[DeepL Translation - needs review] Introduction to Volume 1: Haruka visits the "Movie Club," where a man with mysterious powers is said to be involved in a ghostly commotion on campus. However, she is greeted by a scruffy young man with a terrible sleeping habit and sleepy eyes. Haruka boldly asks him for advice, but what happens? A college girl's confinement murder, a murder disguised as a suicide ......, and a series of mysterious incidents are tackled by the famous detective Yakumo Saito,...
Return to the usual
I enjoyed this book after the much darker previous volume. I liked that Haruka was much more prominent and important to the plot, and I thought the author did a better job with pacing the POV changes so the characters were evenly represented.
The author made an effort to flesh out Haruka and Ishii's characters in this volume, especially on Haruka's end, as we finally learn what she's studying in college (education) and most of the action is set at a school where she's an assistant teacher.
The mystery was fine if a bit convoluted at times. The characters tend to be thinly drawn, which extended to the villain character in this volume; the motivation for all his deeds seemed a little vague. The author is clearly one of those who pictures a movie/anime when he writes the climaxes of his novels, so they tend to be a little over the top, complete with long monologues from Yakumo while the villain conveniently stands there and waits for him to be done talking.
Overall I find these very bingeable and was able to read this volume very quickly!