The Kindaichi Case Files Volume 3- Death TV By Yozaburo Kanari and Fumiya Sato

Kindaichi has gotten a part-time job with the local televsion station over the winter break, and he's gone to the small village of Segoori to film a mystery story. Kindaichi plays a bit part as a show runner whose death sets off a horrible murder mystery trapping actors and actresses young and old alike in a small mansion while a killer plots in their midst...

But all that is just for the television program. The house they are shooting in is owned by a reclusive artist named Issei Himuro, and he constructed the villa as a museum for his own work. But the film crew is there to shoot a "reality" type series and plan to scare and shock the actors and actresses at work on the show to really creep out the people watching.

But when their planned shock goes awry, one of the actresses, Rie Kanou, ends up dead, killed by an entity calling him or herself "The Snow Demon". But who could have killed Rie? All the film crew were in another building across the gorge from the villa, a 20 minute drive away. All except for Marina Ayatsuji, who was driving the van to the villa. But she had just left and wouldn't have reached the building for minutes yet.

Shortly after arriving back at the villa, they discover another victim, the camerama, Michio Akashi, frozen into a snowman, apparently another victim of the Snow Demon. But there is a police inspector named Akechi who challenges Kindaichi to solve the murder. Whoever loses, Akechi or Kenmochi, who backs Kindaichi, will lose their job in the police force. Kenmochi has a family to support, while Akechi is cool and arrogant and superior, who came from a high position in Tokyo.

Can Kindaichi really out think, out reason and out solve Kenmochi's own superior? Or will he fail, and Kenmochi be out of a job and Kindaichi be humiliated? Is there any hope for either of them to solve a mystery where the killer is a demon?

Another excellent mystery, with the bet with Inspector Akechi spicing things up and ratcheting up the tension several additional notches. At every turn, Akechi believes he is solving the case, but he eavesdrops on Kindaichi and Kenmochi, hoping to incorporate things they have discovered into his solution.

And in the end, Kindaichi wins and solves the case (no big surprise there), but has he gained a life-long enemy, or will he eventually win Akechi over to his side? We can't tell right now. And, once again, along with solving the crime, Kindaichi offers some understanding and consolation to the killer after hearing why the killer killed the victims. This is also unusual in a crime-based manga, but it only makes me like the Kindaichi Case Files even more. I highly recommend this series.