Tetsuya Honda is one of Japan's best selling authors - his Detective Reiko Himekawa series was made into two TV miniseries, a TV special, and a major film. The first two books have been translated into many languages, and although I read them out of order, I'm reviewing the first of the series first.
Reiko Himekawa is a Tokyo Metropolitan Police homicide detective, one of the only women and under thirty. Being a police procedural, there are many divisions and investigators working in teams and the story unfolds through briefings, task force meetings, and lots of individual leg work from many teams. A body has been found in the hedge near a suburban pond, bound and wrapped in plastic. As they interview all connected, another body is found submerged in the pond, also bound and wrapped in plastic - then nine more bodies are found. The mystery deepens as each team works together, apart, or clashes. The killer talks to the reader as well, and we find out why the victims were all killed on the second Sunday of the month - a game called "Strawberry Night" (which is the title of the film made from this novel). I've read many serial killer novels where it seems the goal of the author is to introduce a new twist on sick murder to further shock the jaded reader. The idea of "Strawberry Night" ranks up there with the most sickening, and there are descriptions that are truly repulsive and difficult to read. I wonder why in many of the Japanese mysteries I've read the thrill of torture killing is surpassed by the almost erotic thrill that you are the next victim.
The structure, characters, and plot are all first rate; inventive if a little heavy on daily briefings. Personally, I found Reiko's colleagues unprofessionally juvenile which took away from the seriousness of the story, but in this first novel of the series, we discover a lot about Reiko and an incident in her past that shaped the detective she is today.
All around a great thriller, with a warning about the dose of violent killing. I was given the second in the series (Soul Cage) by my good friend and read it before this one, and despite the violence I'll continue when the next title is translated. A good start to the series and easy to see how it became a bestseller worthy of a major motion picture.
2006 (translated 2016) / Hardcover / 292 pages
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