A twisty and ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders
-- Praise for Yukito Ayatsuji's mysteries - -
'From the first page you know you're in the hands of a master. The atmosphere, the setting, the characters... it is flawless.' Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants
'If you enjoyed Yukito Ayatsuji's ingenious The Decagon House Murders - and how could you not? - you will love this quasi-Christie locked-room mystery' The Times and Sunday Times Crime Club
'A psychological-mystical thriller built on tropes from cozier crime fiction. Agatha Christie-type stopwatch sequences and John Dickson Carr-style locked-room conundrums coexist with Poe-like Gothic sequences full of severed limbs and charred flesh... No one can accuse Mr. Ayatsuji of not sustaining the eerie mood of his strange story until its very last sentence' Wall Street Journal
__________
Miyagaki Yotaro is one of Japan's most famed mystery writers, but several years ago he put down his pen and left the Tokyo literary world for a life of seclusion in the remote Labyrinth House, built by the notorious architect Nakamura Seiji. When four of the country's most exciting up-and-coming crime writers are invited to the house for Yotaro's birthday party, they are honoured to accept. But no sooner have they arrived than they are confronted with a shocking death, then lured into a bizarre, deadly competition with each other...
As the competition proceeds, and murder follows murder., the brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada investigates. Can he solve the mystery of the house before all those trapped in its labyrinth are dead? And can you guess the solution before he does?
