"The Hotel Europa Murder Case" (a.k.a. "The Santa Slayings") is the seventh case in the File Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.
Tropes include:
- Back for the Dead: Ryuuta Saki, the video-taking freshman member of the Mystery Club back in the School's Seven Mysteries Case, returns to help Kindaichi with the mystery, only to wind up being the murderer's third victim when he got too close to the truth.
- Bad Santa: An odd case, as a central figure in the case is the "Red-Bearded Santa Claus" - the moniker was coined not because of an attempt to impersonate Santa, but simply because he had a red beard. Regardless, the man was a drug dealer, so the 'bad' part is evident.
- Dirty Cop: The Hokkaido superintendent turns out to be complicit in the drug trade, although in her case she was blackmailed into doing so by who would become the first two victims of this case. Wanting to be free of their control is the reason why she murders them in the first place. This is also not to mention her subsequent murders of two innocent people simply to frame the second of these for the murders (see Poor Communication Kills below).
- Not-So-Fake Prop Weapon: The culprit set up two in the same set, poisoning one of the cups with the intent of killing the first victim with it based on the script, and in case that doesn't work, replaces a prop sword on the wall (which was supposed to be used in a scene where the in-play killer would stab the actress' character with it) with a real one to ensure she dies. Fortunately for the killer, the first attempt succeeds, leaving the sword unused.
- Photographic Memory: The first victim had this, and garnered a reputation of pulling off skillful performances with just one readthrough of any script she's given. The culprit takes advantage of this to ensure that she would take the poisoned chalice via an added note to her script.
- Poor Communication Kills: The culprit murders her twin sister due to believing said twin sister betrayed her to the police after she confessed to murdering a thug in self-defense years ago after the twin sister tells her to turn herself in and seeing a police car ride up. It's only after said culprit is arrested does she discover her sister had been living a double life as an actress (her original dream) and a designer (said sister's original dream) in both her identity and her sister's because she wanted her sister to have the chance to start over with her original dream. Cue the culprit reacting with My God, What Have I Done? in return after Hajime relays the full truth to her.
- Self-Made Man: The culprit goes from being an impoverished junkie to a respected police superintendent through her own efforts (with an identity change, mind). Her sordid past was used as blackmail material, however.
- Sibling Murder: This is the first case arc where such a murder happens, and in this case one of the victims is the culprit's twin sister.
