The Aosawa Murders

By Riku Onda

On a stormy summer day the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. But the youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. The police are convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako’ and witness to the discovery of the murders. The truth is revealed through a skilful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbours, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781912242467

Riku Onda

Riku Onda is a No.1 bestselling author in Japan. She grew up in Sendai and attended Waseda University, where she played the alto saxophone. In 1991, Onda won an award with her first novel, and became a full-time writer. In 2003 she moved to South America, where she reported for NHK television on Mayan and Incan culture. As her father was a music enthusiast, Onda grew up listening to classical music and played the piano from an early age, before discovering Western rock and jazz. Honeybees and Distant Thunder was the most celebrated novel of the year when it first published in Japan, winning two major literary awards: the Japan Booksellers Prize and the Naoki Prize (no other novel has won both in the same year). In 2019, it was made into a major Japanese film.

Reviews for The Aosawa Murders

[Sharon-Rose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eerie and mysterious feel with an ambiguous ending. Looking forward to rereading this sinister book.

[Iqbal Safirul Barqi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Original unique style of writing a mystery novel. Good story but not enough for 5*

[aug3zimm-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I do not like the one-sided conversation style of narration. It strikes me as unnatural and gimmicky. Sometimes I can get past it and still sink in to the story, but not here. Even when the narration style shifted, the writing (or maybe translation) felt like it was trying too hard to strike particular notes and instead just ended up feeling forced and awkward.

[martinhughharvey_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Didn't get it but think that's the idea but most readable and wonderful translation.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"That's how I came to believe that it's impossible to ever really know the truth behind events."At a birthday party one summer day in 1973, 17 people were poisoned with cyanide and died. The only survivor was 13 year old Hisako, the daughter of the house. The police investigated, and several months later the delivery person who brought the cyanide-laced drinks to the house committed suicide. No one was ever convicted, and the assumption by the police was that the delivery person was the guilty culprit. However, many had doubts, and in fact many suspected Hisako.This book is presented in chapters each of which is essentially a monologue by a person who had a connection, close or distant, to the crime, and who relates information they have, some more valuable and relevant, some less. It skips around in time, and it frequently takes some effort to discover who is speaking in each chapter (as the chapters are usuallly in the first person, just a different first person in each chapter).The book moves slowly, and I had a hard time staying focused. It is not really a crime novel, more of an existential, philosophical novel. It is a book of speculation, and is very Rashomon-like.3 starsFirst Line: "Being outside an old, dark, blue room."Last Line: "Her eternal ending summer."

[kewing_12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The mystery (who committed the mass murder of family and neighbors at a group birthday celebration?) at the center of this novel is told obliquely through the testimony of witnesses, some immediately after the event, some from an investigation for a book by a witness twenty years later, and some from an investigation by a reporter thirty years later. The testimony building up slowly for the first 100 pages or so. But the testimony, fragmented and drawn from multiple perspectives with varying degrees of coherency and understandings, creates several false directions for the investigators and the reader. The resolution, if indeed there is one, comes hazily wrapped in many perceptions. Is there ever an absolute truth? It's an interesting concept for a mystery, done occasionally by other writers, but none quite so enigmatically.

[piemouth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A terrible crime occurred in the 70s. Three generations of the Aosawa prominent family gathered for a birthday party and a delivery man brought a gift of sake and soda pop. Nearly everyone drank the gifts, which turned out to be laced with poison. All of them died except a housekeeper and Hisako, the youngest daughter. But she's blind and can't identify the killer. The case is considered closed when a young man who matches the description of the delivery man commits suicide.Years later a woman who grew up in the town, Makiki Saiga, researches the crime and writes a book about it.The story is told in a series of monologues / interviews with Saiga, her research assistant, her brother, a detective, and others. Saiga knew Hisako and was always in awe of her, and felt they shared a sensibility, a desire for quiet and solitude. There are subtle clues and realizations by various narrators, and interesting psychological insights.I thought I knew who the killer was, and why, but at the very end there was a twist that I don't understand. I'm annoyed and frustrated by that but it does fit with the rest of the book.

[smik_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel has the reader working hard to cope with both the structure of the novel and the author's intent. It appears to be first of all a series of interviews, three decades after the original poisonings, presented as one-sided conversations with a range of "witnesses", where we can only surmise what the original questions were. In the main those being interviewed are being asked about an event that took place over 30 years before, when 17 people died of cyanide poisoning at what was meant to be a double birthday celebration. Of the actual family only one child, a blind girl, is left. She did not drink any of the sake or cordial that contained the poisoned but sat listening to those around her vomiting and dying in agony.At the time the blame was pinned on a young man who committed suicide a few months after the event, but there did not seem to be any motive. In the absence of real clues the original detective became convinced that the surviving daughter was somehow responsible even if she wasn't the one who delivered the poisoned liquids. Later other survivors were also apportioned blame.I think Japanese crime fiction is quite markedly different from that which I usually like to read. It appears that Japanese crime fiction readers like to have their plots more inconclusive, more focussed on the psychological, more open-ended. While other blurbs and reviews tell us that the plot is finally resolved, that the murderer finally becomes clear, I don't think that is the case. Maybe I just missed the bit that proved conclusively "who dunnit" but I didn't think, at the end, that it was clear - in the final wash-up we were still in the area of theory, hence my final rating. You, of course, may disagree totally.I'd like to note also how long it has taken for this title to be translated into English. I'm not sure we can read anything into that apart maybe from recognising that maybe 15 years ago readers in English would not have been so accepting of this type of crime fiction.

[janerawoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A most unusual murder mystery, both set up and way it was written. Haunting and enjoyable. It kept me reading eagerly until the end. 17 people at an Aosawa family gathering in the 1960s are poisoned and most of the people there die. The novel consists of interviews with an unnamed interviewer and of chapters of background. Suspicion falls upon the man who makes the fatal delivery but he commits suicide. An enigmatic poem?/letter? addressed to "Eugenia" is found. What is the role of the family's blind daughter, Hisako, one of the survivors? In spite of my reading the novel twice, and in spite of some explanation, it was still partially ambiguous.Highly recommended. I hope there will be more English translations of the author in the future.