Manga Review | The Decagon House Murders Volume 1

Members of a university mystery club visit a ten-sided house on a remote island where an unsolved grisly mass murder took place the year before. However, as they explore the house and try to unravel its secrets, they discover there may be a killer in their midst.

The Decagon House Murders Volume 1 by Yukito Ayatsuji (writer), Hiro Kiyohara (Artist) is a clever and engaging whodunit murder mystery. It’s based on the classic novel by the same name and adheres to the “honkaku” tradition, meaning that the audience is given clues and invited to solve the story’s mystery before it ends.

Think of it as a game of Clue or an Agatha Christie novel. In fact, the story gives nods to the author by nicknaming one of the characters after her and even references her novel And Then There Were None in its opening prologue.

On top of that, the artwork is beautifully atmospheric, and it's what drew me to this manga in the first place.

All in all, Volume 1 was a fun start to the series and I’m really interested in seeing where the story goes since it ends in a serious cliffhanger. This story very much feels like a homage, a love letter to its genre, so I strongly recommend it for fans of good old-fashioned locked-room mysteries.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kodansha, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

(P.S. If you're curious about learning more about honkaku as a mystery sub-genre, you can read more about it here.)

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