The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Download or read book The Tokyo Zodiac Murders written by Soji Shimada and published by Pushkin Vertigo. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The Guardian’s “Top 10 Locked Room Mysteries” An amateur detective races to solve a decades-old murder mystery in this “bloody and bizarre” Japanese crime novel with a twist hailed as “one of the most original” (Daily Mail). Astrologer, fortune teller, and self-styled detective Kiyoshi Mitarai must solve a macabre murder mystery that has baffled Japan for 40 years—in just one week. With the help of his freelance illustrator friend, Kiyoshi sets out to answer the questions that have haunted the country ever since: Who murdered the artist Umezawa, raped and killed his daughter, and then chopped up the bodies of six others to create Azoth, ‘the perfect woman’? With maps, charts, and other illustrations, this story of magic and illusion—pieced together like a great stage tragedy—challenges the reader to unravel the mystery before the final curtain falls. This quintessential Japanese “logic mystery”—eerie, gory, and intriguing—combines the puzzle-solving of Golden Age Western detective fiction with elements of shocking horror and dark humor.

Download or read book Murder in the Crooked House written by Soji Shimada and published by Pushkin Press. This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sequel to the acclaimed Tokyo Zodiac Murders – a fiendish locked room mystery from the Japanese master of the genre The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff at the remote northern tip of Japan. A curious place to build a house, but even more curious is the house itself – a maze of sloping floors and strange staircases, full of bloodcurdling masks and uncanny dolls. When a guest is found murdered in seemingly impossible circumstances, the police are called. But they are unable to solve the puzzle, and more bizarre deaths follow. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, the renowned sleuth. Surely if anyone can crack these cryptic murders it is him. But you have all the clues too - can you solve the mystery of the murders in The Crooked House first? Born in 1948 in Hiroshima prefecture, Soji Shimada has been dubbed the 'God of Mystery' by international audiences. A novelist, essayist and short-story writer, he made his literary debut in 1981 with The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which was shortlisted for the Edogawa Rampo Prize. Blending classical detective fiction with grisly violence and elements of the occult, he has gone on to publish several highly acclaimed series of mystery fiction. He is the author of 100+ works in total. In 2009 Shimada received the prestigious Japan Mystery Literature Award in recognition of his life's work.

Download or read book The Lady Killer written by Masako Togawa and published by Pushkin Vertigo. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dizzying tale of lust, mystery, and murder—from a beloved Japanese crime fiction author and LGBT icon The Lady Killer leads a double life in Tokyo's shadowy underworld. By day, he is a devoted husband and hard worker; by night, he cruises cabaret bars and nightclubs in search of lonely single women to seduce. But now the hunter is being hunted, and in his wake lies a trail of gruesome murders. Who is the culprit? The answer lies tangled in a web of clues—and to find it, he must accept that nothing is what it seems. The Lady Killer pulls from author Masako Togawa’s vibrant personal life as a cabaret performer for Tokyo’s gay nightclub scene during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Throughout her writing career, Togawa continued to champion the LGBT community as a queer woman—sealing her reputation as one of Japan’s most prominent crime fiction authors and LGBT heroines.

Download or read book Confessions of a Yakuza written by Dr. Junichi Saga and published by Kodansha USA. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn’t a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world. In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizing illegal dice games in Tokyo's liveliest entertainment area. He talks about his first police raid, and the brutal interrogation and imprisonment that followed it. He remembers his first love affair, and the girl he ran away with, and the weeks they spent wandering about the countryside together. Briefly, and matter-of-factly, he describes how he cut off the little finger of his left hand as a ritual gesture of apology. He explains how the games were run and the profits spent; why the ties between members of "the brotherhood" were so important; and how he came to kill a man who worked for him. What emerges is a contradictory personality: tough but not unsentimental; stubborn yet willing to take life more or less as it comes; impulsive but careful to observe the rules of the business he had joined. And in the end, when his tale is finished, you feel you would probably have liked him if you'd met him in person. Fortunately, Dr. Saga's record of his long conversations with him provides a wonderful substitute for that meeting.

Download or read book Most Evil written by Steve Hodel and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger Former LAPD detective Steve Hodel compiles never-before-seen evidence that reveals his father as a serial killer who may have been responsible for some of the most infamous murders of the last century- including the Zodiac killings.

Download or read book All She was Worth written by Miyuki Miyabe and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1999 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tokyo's Inspector Shunsake Honma investigates the case of a woman who may have murdered another in order to take her identity. A tale of credit cards and debt and rampant consumerism in today's Japan.

Download or read book A Kind of Catharsis written by Ann Chapman and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dark story of justice, morality, and murder when a family seeks justice for the unexplained and unexpected death of a loved one. The family is devastated which drives their determination. The police are suspicious but there is no evidence. They are impotent. Set in the wintry, misty city of Invercargill, New Zealand's most southern city, the Gothic tones of the story fit the surroundings beautifully. The body count rises as the family sets out to confirm their suspicions, solve a murder and obtain justice. They must keep ahead of the gang, the murderer and the police as they extract their vengeance. But will justice, morality or murder win out as the family wrestles with their own beliefs? Will the doctor be bound by his Hippocratic Oath or will his thirst for vengeance get the better of him? They seek their own answers in the face of a defiant Rob. Will they risk all, their reputations and their freedom to find the truth. And when they do which will win out -justice, morality, or murder? Over five days, amid many cups of coffee and glasses of fine Central Otago Riesling, truth and justice is found. Fast paced and a page turner this story will challenge the reader to examine their own beliefs in justice.