Strange Houses by Uketsu: A Floor Plan That Unravels Something Sinister

A series of books with strange, striking covers stopped me mid-step in many bookstores; floor plans, diagrams, and images are arranged inside bold, iconic boxes. They were unlike anything I’d seen on a shelf before, visually captivating yet oddly unsettling. Driven by pure curiosity, I borrowed one. That book was Strange Houses, and it turned out to be one of the most unconventional reads I’ve picked up (and enjoyed).

As a fan of Agatha Christie, I have a soft spot for immersive mysteries that are methodical, layered, and just a little chilling. Strange Houses brought a similar ambience, but with an entirely different architecture, both literal and narrative. Though translated from Japanese, the suspense carries through cleanly in Jim Rion’s English rendition. The tension doesn’t get lost in translation.

Plot 

When a writer fascinated by the macabre is approached by an acquaintance, he finds himself investigating an eerie house for sale in Tokyo. At first, with its bright and spacious interior, it seems the perfect first home. But upon closer inspection, the building’s floor plans reveal a mysterious “dead space” hidden between its walls. Seeking a second opinion, the writer shares the floor plans with his friend Kurihara, an architect, only to discover more unnerving details throughout.

The story opens with the narrator’s friend looking at a house listed for sale, a seemingly ordinary property that, upon closer inspection, is anything but normal. The floor plan makes no sense. There’s a dead space with no apparent purpose, and a child’s bedroom that looks less like a place for play and more like a place of confinement. Then a body is discovered nearby, and the question shifts from what is this house? to what was it built for?

Something sinister. A murder house.

Thoughts (spoilers ahead)

Strange Houses is an innovative read with an unanticipated ending. 

The fiction novel was easy to read and understand. Its format is accessible and clever, a blend of interviews, letters, and dialogue interspersed with descriptive narration, all anchored by floor plans. Those diagrams are more than decorative; they’re functional clues. I found myself flipping back to them repeatedly, scanning for details I might have missed. Yes, the floor plan illustrations take up a considerable amount of page real estate, arguably more than necessary, but I didn’t mind. There’s something satisfying about sitting with a drawing and getting the hint. “That’s right! This is a possible space for the murderer to hide the body!”

The book begins with a light, almost playful tone that gradually darkens into something convoluted and unnerving. The supernatural is absent, but the superstitious is very much present. However, the midway inclusion of traditions and old beliefs is a rather unusual element, and I’ll admit I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it. It adds a genuinely strange dimension to the story, one that feels slightly out of step with the modern setting story-wise, but nonetheless, it gave me the chills. 

Managing the ensemble of characters and their various roles was less of a challenge. The real test was keeping track of the cascading unresolved mysteries, each one opening into another like a set of nesting boxes. Fortunately, the narrator’s companion, Kurihara, serves as a kind of in-text reader assistant. Towards the end, he had helpfully reminded us which threads remain dangling and which conclusions are deliberately left to our own interpretation.

The ending is open. I’m typically not a fan of open endings (see my review of The Blue Hour for evidence of that frustration), but here it landed differently. Less like an evasion and more like a challenge. If the speculation about the true mastermind proves correct, it would be a genuinely wicked and intelligent piece of plotting.

Overall, Strange Houses is a commendable read in an inventive mystery subgenre. Uketsu has found a distinctive way to tell a mystery, one that uses visual storytelling to create something that lingers, and it lives up to its title, strange.

And now, I have already borrowed the Strange Pictures and am getting ready to read it next.

Recommended for: Fans of Agatha Christie, mystery fiction, architectural thrillers, and anyone who likes their books to look as strange as they read.

Have you read Strange Houses? Share your thoughts in the comments below.