The Decagon House Murders

One of the “20 of the Best Classic Murder Mystery Books of All Time,” Town & Country

“[The Decagon House Murders is] less about psychology and more about characters in relation to each other, like pawns on a chess board.”
—E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars

“His celebration of traditional whodunits plays with the mystery genre in a wonderfully self-referential way . . . With each new murder, the remaining members of the group must use their knowledge of the genre to find the killer and try to stay alive.”
—Esquire, “The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time”

“A terrific mystery, a classic of misdirection very much in the manner of Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr.”
—Washington Post

“Behold, the perfect escapist drug! If I could crush this book into a powder and snort it, I would.”
—Vulture

“Ayatsuji’s brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits . . . Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A stunner of a plot, with an ending which I simply could not believe when it was first revealed . . . Rivals Soji Shimada’s The Tokyo Zodiac Murders for sheer audacity and ingenuity.”
—At the Scene of the Crime

“A knowing tribute to classic crime, it features all manner of puzzles, including locked rooms, jigsaws and magic tricks.”
—Mark Sanderson, The Times

“A a thrilling homage to Christie’s And Then There Were None, following a group of amateur sleuths on a trip to a lonely island, the site of several unsolved murders. In the opening chapter, one character remarks: “Enough gritty realism please! What mystery novels need are a great detective, a mansion, a shady cast of residents, bloody murders, impossible crimes and never-before-seen-tricks played by the murder.” It’s impossible not to agree.”
—The Guardian

“A watershed moment for a new, emerging style of mystery fiction in literature, the success of which then led to its widespread popularity in popular culture (manga, anime and films) within a decade of its publication . . . . It is a work of monumental importance for scholars and aficionados of the genre and it rightfully deserves every bit of the reputation it has earned and continues to, to this day.”
—Scroll.in