{"product_id":"the-clock-house-murders-isbn-9781805335269","title":"The Clock House Murders","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deviously clever, locked room puzzle mystery from the celebrated Japanese author of \u003ci\u003eThe Decagon House Murders \u003c\/i\u003ethat’s perfect for fans of Uketsu’s\u003ci\u003e Strange Houses\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBrilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi must save a team of paranormal investigators, trapped in an abandoned house, as they are picked off one-by-one!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRumor has it that the mysterious Clock House—a remote mansion built by notorious architect Nakamura Seiji for a long-dead clock enthusiast— is haunted by the ghost of a young girl, who died there 10 years earlier. No one is more intrigued by this than the investigating team from the paranormal magazine CHAOS. They decide to visit the mansion, along with a psychic medium, in an attempt to make contact with the spirit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe plan is for the group of investigators to spend three days locked in the house, but their stay has barely begun when a gruesome murder is committed. And then the survivors find that they are trapped in the house, with no possibility of escape…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeanwhile, the brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi is investigating the enigma of The Clock House from the outside, eager to unravel the mystery of another of Nakamura Seiji’s twisted architectural creations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut as his investigation proceeds, the team inside the house are being slaughtered one-by-one. Will Shimada crack the puzzle of the Clock House before all of them are dead?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe latest installment in Yukito Ayatsuji’s thrilling Bizarre House Mysteries series, this stand-alone puzzle mystery is par-excellence by a master of the form, packed with twists and culminating in a jaw-dropping, unforgettable solution.\u003ci\u003eFloor Plans 8\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eList of Characters 11\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrologue 13\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e1 The Clock Tower without Hands 29\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e2 Two Late Arrivals 52\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e3 The Old Wing (I) 59\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e4 Chain of Death 89\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e5 The Old Wing (II) 105\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e6 Entrusted Words 122\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e7 The Old Wing (III) 141\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e8 The Sixteen-Year-Old Bride 163\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e9 The Old Wing (IIII) 182\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e10 The Silent Goddesses 210\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e11 The Old Wing (V) 226\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e12 The Four Children 256\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e13 The Old Wing (VI) 279\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e14 The Positives and Negatives of Staying Awake 317\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e15 The Nightmare Ends 326\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e16 The Song of the Goddesses 343\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eEpilogue 409\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eYukito Ayatsuji \u003c\/b\u003e(born 1960) is a Japanese writer of mystery and horror novels and one of the founding members of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan, dedicated to the writing of fair-play mysteries inspired by the Golden Age Greats. He started writing as a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club, which has nurtured many of Japan's greatest crime writers. \u003ci\u003eThe Decagon House Murders\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mill House Murders\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Labyrinth House Murders \u003c\/i\u003eare also available from Pushkin Vertigo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHo-Ling Wong \u003c\/b\u003eis a translator currently living in Tokyo. He is also both a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and former member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club. He did not commit any murders on Mystery Club excursions.Kawaminami Takaaki scurried through the downpour until finally he found his destination and quickly entered the building. He took his pocket watch from his coat. It was a memento of his grandfather, who had passed away two years ago. Since then he had given up his wristwatch, and used this old-fashioned timepiece instead.\u003cbr\u003eIt was almost half-past four. He was already more than twenty minutes late. He thought he had left home in plenty of time, but it seemed he still wasn’t quite used to life in the city. Changing trains had turned out to be more troublesome than expected. And when he left the station, he had met with a deluge. Buying an umbrella had eaten up more time, as had his trouble trying to follow the directions from the station.\u003cbr\u003eHe felt especially bad about being late given the identity of the man with whom he was finally going to be reunited.\u003cbr\u003eBut, Kawaminami reassured himself, the person he was going to meet was not the type to be offended by tardiness. He would just smile and forgive him, whether Kawaminami was late by twenty minutes or two hours.\u003cbr\u003eKawaminami closed his umbrella and shook off the rain droplets as he looked around the dimly lit building. He was standing in the lobby of “Green Heights”, a block of flats located in a quiet residential area of Kaminoge, in Tokyo’s Setagaya district. Like many buildings in the city, its name was in English.\u003cbr\u003eHe glanced at the silver letter boxes lined up against the wall to his right. He quickly scanned them for the name of the person he had come to visit, making sure he got the right number: 409.\u003cbr\u003eKawaminami felt the warm glow of nostalgia as the swarthy face of the man he hadn’t seen in three years took shape in his mind. He had a large, hooked noose, slightly drooping, deep-set eyes and a sharp chin. When he furrowed his brow and pouted, he gave the impression of being a brooding, morose individual. But Kawaminami knew for a fact that he was actually quite cheerful and talkative. He remembered fondly the innocent, boyish smile that sometimes illuminated his features.\u003cbr\u003eHowever, while Kawaminami was glad about their impending reunion, he couldn’t ignore the fact that, in a corner of his mind, there was a hesitation. A kind of lurking anxiousness.\u003cbr\u003eHe understood very well why he harboured such feelings. To put it simply, he was afraid. Not of the man himself; what he was afraid of were his memories of the incident that had occurred three years ago. Memories that would inevitably come alive again once the two of them came into contact. He suspected that the real explanation for his failure to reach out to the man in the intervening time lay in those feelings of fear.\u003cbr\u003eOf course, he knew only too well that he shouldn’t dwell on the past. Three years ago, many of his friends had died. The psychologi- cal shock inflicted upon him had been tremendous, and the case had changed his life immensely.\u003cbr\u003eBut it was time to escape from the shadow of the last three years. You can’t change the past, no matter how much you want to. Those who have passed away will not come back to life. Not unless you obtain the power to turn back time itself – time that is eternally in motion, moving from the past and towards the future.\u003cbr\u003eWas it this wretched rain that was making even his mind feel drenched? Kawaminami felt suddenly as though he were slipping down an emotional slide. He shook his head in an effort to stop himself from falling even deeper into the abyss.\u003cbr\u003eHe walked to a lift he had spotted at the far end of the lobby. Shaking the last remaining drops from his umbrella, he reached for the call button. But just before his finger made contact, the lift doors opened, and a woman stepped out of the cage.\u003cbr\u003eShe was tall and wore an ecru hemp suit over a light-purple blouse. Her light-brown, wavy hair was neatly cut, stopping just above her shoulders. Kawaminami squinted when the necklace hanging from her fair neck flashed gold for a moment. Her rather distinctive perfume was discernible amid the damp air in the lobby. It made him almost drowsy. The woman’s eyes were downcast as she made her way past Kawaminami. He glanced at her face – and started inwardly in surprise. She was wearing heavy make-up and large, dark sunglasses. She looked to be around thirty years old. He couldn’t get a good look at her features due to the shades – though he was at least sure she was quite attractive. But nevertheless he had the feeling that he had seen her before. They hadn’t actually met, but he seemed to remember her\u003cbr\u003efrom a picture…\u003cbr\u003eDistracted, he turned around to have another look at the woman instead of entering the lift. She was peering inside the letter box next to the one numbered 409, which Kawaminami had just been looking at. She took a few letters out, put them in her bag and then walked towards the glass doors of the lobby.\u003cbr\u003eAfter she had disappeared into the unrelenting rain, Kawaminami turned his gaze back to the letter boxes.\u003cbr\u003eShe had been looking inside the one for number 408, the neighbour of the man he was going to visit. When he saw the name printed on the plate, he was startled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKōmyōji Mikoto\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe stepped away from the lift, which was waiting for him with open doors, and took a few steps back towards the letter boxes to have a better look, to make sure he had not misread the name.\u003cbr\u003eThe paper tag on the box did indeed say “Kōmyōji Mikoto” – not a common name by any means. It had to be \u003ci\u003ethe \u003c\/i\u003eKōmyōji Mikoto. Which would also explain why he thought he recognized her face.\u003cbr\u003eKawaminami stepped inside the lift, still pondering this remark- able coincidence. The faint smell of her perfume lingered inside the cage.\u003cbr\u003eWhen he rang the bell of number 409, the door opened almost immediately. A slender man dressed in a pair of jeans and a wrinkled black T-shirt was standing on the threshold. His face had not changed.\u003cbr\u003e“Ah, Conan! Welcome.”\u003cbr\u003eJust as he had three years ago, the man fondly addressed Kawaminami as “Conan”, a nickname derived from the alternative readings of the kanji characters in his name.\u003cbr\u003e“Hello. It’s been a while,” Kawaminami said nervously as he bowed. “Sorry I’m late.”\u003cbr\u003eThe man looked puzzled. “What? We said four, didn’t we?” “Yeah…”\u003cbr\u003e“Then you’re not late, are you?”\u003cbr\u003e“Er…” Now it was Kawaminami who was confused. He took out his pocket watch. “But it’s already half-past.”\u003cbr\u003e“That’s odd. It’s only four according to my clock.”\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps he had only just woken up. He rubbed his tired eyes as he turned around to the sitting room.\u003cbr\u003e“See?”\u003cbr\u003eThere was an old-fashioned octagonal clock hanging from the far wall. Its hands were indeed positioned just before four o’clock.\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, but it’s not moving…”\u003cbr\u003eThe man blurted it out himself before Kawaminami could say any- thing. He ran the fingers of his right hand through his unkempt hair.\u003cbr\u003e“I can’t believe it. I bought that clock only recently at an antique shop, you know.”\u003cbr\u003e“Ah.”\u003cbr\u003e“And I wound it just yesterday. I suppose that means it’s broken.”\u003cbr\u003eKawaminami could barely stop himself from laughing at the man’s baffled reaction to this turn of events.\u003cbr\u003e“Oh well, I’ll sort it out later,” he said as he turned back to Kawaminami. The man – Shimada Kiyoshi, or, as he was also known, the novice mystery writer Shishiya Kadomi – wore the same boyish smile that he had often bestowed on Kawaminami three years ago.\u003cbr\u003e“I’m thrilled you’re here,” Shimada said. “You’ve become quite the dapper chap, haven’t you? Anyway, come inside.”","brand":"Pushkin Vertigo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233642655973,"sku":"NP9781805335269","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781805335269.jpg?v=1767738714","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-clock-house-murders-isbn-9781805335269","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}