10. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

By Soji Shimada

Tokyo Zodiac Murders began with a confessional journal entry from the supposed killer.  Heikichi Umezawa was an artist obsessed with astrology/alchemy/the occult and making Japan great again, and he was able to combine his two passions by bringing forth the goddess Azoth. He thought the best way to go about it was to sacrifice his six daughters and nieces and use their "best" body parts to form his demented masterpiece!  

Ooookay then. I was somewhat put off as I thought Tokyo Zodiac Murders would be a straightforward locked room murder mystery without involving incestuous crimes or deviant sexual behaviour.  After Grotesque, I wasn't exactly keen on reading more transgressive fiction about aberrant desires and women being victims of sexual violence. But whatever, my already disturbed mind can handle it.

But after that first chapter, the narrative shifted to two men in present day Tokyo (c.1979) trying to solve this cold case from the 1930s:  Kazumi Ishioka, a freelance illustrator and avid mystery fan, and his friend, astrologer Kiyoshi Mitarai.

There were three murders to solve: the locked room mystery of Heikichi Umezawa (who was murdered in his studio), his eldest daughter Kazue (who was murdered in her home), and the six Umesawa women (whose bodies were found in various locations in Japan over the course of a year).

I've read enough mysteries to not devote too much mental energy to figuring out who the real murderer was because the author controls how the information is revealed to the reader.  Towards the end though, I was surprised to discover that author Soji Shimada broke the fourth wall by addressing the reader. It was clever and cute, and I instantly regretted not paying more attention while reading!  I could only assure myself that in order for someone like yours truly to solve the case, I would've had to take additional time to pore over the details that were provided.  In hindsight, all the clues were indeed there, but you had to review everything and it would've been more fun if a friend had been reading the book at the same time so that we could compare notes.  However, I did at some point deduce enough to hazard a guess... major spoilers ahead!

It was after Detective Takegoshi's letter of confession that I deduced that the murderer was likely a woman, after all.  This was why the suspect had to force a policeman to help bury the bodies. Not only would a woman not have been physically capable of disposing the bodies in the remote locations, one of the amateur detectives had stated women weren't allowed to have driver's licenses back then.  I had also assumed Kazue was probably coerced into having sex with him and was killed afterwards, since semen was found inside her when in fact, she had been killed prior to that.  I had also thought the killer must've been one of the daughters, but then I was stymied by the fact that all six bodies had been found.  I didn't make the leap that their bodies might have been incorrectly identified, since this was long before DNA testing was possible. The bodies had also been cut up and each body was only discovered over the course of a year, so some of the bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition.

So there was very good reason for the novel to begin with the deranged confession of the supposed murderer.  The first chapter was the red herring, and I fell for it!  I also appreciated Tokiko's backstory (she was Heikichi's first daughter from his first marriage).  What if Cinderella decided she was done with being a doormat and took out her evil stepmother and stepsisters?  Tokiko was a vengeful Cinderella yet also a tragic figure, because the person she was doing this for, her mother, still ended up lonely and sad.  She also lost out on time spent with her mother while she was making her elaborate plans.

One highlight from the novel: a reference to the real 1936 murder case involving Sada Abe, a geisha and prostitute who strangled her lover to death and was carrying his severed gentialia in her kimono when she was found by police. 

Note: I found this secondhand copy of Tokyo Zodiac Murders at Walen Pond Books, Oakland.  This book was also in Olman's list, which reminds me - I should pass this onto him.

2. The King in Yellow

By Robert W. Chambers

Saw this hardcover edition while browsing Walden Pond Books in   Oakland.  We (the Purves-Brebner clan) were in the area to pick up a Christmas tree at Brent's near the Grand Lake Theatre and had also consumed some delicious Asian-inspired pastries at Bake Sum.

So yes, I saw The King in Yellow and got Olman to pick it up for me as a Xmas present.  I also found a used copy of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which happened to be on Olman's list.  Too bad for him though, finders keepers!
I first heard about The King in Yellow as a literary influence on True Detective S1, and it's been on my list ever since.  

Recently, I acquired a HP Lovecraft box set under purely consumeristic circumstances. I was taking advantage of Black Friday sales to do some early Xmas shopping and Indigo had a sale on Kpop albums, which is what my daughter is into collecting now.  Albums qualify for shipping, but I needed another $12 to reach the minimum amount for free shipping.  I saw that certain paperback box sets were half price so I got a HP Lovecraft box set for only $12.50 and as a minor horror buff, I've always been curious about his work.  Anyway, I was aware that author Robert Chambers was an early influence on Lovecraft, so I thought it was a nice coincidence when I saw this nice Pushkin Press edition from 2017 at Walden Books.

The King in Yellow was my first completed book in 2026 (not counting The Antifa Comic Book) and I was able to finish it within a few days.  It's really a collection of four short stories.  The original 1895 publication contained more stories but apparently it's just the first four that are thematically connected by a cursed play called 'The King in Yellow' which somehow ends up in the hands of various characters. When someone reads the second act, terrible things befall them, ie. they start losing touch with reality and become haunted by a ruined, mythical city called Carcosa, unwittingly serving a cult-like deity known only as Hastur, the Yellow King.  Apparently, the world of Carcosa was inspired by Ambrose Pierce. 

The first and probably best story was "The Repairer of Reputations".  The setting is a dystopic 1920s America that has become quite militaristic and Randian (before Ayn Rand and the military-industrial complex came about).  People of Jewish descent and other undesirable foreigners have been deported and a state has been established for African-Americans. The narrator, Hildred Castaigne, observes the official opening of a "Lethal Chambers" at a public park in Manhattan, for anyone who wants to painlessly end their life so as not be a burden on society.  We soon learn that our dear Hildred is not quite right in the head.  Not only had he suffered a head injury from a fall, he had also been committed for a period of time inside an asylum.  At some point he had also read "The King in Yellow" and often visits the creepy Repairer himself, a Yellow King devotee who happens to live above the store that's run by the father of his brother's fiancée.  I like the part when Hildred thought he was alone inside his shabby apartment admiring himself in mirror as he wore his golden crown but when his brother came upon him, he was really just wearing a cheap, dime-store trinket. The reader is basically plunged inside the unraveling mind of a man who's becoming more and more paranoid and deranged until he commits a terrible act.

As a Goodreads reviewer wrote: it is a bracing and imaginative bit of darkness on the page and, to me at least, quite wonderful. the style is so breezy, the pacing so brisk, the imagination so fertile and so oddly modern, the experience was pure pleasure. it is hard to believe that this story was written over a 100 years ago.

The next story, "The Mask", was ok and probably my least favourite as it was more melo-dramatic than creepy or chilling.  It takes place in Paris and involves a love triangle between young painter named Alec, a sculptor and would-be alchemist named Boris, and their love interest, Genevieve.  Boris has discovered or created a magical solution that can transform any organic object or living thing into lightly veined white marble.  It's unclear how the golden liquid came about, but it's strongly implied that it came from the same world that brought about "The King in Yellow".  Tragedy soon befalls the hapless trio. 

Next was "In the Court of the Dragon", also set in Paris, about a man pursued by a sinister church organist who is after his soul.  That pretty much sums up what is probably the shortest of the four stories and the least developed.

Last was "The Yellow Sign" and we're back in Manhattan (Greenwich Village) in "contemporary" times, ie. the 1890s. This time, an artist and his model are troubled by a sinister churchyard watchman who resembles a "plump white grave-worm".  Tessie keeps having the same recurring dream where she sees Scott lying inside a funeral casket being taken away by a horse-drawn carriage.  As their relationship develops, Tessie gives Scott "a clasp of black onyx, on which was inlaid a curious symbol or a letter in gold", which she happened to find one day near Battery Park.  Then soon after, Scott finds The King in Yellow in his collection, "a book bound in serpent skin, standing in a corner of the top shelf of the last bookcase." It is, inexplicably, "The King in Yellow", a book he has studiously avoided: "If I ever had had any curiosity to read it, the awful tragedy of young Castaigne, whom I knew, prevented me from exploring its wicked pages."

So we have come full circle, and our two young lovers are doomed towards a sad demise. This wiki site has a good plot summary.

The King in Yellow collection was an enjoyable read.  I did not expect it to be so readable.  TBH, I expected it to be less accessible and weirder, because after all, The King in Yellow is supposedly a classic example of weird fiction.  The stories were macabre in tone, full of creeping dread and gothic romanticism, with characters who are often artists or decadents, inhabitants of the demi-monde.  But the supernatural or occult references were very subtle and minimal.  This was not a bad thing, just not what I expected.  Still, very glad I read this.
 

14. Silver Nitrate

By Silvia Moreno-Garcia 

1. The Dark Masters Trilogy

 By Stephen Volk

The Darkmasters Trilogy was featured as one of the “100 Novels about Cinema” in the August 2018 issue of Sight and Sound.                                                                                                                                     It sounded VERY promising.  Stellar reviews.  Author Stephen Volk wrote the screenplays for Ken Russell’s Gothic, which I saw on VHS back in the day, and the excellent Ghostwatch - the first film I streamed on Shudder.                                                                                                             On March 1, 2020, when something like a global pandemic seemed like a distant and inconceivable threat, I placed an order on Amazon for a hardbound copy to be delivered to my workplace.  The ETA was March 20-April 5 since it was coming from the UK.  In the coming days, I remember my company encouraging people to WFH.  Most of my team and myself continued to work at the office because of our hardware dependencies.                                                                                                               On March 12, while at work, I cancelled our family ski trip to Lake Placid with my in-laws because of a looming travel advisory.  By Friday, March 13th, school closures were announced for the following Monday and everyone in my company was ordered to WFH.  

My book arrived at work on Friday the 13th, the day my company announced that the office would close on Monday.  I didn't even have a chance to pick up my book at facilities because everyone was so busy getting organized to WFH.  I also naively assumed I'd be back at work in a few weeks, or at worst, a few months.  

It wasn’t until June when I lost remote access to my linux workstation.  I had to get approval to enter the office building the following day in order to manually boot my machine back up.  It was a beautiful warm day, so I rode my bike, taking my usual route to work.  I wasn’t even sure whether I’d be able to retrieve my book as it was likely locked inside the facilities office.  By a stroke of luck, Alain, the friendly facilities coordinator, happened to be there too.  I spotted him just as I was leaving and asked if he could open the facilities office.  He obliged.  Yay!

When I got home, I opened the package and to my dismay, saw water damage on the spine.  Fortunately, the cover absorbed most of the moisture and bore an ugly stain on the top part of where the spine would be.  But there was still slight water damage on the book spine itself.  I wrote to the vendor and after receiving the photo they requested, they responded saying that I could return the book.  However, there weren’t any more copies of The Darkmasters Trilogy online anymore for the same price – the ones available now cost twice as much (I paid around $45 for it).   So I decided to keep it.  It’s too bad, since it’s a really nice hardcover.  I imagine it would have some value in the future. 

Knowing that the book was slightly damaged put me off from reading it right away.  I think it was November when I finally started reading it.

Here is a nicely written summary:

The Dark Masters Trilogy brings together three novellas, Whitstable, Leytonstone and Netherwood as a trio of dark tales of fiction constructed around a quartet of celebrated horror and occult figures from the 20th Century’s cultural past. Hammer legend Peter Cushing takes the lead role in Whitstable, a juvenile Alfred Hitchcock in Leytonstone and we get a twofer in Netherwood with both horror novelist Dennis Wheatley and Occultist Aleister Crowley squaring up to one another.

Whitstable was really well-written, but ultimately, a bit of a letdown.  The portrayal of Peter Cushing seemed authentic in terms of biographical details and believable in establishing empathy for Cushing in his grief over the loss of his wife.  The misty setting of his seaside home was nicely done too.   BUT, the narrative ploy of the vulnerable child being abused by his working class stepdad, who ends up being saved by the protagonist is already overused in American television.   

As soon as I saw how this device was going to play out, the narrative lost much of the magic that was carefully established at the beginning.  But Volk is a skilled writer, and he managed to make it work, but it was still a letdown. The realistic and empathetic portrayal of Peter Cushing was the saving grace.

Leytonstone was the weakest story of the three -- not surprising for the middle story.  Simply put, it was boring and expositive, and like Whitstable, I didn’t buy the premise.  I can’t explain it, but I was unconvinced about Volk's portrayal of young Alfred Hitchcock.  Volk took more liberties with Hitchcock than he did with Cushing.  Perhaps this was because he was writing about Hitchcock’s unhappy boyhood, which was probably not so well known.  I even googled whether Hitchcock spent a night in jail, as was depicted in the story – it turns out Hitchcock only spent 5 minutes locked in a jail cell!  

Volk’s reimagining was that Hitchcock’s night in jail traumatized his young psyche and turned him into a conniving sociopath.  This did not interest me.  What would’ve interested me was having young Hitchcock witness a crime, and him knowing the person who committed it as a charismatic but deeply flawed person who ends up getting away with murder.  This eye-opening life lesson would have made given fodder to the kind of crime films Hitchcock would end up making.

On top of the disappointment was perplexity as there didn’t seem to be any connection (real or fictional) between Hitchcock and the other Darkmasters figures.  There was an obvious link between Cushing and Wheatley via Hammer Studios but with Hitchcock, he was the outlier.

I was beginning to wonder why The Darkmasters Trilogy was so highly praised when I got to the final novella, Netherwood.   Praise Satan, the best was saved for last!  Aleister Crowley was probably the figure I knew about the least compared to Cushing and Hitchcock.  Being unacquainted with his life and work, I had certainly never heard of Dennis Wheatley either.  Olman had heard of him, as he knew Wheatley wrote some Hammer films, as well as his most famous novel, The Devil Rides Out, but Olman had never read any of his books.

Unlike the two previous stories, Netherwood was gripping and humourous.   The relationship and repartee between Wheatley and the elderly Crowley were well-executed and sharp.  The plot and how the unlikely pair go about defeating Crowley’s former apprentice turned evil nemesis with magick was also nicely done.  Most importantly, it had the dark, supernatural occult elements I was expecting from a book titled Darkmasters and from a story featuring Aleister Crowley.  It also had a delightfully devilish twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.  Everything fell together quite satisfyingly for Netherwood and this final story was what made The Darkmasters Trilogy worth keeping after all.

As for the pandemic, I'm still WFH after more than a year.  I think the last time I went to work was last April or May, when I had to ask a coworker to help me bring home my Mac Pro workstation in his car because I got tired of losing remote access to it.  But there is no way in hell I'd be able to also fit my linux box in the tiny corner of my bedroom, so it stayed at work.  Another coworker had to drop off a Black Magic Design box for me, so I now have a mini menagerie of hardware in the bedroom.