First published 2011
Yasuko has built a peaceful existence with her daughter in Tokyo. She works steadily and focuses on being a good mother. One evening her ex-husband shows up at her apartment without warning. The visit destroys the calm life she has worked to create. Detective Kusanagi arrives to investigate what happened that night. He examines the evidence and interviews witnesses. Nothing adds up the way it should. The circumstances baffle him more than any case he has worked before. Each clue leads to new questions instead of answers. Kusanagi keeps digging into the mystery. The more he learns about Yasuko and her situation, the more confused he becomes. Someone has constructed an elaborate puzzle around the events of that evening. The detective must figure out who is hiding what and why. The investigation forces Yasuko to confront her past while Kusanagi struggles with a case that challenges everything he knows about solving crimes. Both must face truths they never expected to discover.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Tokyo
379 pages · Kindle Edition · Hachette Digital
Content warnings: death, murder