The Detective Lists: End of 2021

 And, apparently, here they are. Enjoy the Japanese ratings of late 2021!

If a book has an additional European (ordinarily English) title on its cover, I add it after a comma. If in such a case that title is the exact translation of the Japanese one, I give no translation of the title.

In each subsequent list, I only emphasize titles that did not occur in the previous.

Honkaku Mystery Best 10 2022

(most orthodox-skewed one, November 2020-October 2021)

Japanese

1. 黒牢城, Arioka Citadel Case (Black Gaol Fortress) by Yonezawa Honobu (non-series collection of six stories)
2. 蒼海館の殺人, Murder of Aomikan by Atsukawa Tatsumi (the second entry in the planned "Yakata Quartet" series, continuing the Murder of Gurenkan of 2019, reviewed by Ho-Ling Wong here)
3. 兇人邸の殺人 (The Murders in the House of Maleficence) by Imamura Masahiro, the third novel in the series started by Death among the Undead, already reviewed by Ho-Ling Wong
4. 六人の嘘つきな大学生 (Six Lying Students) by Asakura Akinari
5. 硝子の塔の殺人, The Glass Tower Murder by Chinen Mikito, a non-series novel
6. 大鞠家殺人事件 (Murder in the Oomari House) by Ashibe Taku, a non-series novel
7. 孤島の来訪者 (Visitors on the Remote Island) by Hōjō Kie, second in the "Ryūzen Family" series, reviewed by Ho-Ling Wong
8. 忌名の如き贄るもの (Those Who Sacrifice like a Real Name) by Mitsuda Shinzō, the new, eleventh entry in the Tōjō Gen'ya series
9. invert 城塚翡翠倒叙集 (invert: The Inverted Detective Story Collection for Jōzuka Hisui) by Aizawa Sako, a collection of three stories featuring Jōzuka Hisui of the medium fame
10. あと十五秒で死ぬ (To Die in Fifteen Seconds) by Sakakibayashi Mei, the author's first published book, comprising two stories previously printed in magazines and two originally added

Translated

1. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
2. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
3. 文學少女對數學少女, Le Dernier Problème de Fermat (The Literature Girl Vs. the Math Girl) by Lù Qiūchá (colleciton of four stories)
   
4. Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi
5. Black Summer by M. W. Craven
6. The Sleeping Tiger by Dominic Devine (D. M. Devine)
7. Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves
8. The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox
9. Le Roi du Désordre (The Lord of Misrule) by Paul Halter
10. The October List by Jeffrey Deaver and The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

The current list contains: five well-known names (Yonezawa, Atsukawa, Imamura, Ashibe, Mitsuda), two people who now stop being flukes and join the ranks of multiple winners (Hōjō, Aizawa) and three people who absolutely debut in the list (Asakura, who writes since 2012, but never got such a success before, Chinen, who also writes since 2012, and Sakakibayashi, who immediately got in the list with the first book-length publication).

Shūkan Bunshun Mystery Best 10 2021

(November 2020-October 2021)

Japanese

1. 黒牢城, Arioka Citadel Case (Black Gaol Fortress) by Yonezawa Honobu
2. テスカトリポカ (Tezcatlipoca) by Satō Kiwamu
3. 兇人邸の殺人 (The Murders in the House of Maleficence) by Imamura Masahiro
4. 硝子の塔の殺人, The Glass Tower Murder by Chinen Mikito
5. 白鳥とコウモリ (Swan and Bat) by Higashino Keigo, a non-series novel
6. 六人の嘘つきな大学生 (Six Lying Students) by Asakura Akinari
7. 機龍警察　白骨街道 (Inspector Kiryū: Skeleton Road) by Tsukimura Ryōe
8. 蒼海館の殺人, Murder of Aomikan by Atsukawa Tatsumi
9. 琥珀の夏 (The Amber Summer) by Tsujimura Midzuki
10. おれたちの歌をうたえ (Sing Our Song) by Go Katsuhiro and 忌名の如き贄るもの (Those Who Sacrifice like a Real Name) by Mitsuda Shinzō

Translated

1. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
2. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
3. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
4. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
5. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
6. The October List by Jeffrey Deaver
7. Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi
8. Tokyo Redux by David Peace
9. 私家偵探, Private Eyes by Jǐ Yùrán
10. The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox and Trois jours et une vie (Three Days and a Life) by Pierre Lemaitre

Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 2022

(November 2020-October 2021)

Japanese

1. 黒牢城, Arioka Citadel Case (Black Gaol Fortress) by Yonezawa Honobu
2. テスカトリポカ (Tezcatlipoca) by Satō Kiwamu
3. 機龍警察　白骨街道 (Inspector Kiryū: Skeleton Road) by Tsukimura Ryōe
4. 兇人邸の殺人 (The Murders in the House of Maleficence) by Imamura Masahiro
5. 蒼海館の殺人, Murder of Aomikan by Atsukawa Tatsumi
6. invert 城塚翡翠倒叙集 (invert: The Inverted Detective Story Collection for Jōzuka Hisui) by Aizawa Sako
7. 忌名の如き贄るもの (Those Who Sacrifice like a Real Name) by Mitsuda Shinzō
8. 六人の嘘つきな大学生 (Six Lying Students) by Asakura Akinari
9. 硝子の塔の殺人, The Glass Tower Murder by Chinen Mikito
10. 雷神 (God of Thunder) by Michio Shūsuke, third in "Gods" series

Translated

1. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
2. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
3. The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox
4. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
5. 私家偵探, Private Eyes by Jǐ Yùrán and The October List by Jeffrey Deaver
6. -
7. His & Hers by Alice Feeney
8. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
9. Tokyo Redux by David Peace
10. Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi

Mystery ga Yomitai 2022

(November 2020-October 2021)

Japanese

1. 黒牢城, Arioka Citadel Case (Black Gaol Fortress) by Yonezawa Honobu
2. テスカトリポカ (Tezcatlipoca) by Satō Kiwamu
3. 機龍警察　白骨街道 (Inspector Kiryū: Skeleton Road) by Tsukimura Ryōe
4. 蒼海館の殺人, Murder of Aomikan by Atsukawa Tatsumi
5. 兇人邸の殺人 (The Murders in the House of Maleficence) by Imamura Masahiro
6. 忌名の如き贄るもの (Those Who Sacrifice like a Real Name) by Mitsuda Shinzō
7. インタヴュー・ウィズ・ザ・プリズナー (Interview with the Prisoner) by Minagawa Hiroko
8. 六人の嘘つきな大学生 (Six Lying Students) by Asakura Akinari
9. invert 城塚翡翠倒叙集 (invert: The Inverted Detective Story Collection for Jōzuka Hisui) by Aizawa Sako
10. 蝶として死す　平家物語推理抄 (Die Like a Butterfly: Heike Monogatari Deductive Collection) by Saitō Asuka, collection of five stories

Translated

1. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
2. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
3. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
4. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
5. The October List by Jeffrey Deaver
6. Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi
7. His & Hers by Alice Feeney
8. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
9. The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox and 私家偵探, Private Eyes by Jǐ Yùrán

Thus, this year we have an absolute scorer on the Japanese side: 黒牢城, Arioka Citadel Case (Black Gaol Fortress) by Yonezawa Honobu got all for ratings - and also the Yamada Fūtarō Award. Congratulations!

On the translated side, one of four did not allw Anthony Horowitz to take a clean slate. Still, his ongoing popularity is obvious.

Honkaku Mystery Best 10: The Best over the Years

While we are all impatiently waiting for the release of new "Honkaku Mystery Best 10" 2022 ratings, here is a thing I decided to share with you. This is the ranking of the best book-length honkaku detective writers of Japan, as determined by the results of "Honkaku Mystery Best 10" since the entry of 1997 (that is, based on the publications between January 1996 and October 2020).

The methodology was as follows.

• I took the data of "Honkaku Mystery Best 10", as, out of the four main ratings, this one is the most honkaku-leaning, frequently providing the results drastically differing from the remaining thre in the terms of more classical and deductive content.
• I considered only the writers who appeared in the top-10s more than once (non-flukes); surely there might be some who had only one great novel that took the top place and could thus surpass those more stable but less successful who managed to get to the bottom of Top 10 year after year, but I would be hesitant in adding them until their success is repeated. The total number turned out to be 47 people.
• Among those, I added 10 points for each novel or short story collection that grabbed the first place some year, 9 points for a second-place entry, and thus until getting a 10th place, which provided one point. The sum is the final score.

Without further ado, here is the diagram of the results:

The final ratings!

Some random observations are in order:

• The absolute winner overall is Maya Yutaka, who got 81 points over 10 books, four of which got number one! In sheer number, Shimada Sōji (26) was equal to him, and both Arisugawa Alice (73) and Ashibe Taku (57) surpassed (12 books each), but neither of them was able to stay so consistently beside the top. Meanwhile, he was apparently never translated into a Western language... Arisugawa and Ashibe complete the top 3.
• Noridzuki Rintarō (52) at fifth place was the highest positioned entry who was never chosen "Person of the Year" by the rating compilers (the Person of the Year prize was given from 1998 to 2015 only).
• Of the top ten, additionally Yonezawa Honobu (53) on the 4th place, Mitsuda Shinzō (51) on the 6th, Utano Shōgo (37) on the 9th, Nishizawa Yasuhiko (36) on the 10th were apparently never translated. This is five of ten!
• Atsukawa Tatsumi (31) on the 13th place is the highest-rated newcomer, among those who only started scoring in the 2010s or later. His four books scored in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. He is closely followed by Aosaki Yūgo (27) on the 16th place (four books scored in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017) and Shirai Tomoyuki (26) on the 17th place (five books scored in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021).

An alternate rating could be imagined, with the previous score divided by the number of books that got to the rating, to achieve an 1-10 ranged "average score" for a single book by an author in the list. In this case, the top three changes as follows: Imamura Masahiro (9.50), who got just two books, but with gold and silver score, respectively; Noridzuki Rintarō (8.67), out of six books by whom four were first or second winners; and, Mitsuda Shinzō and Shizaki Yū (8.50), who were equally stable, but one over six, the other over two books, which would probably score more for Mitsuda.

Appended are the whole charts for your perusal.