The Man Who Died Seven Times

Murder and time travel collide in Nishizawa’s charming English-language debut. On New Year’s Eve, Reijiro Fuchigama gathers his descendants at his home, where he plans to reveal who will inherit his fortune. At dinner, he invites two servants to join the pool of potential successors, which he will choose on a whim. Among the hopefuls is narrator Hisataro, Fuchigama’s teenage grandson, who has a condition that forces him to relive random days of his life nine times. As the only person experiencing any given loop, Hisataro “can deliberately alter the course of reality” before the loop ends. When someone kills Fuchigama after his announcement, Hisataro gets caught in one such loop, but his efforts to save the day become complicated when a different culprit kills his grandfather during each repeated day. Nishizawa stitches elements from Clue, Groundhog Day, and Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold into a mischievous tale that stands on its own two feet. This lighthearted whodunit will please anyone who likes their murder mysteries with a dash of whimsy. (Aug.)