The House with Watermill

A novel by Sodji Shimada’s beloved student. Ayatsudji is one of the founders of the Japanese Club of Honkaku Authors and a recipient of the Mystery Writers of Japan award and the Japan Mystery Literature Award.

The author’s book “Murder in a Ten-sided House” is among the top ten Japanese detective novels of all time, becoming a catalyst for worldwide interest in honkaku (traditional fair-play) detective stories.

This is a modern intellectual game crafted in the spirit of a classic detective.

Seiji Nakamura, a brilliant architect, has spent his whole life creating unusual houses filled with puzzles. Among Nakamura’s creations is the House with Water Wheels, located in the mountains where few would ever dare to live. The owner of this mansion is confined to a wheelchair, always wears a white mask and gloves. In this house, he keeps the works of his father, the famous artist Issei Fujinuma, known as the Seer.

Once a year, a chosen group of people is allowed to visit the mansion and admire the paintings. But during one of these visits, a brutal murder occurs—the maid is thrown from the balcony directly onto the water wheels. Then even stranger events follow: one guest disappears from a room from which it was impossible to leave unnoticed, and another guest is dismembered and burned. The police are certain that the missing person is the killer.

A year later, the remaining participants of the same group return to the mansion, and with them comes a new person—the detective Kiyoshi Shimada. His goal is to prove his friend’s innocence, who has been declared the killer, and to find the real criminal among those present. However, the House with Water Wheels has prepared new horrifying surprises…