Changes

Yes, from that you can surmise there is a lot I just dare not start to talk about, for want of spoilers. Rest assured nothing in these pages spoils the book – even if it was written in the 1960s, translated in the 1980s, and given afresh to us in 2018 it doesn't seem too dated; and it certainly has the cleverness ultimately to keep a genre reader really satisfied. The style of the writing does mean the author includes far too many references to areas of her Japanese city, as if we can piece Shinji's journey around on his trail of evidence. But I took to this a lot more successfully than to the other work of this author from Pushkin Vertigo – The Master Key – which I ultimately found too jumpy, too quirky and all-told too out there for my tastes. This, however, despite some instances where I might want things to have been curter, or less jolting a change, was certainly to my taste. A strong four stars.

[[People Who Eat Darkness: Love, Grief and a Journey into Japan's Shadows by Richard Parry]] is something different – a true crime case you may well remember, that opened doors to a shady side of Japan.