While one clump of protagonists runs around the strange decagonal house of the title trying to figure things out and not get murdered, an ex-member of the Mystery Club receives a letter accusing him and the rest of the Club of killing yet another member of the Mystery Club the previous year. Things seem all right for the first day, but they don’t stay that way. The idea behind their trip is to use the atmosphere of Tsunojima island-the site of a mass murder/suicide-to inspire them for their new issue, as well as put their minds to the still not-quite-solved mystery of what happened.
In addition to devouring mysteries, they also write stories for their own mystery magazine. They’re all members of a Mystery Club at their unnamed university. There’s (John Dickson) Carr, Agatha (Christie), (Gaston) Leroux, and more. Also, everyone we meet in the first chapter is known by the name of a Golden Age mystery writer. We’re in Japan, near the island of Kyushu, but details about the exact location are obscured. The misdirection begins immediately in The Decagon House Murders.
It isn’t long before the characters of this novel start to die off in spite of all their supposed brilliance, even as they try to figure out who’s behind an astounding number of murders. But then, most of the characters in the excellent The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (translated by Ho-Ling Wong) are college students who think that they’re clever enough to outwit any dangers. One of them even references And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie on the boat ride over. One would think that a group of mystery novel enthusiasts would know better not to take up a strange invitation to an island that has a bad reputation.
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