Ask HN: What are some captivating fair play mystery books that you've read I have read "The devotion of Suspect X" recently and although it is not truly a "Fair Play" mystery but I have since then delved into more and more Japanese Shin Honkaku style writing. I really love them. Would like to know more from other parts of the world (with an English translation if possible :) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes:_Consulting_De...
The Invisible Event has reviewed a good collection of books by French author Paul Halter: https://theinvisibleevent.com/2022/10/01/the-demon-of-dartmo...
And Ho-Ling Wong, translator of some Shin Honkaku classics like The Decagon House Murders and The Moai Island Puzzle has a long-running blog reviewing predominantly Japanese mystery fiction: https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com
As for me personally, the best non-English mystery novels I’ve read this year are probably Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomizo, The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei, and Dogra Magra by Yumeno Kyusaku.
I've observed while reading Sherlock Holmes that we the reader isn't provided with all the information Holmes has. (I still like it though).
TIL "fair play" was the term for it.
Keigo Hagashino's (the author of Devotion of Suspect X) Detective Kaga series is pretty good as well.
Thanks to everyone for suggesting all the interesting things here.
Cheers!
A redditor's "what is fair play" genre review: https://old.reddit.com/r/mysterybooks/comments/qlvq1c/what_i...
On honkaku: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/27/honkaku-a-cent...
There are works that straddle the genre of "your own adventure" - with clue pieces and clippings and whatnots.For example, Murder Off Miami, Dennis Wheatley, original from 1937 but with modern editions, is not a novel. It's literaly a pile of telegrams, clippings, reports. You are supposed to read them, in order or not. and decide on a solution. Then break the seal for the author's solution. Wheatley gets high praise on originality but mixed scores on solvability. Fantastic write up here: https://denniswheatleyproject.blogspot.com/2011/07/murder-of...
Murder off Miami seems to be online https://lparchive.org/Murder-off-Miami/
When reading, I'm not mad if the author was misdirecting and "overly ingenious" or something but then I rarely expect that it's worthwhile to put in the detective effort instead of simply enjoying the ride. I would like pointers to books where it's clearly worthwhile - that is, where that effort is rewarding beyond simply enjoying the ride. In fact too many books are flawed because of gross inconsistencies which actually make it hard to enjoy the ride. A "wait? what? NOOOO!!! inconsistent!" is just plain distressing - beyond say, typos or out-of-place language.
I agree with the game parallel raised in the reddit thread. In a great boardgame there are several rewards: the fun, the shared fun around the table, the visuals, but also the engineering solvability and strategizability of the game. Randomness is great so it's not always the same winner but I want to have significant control of my destiny (my avatar's - but in a great game that's me). Same for a great (table top) role playing game session: I want both my effort and reward for my effort.