A thread for mystery fans ???
I'm a huge mystery fan, be it book, television, movies, games, etc. I thought it might be nice to have a thread discussing the mystery genre... maybe we can give each other ideas ^_^
myself, I'm currently reading through everything that Agatha Christie ever wrote (In order) I just finished "the mysterious mr. quinn" which is a collection of short stories she wrote about a mysterious man (Harley Quinn) who shows up whenever old Mr. satterthwaite (The protagonist) encounters a mystery, he particularly loves to tangle in the affairs of lovers. It's uncertain wether he's a real person, or a fantasm, or maybe even a part of mr. satterthwaite himself, all thats certain is that he brings out the best in mr. satterthwaite and helps him to solve mysteries, I must add that my favorite quote of all time came from this book...
Listen. I will put a case to you. A man comes to a certain place--to commit suicide, shall we say? But by chance he finds another man there, so he fails in his purpose and goes away-- to live. The second man has saved the first man's life, not by being necissary to him or prominent in his life but just by the mere physical fact of having been in a certain place at a certain moment. You take your life today and perhaps, some five, six, seven years hence, someone will go to death or disaster simply for lack of your presence in a given spot or place. It may be a runaway horse coming down a street that swerved aside at sight of you and so fails to trample a child that is playing in the gutter. That child may live to grow up and be a great musician, or discover a cure for cancer. or it may be less melodramatic then that. He may just grow up to ordinary everyday happiness.
You say your life is your own, but can you ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a divine producer? Your cue may not come till the end of the play--it may be totally uninportant, a mere walking on part, but on it may hang the issues of the play, if you do not give the cue to another player. The whole edifice may crumple. You as you, may not matter to anyone in the world, but you as a person in a particular place may matter unimaginably~~~~ Agatha Christie
I'm also currently watching through the entire Murder She Wrote series on netflix
myself, I'm currently reading through everything that Agatha Christie ever wrote (In order) I just finished "the mysterious mr. quinn" which is a collection of short stories she wrote about a mysterious man (Harley Quinn) who shows up whenever old Mr. satterthwaite (The protagonist) encounters a mystery, he particularly loves to tangle in the affairs of lovers. It's uncertain wether he's a real person, or a fantasm, or maybe even a part of mr. satterthwaite himself, all thats certain is that he brings out the best in mr. satterthwaite and helps him to solve mysteries, I must add that my favorite quote of all time came from this book...
Listen. I will put a case to you. A man comes to a certain place--to commit suicide, shall we say? But by chance he finds another man there, so he fails in his purpose and goes away-- to live. The second man has saved the first man's life, not by being necissary to him or prominent in his life but just by the mere physical fact of having been in a certain place at a certain moment. You take your life today and perhaps, some five, six, seven years hence, someone will go to death or disaster simply for lack of your presence in a given spot or place. It may be a runaway horse coming down a street that swerved aside at sight of you and so fails to trample a child that is playing in the gutter. That child may live to grow up and be a great musician, or discover a cure for cancer. or it may be less melodramatic then that. He may just grow up to ordinary everyday happiness.
You say your life is your own, but can you ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a divine producer? Your cue may not come till the end of the play--it may be totally uninportant, a mere walking on part, but on it may hang the issues of the play, if you do not give the cue to another player. The whole edifice may crumple. You as you, may not matter to anyone in the world, but you as a person in a particular place may matter unimaginably~~~~ Agatha Christie
I'm also currently watching through the entire Murder She Wrote series on netflix
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(Also, that is an excellent quote.)
I got a little teary when i read the quote... it's what i've always felt on the subject put into words which are infinatly more profound then anything I could ever think up.
It's incredibly deep.
OMG! I had never heard of that, I looked it up and it looks fantastic! I'm going to check out the anime ^_^
The plot sounds like it was inspired by the Agatha Christie novel "And Then There Were None" http://www.amazon.com/Then-There-Were-None/dp/0312330871/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304404144&sr=8-1 If that interested you I'd definitely suggest checking out the book ^_^
The name also reminded me of the anime "Higarashi no Naku Koro ni", Ever seen it? It's a mystery anime about a small town, where people are going crazy and killing each other, season 1 shows everything thats happening and leaves the viewer completly confused, season 2 explains everything ^_^ It's an amazing anime
Agatha Christie made it to 80 full novels ^_^ I'm about 16 novels in atm, theyre not all detective stories however, she has a good assortment of adventure/mystery and supernatural/mystery as well xDD
I'd suggest reading the Sherlock holmes stories, there are only about 3-4 full novels, the rest are short stories... I grabbed the 2 volume complete set at a used bookstore a few years ago and since then i've been avidly reading mystery fiction ^_^
DONT DONT DONT (SPECIALLY because you're a mystery fan) <red>THERE IS NO ANIME</red>, just read the original VN.
Anyways, yeah, "And Then There Were None" was even directly mentioned one time.
Funny you mention Higurashi. Same author, same series (although they're not really related otherwise as far as anyone knows except for maybe one character). You should also read the Higurashi VN, it's not as badly adapted as Umineko from what I've heard, but the anime still wasn't that great of an adaptation with the author even going as far as saying that the anime was impossible to solve by itself because of it.
I cannot stand Manga... I just have a hard time with paying $11 for a book i'll read in less then 30 minutes, when I could get a book for $6 that would take me a month to read lolol I also can never get as involved for some reason, for instance, I LOVED the xxxholic anime, but I lost interest in the manga about 3 volumes in...
A manga looks like this...
What you basically want is to read locked room murder mysteries and whodunnits from the golden age. Some people already mentioned Agatha Christie but that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want a good(read amazing!) read check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Zodiac-Murders-Detective-Mitarais/dp/4925080814
http://www.amazon.com/Judas-Window-Carter-Dickson/dp/0930330625
Read the reviews to get you hyped up. I have read both and they have a baffling solution! 0_o
Another recommendation is to read the Father Brown short stories by G.K. Chesterton.
where would I even find the VN?
I've heard good things about father brown...
Well, since you're from the US you can check here (if you want to pay money for it that is)
http://witch-hunt.com/stage.html
I'd wait until the translation for episode 8 is out before buying Chiru (ep 5-8) though.
Is the anime really THAT bad? I LOVED Higarashi and have never felt like i've missed anything watching that... and to tell the truth I hate reading novels on a computer screen (although I'm fine with anime subtitles, as long as I don't watch too much at a time)
so it's not even complete then... okay... on a side note, do you have any idea if they ever mentioned in the VN or manga why rika appeared in the past and tells miyo to join her parents...
I hate how Christie killed off Poirot but what are you going to do.
But those are in the cosey style which I'm not sure are as popular anymore.
I really just LOVE the golden age of detective fiction
I haven't read Higurashi yet =(
I promise you that all my recommendations will not disappoint you.
And Sherlock Holmes is not a mystery per se but more detective. And not even a fair-play at that. Which means you don't get the same clues provided as the detective and thus will not be able to solve it yourself.
Also a lot of whodunnits/locked room murder mysteries have a direct challenge from the author to the reader telling them that at this particular point all clues have been provided. Mostly books by Ellery Queen and a lot of japanese writers.
So don't read SH expecting great twists and compelling mysteries. SH's plot hasn't aged that well. Instead read it for the characters as Sherlock and Watson are really one of the best duo's ever written.
The characters, that's where SH's novelty lies mostly now. Fortunately they are all short stories except for 4. So you can breeze through them easily.
YES! We need to talk.
Also my latest purchases are:
-Tattoo Murder Case
-Banner Deadlines by Joseph Commings
-The frightened Stiff by Kelley Roos
These three also supposedly have a high place on peoples list.
personally I believe the reason to read Sherlock Holmes isn't so much the characters, or mystery as it is the deduction... The reason I kept reading those books was because I was dieing to see his deductive reasoning at the end of the case, it really made the books special
Agatha Christie, I know I've talked about her a million times, but I just love her xD... She began her career on a dare, her sister dared her to write a novel that presented every single clue that the detective saw, while also making a case too difficult for the average reader to solve even with the clues present... she definatly suceeded (I only had a vague idea of who the killer was in her first book) and wen't on to becomes the best-selling author of all time!
I REALLY want to read the ellery queen books, but they don't seem to sell them anywhere... Detective Conan is part of the reason, shinichi loves sherlock holmes, while hattori loves ellery queen...
and any good japanese writers? the only japanese fiction i've ever read is the "ring" series (which was fantastic btw)
Unfortunately little work from japan gets translated. But we did receive some gems:
-The Inugami Clan Murders (with famous detective Kindaichi who is related to Kindaichi of the mangas =p)
-Tattoo Murder Case
-The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshiki(a collection of short stories with a supernatural theme, meaning that the murders are set up to look like a supernatural force was responsible. No real ghosts
-Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Of these I have read only Tokyo Zodiac Murders and I have saved up the rest(I own all though, I am savouring them =P). And I am willing to make a bet with you that you are going to like it. It's really awesome. The Modus Operandi of the murderer was pretty ingenious. Plus I am sure the premise and plot will interest you as you seem to be familiar with Detective Conan. You will follow an orthodox detective with his assistance(like SH and Watson) through Japan trying to solve a 50 year old murder.
And ofcourse we have the manga's:
-Detective Conan
-Kindaichi Casefiles (House of Wax is awesome)
-Detective Academy Q
I also recommend Spiral. It isn't a detective but it's a I-think-that-you-think-that-I-think psychological manga. A multi-layered game of chess that I am sure you will like if you played Phoenix Wright for example. Spiral is really great.
That's it for now. Off to watch the 2nd half of Barcelona - Real Madrid!!!
P.S. I have read all of AC's masterworks. She is great, but I don't remember her ever trying to come up with a locked room murder mystery. Nonetheless whodunnits are great too and she simply writes beautifully. And then there were none, Evil under the Sun, Murder on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, Murder of Roger Ackroyd are must reads for any fan of the genre.
Which is a crucial part of the character.
like i said earlier I HATE manga...
IDK if you've heard, but every single episode of the detective conan anime is now officially subbed, some of the hong kong subbs still need to be re-subbed but you can watch all 600+ episode with english subtitles now ^_^
I've always wanted to watch the kindaichi anime (there are like 148 episodes) I just looked up the subbing, and it looks as if a new group has started subbing the series within the past year, so I'm going to have to keep my eye on that...
DETECTIVE ACADEMY Q!!!! OMG! I LOVE THAT SERIES!!!! "Lovely Merry-go Round" is my cell ringtone ^_^ The only regret I have about that series is that the ending REALLY sucked... it felt like it needed another season, it just didn't feel complete =(
That's because you hate manga.
The manga did have a great ending.
Imho manga > anime adaptation.
I just can't stomach the idea of spending $11 for a book I can read in less then 30 minutes...
it would be nice if i could get some detective academy Q spoilers though ^_^ *hint hint*
The Hong Kong subs are horrenduous and not official. They are bootleg thus illegal. >.>
most of the hong kong subs have been resubed though... I just checked, and 110-115 are now subbed by Atavus... I'm going to look into the rest... they really were some of the worst subs ever, I got a headache just watching one...
yeah... but seriously, can you ever imagine funimation (it's funimation right) dubbing all 600+ episodes... as long as the specific episodes are not liscenced in the US, and as long as the japanese company knows about the subbing (which I can't imagine that they don't know about DCTP), and if theres no cease and desist letters being sent to the subbing group, and they're not making any money off the subbing, I'm fine with fansubs ^_^
I know that's alot of if's but they all definatly apply to the conan subs
I love how the poirot movies are fairly accurate to the books... however, the miss marple movies are just aweful...