What do you get when you take a classic Christie style murder mystery complete with a cast of characters invited by a rich benefactor, an island hemmed in from all sides by storms, and an absurdly powerful detective who swoops in at the last moment to blow everything else away, and combine all of that with a stylistically over the top pseudo-autobiographical musing on the nature of intellectual genius itself? I’d say you get Decapitation by NISIOISIN, but that couldn’t quite do this amazingly nerdy text justice without reading it for yourself. Taking the unenviable 15th place in review season this year, NISIOISIN is a Japanese author who has gone on to write some strange and spectacular fiction, most notably the manga series bakemonogatari. Decapitation, aka the first entry in the Zaregoto cycle, was his first attempt at writing a piece of compelling fiction and as such bears the marks of unguarded inspiration.