The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

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). <p/> 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. <p/> 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'? <p/> 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. <p/> 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.