Kindaichi, nearly failing in Math class, is threatened with being left back by his teacher unless he passes his next test with a 90 or higher. The class President laughs at Kindaichi, knowing he'll never be able to do it. But Kindaichi passes his next test with a 96 despite watching television and playing video games instead of studying. How? He cheated.
Miyuki finds out and uses it to blackmail him. And through her, Superintendent Akechi also finds out and needles Kindaichi about it as he invites him to a "Murder Weekend" given at a German Castle named "Balto Castle". But the Locals call it "The House of Wax" for all the wax figures used inside it.
The host of the "Murder Weekend", a "Mr. Redrum" has invited the greatest detectives from Japan, and some from much further, to the castle to take part in the murder weekend. Superintendent Akechi wants to test his wits against Kindaichi and see who is the better detective. Also in the castle are several mystery writers, A German autopsy expert named Maria, a young American, Edward Columbo, who like Kindaichi is a detective who solves crimes, and several others who work in the mystery writing or critiquing fields.
The supposed object of the weekend is to solve several murder mysteries that will be posed to them over the long weekend. The prizze is the castle itself, worth hundreds of thousands of Yen. With them is a manservant hired specifically for the weekend. Each participant is asked to wear a costume during the weekend, all of the medieval style. These costumes also appear on wax figures molded to represent all of the participants in the "murder weekend".
And then, the first night, they discover the "dead" body of one of the participants- the President of a Detective Agency, stabbed in the back and draped over a small table with two billiard balls in her hand. No sooner have the participants discovered the "killer", Kindaichi himself, that they realize that the woman who the wax dummy resembles is missing. And they soon find her, killed in the same way that her dummy was!
They run for the door, but realize that they are locked in the castle together. The drawbridge is up, and the mechanism for raising it is destroyed. Now, they are trapped together with their unseen host, Mr. Redrum, which, as Chris Columbo points out, is the word "Murder" backwards.
But some of the participants have a secret to hide, and Kindaichi will have to see if he can keep not only himself and Miyuki safe and alive, but Superintendent Akechi as well! Can Kindaichi dicover the true murderer and stay alive as the number of guests diminishes, one by one?
This book combines the creepy nature of a wax museum with the horror of a thriller. The guests are trapped with a murderer and none of them seem to be safe from the murderers games. Given that one of the characters is named "Columbo" and hails from the United States, there were also definite hints that perhaps some of the characters may have stood in for other famous detectives, just like Columbo himself. But if the Chris Columbo character was intended to mimic Peter Falk's iconic character, it was a less than perfect imitation. Perhaps he was intended to be Columbo (and Mrs. Columbo)'s son, seeing as he was only 17. Or perhaps his name was a riff on Christopher Columbus. It can be hard to tell!
The tension is palpable once the first body is discovered, and rises with each subsequent murder. How is the killer getting away with these crimes? Is everyone at risk, or just those with the secret regarding the castle? Additionally, there are mysteries that aren't explained as well, but those are minor. The entire book was very well written, and the suspense is kept up throughout. Even the ending makes you wonder if those left alive will survive the discovery of the murderer.
I like this series very much, and anyone who likes mysteries will find this series appealing. Just don't take exception to the fact that it comes in comic form rather than a book of words. This volume of the series was larger than the rest. but the story is longer and more intense for it. I recommend this story highly, and of course, the series as well.
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