Raven's Island

***Raven's Island*** (乱鴉 (らんあ) の島 (しま) , *Ran'a no Shima*) is a Japanese detective mystery novel by Alice Arisugawa in his Himura Hideo series.

## Synopsis

Alice decides to go out with Himura at the recommendation of their elderly landlady, who is concerned with Himura's exhaustion. However, the destination "Torishima" was greatly mistaken for "Karasujima", so they arrived at Kuronejima, commonly known as Karasujima, which is almost uninhabited. Karasujima was home to the legendary poet Shun Ebihara, who usually stayed with a couple of caretakers. On that day, he and his friends, including Ebihara, visited the island.

Alice and Himura manage to escape the inn and stay overnight at Ebihara's residence until they asked for a pick-up ship the next day. However, the children who had come to the island liked them and suggested to extend their stay at Ebihara's.

### Outbreak of the Incident

Alice feels that the adults on the island, including Ebihara, seem to be on good terms with the children. Later, helicopters arrive on the island when Alice and Himura, who were not welcomed by outsiders except for Ebihara who treated them as guests, were playing catch ball with the children. It was the young charismatic president of Midas Zipang, Shinji Hatsushiba, who wants to meet and talk to Dr. Fujii, but he had been refused. He then took a hard-line approach to check Fujii's schedule and went to the island. Hatsushiba, who was not allowed in the Ebihara residence and was expecting to be rejected by Fujii, had secured a lodging in an uninhabited house in advance. In a conversation with Hatsushiba, Alice learns that his purpose is to have Fujii clone himself. Alice finds the meeting to be a strange gathering of people who want Fujii to clone, but Himura does not seem to care.

In the afternoon of the second day on the island, his wife Harumi comes looking for the custodian, Shinji Kizaki. After knowing that he might have gone to Hatsushiba, as a fan of Hussey (Hatsushiba's stage name on TV), Himura and Alice, who interacted with the young president last night, decided to visit him. They found Kizaki in the house where Hatsushiba stayed, with his forehead broken by an iron array, which was the cause of his death.

### The Isolated Island

All of a sudden, someone cuts the phone line before they are able to contact the police. Mobile phones are out of the service area, and Hatsushiba's satellite phone is the only means of communication, but Hatsushiba himself is missing. The pick-up ship shall arrive on Monday, but it was only Saturday by then. Karasujima becomes isolated.

From Himura's and Fujii's perspective, Kizaki would have died sometime between 3 to 4 p.m. The others speculate that Hatsushiba, being the only one missing at Ebihara's residence at the moment, is the culprit. They then take turns sleeping at night in preparation for his return or attack. They were able to gather a variety of information:

 Alice saw Fujii's shoes
 The children visited Hatsushiba's house and listened to his phone calls
 There were other signs, but no persons were seen
 Fujii visited Hatsushiba, negotiating about cloned humans

Taken together, the findings indicate that Hatsushiba kept on shouting on a phone call during an important negotiation with Fujii. According to the latter, his reply was put on hold. Moreover, during a search of Kizaki's bedroom, a password-protected computer and a small portable safe were discovered. His wife Harumi never touches his personal computer and does not even know about the existence of a safe.

The next morning, Alice goes to see Himura, who finds a large crowd of crows hovering on one part of the island, specifically on the body of Hatsushiba, who appears to have fallen down the cliff based on Masaaki Kashī's observation after monitoring him. He is speculated to have died at around 2 p.m. on Saturday during the isolation of the island. In other words, Hatsushiba died before Kizaki, ultimately dismissing their early theory that Hatsushiba had killed Kizaki.

In addition, because there are no traces of his clothes being wet in spite of a high tide, someone had deliberately dragged the body and displaced it after Hatsushiba fell to death. Hence, Himura infers that it was a murder. There are also traces of a criminal near the tree trunk by the cliff. His satellite phone could not also be found, suggesting that the culprit had thrown it into the sea to isolate the island.

The following four patterns are then considered in the two cases:

1. The culprit was supposed to kill both Hatsushiba and Kizaki from the very beginning.
2. After killing Hatsushiba, the culprit silenced Kizaki, who learned of the plan.
3. The culprit was supposed to kill Kizaki, but killed Hatsushiba first after learning of the plan.
4. Kizaki killed Hatsushiba, then someone killed Kizaki.

The key to the case is the purpose behind the gathering, and Himura asks everyone to confess. However, everyone has no special purpose and has not asked to be cloned like Alice claims. Quite the contrary, it was Alice and Himura, who are both outsiders, who are suspicious. In the end, after examining everyone's behavior last Saturday, the investigators find that they are all free, but the investigation is stalled.

When Harumi opens Kizaki's hand-held safe, she finds a deposit of over ¥5 million and documents from a net securities company, which he had kept secretly from her. She inputs Kizaki's password in his personal computer and accesses his online browsing history two to three days prior his death. There was only one net securities company that surfaced.

In the end, Himura is able to solve the mysteries: when the telephone line was cut almost simultaneously when Kizaki's body was discovered, that Hatsushiba's body had fallen to death and later moved, the real reason why Hatsushiba came to the island, and the reasons why the adults were on good terms with the children.

## Characters

* Hideo Himura (火村 (ひむら)  英生 (ひでお) ): A 32-year-old clinical criminologist and associate professor at his alma mater, Eito University School of Sociology. With a course on criminal sociology, his desire to kill someone made him interested in the field. Born in Hokkaido, he eventually moved from place to place due to his father's transfer. He has lived alone in a boarding house in Kita-Shirakawa, Kyoto, where he has lived since he was a student. His parents passed away and has a good relationship with his elderly landlady, a relationship similar to a parent and child.
* Alice Arisugawa (有栖川 (ありすがわ)  有栖 (ありす) ): A 32-year-old mystery writer and Himura's friend since they were students at Eito University. Born and raised in Osaka, he currently lives in a 2LDK apartment in Yuhigaokacho, Osaka. He worked as a salesman for a printing company until he was 27 years old and made his debut after winning the Golden Arrow Award. He has been writing mystery novels since he was a student.
* Shun Ebihara (海老原 瞬): A legendary iconic poet, writer, translator, and English-American literary writer. He lives almost in seclusion.
* Junsuke Fujii (藤井 継介): Ebihara's friend and an obstetrician. His study about cloning technology has made the public anxious for some time.
* Mine Nakanishi (中西 美祢): A childcare worker.
* Kazue Mizuki (水木 妥恵): A school counselor.
* Sō Zaitsu (財津 壮): A lecturer at a cram school.
* Takumi Ichinose (市ノ瀬 拓海): Zaitsu's nephew.
* Masaaki Kashī (香椎 匡明): An administrative scrivener.
* Kimiko Kashī (香椎 季実子): An administrative scrivener and Masaaki's wife.
* Ayu Koyama (小山 鮎): Kashī's niece.
* Shinji Kizaki (木崎 信司): A residence custodian and a fan of Hussey.
* Harumi Kizaki (木崎 治美): A residence custodian and Shinji's wife.
* Yachiyo Ebihara (海老原 八千代): Shun's wife who had long since died of illness at the young age of 27. According to Harumi, they were an ideal couple.
* Shinji Hatsushiba (初芝 真路): The young president of Midas Zipang who is trying to sell *Cool Japan* to the world. He has also appeared on TV under his stage name Hussey; his rival is Cassie.

## Notes

1. ↑ A 2LDK apartment consists of two rooms in addition to a living, dining, and kitchen area. "L" stands for *living*, "D" stands for *dining*, and "K" stands for *kitchen*. The number "2" indicates that there is one room in addition to the main living area.

## References

1. ↑ 作家アリスシリーズ — Wikipedia (Japanese)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 有栖川有栖「火村英生（作家アリス）シリーズ」『乱鴉の島』あらすじとほんのりネタバレ感想 — I Want to Solve All Mysteries (Japanese)
3. ↑ 46番目の密室 — Wikipedia (Japanese)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 有栖川有栖 — Wikipedia (Japanese)