When the first batch of readers who had queued up to buy The Clockwork Museum Incident finally got their hands on the novel, the first thing that caught their eyes were the bold words on the cover: "Highly recommended by Soji Shimada."
Just how valuable were those words? This was the first time that the name of this writer, revered in Japan as the "God of Mystery," had ever appeared on the cover of a novel. Countless publishing houses had tried their best to persuade the great writer to say a good word about their books, but The Clockwork Museum Incident had succeeded where they had failed.
As for the back of the book, it was so filled with praise from critics and writers that it was almost impossible to print it all.
"If you missed The Astrology Murder Magic in 1980, you must not miss The Clockwork Museum Incident in 20XX!" This recommendation was from a rather old critic, who had obviously misjudged the age group of the novel's readers.
"A great monument of orthodox reasoning and a groundbreaking masterpiece." This comment came from a highly respected editor-in-chief of Weekly Bunshun magazine. Although it might seem like one-sided flattery, the editor-in-chief undoubtedly meant it sincerely.
"The giant of contemporary detective fiction has arrived!" This blurb came from a writer whom Arisugawa and Hachiman had met at the banquet in Chiba. After reading the novel, he had taken the initiative to ask the publishing house to add a comment of his own.
It could be said that any discerning mystery writer could keenly perceive that this would be a milestone in mystery literature after reading The Clockwork Museum Incident. It was an honor for them to leave a comment on the cover of such a work.
"This is a work that allows everyone to feel the beauty of orthodox reasoning. If conditions permit, please read it carefully and repeatedly." This was Mr. Arisugawa's comment. It might seem plain, but it was far more useful than the unrestrained flattery of others. Arisugawa was well aware of the novel's greatness, but he was also worried that the current impetuous atmosphere would cause many people to be unable to calm down and read it properly. Excellent mystery novels must be read carefully and are worth reading many times. He feared many readers would rush through it and fail to perceive its true excellence.
The premise of The Clockwork Museum Incident is a classic. A magazine editor who focuses on supernatural phenomena, a member of a university's supernatural research club, and a psychic enter a huge, mysterious building to prepare for a psychic ceremony. The building is the Clock House. However, during their three days of isolation, the group is brutally murdered one after another by an unknown killer. A detective arrives late, and upon entering the inner hall, he finds that everyone has been killed except for the magazine editor. The detective then begins his reasoning, and while finding the real murderer, he also discovers a shocking secret hidden within the museum.
From its writing process, the work is undoubtedly an orthodox mystery; however, a careful analysis of the elements in the book shows that it contains a large amount of new orthodox content. For this reason, many bookstores have further listed it in the "new orthodox" category.
"This morning, the new work The Clockwork Museum Incident by the famous mystery novelist Hachiman was officially released. As of now, bookstores in fifteen of Tokyo's twenty-three wards have run out of stock. We are very happy to see that in today's internet age, physical books still retain their original charm and can still set off a craze in our society."
This was the opening statement of an evening talk show on NHK TV's general channel. The theme was the hot sales of The Clockwork Museum Incident and its subsequent impact, and the guest for the evening was even more of a heavyweight.
"Hello everyone, I am the writer Hachiman."
Hikigaya Hachiman bowed slightly to the camera, greeting the non-existent audience. This program wasn't live; Hachiman had received the interview invitation from NHK last weekend. By now, he had no resistance to showing his face, and he knew it could greatly promote the novel's sales—a win-win situation.
"Hello, Mr. Hachiman. We are still counting the first-day sales of The Clockwork Museum Incident, but according to the information we have, the number will not be less than 200,000 copies. What do you think of this result?"
Generally speaking, a novel's first-day sales are rarely counted because it requires the cooperation of bookstores across the country, and the statistics are often extremely inaccurate. However, in order to create momentum, Sakuraba Publishing House had resolutely carried out this thankless task and announced the preliminary data of 200,000 copies at 6:00 PM.
"Honestly, I was shocked," Hachiman, who was wearing glasses, said with a shy smile. "Especially when I realized this novel had the potential to be a bigger commercial success than Confessions. It felt unreal, but of course, it's much better now."
"Your Confessions sold 1.44 million copies in one year, which is an amazing achievement," the host confirmed, adding a line that wasn't in his script. "The Clockwork Museum Incident has already achieved one-seventh of that number in a single day. I believe this novel will achieve even greater success."
"At this point, the first readers who have finished the book have begun to post their impressions online. We've classified the comments on Twitter from the past two hours, and more than ninety percent of netizens are using words like 'masterpiece,' 'perfect,' and 'the greatest' to describe your novel. What do you think?"
"My readers are always willing to praise me in any way they can, and I am always flattered," Hachiman said with sincerity. What author would hate fans who would camp out in front of a bookstore the night before just to buy his book? "Without their support, I don't think I would be where I am today."
"A good writer will naturally have good readers. This is what you deserve, Mr. Hachiman," the host nodded.
"We've noticed that many celebrities in the mystery literature world, including the 'God of Mystery' himself, Mr. Soji Shimada, have praised this novel. Perhaps we can go a step further in evaluating this work. It is not just a contemporary mystery masterpiece. Perhaps in a few decades, people will use the emergence of The Clockwork Museum Incident as a dividing line to separate the history of Japanese mystery literature into two parts."
This wasn't a question, but it was the most important point of the night.
"Well," Hachiman replied, his eyes as bright as a torch, "I have no intention of pursuing a historical status for this book. But if more readers can become interested in orthodox detective stories after reading this novel, and if more authors are willing to devote themselves to the creation of detective novels, then The Clockwork Museum Incident will have completed its historical mission."
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