Zaregoto book 1: The Kubikiri Cycle - Nisoisin

 A light novel I had lying around for years, I finally started the book.  There wasn`t any real reason before why I didn`t, it just, well, just didn`t get round to it.

But now I started the first book in the series, and curious what it will bring me.

Li-san finds himself on a stay on a fancy island, in the near future Japan.  Here, he is surrounded by a plethora of geniusses, each in their own field.  Painting, fortune telling, computer expert, cook, ... they are from all fields while Li finds himself terribly ordinary.

When master painter, and wheelchair bound, Ibuki Kanami is found decapitated after an earthquake, a traditional who dunnit adventure begins as the other residents try to figure out who the murderer was.  A day later, Akane, who was locked away voluntarily as she didn`t have an alibi, is also found decapitated.  As tensions rise, it turns out the mistress of the mansion has a seemingly dark past, but is it the truth or is someone diverting attention?  When Li's best friend, the computer hacker / progeny Tomo Kunagisa, finds all her pc's and equipment destroyed, it seems some clues are to be covered up.

As Li starts connecting the dots of the various mysterious entries, he is assailed by an unknown person, only to be saved by the maid Teruko, who overpowers the attacker.  But she shoots Teruko instead, and is revealed as Kunagasi arrives to be none other then the apparently dead and decapitated Akane!  Together with Kanami's caretaker, she had set up an elaborate plan to kill all those present on the island.

 

A fun read that starts really grabbing about halfway in, it has some clever plot twists in it.  Now, to start searching online for the other books of the series...