The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (Pushkin Vertigo)
Praised by Anthony Horowitz as containing one of the most original solutions he has ever encountered, Soji Shimada's cult Japanese mystery begins with a premise that is genuinely difficult to shake off. An eccentric artist is found dead inside a room secured from within, and his private journals expose a disturbing obsession with alchemy, astrology, and a ritualistic plan to murder and dismember seven young women. Unsettling enough on its own. What makes it stranger is that, after his death, someone appears to carry out his gruesome blueprint anyway. Enter Kiyoshi Mitarai, an astrologer with a sideline in amateur detection, who picks up a cold case that has baffled investigators for decades. His pursuit takes him across Japan, peeling back layers of misdirection towards a conclusion that is, frankly, startling. Tom Mead, writing in Publishers Weekly, called it a triumph, and it's hard to argue. For readers who love a puzzle with genuine teeth, this one delivers. The locked-room setup is fiendishly constructed, the occult atmosphere adds a pleasing strangeness, and the challenge issued directly to the reader, to solve it before Mitarai does, gives the whole thing a playful competitive edge. It's the sort of book that makes you want to reread the early chapters immediately after finishing, just to see exactly where you went wrong.
- Author: Soji Shimada
- Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
- Genre: True Crime
- ISBN: 978-1805335153
- Pages: 320 pages