The Demon of the Lonely Isle

This is quite the oddest mystery I have ever read. It belongs to a Japanese sub-genre of the 1930s which involved a combination of sensibilities often called "ero guro nansensu", from the three words "eroticism, grotesquerie, and nonsensical".These words do give a flavour of what to expect. Much of the eroticism is male-oriented and mostly homo- or auto-erotic, the grotesque is found in a parade of people physically/ mentally differently-abled either by birth or design and the nonsensical is, I think, represented the in illogicalities in the plot.It all begins as a locked room/ impossible murder case, summed up by the narrator as follows:-"Hatsuyo had been murdered, and her property stolen, by a burglar who, as far as anyone could see, had never been there. There was nothing to prove the criminal had even existed, except for his crimes. I’d read of similar cases, such as Poe’s “The Murders in Rue Morgue” and Leroux’s “The Mystery of the Yellow Room”. A homicide in a space sealed from within. But I’d believed such puzzles could only occur in western-style buildings, not poorly-built Japanese constructions of wood and paper. Now I’d come to realise this was not true. Even with flimsy wooden boards, if they are broken or removed, evidence should remain. So from a detective’s point of view, there’s no difference between a two centimetre plank of wood and a 30 centimetre concrete wall.".Further murders follow:-"This demon, who’d already murdered Hatsuyo while she was sealed inside a locked house, killed again, in broad daylight, on an open beach in sight of hundreds of people, though not one of these witnessed the crime, and no clue was left behind."All is resolved on the Lonely Isle of the title, partly by the investigation of the doctor who has an erotic interest in the narcissistic young narrator who unsurprisingly emerges largely unscathed from his surprising experiences.There were times when I felt like giving up on this novel. Reading it was akin to eating a deliciously rich cake which turns out to have a mouldy centre. However it did expand my crime fiction horizons and I shall look at some other of the author's works- this was a standalone and there are short stories and a couple of series to explore.This is not for the fainthearted and it will grate on many modern sensibilities in its depiction of gay sexuality and the differently-abled,for instance. Overall it was worthwhile, but certainly I had to take it in small doses.