A Japanese 'And There Were None'

20 years ago, Nakamuro Seji built a Blue Mansion and a decagonal Annex on an uninhabited Japanese island. 6 months prior to this book, the mansion burned down and took the livers of the owner, his wife, and their 2 servants. Strange detail was that all the dead had been administered a sedative and were murdered prior to the blaze.
We’re March 1986. 7 university students, belonging to a Mystery Club decide to take a week-long trip to the island and possibly write some stories. Each one is only known by their nickname that’s taken from the most famous European and American writers of the Golden Age. Once there, they’re completely on their own. They find a strange collection of name-plates “first victim, second victim, third victim fourth victim, last victim, detective, murderer” that shakes them up. No-one admits to being behind this unsavoury prank. The next morning, a female student is found strangled with her left hand missing (like Seji’s wife) and the plaque with 1st victim glued to her door. At first, they assume that 1 of them is the killer but there’s also the possibility that Seji might be still alive.
On the Mainland, another student from the same club receives a letter that says that ‘all of them are guilty of murdering Nakamura Chiori (yes, daughter of). She was a girl member of their club who died a year earlier through alcohol poisoning and a subsequent heart attack. Apparently, the other members of the club also received a similar letter but they had already departed for the island. He starts looking into the murders on Tsunojima Island and also thinks that Seji might be still among the living.

This is the debut novel of the author and also the first of his works to be translated into English. It was the second novel with the same premises that I read in a short period, but I must admit that this one beats ‘Whisper Island’ easily. They both have students going to a remote island where they’re killed off 1 by 1 and both openly pay homage to Agatha Christie’s original.
There’s a distinct difference between both storylines (Island and Mainland). The events on the island breathe the entire atmosphere and the investigating elements of the great (mainly) American and English detective series of the Golden Age. Even the names by which we know the actors are all taken from there. If you don’t know better, you wouldn’t immediately notice this is a Japanese story. There are some references to Japanese riddles, poems and stories that (I think so) loose out a lot in the translation. I would not be surprised if there’s a whole layer that we miss out on. The Mainland thread is more visibly non-western; not only by the use of the proper names for the characters but also in the references to the lifestyle and habits. I did love the occasional mention of historical and cultural details but those are made for people that are actually acquainted with it already and not especially infused for ‘tourists’.
After a very long introduction and a slow start, the story becomes ever more suspenseful in the best tradition of the old fashioned detective stories those students admire. With not 1 but 2 murder investigations going on, you must keep your wits around and you’re not certain if the murders then and those now are related. You’re also kept in the dark if it’s one of the students that’s guilty or that there’s another person hiding on the island. The split story always keeps you on the edge of your seat as you keep wondering what’s happening in the other storyline. I swear that the eventual reveal is more than surprising. I did not guess this at all. The explanation might be a bit strange but it’s very ingenious.
If you’re not all that familiar with Asian and Japanese literature, I think this is an ideal point to start.
I received a free ARC through Edelweiss+ and Steerforth Press; this is my honest, unbiased review of it.