In Search of the Silver Bullet
So, I’ve been reading Reito Nikaido’s Terror of Werewolf Castle.
For the uninitiated, it is considered to be the longest locked room mystery ever written. Four colossal books (each between 400-500 pages if translated into English), out of which the very last volume is explicitly dedicated to the solution alone. To reiterate – this is not a series of four books, but rather one story broken up into four parts. I’m not actually sure if it’s the longest mystery period, but its legendary status cannot be overstated. It’s the kind of thing, when you hear of it, you can’t get it out of your head. The kind of thing that fills you with dread, knowing no publisher worth their salt would dare invest in. All you’re left with is the vague summary that enticed you to begin with. The rest is set to rest in your imagination.
I’d first heard of the book in this post. I think it must’ve been around 2017. Maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later. The work lingered in my mind for years. It wasn’t even the story itself that kept me intrigued as much as the scale. How do you write a mystery spanning four books, featuring so many deaths, and so (supposedly) many locked rooms? Should you write a mystery of that size? How do you possibly fill the pages up, anyway? My understanding was that Nikaido’s usage of the page count was ‘efficient’ – but surely, he wasn’t killing someone off every 40 pages, was he? How do you maintain the reader’s attention for that long? How do they maintain the facts in their head? Are the murders simple to explain? Are not all of them locked rooms? How long is the investigation?
What is the intent?
What makes a truly ‘grand’ mystery?
I tried to answer the question by writing such a mystery myself. The resulting work bore little resemblance with its inspiration – be it in narrative or length – but I don’t think I would’ve gotten my answer, either way. Not just because I was trying to emulate a work I hadn’t even read, but also because very early on in my process I realized that I didn’t want to emulate the work, even on a surface level. Everyone wants their own triumph. Whatever Nikaido’s reasons – whatever his intentions – may have been for making such a story, I knew mine were likely completely different.
I wanted to darken the stars.
Now, having read as far as I have, I feel Nikaido wanted the exact opposite. A detective to shine a light amidst a cruel darkness.
Back to the beginning.
Part One: Germany.
The story takes place in 1970. We follow a young piano teacher, Theodor, on his journey to the infamous Werewolf Castle. Infamous not only because of the legends surrounding it (we’ll get to that in a moment), but also because nobody is actually sure where it is. The trip is hosted by a pharmaceutical company and Theodor, along with nine others, was lucky enough to be selected (even if, funnily enough, he doesn’t really remember applying for any kind of contest or raffle).
On the trip, the guests learn that Werewolf Castle is actually a pair of castles. One is in Germany, and titled The Silver Wolf Castle. The other is in France, The Blue Wolf Castle. The two castles stare at each other, with a deep ravine separating them. It seems that there is no passage between the castles short of going all the way around the ravine and crossing the border. The two castles are seemingly owned by different people, too.
Anyhow, this group is going to the German side.
They arrive without incident to find that the recently-renovated castle is massive – consisting of five floors, a courtyard, six towers and a basement. The last one is equipped with such classic amenities as a bathroom, a kitchen, an old torture chamber, a wine cellar and some storage rooms.
The current owner of the German castle, Count Steyerl, is nowhere to be found. Instead, his wheelchair-bound wife, Helena, greets the guests. The first night passes in good fun – with a costume party.
It’s the last bit of peace they’ll have. The next day, while the group is out on a picnic, the butler dies in an accident. A tragedy – but no real cause for alarm. Sure, looking back, there were some strange noises in the night. Sure, one of the women confides in Theodor that she’s scared her uncle, who is accompanying her, is going to murder her. Sure, the talkative accountant has gossiped that among them is a murderer and that someone else among them is in disguise trying to catch them.
But, look. Everything’s fine. Theodor is just a little bit on the edge. That night, he goes down to the basement to get some water.
He sees a cloaked figure running into one of the storage rooms.
A storage room from which they miraculously disappear.
A storage room in which they leave behind two headless corpses.
Oh, and all of the exits have been sealed off.
Oh, and there are no phones.
Things escalate very quickly from there. Poisonings, walking suits of armor, hangings, stabbings, shootings – in spite of the group’s best efforts, it all goes downhill shockingly fast.
It should be noted, though, that this fast-paced massacre only actually takes up the latter half of the book. The first half is not only spent on the guest’s arrival to the castle, but establishing something that almost every impossible crime story demands:
Myth.
It feels like locked rooms have long-since outgrown the classic setups of faked suicides and unconscious people being left along with the victim. The true driver – the permeating darkness of a locked room mystery – lies in the suggestion of the supernatural. The supernatural takes form of a legend, a myth, a fairy tale. Vampires that walk through walls. Haunted rooms that drive men to suicide. Cursed books that kill their owners. As a mystery reader, you know – or, rather, hope – that this myth may hold some tangential clues, but that there is always a reasonable explanation behind all the mysterious events.
From an author’s point of view, it’s often just as fun to make up as it is the actual mystery. A little story within a story. An atmosphere builder. The tension holder. A great impossible crime story is one that makes you afraid that maybe – just maybe – this time, the myth is true, and there will be no human culprit to unmask.
Nikaido does something even more interesting here, though. It’s not just a myth. It’s many different, but strongly connected, myths. As a reader, I logically understand that Nikaido’s playing fair, and that there is a human explanation behind all of the deaths, but damn – in the way he delivers it, there’s something in the back of your mind that makes you truly believe that there is something inexplicable and terrifying and inhuman at the core of all this. Maybe not in how the murders themselves were committed. But something more. Something even worse.
And when I say there are many myths, there really are many. The story actually starts with a retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Then it transitions to a story where an old count has been betrayed by his sons and buried alive – only to rise up from the grave as an infernal beast and slaughter the people in his castle. Then there is the story of monks who once stayed in the castle and got attacked by a walking suit of armor – only for the bodies to disappear. Then there are the stories of the fortune tellers – one which seemingly warns Theodor to stay away from the castle!
Oh, and one of the guests believes the spear with which Jesus Christ was stabbed with while on the cross is hidden in the castle.
Goddamn, I love it. It makes the book feel slow at times, I’ll admit, but I love all of it.
And there’s more where that came from. Because Part Two: France has a preposterous setup.
This chapter, as the title suggests, takes place in France, in the Blue Wolf Castle. A bunch of club members wanting political independence of the Alsace region are hoping to curry favor with the castle’s owner, a Count von Schleicher. They are invited to stay at the castle for a few days. Roland, a lawyer, joins the group last-minute, along with Detective Salomon. Salomon is undercover, on the trail of what he believes is a killer who can project his consciousness into dead bodies, and has been murdering and possessing people for decades.
This astral killer was created as a result of Nazi experiments. Salomon has already killed two of such creations, and now believes the last astral killer – the last ‘werewolf’ – has already taken over one of the club members’ bodies, and is heading to the Blue Castle in order to cross the border into Germany and bury his trail. Salomon recruits Roland to help him identify the impostor and shoot him with a specially-prepared silver bullet.
Sorry if you’re having trouble understanding me here. My mouth is full. I’m just eating this shit up.
The way the story establishes the whole astral-projection-werewolf is nothing short of wonderful. Salomon guides Roland through his old cases, in which people were found dead, and their times of death were shown to have been well BEFORE they were last seen alive, suggesting possession after their death.
The events of the France side coincide with the events happening in Germany. The castle layout is almost identical. People arrive. People get trapped. People start dying. One of the locked room setups directly mirrors the locked room in the other castle. But Nikaido knows how to keep it fresh – not only by highlighting the differences in the two castles, but also by changing the narrative style. Whereas the previous book was told entirely in third person, here, the events in the castle are told through Roland’s diary, adding a lot to his growing desperation and descent into madness.
Of the two, I must say I preferred France to Germany. The setup with the ‘werewolf’ really grabs you from the beginning. Not all of it is as interesting or wild, but it’s still incredibly gripping. The sense of death and cruelty is with the reader from the start. It was no doubt intentional to make some of the murders here a lot more brutal than the ones in Germany.
By the end, there are a lot of questions. But I’ll also say that, in spite of the large body count, I never felt overwhelmed or lost. Yes, there’s a good chance I don’t remember a lot of the details of the history covered between the two novels, but I remember the things that happened well enough to where I’m comfortable in theorizing and could easily recall things characters reference later. The castle is massive, yes, but you’re never forced to ponder the positions of a dozen people at any given point in time. The problems are clear and, in spite of there being twenty-something victims by the end of the two volumes, you’re not forced to juggle twenty impossible crimes.
That’s actually another thing worth discussing – the role of the impossible crimes. Although they are ever-present in the novels, and theorized on by the characters, and they play their role in building suspense and deepening the mythos – I will say that it never really feels like they’re the point of the story. Finishing the second volume, I’m left in the belief that the tricks will be satisfying, but I’m not that worried about solving them.
I don’t even mean that in a bad way! It’s just that, because of that feeling instilled by all that mythology, I’m left pondering about something darker – the thing at the root of all this. There’s this unease that there’s still something horribly wrong about everything you’ve seen up to this point, but you can’t put your finger on it.
What is the connective tissue behind all of this?
What is the dark secret at the heart of these two castles?
These questions lead us directly into the third book. Part Three: Detective, sets the stage for the arrival of the detective, Ranko Nikaido. And it sets that stage for a while. Ranko is sensing that something is calling her to Germany. Small signs that keep making her think of the country. An idol left behind by a friend of hers splits open and reveals a message telling her to stay away. She catches glimpse of a newspaper clipping about a group of people disappearing in Germany. At the same time, Ranko is asked to travel to France by a nun.
But Ranko still isn’t sure what she’s supposed to do. So she stays in Japan and waits.
And waits.
And waits.
And – I’ll admit – this was probably my least favorite part of the book. The whole setup with ‘something’ drawing the detective to Germany feels very cool and atmospheric at first, but then it just goes on and on and on. I’m aware that a lot of these ‘waiting’ sections are filled with characters and references to Ranko’s previous books, designed to give the impression that Werewolf Castle is a sort of ‘grand finale’ – but even then, the pacing is just not great here.
I will say, though, that I would definitely, at the very least, recommend reading The House of Evil Spirits before jumping into Werewolf Castle, as some elements of that conclusion are relevant to the core setup here. It’s nothing earth-shattering – the killer isn’t spoiled or anything – but it would probably make the transition into this adventure feel smoother, I feel.
(I also feel obligated to pass a warning that was given to me – Detective also spoils some things about Ranko’s first novel, Magician From Hell.)
At some point, though, Ranko does finally pick up the case, and things – thankfully! – start moving very quickly. She gets a recorded testimony of the events in Germany – from a person most doctors have labelled mad. She gets her hands on Roland’s diary.
While this chapter has some theorizing on the crimes – and the theories are genuinely fun – I felt that the main purpose of this chapter was to demonstrate how powerful the enemy they’re going up against is. It’s not just about solving the crimes – it’s about proving they happened at all. Any and all potential witnesses are being silenced. Evidence is being stolen. Investigations are being derailed through lies and impersonation.
It’s a unique investigation. Without knowing where the castles even are, most of the theorizing in this chapter is based off of the two accounts. Most of the interviews and reveals come from tracking down people still alive in the outside world, and determining whether or not they are allies – or not.
Again, while I feel like this part was a little bloated, it still does do a good job of prolonging that sense of uncertainty and fear the other two volumes have achieved.
But what of the last part?
Part Four: Conclusion.
Haven’t read it yet! I devoured the first three books in three days, but the fourth one I still haven’t gotten my hands on. I don’t feel like I’m a rush, though. These books have left me with all sorts of questions, but also managed to instill this rare feeling where I’m not anxious to see the truth for myself. Might be because it’s split across multiple books? Hard to say.
What I will leave in place of a conclusion chapter are my own theories on some of the mysteries. This is mostly for myself than anything, as they’re really not complete solutions by any means. Feel free to ignore the rest of this post from this point on.
Absolutely do not read these if you have not read the books.
As always, I have hidden these thoughts in ROT-13.
Q: What is the secret of the two castles?
Va ‘Qrgrpgvir’ gur zbfg serdhrag fcrphyngvba vf gung gurer ner, va snpg, sbhe pnfgyrf. Gur cevznel ernfba vf gb rkcynva ubj, qhevat frireny cbvagf va gur fgbel, n crefba pna ybbx sebz gur gbjre bs bar pnfgyr naq frr gur bgure va pbzcyrgr fvyrapr. Fvapr gur aneengvirf ner fhccbfrq gb gnxr cynpr ng gur fnzr gvzr, guvf qbrfa’g znxr frafr, fvapr Treznal yvtugf n sver va bar bs vgf gbjref ol gur raq – juvpu Senapr arire frrf. Zl fhttrfgvba vf gung gurer ner GUERR pnfgyrf. Gur guveq pnfgyr vf frg orgjrra gur Oyhr naq Fvyire pnfgyr – jvgu gjb eviref (naq gjb enivarf) frcnengvat gur guerr. Vgf nepuvgrpgher vf qvssrerag gubhtu sebz gur bgure gjb – vg unf ab pbheglneq naq vafgrnq obgu bs gur pnfgyr vafvqrf ner cynprq vagb vg, fvqr ol fvqr. Gur “yrsg” fvqr vf cnvagrq Fvyire naq snprf gur Oyhr pnfgyr. Gur “evtug” fvqr vf cnvagrq oyhr naq snprf gur Fvyire pnfgyr. Gur pnfgyrf gur gjb cnegvrf bofreir ba gurve svefg qnl vf whfg n qvssrerag fvqr bs gur fnzr pnfgyr. Qhevat gur cvpavp, obgu cnegvrf ner genafcbegrq guebhtu gur uvqqra cnffntr vagb gur guveq pnfgyr. Qhevat Senapr, Ebynaq’f qevire gbbx gurz gb gur jebat frperg cnffntr naq ynaqrq gurz ba gur jebat fvqr bs gur pnfgyr, pnhfvat uvz gb or xabpxrq bhg. Shegurezber, gur gjb unyirf zvtug or bs qvssrerag urvtugf, jvgu gur Fvyire fvqr orvat fubegre. Vs gung’f gur pnfr, naq vs gur frperg cnffntr orgjrra gur gjb pnfgyrf jnf guebhtu, yrg’f fnl, gur svsgu sybbe va Fvyire (juvpu jnf npprffvoyr) naq gur sbhegu sybbe va Oyhr, gura ybpxvat njnl gur svsgu sybbe va Oyhr qvqa’g npghnyyl npuvrir nalguvat – orfvqrf fgbccvat gur thrfgf sebz npprffvat gur bayl erny fnsr unira.
Q: Who is in on the scheme?
Juvyr gur uryc naq gur fhccbfrq pnfgyr bjaref ner pregnvayl fhfcvpvbhf (jr xabj ng yrnfg bar bs gur crbcyr gurer vf hfvat n snxr vqragvgl naq gung ng yrnfg bar bs gurz yvrq nobhg trggvat uryc), V pna’g uryc ohg srry gung gurer vf fbzrguvat abg dhvgr evtug nobhg fbzr bs gur thrfgf – anzryl, gur barf gung jrer cbvfbarq. Sbe rknzcyr, gur gbhe thvqr, vs V’z erzrzorevat pheeragyl, qvqa’g rira unir uvf wbo ng gur gvzr bs Treznal. Naq V pna’g uryc ohg srry gurer orvat fbzrguvat bss nobhg gur Cebsrffbe ba Senapr’f fvqr; Sreenthq vf, vs V’z erzrzorevat pbeerpgyl, cerggl pbapyhfviryl rfgnoyvfurq nf n erfrnepure va Qrgrpgvir. Ohg gurer’f ab erny zragvba bs Zhryyre. Shegurezber – vs gur phycevg unq cbvfba ng gurve qvfcbfny fvapr gur ortvaavat, jul abg whfg cbvfba rirelbar ng qvaare? Jul abg cbvfba gur jvar? Vg’f rira fhttrfgrq gung chggvat n flevatr guebhtu gur pbex jbhyq cebonoyl abg or qrgrpgnoyr naq xvyy gurz nyy. V qba’g xabj. Gurer’f fbzrguvat vaureragyl pbagenqvpgbel va hfvat cbvfba.
Q: What is the importance of the Pied Piper?
Qrgrpgvir fgebatyl vzcyvrf n pbaarpgvba orgjrra gur yrtraq naq Tvyyrf qr Envf’ puvyq zheqre fcerr. Ur frrzrq bofrffrq jvgu tngurevat gurve oybbq. Guvf zvtug or gur pbaarpgvba urer, gbb – oybbq. Vs gur tbny vf gb znlor tngure gur oybbq bs gur thrfgf, gura vg shegure cebirf gung gurer’f fbzrguvat svful nobhg gur crbcyr jub gbbx gur cbvfba, nf gurve oybbq jbhyq’ir orra gnvagrq ol vg. Oybbq uneirfgvat jbhyq nyfb rkcynva jul n cyngr jnf cynprq haqrearngu gur unatrq jbzna va Treznal – vg’f, dhvgr yvgrenyyl, gb tngure ure oybbq.
Q: What about the victims of the ‘Astral Werewolf’?
Vg pbhyq or gung gur pbebare vf znxvat zvfgnxrf va rfgvzngvat gur gvzr bs qrngu. Yrg’f guvax bs vg yvxr guvf. Yrg’f nffhzr gung guvf vf fbzr xvaq bs n oybbq uneirfgvat bcrengvba. Vs gung’f gur pnfr, znlor nyy gur ivpgvzf Fnybzba gnyxf nobhg ner ivpgvzf bs gur pnfgyr zheqreref. Jr xabj gung gurer vf fbzr xvaq bs n znpnoer fpvragvfg jbexvat ba gurfr crbcyr. Ur zrffrf jvgu gurve fgngrf bs qrpbzcbfvgvba nsgre gnxvat n cbegvba bs gurve oybbq (be gur qrpbzcbfvgvba fgngr vf zrffrq jvgu nf na vaqverpg erfhyg bs uvf rkcrevzragf). Bire gvzr, gurl’ir sbhaq gung gurl’ir nggenpgrq gbb zhpu nggragvba, naq jnvgrq gbb ybat orgjrra gur xvyyf. Fb, gurl qrpvqrq gb tngure gjragl crbcyr nyy ng bapr va bar sryy fjbbc, gura znxr gur qrnguf qvfnccrne.
Q: What’s the deal with the Spear of Longinus?
V qba’g guvax gur fcrne vgfrys znggref nf zhpu cre-fr. Vg zvtug or zber eryrinag gb gur bevtvaf bs guvf oybbq phyg. Gurl fgnegrq sebz gur oybbq bs Wrfhf – gur zbfg qvivar oybbq bs nyy – cynprq ba gur gvc bs n fcrne. Guvf jnf gurve ortvaavat. Gurl unir fbhtug qvivar oybbq rire fvapr, va ubcrf bs n erfheerpgvba. Senapr, ng yrnfg, vzcyvrf bar bs gur phycevgf gnyxvat ybivatyl gb jung frrzf gb or n qrnq jbzna. Eriviny zvtug or gur pehk bs gur znggre urer.
Q: What about the double locked room(s)?
V’yy nqzvg gung, vs jr’er abg hfvat fgevatf be nalguvat yvxr gung, gur rnfvrfg fbyhgvba vf fbzrguvat yvxr guvf: gur phycevg oernxf gur jbbqra yngpu bs gur vaare qbbe nurnq bs gvzr naq ybpxf vg jvgu n xrl. Ur gura frgf gur jbbqra yngpu bs gur bhgre qbbe cebcreyl naq uvqrf va gur cnffntr yrnqvat gb gur vaare qbbe. Juvyr rirelbar vf sbphfrq ba gur obqvrf, gurl yrnir. V guvax vg’f zber be yrff gur rnfvrfg fbyhgvba. Lbh pbhyq nethr gung, vs gur frpbaq qbbe jnf ernyyl ybpxrq, gur ybpx jbhyq’ir orra abgvprnoyl oebxra. Gur nygreangvir rkcynangvba, gurersber, vf gung vg jnfa’g ernyyl ybpxrq ng nyy – be – fvapr gur crefba oernxvat vg qbja zvtug or va ba vg – gurl zvtug’ir pbiregyl haybpxrq gur qbbe va gur qnexarff naq gura fgnegrq oernxvat vg qbja, rafhevat gur ybpx qbrfa’g trg oebxra. Vg’f abg na vzcerffvir fbyhgvba, ohg vg’f gur rnfvrfg bar gung pbzrf gb zvaq.
Q: What about the magical suit of armor in Germany?
Fb, gur snpr pbhyq or rkcynvarq vs gur phycevg hfrq Frraurvz’f qrpncvgngrq urnq naq chg vg va gur urnq bs gur nezbe. Gur phycevg jbhyq or n crefba bs n fubegre fgngher, naq ur jbhyq or crrxvat sebz na bcravat orgjrra gur purfgcyngr naq gur uryzrg. Nf sbe gur qvfnccrnenapr, gur fubegre fgngher zvtug’ir nyybjrq gurz gb penjy vagb gur svercynpr. Na nygreangr rkcynangvba jbhyq’ir orra Crgre uvzfrys – ur yrsg gur nezbel guebhtu gur qbbe yrnqvat gb gur unyyjnl, qerffrq uvzfrys hc nf gur xavtug, vafgrnq bs hfvat n qrpcvgngrq urnq, ur whfg chg ba znxrhc naq n orneq gb qvfthvfr uvzfrys nf gur hapyr, qbhoyrq onpx guebhtu gur yvoenel, naq nggnpxrq gur cebsrffbe, ybpxvat gur gjb qbbef oruvaq uvz naq trggvat evq bs gur znxrhc ol oheavat gur orneq naq pbirevat uvz urnq jvgu oybbq sebz na nccnerag vawhel.
Q: What about the instantaneous decapitation in France?
Guvf vf gur bayl bar V’z erzbgryl pbasvqrag va, zrnavat vg’f cebonoyl gur zbfg jebat. Juvyr gur znvq jbhyqa’g unir unq gur gvzr gb phg gur jbzna’f urnq bss, fur pbhyq’ir eha n gvtug, enmbe-funec fgevat sebz nebhaq gur jbzna’f arpx naq nggnpu vg gb n frcnengr fgevat unatvat sebz whfg bhgfvqr gur jvaqbj. Na nppbzcyvpr sebz nobir gura guebjf n urnil bowrpg gvrq gb gur bhgfvqr fgevat. Va gur oevrs zbzragf bs cnva, gur jbzna fpernzf. Jura gur fgevat phgf ure urnq bss, vg snyyf bhg bs gur jvaqbj, rkcynvavat g r oybbq ba gur onef.
That should be everything.
By the way, there probably won’t be a follow-up post after I read the final chapter. I don’t think I’d be able to say much of worth besides “yeah, it was pretty good” or “eh, I’m a little iffy on some stuff”. What I tried to do here was capture my own thought process and feelings after getting deep into the mystery. If I’d read the final chapter at this point, the magic would slip through my fingers, and there’d be no point.
This is a record.
A dream for monsters to dwell in.
Product Links (Amazon)
Other Links
- Ho-Ling’s Blog Post on Part One (Links to the rest can be found at the top of the post.)