so you’d need to tag each individual paragraph.
Thank you!!! I was panicking for a second there XD Didn’t want to ruin it for people.
I know the feeling, haha.
This was very similar to how I felt. That’s a good way to explain it that makes me like the ending a little more too.
Finally finished! I stopped at chapter 7 to wait for everyone and read 下町ロケット下町ロケット | L35
It was really fun to be able to read opinions while reading!
Some comments:
I travelled to an island with my colleagues from the 写真クラブ and no one died.
Is it really possible to sample toxins from people after the corpses are burned?
People in Japan do use the alphabet for their initials sometimes,
Everytime I read 安楽椅子 it reminds me on 安楽死 which is not related to a armchair.
『、変形ではあるが広大なキャンパスを持つＫ＊＊大学の一角に、大学公認のサークルが活動拠点とする、鉄筋三階建てのサークルボックス棟がある。』
I caught a small details that are incorrect about architecture. The correct term is 鉄筋コンクリート, the way it is written would refer to a building made only if rebars.
I would like if the author would add some accent to the kids instead of hyojungo.
お疲れ様でした～
Depends on the poison, method of ingestion, state of decomposition, and etc but absolutely! Some poisons will break down faster and ‘disappear’ but others will longer in predictable places for awhile. Even as far back as the 1800s there were cases of bodies being dug up to be tested for poisons after suspicion of foul play came up, although not all poisons had reliable methods and the way they determined some of them back then was… Interesting.
I’ll see if I can find you an example from one of my books later today
This is definitely one thing I have a lack of experience with. A book club would be the best place to get my feet wet as well…
So I was poking through the books I own and most of the ebooks I have relate to arsenic and the book I recently read that talked about strychnine seems to have been one I checked out from the library so can’t search it now. IIRC though the method for testing for strychnine was quite new at the time and untested in a court of law. The testing method as I recall involved blending and decomposing into parts the viscera (pretty typical) and then…taste testing the resulting compound 
But anyways, cyanide is another case entirely - I did find this article: Stability of Cyanide in Cadavers and in Postmortem
Stored Tissue Specimens: A Review
and it actually talks specifically about charred remains!
Absolutely fascinating stuff; thank you for sharing! Man cat, the more of your posts I read, the more impressed I am with your breadth of knowledge/reading.
Heh, I’m just a very nerdy person who is also a lifelong bookworm 
I like medicine and science a lot (almost went into medicine…but then ended up in computers 
) so I read about them a lot. If you can’t do something professionally, keep it alive as a hobby 
If you are interested in reading a book where the characters from Kansai speak Kansai-ben, you may try this: 硝子のハンマー | L38
It’s very well written. I gave it two stars because the final part of the book is too long and the genre is not my preferred. The author is from Kansai and the Kansai-ben is genuine.
The difficulty of the book is probably much lower than the current number.
I finally finished the book! Only about four months late 
I started with the club, but it became clear to me pretty quickly that I wouldn’t be able to keep up (I’m the kind of reader who wants to understand all the words that I’m reading and this book had a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary and kanji for me). On top of that I had to take a break from Japanese reading because of some personal family circumstances.
When I picked up the book again I discovered that I would rather read the book without reading the discussion threads at the same time because I like speculating on my own (I guess a mystery book club isn’t really for me 
). However, now that I finished the book, I really enjoyed reading all of your discussions and thoughts on the book! It‘s like taking a trip through the book a second time together with you.
It was funny to see how we were basically all fooled at the start into thinking that ヴァン would be the first victim
I was really impressed that @eefara and @Biblio together basically guessed the murderer in week 7. At that point I felt that you would collectively solve it much earlier than I did, but then everyone veered off again in different directions (except @eefara nailing it again in week 8).
I agree with what most of you have said about the book. I also had expected more details to be revealed about 千織‘s death and the earlier murders and I agree with what @Niffer said here:
Sorry I didn’t participate more. @cat thank you for organising the club! And a big thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts and discussions. I really enjoyed it!
Fashionably late 
I know exactly what you mean about reading things after the fact. I got behind a WK book club and likewise just finished it on my own and then read everyone’s speculation and thoughts. It was a lot of fun! I like interacting during the club of course, but even just seeing if other people had the same theories or thoughts as me was fun!
