James Nicoll Reviews

2016’s Usotoki Rhetoric Volume 7 is the seventh tankōbon in Ritsu Miyako’s historical mystery manga series. Usotoki Rhetoric was published in Bessatsu Hana to Yume from June 26, 2012, to March 26, 2018. The English translation of Volume 7 was published in 2024.

Kanako Urabe is a living lie detector. Iwai Soma is a talented but indolent private detective. Together, they fight crime! Or at least solve just enough mysteries to fend off homelessness and starvation.

In the previous volume, Soma was framed for and then cleared of murder. In this volume, we follow Soma and Urabe’s friend Chiyo and her effort to intervene in the previous case. These events were off-stage and unmentioned in Volume 6. Chiyo is armed with determination, imagination, and a complete absence of common sense. She lands herself in serious danger… but the gods apparently protect fools.

Another episode: Urabe and Soma struggle to reconcile their belief that a waitress named Masa is innocent with their knowledge that the woman providing Masa with an alibi is lying. Once again, Urabe gets a lesson in the difference between being able to spot lies and knowing the truth.

Finally, the pair tackle the matter of the failed frame. Whoever was responsible for framing Soma (see above) was actually trying to frame Soma’s estranged half-brother, Atsushi. Atsushi could cast light on the matter… but Atsushi considers Soma beneath contempt and has no interest in helping.

An unforeseen consequence: because of their attempt to question Atsushi, Urabe and Soma are in the right place at the right time to witness a lothario make an insincere play for Atsushi’s unattractive but kindly wife Sumiko. Whatever the motive, it’s not something that’s in Sumiko’s best interests. Urabe and Soma are on the case.

~oOo~

This volume is filled with ​“means well.” Happily, this does not end nearly as badly as it could. Chiyo does not get killed. An innocent woman isn’t convicted of a crime she didn’t commit because a false but well intended alibi fell apart.

To quote Raymond Chandler:

“down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor — by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. 

Usually, such characters are the detectives. In this story, it’s Sumiko. On the one hand Sumiko is very aware that she’s ugly and that men are only interested in her for non-romantic, utilitarian reasons. Therefore, a stranger expressing romantic interest almost certainly has an ulterior motive. Sumiko has a poor hand but at least she’s not a sucker. On the other, she refuses to become embittered and does the best she can with the hand she was dealt.

Although this volume is not as self-contained as some of the earlier tankōbons, Volume 7 still gives readers the same interesting characters and diverting puzzles that they could enjoy in the previous works in the series. It’s a fine way to spend an evening.

People who do not read manga may be interested to know that there is also a live-action television drama adaptation.

Usotoki Rhetoric Volume 7 is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).