Voice, narration and perspective: ?/9.
Plot, suspense and climax: ?/9.
Din, the assistant to the official investigator Ann, was capable of observing crime scenes and reporting his research meticulously to Ann, thanks to his photographic memory.
His first case was to investigate an officer who had been killed inside an aristocrat’s mansion by a piercing plant. A mushroom in the corridor sensitive to the ambient moisture withered, yet the nearby windows had been closed well according to one of servants. A maid recalled the previous night had been so unbearably hot that she could hardly sleep. The groundskeeper mentioned his cost-effective habit of cleansing his tools by burning them in the stove.
The aristocrat bribed an official to dig out information from Din, which Din refused to comply. The official then annoyingly threatened that he would find out how Din, once a student with poor academic levels, had suddenly excelled in the exam of selecting the assistant.
At Ann’s command, Din brought three people to her house, where she accused the groundskeeper of implanting a specific spore into the wallpaper for the assassination. The death of the mushroom was actually caused by the groundkeeper’s replacing the tainted door. The maid’s testimony could because explained by the groundkeeper’s burning of the door. Unfortunately, the spore was so unique that it couldn’t be destroyed by normal fire.
So after Ann claimed she had already dispatched subordinates to assay the cinder, the desperate groundskeeper assaulted Ann. Din protected Ann and subdued the groundskeeper, who subsequently confessed that an anonymous figure had hired him to assassinate the victim. Later, Din was notified by Engineers that the spore had been engineered intentionally for the very purpose of this assassination.
(It was at this point that I decided to abandon this book because of the following reasons:
- Poor investigation: The investigation didn’t emphasize the inner structure of the house and skeptical clues like the door. So I couldn’t connect the heat with the withered mushroom till the end.
- Unfamiliar world-building: The setting of an unrealistic world is hard for me to deduce logically and thoroughly. So although I highly doubted the groundskeeper early on, I couldn’t make sense of how he had done it until Ann introduced the supposed weapon.
- Failure as a mystery: The charm of the mystery hinged on the fact that readers can compete against the detective on equal footing, which this story failed to satisfy.
- Boring case design: The introductory case was simple and lackluster without enough red herring, suspicious suspects or significant twists. The detective and assistant didn’t develop a compelling deduction by elaborating on every detail or excluding any other alternatives systematically. Also, I didn’t feel connected with the duo and couldn’t sense any intriguing dynamics.
- failure as a fantasy: The appeal of the fantasy rests on immersing readers in a thrilling narrative based on the magnificence of the alien world, which the story fell short as well.
Judging from the accolades and awards, it may be a good book for others. Nevertheless, I am not its target reader and I don’t feel any regret in ditching a book that failed to captivate me at first glance.)