Death Among the Undead

by Masahiro Imamura

Goodreads Synopsis:

Yuzuru Hamura and Kyosuke Akechi, the president of the Shinko University Mystery Society, and Hiruko Kenzaki, a detective girl from the same university, join the summer trip of the school's film research club to the country boarding house, Villa Violet, following the hint of a mystery.

On the first night of the trip, the students go out to test their nerves, but encounter an unimaginable situation and are forced to retreat and take a stand in the boarding house. A night of tension and confusion has dawned, and one of the members is found brutally dead behind closed doors. But that was just the beginning of a series of murders......!!

In the depths of ultimate despair, will Hamura, Akechi, and Hiruko survive and solve the mystery?!

My Rating:

☆☆☆☆☆

"Masahiro Imamura, author of Death Among the Undead, correctly noted that The Decagon House Murders, the starting point of shin honkaku, was at its core a closed circle murder mystery, but with unique narrative techniques used to present the tale. He knew that, just like Ayatsuji before him, he needed to add an extra original factor to the core format. Imamura's choice: zombies."

"The core elements of any classic murder mystery are the killer, the victim and the murder weapon, and the lines between these three elements are never crossed. Zombies, however, can change from one element to another. A zombie can be the killer, the victim and even a powerful murder weapon. Such a concept changes the very foundations of the mystery story, which is why Death Among the Undead is a masterpiece of the genre."

(From Soji Shimada's (author of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders) introduction to Locked Room International's translation of Death Among the Undead)

Dates Read: September 9-10, 2023

Initial Publication Date: October 2017

Translation Published: August 2021

Author Origin: Japan

Major Characters:

Amateur Detectives: Yuzuru Hamura, Kyosuke Akechi, and Hiruko Kenzaki
Other Students: Ayumu Shindo, Reika Hoshikawa, Sumie Nabari, Rin Takagi, Mifuyu Shizuhara, Takako Kudamatsu, Mitsuru Shigemoto.
The Alumni and Villa Violet Regulars: Kanemitsu Nanamiya (son of the owner of the Villa Violet), his friends Tobio Deme and Haruya Tatsunami, and Yuito Kanno, the manager of the Villa Violet.

Personal Notes:

It's been months since I've read a Japanese mystery I've enjoyed as much as I did Death Among the Undead. What a great read, what a novel concept! And that this title was the author's debut, at that! There were some great twists and turns in the story, and no spoilers, but I had a few theories as to the who/what/why of the murders; one of my theories was correct, but the others didn't pan out, with the identity of the killer a surprise at the end.

I also immensely enjoyed the introduction provided by Soji Shimada, author of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. Not only does he explain the history of the detective mystery genre in Japan, but the shin-honkaku genre in detail, which helps give the context needed to understand why Death Among the Undead became such an immense hit in Japan. I honestly ended up taking more photos of the introduction than I did parts of the novel itself.

I really, really hope another publication company puts out a new edition of this book, so that I can purchase a personal copy that doesn't look so downright...bad. Ho-Ling Wong's translation itself was great, but the Locked Room International edition (the only one available for English readers) suffers from a multitude of small editing typos, and the cover...like those of most Locked Room International publications, that it could be better goes without saying. After all, Pushkin Vertigo was able to release a new edition of Ho-Ling Wong's translation of The Decagon House Murders about six or seven years after it was first translated to English by the same man for Locked Room International, so fingers crossed.

This will definitely be a reread in the future. Part of me wishes I'd saved it for next month's booklist, as I'm planning on reading a handful of books that give off a spooky Halloween or Autumn vibe for October, but at the same time, this was a really fun and interesting read that pulled me out of a bit of a reading slump, so I don't regret reading it when I did at all.

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