Author: Soji Shimada
Title: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Genre: Detective-fiction, mystery
Pages: 354 (GPU, 2012)
Synopsis (translated to Bahasa Indonesia): Pada suatu malam bersalju tahun 1936, seorang seniman dipukuli hingga tewas di balik pintu studionya yang terkunci di Tokyo. Polisi menemukan surat wasiat aneh yang memaparkan rencananya untuk menciptakan Azoth, perempuan sempurna dari potongan-potongan tubuh para perempuan muda kerabatnya. Tak lama sesudah itu, putri tertuanya dibunuh. Lalu putri-putrinya yang lain serta keponakan-keponakan perempuannya tiba-tiba menghilang. Satu per satu mayat mereka yang termutilasi ditemukan, semua dikubur sesuai dengan prinsip astrologis yang diuraikan sang seniman. Pembantaian misterius itu mengguncang Jepang, namun, misteri tetap tak terpecahkan selama lebih dari 40 tahun. Lalu pada suatu hari di tahun 1979, sebuah dokumen diserahkan kepada Kiyoshi Mitarai didampingi Kazumi Ishiokadia mulai melacak jejak pelaku Pembunuhan Zodiak Tokyo serta pencipta Azoth yang lenyap.
What is good to one and it is bad for the other. This can be said that good or bad is relatively different. For me, for I have read book ever since I was a child, with variety genres — fiction and non-fiction. Some of them left behind untouchable, collecting dust in my bookshelf, but some of them have their special place in the mind over the years.
A good book to me is a book that can left a mark upon me — teaches me in many aspects of my life or haunts me to the stage of my subconscious-self and I like book that has a different level of complexity. And well, Soji Shimada’s The Tokyo Zodiac Murders fits my preference.
I read reviews outside for this book that seemed to be diverse. Many reviewers said that the book is so dull, yet many of them said the book is interesting. Now, let me jump into the discourse and be the one of reviewers. Here I write reasons why I get mesmerized of the book.
Ever since I’ve read The Tokyo Zodiac Murder’s Prologue, intense and strange feelings were coming through my skin. The Prologue itself contains a 1936s letter from an eccentric artist, Heikichi Umezawa. A letter is describing how Heikichi is kind of obsessed for making a perfect woman — named Azoth. Azoth is made from different body parts of his six female relatives which four of them are his daughters. The letter is also a guide or plan to murder them based on their zodiac, combined their body parts to one being and put the body of Azoth at the center of Japan — also based on geographical coordinates.
The first thing that crossed my mind when reading the Prologue was that the book is patriarchal. How Shimada described the character — through the letter—Heikichi, is a patriarchal man who loves to objectified women. When The Prologue ends, the plot-twist starts — Heikichi’s body found dead and locked in his studio, compiled by the missing of his women relatives several days later. The main story starts in 1979, forty-three years after the murder. The mysteries remain unsolved for almost half century.
It can be said clearly, that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle influences Shimada from his popular duo, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. How I see Shimada writes the book is similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — that is from supporting character’s perspective. In Shimada’s, there are Kiyoshi Mitarai, an astrologist and Kazumi Ishioka, an illustrator, also as a supporting character which narrates the whole book. Mitarai and Holmes’s personality also quite the same — an insane-genius.
The author himself, Shimada, seemed like never run out of ideas. Even there are multiple chapters of the book contained questions from Shimada to readers, for us to guess who was the murderer and how they did the murder. It felt like he was asking to me through the interactive chapters of the book. Besides that, the book reflects Shimada’s philosophy perspective of life, through the conversations which happened between Mitarai and Ishioka.
What I also like from the book is readers will expect the author describing Japan beautifully through Ishioka’s experience in search of Azoth. How Kyoto is appeared to be one of the city that is keeping their traditional art and culture — it is to be said that architecture in Kyoto is haven’t touched by the modernism as Tokyo. Personally I could imagine Japan in spring while reading the book.
It comes to the moment for revealing what I don’t like from the book. Spoiler alert —First, besides Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shimada seems inspired by Agatha Christie. We can see the same method he used for the murderer to killed their victims. He modified it, though. The method he used reminded me of Agatha Christie’s Poirot’s Early Cases: The Affair at the Victory Ball. It was exactly the same method unless he didn’t modify it into Japanese culture. Second, earlier, I said that Shimada endeavored making Heikichi’s image as a patriarchal man, yet in the end of the book, he disproved it for he’s revealing who was the true murderer. Paradoxically, the revealed makes the book looks like internalized-misogynistic, for the murderer told their motives to readers through the letter they sent to Mitarai in the Epilogue.
Most of all, I found myself enjoy the book and I didn’t feel bored because I could finish the entire book in three days. Whether worth or not to read is depends on everyone’s preference. For me, the book is worth enough to read, I’m kind of interested in Shimada’s writing technique. In the end, I’ll rate the book for 4.3/5.
