The Moai Island Puzzle (孤島パズル, Kotō Pazuru, "Solitary Island Puzzle") is a 1989 Japanese mystery novel by Alice Arisugawa that falls into the honkaku (本格) subgenre of Japanese detective fiction.[1] The novel is the second in a series featuring Jirō Egami as detective and the first Arisugawa book to be translated into English. It details a series of murders that occur among a group of vacationers on an island off Japan's coast.[2] Like other novels in the same series, a character named Alice Arisugawa takes part in the events and narrates them to readers by breaking the fourth wall.
The novel was ranked #16 on Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 1989, an annual mystery fiction guide book published in Japan, and #95 on Tozai Mystery Best 100 in 2012.
The first English-language translation was published by Locked Room International in 2016.[3]
References
edit- ^ "The Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan". Honkaku.com. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ Dirda, Michael (2016-07-27). "A summer book list like no other: Michael Dirda picks 11 hidden gems". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-07-27.
- ^ "The Moai Island Puzzle". GoodReads.com. Retrieved 8 February 2017.