Japanese Murder Mystery: The Clock House Murders
Hi Readers!
Almost the entirety of the month was spent reading Yukito Ayatsuji’s fourth novel The Clock House Murders. Usually I breeze through his books and love them, but this was an opposite experience. It took a long time to complete and I did not enjoy it much. Find out why!
~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~
The remote Clock House is filled with priceless timepieces from across the world. It is also rumoured to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl. A team of ghosthunters visit the mansion to investigate, but their stay has barely begun when one of them is gruesomely murdered, and the survivors realize that they are trapped inside the house with a killer…
As the murderer’s bloody spree continues, the team are picked off one by one. Can the brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi crack the enigma of the Clock House before all those inside have been slain? And can you guess the solution before he does?
~~THOUGHTS~~
Imagine a house built somewhat in the shape of a clock with a pendulum and housing over 100 clocks in it. Ten years previously, there were multiple deaths surrounding the people who lived in this house. And now, a team of mystery and paranormal enthusiasts from a University along with some people from a magazine have got a chance to stay locked up in this house for 3 days. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and it does! We see people getting murdered one after the other in a house that is supposed to be locked so the murderer must be inside.
Such an intrigue was built up in the premise of this book. And, so many questions.. not just about the killings but also about everything else. Were the deaths ten years ago natural or was there anything odd about them? Is everyone in the room who they say they are, or do they have secret connection to the death of ten years ago? How is the murderer getting in and out of the house? While there’s this team inside the house, we also see a parallel story line where our favorite detective Shimada Kiyoshi is just outside, in another section of the house, oblivious to everything.
There were many things that were off-putting in this book for me. Starting with the obvious, Shimada missing out all the action. In the previous books, he was front and center in the murder mysteries, trying to solve them and giving us red herrings along the way. But, in this one, though he is connected, it’s not as intriguing or enjoyable. And the second most obvious part was the end. Yes, it was brilliant in a way I did not see coming. But, just because the last 10% of the book is amazing, does not take away from the fact that the first 90% of the book was plain boring. I have not shared any key aspects of the plot or the characters because anything could be a spoiler. So, in case you plan on reading the book, the review will not give anything away! I have rated The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong at 2/5 stars!
You can find the reviews of the previous books here:
Until next time,
About The Author
Aishwarya Shenolikar
Hello! I'm Aishwarya, an Introverted bookworm & writer. I have been reviewing books since 6 years on my blog - Mindscape in Words. My favourite genres are Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, Magical Realism, Poetry, Fantasy & Memoirs. I like the kind of books which evoke emotions on several levels leaving me wrecked, but also incredibly content. I'm dreaming for the world to paint a landscape full of words, more like Mindscape in Words. Hope you enjoy the view.