: Uketsu
: Strange Houses The Chilling Japanese Mystery Sensation
: Pushkin Vertigo
: 9781805335382
: 1
: CHF 10.80
:
: Krimis, Thriller, Spionage
: English
: 208
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
The addictive million-copy bestseller mystery taking Japan by storm, from the author of The Times Bestseller Strange Pictures A twisty puzzle in which the reader is the detective, examining a series of creepy floorplans for clues 'Deliciously unsettling and refreshingly unique, Strange Houses will lure you in and keep you captive with every clever twist' - Kristen Perrin, author of How to Solve Your Own Murder A sinister hidden room. A dead space between two walls. A sealed cellar. A child's face glimpsed at a window. Every house hides secrets. But some secrets are far darker than others. More than a million readers have discovered the terrible truth behind these strange houses. Now it's your turn. PRAISE FOR UKETSU 'Part Rubik's Cube, part Russian doll, part kaleidoscope and altogether irresistible. Strange Pictures is heady, giddy, genre-blurring stuff and so fizzy with invention and possibility that I almost pity the next novel I read' - A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window 'A superlative puzzle made of multiple parts that interconnect in unexpected ways, told inventively through pictures and text. Every twist and turn steepens the sense of foreboding. Original, intricate and deeply unsettling. I've never read anything like it' - Alex Pavesi, author of Eight Detectives 'Absolutely loved this clever little banger. An addictive murder mystery that unfolds like pointillism on the page: only when you reach the end, step back and view the bigger picture does each of its parts click into place. Exceptional!' - Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller 'An intricately woven, at times unsettling, but always mesmerising piece of work' - Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants EditBuild

Uketsu is an enigmatic Youtuber and author, specializing in horror and mystery. He always appears in videos wearing a white mask and black body stocking, with his voice digitally distorted. His true identity is unknown, despite the fact that he is now Japan's bestselling author, with millions of copies of his mysteries sold and translations appearing in thirty countries around the world. Strange Pictures is also available and Strange Buildings is forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

A MESSAGE FROM A FRIEND


I’m a freelance writer, my specialty being stories of the macabre. Given this line of work, lots of people approach me with their personal experiences of the eerie and unpleasant.

Lots of these have to do with houses.

‘I keep hearing footsteps on the floor upstairs, even when no one else is home.’

‘I can feel someone watching me when I’m alone.’

‘There are voices coming from the wardrobe.’

I can’t tell you how many people have told me their scary house stories.

But none of them can compare to the houses in this story. These strange, strange houses.

· · ·

It all started in September 2019. A friend of mine, Yanaoka, messaged me in need of some advice. Yanaoka’s a sales representative with an editing and production company. We’ve known each other for a few years and get together on occasion for dinner.

He told me that he and his wife were expecting their first child, so they had begun to search for their first house. Finding a good family home is hard work, he said, having spent many a late night scrolling through listings. Then, finally, he came across something that looked ideal.

It was a two-storey house in a quiet residential street, near a station but not far from forested hillsides, and although it was officially preowned, it was still very new. The couple went to see it, and it was so spacious and bright that they both fell in love.

But there was one thing on the floor plan that bothered them.

On the ground floor, there was a mysterious dead space between the kitchen and living room.

It had no doors, so it was completely inaccessible. The couple asked the estate agents for an explanation, but, clueless, they didn’t have one to offer. It was nothing that would affect the couple if they lived there, but something about it felt unsettling, so they decided to hold off pursuing the property for the time being.

Yanaoka said he decided to consult with me since I ‘know a lot about weird things’. I admit that I did find myself attracted by the words ‘mysterious dead space’. But I don’t know the first thing about architecture, and I’m not even sure I know how to read a floor plan properly.

So, I decided to get some help.

KURIHARA


Among my acquaintances is a man named Kurihara. Not only is he a draughtsman with a prestigious architecture firm, but also a fellow fan of horror and mystery stories, so I thought he might be interested in this.

I emailed him the details and a copy of the floor plan Yanaoka had sent, and we decided to talk things over on the phone.

Here is a transcript of our conversation:

AUTHOR:Good to talk to you again, Kurihara. Thanks for taking the time. I know you’re busy.
KURIHARA:Not at all. Now, about that floor plan you sent…
AUTHOR:Right! My friend’s wondering about that dead space on the ground floor. Do you have any idea what it might be?
KURIHARA:Hmm… One thing I can confidently say is, it was put there intentionally.
AUTHOR:You think someone wanted it?
KURIHARA:They must have. If you look closely, you can see that it was created by building two walls that otherwise serve no purpose.

Those two walls in the kitchen, do you see? Without those, there’s no dead space, and the kitchen would have actually been bigger. They actively built walls that made the kitchen smaller. Clearly, the space must have been put there for a reason.

AUTHOR:I see what you mean. So, what do you think they might have needed it for?
KURIHARA:

Maybe they had intended it to be a storage space at first.

If they had put doors opening onto the living room, it could have been a cupboard; or a set on the kitchen side could have made a pantry. But then maybe they changed their minds, or ran out of money or something, and gave up on the idea.

AUTHOR:I see. Since they were already in the middle of construction, then, you think they just left it there without altering the plan?
KURIHARA:It seems a natural explanation.
AUTHOR:So, there’s nothing ominous or creepy about it at all…
KURIHARA:I suppose not. It’s just…

Kurihara’s tone suddenly turned sombre.

KURIHARA:Do you know who had this house built?
AUTHOR:The previous owners. I heard it was a family of three, a couple with a small child.
KURIHARA:Small… How small? Do you know how old the child was?
AUTHOR:I’m afraid I didn’t ask. What’s that got to do with anything?
KURIHARA:To tell the truth, I thought there was something seriously off about this house the moment I saw the plan.
AUTHOR:You did? What? I didn’t notice anything, apart from that dead space.
KURIHARA:The first floor is all wrong. Look at the child’s room. Do you notice anything odd about it?
AUTHOR:Well… Wait, hold on a minute.

I finally understood what he was getting at.

AUTHOR:There are two doors, with a small hallway between!
KURIHARA:

Exactly. The child’s room has a vestibule outside the door, which is very unusual for a private home.

And the location of the entrance to that child’s room is strange, too. If you came up from the ground floor, you’d have to walk all the way around to the other side of the house to get to the kid’s room. Why make it so much trouble?

AUTHOR:That is odd.
KURIHARA:And the room doesn’t have a single window.

I immediately saw he was right. There were no windows marked on the floor plan.

KURIHARA:Most parents want their child’s room to be as bright and sunny as possible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child’s room without windows. Not in a detached house, at least.
AUTHOR:I wonder what the reasoning was. Do you think maybe...