A Study of Locked Rooms

### Other Title

*The Detective Story of Clinical Criminologist Hideo Himura: A Study of Locked Rooms*

## Collection Information

### Series

*The Detective Story of Clinical Criminologist Hideo Himura*

### ISBN

ISBN 978-4-04-101069-3

***A Study of Locked Rooms*** (密室の研究, *Misshitsu no Kenkyū*) is a self-selected collection of Japanese short stories by Alice Arisugawa in his Himura Hideo series.

## Plot Overviews

"**Man-Eating Waterfall**" (人喰いの滝, *Hitokui no Taki*)

     From *The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery*

A dead body is found on the snow-covered road. Footprints left on the snow go straight to the "Man-Eating Waterfall", while the only other footprints belong to those who have discovered the body.

"**The Butterfly Flutters**" (蝶々がはばたく, *Chōchō ga Habataku*)

     From *The Brazilian Butterfly Mystery*

One day, Himura misses his train. Meanwhile, Alice hears stories of past disappearances of train passengers.

"**Kochūan Murder Case**" (壺中庵 (こちゅうあん) 殺人 (さつじん) 事件 (じけん) , *Kochuan Satsujin Jiken*)

     From *Screaming Castle Murder Case*

A certain wealthy man was hung with a bag on his head in his favorite study, "Kochūan", which looked like a kite in the basement. The flip-up door, the only doorway to the basement, seemed to hang a wall from the inside, and there were traces of the discovered door break-ins that opened it. In short, the scene of the crime was a locked-room murder. The two suspects are the victim's son and the latter's friend. How did the criminal make a locked room and why did he put a bag on the victim's head?

"**Snow Flower Tower Murder Case**" (雪華楼 (せっかろう) 殺人 (さつじん) 事件 (じけん) , *Sekkarō Satsujin Jinken*)

     From *Screaming Castle Murder Case*

A person has died in the so-called "Snow Flower Tower", a building that was left untouched. The three people who were at the site during that time had settled in the Snow Flower Tower without permission: a young couple who had run away and a middle-aged homeless man. The victim was the couple man. According to the homeless man, the couple often had fights. On the night of the incident, the victim had already fallen outside the building when he heard the woman scream. As a result from police investigation, it was certain that the man had committed suicide from jumping off the roof, but it was a mysterious situation that the body remained after being killed. Unfortunately, in their desire to hear the details of the incident, the woman had lost memory of the incident due to shock.

"**Shylock's Locked Room**" (シャイロックの密室, *Shairokku no Misshitsu*)

     From *The Swiss Watch Mystery*

Rokusuke Sai, a miser, committed suicide with a handgun in his study at home. The windows were closed by grids, and the doors were tightly locked that not a single sheet of paper could pass through. The case was prematurely regarded as suicide, but the police later views it as a homicide: Sai was left-handed, but he unnaturally died with a handgun on his right hand.

"**Or the Shifū-sō Murder Case**" (あるいは四風荘殺人事件, *Aruiwa Shifū-sō Satsujin Jiken*)

     From *The Crime Dedicated to Hideo Himura*

After the death of Jūchin Satonaka, a scholar known for writing bone-based reasoning novels against the background of social issues, his daughter sends Alice a request. Alice and his editor Katagiri, who saw the request to be out of their control, visit Himura's lab and give an overview of the incident. It was a mystery of two murders that occurred on Christmas at a wealthy house called "Shifū-sō", with three separate houses of the main house surrounding all sides of a circular garden.

## References

1. ↑ 作家アリスシリーズ — Wikipedia (Japanese)
2. ↑ ◆Story◆ ＜ブラジル蝶の謎＞ — NAVER Matome (Japanese)
3. ↑ 有栖川有栖「火村英生（作家アリス）シリーズ」『絶叫城殺人事件』あらすじとほんのりネタバレ感想 — I Want to Solve All Mysteries (Japanese)
4. ↑ 有栖川有栖「火村英生（作家アリス）シリーズ」『スイス時計の謎』あらすじとほんのりネタバレ感想 — I Want to Solve All Mysteries (Japanese)
5. ↑ 有栖川有栖「火村英生（作家アリス）シリーズ」『火村英生に捧げる犯罪』あらすじとほんのりネタバレ感想 — I Want to Solve All Mysteries (Japanese)