The Ark

Overall, The Ark by Haruo Yuki is both fun and successful as a murder mystery. Set in an underground "ark" apparently used by a cult (with some nefarious purpose possibly predating this), the novel features a group of ten trapped underground after an earthquake. Someone then proceeds to kill three members of the group. In terms of the actual mystery behind the murders, there is a great twist at the end which truly changes the meaning of some of the earlier chapters. Nonetheless, we were able to guess the identity of the killer after the third victim's discovery. The novel's genius lies in its clever twist and reminding readers of the importance of understanding motive to solve a mystery. This novel's wannabe sleuth, Shotaro, the cousin of the narrator, builds a consistent logical chain of reasoning to identify the killer, but falls short on establishing a fully convincing motive for all three killings. Unsurprisingly, this will have terrible consequences by the conclusion of the novel. But along the way, the reader is treated by a suspenseful tale of murder and disaster as a group of university friends and the family that joins them turn on each other before the "ark" is completely flooded. One only wishes the novel explored more fully the background of the structure, only hinted at here or there with the appearance of torture instruments and cults. The old friends from their university days are also not fully developed here, but enough exists to establish the air of hostility between one character and the the narrator.