[Book Review] The Aosawa Murders (2020)

A girl stands with her back to the viewer, quietly defiant in her youthful blue-and-white print dress, which blends in with a matching background. Her arms are twisted behind her, and in her left hand, she holds a large pink flower in bloom.

The combination of the flower's beauty and the mystery of this character provides the perfect cover photo for Riku Onda's mystery novel The Aosawa Murders, which unravels the truth behind a strange and gruesome crime that takes place in 1970s Japan. Just like the flower that graces its cover, the plot unfolds slowly, with each chapter acting like a petal opening to reveal more of the characters' motivations.

During a party held by the wealthy Aosawa family, a deliveryman drops off drinks that appear to be a gift from a family friend. But these drinks contain poison, and 17 people are killed. The only family member to survive is Hisako, the Aosawas' enigmatic teenage daughter, who is blind, and was forced to listen to "her family dying all around her with no one to tell her what was going on."

The story is told from a multitude of perspectives. Everyone from the young neighbors who happened upon the ghastly scene to the detective who couldn't give up on the case to the author of a true-crime book about the murders has been deeply affected by the tragedy. The trauma reverberated for decades within the community. And although the main suspect in the case died by suicide soon after the crime was committed, many people suspect Hisako of the poisoning. She's described as a quiet, but powerful young woman – the word "bewitching" is used several times. But there is always the question posed by the book cover: is she as innocent as a flower in bloom? Or is she facing away from the reader to hide a dark mystery?

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Juxtapositions like this one run throughout The Aosawa Murders and serve to ratchet up the tension. Both the neighborhood children and the seasoned detective who bear witness to the crime scene notice that the bodies of the family look like they've just been dancing; in reality, they'd been writhing in agony. As the detective walks amongst the dead, "[A] sudden comprehension of the full reality of the situation dawned – that he was in a room full of dead bodies – and made him want to scream out loud." 

This book reckons with the agony of these violent deaths and the extreme cruelty of someone who would poison a whole family is never forgotten as the novel progresses. The horror of finding out exactly what kind of person would commit this heinous crime never leaves readers' heads as they delve deeper into the mystery. As the narrator’s pool expands to include not just those most affected by the crime but their relatives as well, readers see that trauma isn't self-contained; it bleeds into everything (and everyone) if it's not resolved.

To further emphasize the effects of the crime, Onda often uses pathetic fallacy during The Aosawa Murders to convey the moods of her narrators. One character who finally meets Hisako decades after the mass murder is overcome by her presence and unsure what to think of this infamous woman she's heard so much about. As they walk by the sea, she notices:

"Waves come rushing towards us.

Or… maybe it was simply all an illusion? One that we all created?

A powerful surge of waves breaks on the shore with a loud roar.

What if [Hisako's] simply what everybody wanted her to be?"

The waves crash around the pair, just as this revelation about Hisako crashes in on this narrator. Was Hisako a criminal mastermind? Was she the tragic heroine of the family? Or was she something else entirely?

After the author of the true-crime book about the killings is asked whether she thinks Hisako was responsible for the poisonings, she also makes note of the weather:

"Oh, it's so hot. Look how big the raindrops are still. This rain doesn't look like stopping any time soon. It simply stirs the heat up even more.

Such dreadful heat…

How long will this last, I wonder?"

Although she's speaking about the weather, she is also describing how discussing the murder case again has stirred her up. Her discomfort in the steamy weather reflects her discomfort with memories of the mass murders. Since she's never come to a true conclusion about the person behind the poisonings, she asks: How long will this last?

While Onda grants her readers some closure by the end of The Aosawa Murders, she also opens up even more disturbing avenues of thought. Even if we do find out who the culprit is, will we ever truly know what they were subject to in their own lives that made them lash out? Horror can come from crimes that appear to have no motives, but horror can also come from some of the motives being even more terrifying than the crimes. The trauma of both the villains and victims of The Aosawa Murders will haunt readers long after the final chapters of this chilling mystery.

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