Three weeks ago I finally caught up with ‘The Dashing Joker’ (2001) by Ashibe Taku in an old Ellery Queen Mystery magazine. This week, I finally run ‘Sacrifice in White’ (2012) by Qinwen Sun to earth in another, more recent EQMM, the January/February 2024 issue.

Rather than allowing you to find your feet in a familiar setting and then pulling out a rug beneath you with a magnificent final flourish, as seems to be the case in the majority of Eastern puzzle mysteries, this opens with three disconnected scenes as if deliberately trying to discombobulate. An injured man awakens in a strange room and is strangled to death; a woman, fearing for her husband’s safety, receives a video call from him and must watch him being beaten by an unseen assailant; the severed parts of one or more bodies are discovered resting in several locations in the snowy landscape of a public park. Each scene is more brutal than the last, and establishes a grim tone that elevates this above a mere puzzler.

When joined up soon thereafter, the impossibility becomes evident: the body was killed long after the snow had stopped, yet no footprints or marks were found in the snow surrounding the severed appendages.

How could the killer have dumped the body without leaving any footprints? Was he lighter than air? The image of the virgin snow of the crime scene flashes in Wang Jiayi’s mind and brings a spell of dizziness. Did the body parts fly there by themselves? That terrifying thought, coupled with the severe cold, causes him to shiver.

Gradually, through a combination of classic detection tropes and modern forensic techniques, more links to the chain are discovered, and in due course a second, historical crime with links to this one is unearthed. I rolled my eyes when “one of the oldest clichés in detective fiction” was shaken out to explain away the lack of footprints, but given that we’re still at an early stage in proceedings — and that this story has received praise in the comments of this blog from a knowledgeable quarter — I was pretty sure we weren’t going to be stopping there.

There’s then the sort of genius development that seems ten-a-penny in these Eastern stories — the kind of thing that Western crime writers seem chary of utilising, and which recalls The Labyrinth House Murders (1988) by Yukito Ayatsuji — and, well, from here you’ll hear no more of the plot from me. I’ll admit that it did get a smile from me that the ninth chapter of this story is called ‘The Beauty of Dismemberment’, and while the explanation offered herein is a little tame, it’s also kind of genius how — see my comments above — you find that you’ve once again been misled by a very simple assumption. I’m not sure if it’s quite clued (you’ll say it’s mentioned and you’re right, but I’m not sure they’re the same thing), but it is very cool and you’ll feel like a fool for not thinking of it.

Also, you’ll need to reread the opening scene once you’ve gotten to the end. Trust me.

The only flaw I can level at this is that, as with ‘The Dashing Joker’, the motive and behaviour of the people involved doesn’t really convince. For all the ingenuity on display, and there is plenty, I’ll again leave a translated story with the feeling that a little more could have been done to root these complex actions in decidedly more human frailties. Me, the arch plot-fiend, wanting a little more character in my puzzle fiction? What is the world coming to?

That one caveat aside, this is a superbly densely-plotted piece which could stand as a blueprint for modern crime writers wanting to approach the complexities of the puzzle mystery and the impossible crime. Every piece has its place and, for all that harshness of the opening troika of scenes, you can look back and pick out the developments that are expertly seeded throughout: the brutality may seem excessive at times, but there’s a purpose behind most of it. Fans of shin honkaku — which, originating from China, this isn’t…though I’d love a term for what it is — will enjoy this greatly. More Sun, please!

So, come on, what other impossible crime delights have EQMM offered up in recent years? Stories like this get my hopes up — am I missing out, or is this pretty much the extent of some slim pickings?