"Sommelier Akechi Kengo Case File" is the ninth case arc in "The Kindaichi Case Files R" series of The Kindaichi Case Files.
When the sommelier, the waitress, and the dishwasher in a high-end wine bar are ill, Miyuki and Kindaichi take up the duties of the waitress and the dishwasher, respectively, while Akechi, a wine expert himself, serves as sommelier substitute at a private wine party, whose atmosphere becomes marred upon the death of one of the party attendants.
Tropes include:
- A Day in the Limelight: Akechi is the detective in this case.
- A Fête Worse than Death: The wine party turns out to have been the murderer's ploy to have his intended target killed.
- Batman Gambit: Overlaps with Flaw Exploitation, as the culprit's murder plot against his target works by taking advantage of the victim's Fatal Flaw (two, in fact) and nudging him along accordingly until the target gets himself killed.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Self-enforced. The culprit orchestrates the murder on his intended victim through the very wine party he hosts on his own birthday, though the part about the party taking place on his birthday is not revealed until he mentions it late in his confession.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Zigzagged. While Akechi does say "All the mysteries are solved" and "The killer is among us" at the appropriate occasion, his statement of choice for voicing his determination to solve the case, instead of "I swear it in the name of my grandfather!", which Kindaichi uses when he's the one solving the case at the time, is:I will solve this case, in the name of Dionysus, the god of grapes and wine in Greek mythology!
- Disproportionate Retribution: The murderer killed the victim because the latter ruined his wine collection by turning off the air conditioning in his wine cellar while the former was hospitalized. Miyuki thought that murdering the guy in response was quite an overkill, but the rest of the wine enthusiasts sympathized with the killer.
- Fatal Flaw: The victim has two (Greed and lack of wine connoisseur etiquette), both of which the culprit exploits to ensure the demise of the intended target.
- Flaw Exploitation: The culprit's Batman Gambit depends on taking advantage of the Fatal Flaw (two of them, in fact) the victim possesses in order to make sure that the wine party will spell doom for the latter.
- First, the murderer invited the victim for the wine party, knowing full well that the victim would show up to have another chance to consume some expensive wine for free due to his Greed.
- Then, during the party, the culprit exploits the victim's lack of wine connoisseur etiquette by whispering some false information about wine in general to the latter, which ensures the target would drink the poisoned wine until he croaks.
- Gratuitous French: Akechi greets a native French speaker (a French model) with fluent French before the latter clarifies that she has stayed in Japan long enough to be able to communicate well in Japanese.
- Greed: The victim is notorious for this, as the party attendants make it clear to Akechi.
- It's revealed during Akechi's interrogation that, despite his status as the wealthy president of an air-conditioning repair company, he charges much higher fees for his services than standard market prices while paying as little as he can get away with.
- A real estate executive, who's among the party attendants, confides that the victim even threatened to sue him unless he waived all of the cost for the air-conditioning company space rental.
- The French model, who had never met the victim prior to the wine party, says she got an impression that he had a bad attitude after noticing him filching the expensive-looking coasters from the wine bar.
- Finally, he's known to crash into any parties he knew expensive wines would be served, all so he could drink to his heart's content without having to spend money buying any. That ends up being exploited to ensure his demise.
- Internal Reveal: While Akechi's involvement in this case arc is revealed early on to the readers due to the title, such information is not told to Kindaichi and Miyuki as immediately — Miyuki encounters Akechi as he shows up in time to serve the welcome champagne, but Kindaichi, being a Minor Major Character in this case due to having been stuck as the dishwasher throughout the entire case, is unaware of Akechi's presence (and vice versa) until the case ends.
- Minor Major Character: Kindaichi is stuck as the dishwasher throughout the entire case, and it's solved by the time he finishes his duty. He's quite indignant about it after the fact.Kindaichi: Miyuki! There was a case, and yet you didn't call me?!Miyuki: Well, the case was quickly solved... and also... I forgot you were here...Kindaichi: MIYUKI!!!Miyuki: Sorry, Hajime-chan!
- Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Kindaichi is nervously sweating profusely upon the restaurant manager telling him he'd be responsible for replacing any wine glasses should he break any of them on his job, especially after being told that the wine glasses cost 20,000 yen eachnote .Kindaichi: This is bad! I have to be extra careful!
- The Scrooge: The victim is the president of an air-conditioning repair company. Despite his wealth, he insists on charging his services far above the standard market price while paying as little as he can get away with, earning himself a notorious reputation as a cheapskate.
- Serious Business: Wine collection and wine preservation are treated very seriously in this case. Not only was the case kick-started as the result of the victim sabotaging the culprit's wine collection, which totaled about hundreds of millions of yennote , even if it wasn't done on purpose, but all of the sympathy expressed from the party guests is aimed at the murderer as well.I completely understand how you feel!
If I were in your situation, I would have also...
I feel bad for the wines...
It's divine retribution!
That guy [the victim] deserves everything! - Speak Ill of the Dead: All of the party attendants only have unflattering words to say about the victim because of his notorious miserly reputation. And that's before his inadvertent sabotage of the wine collection, which is Serious Business among the party attendants, who are all wine enthusiasts themselves, is disclosed.
- Spoiler Title: Akechi's involvement in this case is revealed in the title "Sommelier Akechi Kengo Case File".
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The murderer turns out to have injected poison into one of the bottles of the wine being served in the party, but the poison in question is one that reacts to stomach acid and not to alcohol, meaning that it's harmless when it remains inside the wine bottle.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: Due to the victim's notorious miserly reputation as The Scrooge, no one has any more nice things to say about him after he's just died than they do while he's still alive, and that's when they do speak about him in the first place, as everyone is initially unwilling to talk when Akechi asks the party attendants about the victim, forcing Akechi to bring up something he had overheard from one of the guests while serving as sommelier in order to get the procedure going.
