終着駅(ターミナル)殺人事件 - Kyōtarō Nishimura (西村 京太郎)

Another Nishimura novel; it must be that time of the year when I want to read about train timetables. "終着駅(ターミナル)殺人事件", or "The case of the murder at the terminal station", is your quintessential Nishimura novel: Totsugawa and Kamei (here Sakurai or others don't have more than a passing mention) investigating some mysterious deaths that have a lot to do with trains. Here, it is a group of seven friends from Aomori who get killed one by one, the first one dying at Ueno Station just before the start of a trip of the group together back to their hometown. Kamei, who is also from the north, is one of the first policemen at the crime scene and pretty soon Totsugawa and the team are investigating the case. Curiously, though, in this case we get little of the investigation, as Nishimura expends a lot of time with the group of friends, starting from the very beginning of the book, when we get the chance to see them meeting again, getting on the train, etc. It is a very good start to the novel and shows that Nishimura knew how to create fleshed out and interesting characters. Unfortunately for the reader, this doesn't translate through the length of the novel, as we get bogged down with too many unnecessary conversations and too many pages around the speed of trains, or the stops a train makes along the way. This is your basic problem with a Nishimura novel: if you don't like trains, you will hate him. He expends always too much time talking, describing, contemplating trains, time tables, ways to go from point A to B to explain the mystery, instead of expending time developing characters, making a good mystery or making things thrilling. For example, there is a moment when there is a possible 'closed room murder'. Instead of dwelling onto it, he goes back to his trains. This doesn't mean the novel is boring, no, because it is one of his best, starting with the group of suspects/victims and following with our policemen Totsugawa and Kamei. But knowing that he can create amazing set-ups, it is a pity that he seems to be unable to deliver on the expectations he himself creates. The best: it is not your average Nishimura novel with hundreds of conversations about train tables (I mean, it is, but not as much as others); it is also not so repetitive as some of his other novels; the beginning, as always, is great, and introduces the mystery and the characters nicely; Totsugawa, Kamei and company are always fun to be with The worst: it is still about trains; the answer to the mystery... well, it is not much of a mystery Alternatives: any of his other novels if you like this one or anything like this; you have other options in Japanese mystery novels: Higashino Keigo, Kirino Natsuo, Miyabe Miyuki, Kishi Yusuke, Akimitsu Takagi or the grand Edogawa Ranpo; you can also go to other languages and places like Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie or more modern ones like Val McDermid, Camilla Läckberg or Henning Mankell. Options, too many options... 6.5/10 (Original Japanese Version)