"Edogawa Ranpo Kessakusen" (Edogawa Ranpo Masterpiece Collection). This is a well selected sample in that most stories are interesting, and all for different reasons.
The first few stories are more mystery orientated, with psychology and steganography elements. Of these, "Shinri Shiken" (Psychometric Test) was especially well done: told from the perspective of the killer, it details how the killer took human psychology into account in covering his trails, and defended himself against a psychometric test employed by the detective. Nonetheless, it ends with the detective convicting the killer with reverse reverse psychology. It's impressive how a seemly perfect crime was performed, and then defeated using only a tiny bit of evidence.
The middle few stories also contain some murder mystery plots, but here the focus shifted more on peculiar personalities with fanatical interests. The remainder of the book just dropped the mystery bits altogether. The most memorable of these is probably "Ningen Isu" (The Human Chair), which described how a chair maker embedded himself in a chair to interact with unsuspecting strangers. The concept itself is novel, and the narrative of describing everything through the sense of touch was also interesting to follow, but the real punchline is the plot twist at the end of the story. The structure of "Ningen Isu" and also "Akaiheya" (Red Room) might serve as reminders to the readers that these are still works of fiction. Of course, the reason why these punchlines are so effective is that these stories are so engaging that any fiction disclaimers might be needed at all.
Definitely worth reading again.
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Next (2013-08-23): "Ochibo hiroi / Inu no Seikatsu" by Koyama Kiyoshi