I read Niwa Asano's 'Fushin'!

The debut work of Niwa Asano, also known as Deko-sama, a fellow noter (or so I like to think).
That alone makes me happy 😆

The content is a surprising mystery.
And a quite hard-boiled one at that.
(It was serialized on note, but it was surprising even back then, wasn't it?)

I bought the short story collection 'Okashi no Tsumeawase' (quietly) at the Literature Flea Market, and while I love it—it feels like Taruho Inagaki meets Akiko Itoyama—the atmosphere is quite different from this one.
Could this be a breakthrough you initiated yourself?

As Soji Shimada-sensei and others have written, I felt that you used the tropes of a classic mystery—a locked-room murder and a body that doesn't decay—to depict a much more urgent theme.
That is the darkness of the human heart, which decays unknowingly over the years.
(The 'body that doesn't decay,' which is contrasted with that, is also quite impressive, isn't it?)
I felt that this is a work with enough breadth that the interpretation of the story itself changes significantly depending on how the reader engages with that darkness.
The first half, in particular, was a series of mysteries unfolding one after another, and I was completely absorbed in reading it.
The realism of the meticulous investigative procedures within the police force is breathtaking.
This is truly the power of a novel.
In any case, with its well-made prose and strong elements of contemporary crime, it felt like a mystery that needed to be written now.

As a mystery format, is it perhaps close to 'Murder on the Orient Express'?
(I'll add a spoiler tag 💦)

Since you asked me for a 'harsh review,' if I were to dare to write one...
As mentioned in other reviews and in Soji Shimada-sensei's concluding critique, the characters on the police side might have a slightly old-fashioned feel.
It makes one wonder, 'Is that intentional?'
The one who breaks out of that mold is the female detective Odajima, and even more intense is Kayoko, the one being investigated.
I feel like there might have been a way to make the values of these two clash even more.
Kayoko has the potential to approach the terrifying woman in 'The Black House,' but she doesn't go that far into unbridled madness.
Since the concept of the work is different, it remains 'malice that rots while remaining invisible,' but I also feel that the voltage of the work itself might have been kept to the level of Kayoko's madness.

Of course, there is a massive chasm between the award winner and the rest of us, so no matter what I say, it is ultimately just the opinion of someone with high standards but low ability.
I simply celebrate the fact that this wonderful work has been released into the world 🎊㊗️

Deko-sama, congratulations from the bottom of my heart!
Let's continue to live on while celebrating your life as a writer!