【Literature】Perfect Locked-Room Mystery – A Chilling Ending That Will Haunt You

Hello, this is .

This is my review of “A Prelude to the Perfect Locked Room” by Edō Hayami, included in Mystery All-Stars (Kadokawa Bunko), edited by the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club. Spoiler Alert.

After coming back from grocery shopping with Mom, I arrive home to find Dad hanging in the living room. The police, without even performing an autopsy, rule it a suicide. My father, “a man who could only write mystery novels that never sold,” and my mother, “once a full-time employee at a securities firm, now a supermarket cashier,” are not the type of parents to leave such questions unanswered—at least not for me. I begin to suspect there’s more to Dad’s death.

Before long, the family receives 50 million yen from Dad’s life insurance. About six months later, Mom brings home a man. I’m convinced this man is not someone she met only recently.

Dad had been obsessed with devising locked-room tricks for his mystery novels. Did he dig his own grave with one of his own elaborate setups? Or, burdened by our family’s financial hardship, did he stage an accident to leave us the insurance payout?

In the final scene, I vow, “I will one day avenge Dad’s death,” setting my sights on uncovering the true culprit. But is my target Mom—or the man she welcomed after Dad’s death? The ending leaves much to ponder.

That said, for someone like me with limited imagination, the trick presented in this story was difficult to visualize. I would have appreciated a simpler, clearer explanation.

If you’re curious, give it a read. And while you’re at it, I’d be thrilled if you also checked out my own full-length social mystery novel, “The Mysterious Rouge.”

＊Mystery All-Stars | Honkaku Mystery Writers Club (Kadokawa Bunko)