Note: This copy of The Man Who Died Seven Times was provided by NetGalley.

The Man Who Died Seven Times is one hell of an intriguing title. Originally published in 1998 (according to Goodreads, though some sources say 1995) in Japanese, it is the first of the author, Yasuhiko Nishizawa’s works to be translated into English. It is of the same ilk as a locked-room murder-mystery, only here we’re also locked in a time loop as well.

The story follows a high schooler named Hisataro who has an uncanny ability of being thrown into a time-loop on random occasions. He has no control or understanding of why this happens, but he soon learns some basic rules that don’t seem to change. For instance, these time-loops last 9 days with each day reset at midnight. Nothing that happens in the interwening days have any impact on the next iteration of the loop. Only the events of the last day carry forward so this gave Hisataro a bit of room to ‘play’ with.

The main plot of the story occurs when Hisataro’s extended family is invited to his grandfather’s house for what would be a pivotal event in the succession of the grandfather’s will. While we see some very interesting dynamics at play, the real meat of the matter occurs when, while at the house, Hisataro’s time-loop conundrum has kicked in and he finds that his grandfather has dropped dead; without telling anyone as to who would be his successor. With tensions palpable and the family all looking suspicious, what follows is Hisataro using the days of the time-loop at his disposal in trying to not only figure out how his grandfather died, but to also find the potential culprit who may be behind this death; if at all.

This book was reminiscent of the movie Knives Out with the added time-loop element. It was a relatively fun book to read although some of the family dynamics, including marrying within the family to keep the bloodline pure, as well as considering a high schooler as potential for marriage, was just weird to read about. That aside the plot was engaging, the characters very quirky, and while the ending is something that you could guess at, there are still one or two things that took me by surprise. Definitely recommended for fans of the cosy murder-mystery genre.

Links:

• Goodreads: The Man Who Died Seven Times – Yasuhiko Nishizawa