Spellbinding.
A deep, deeply disturbing dive into Japan’s bondage subculture.
Before he was beaten to death with an elegant sculpture, Kazunari Yoshikawa was noted as a master of kinbaku—rope artistry, as distinct from rope torture. He made the women he bound at a club and privately feel achingly desired and desirous. Even Maiko Kirita, the escort-turned-hostess who spent two weeks as Yoshikawa’s captive, tells police detective Mikiya Togashi how powerful her lover’s hold over her was because he always believed “the ropes were in charge.” But nothing else about the case seems straightforward. The absence of official records on Yoshikawa indicates that he lived and died under a false name. Ami Ito, the lover who lived with Yoshikawa until she was found hanged six months ago, seems to be doubled with Mari Yamamoto, another sex worker. Even Togashi himself is replaced as detective and narrator by his more forthright colleague Yuichi Hayama, whose account is supplemented by the reminiscences of Yutaka Yamada, who as the mysterious Y served as Yoshikawa’s tutor in kinbaku. Detailed step-by-step descriptions of sexual bondage are only the most literal sign of the tangled relationships that bind the characters together. And just when you’re convinced that Nakamura, who in an afterword describes his goal as conveying the “sense of a dim light through a veil of fog,” has moved decisively from the logistics of kinbaku to its spirituality and metaphysics, he produces a stunning climactic surprise that will make you think of this particular case, and erotic bondage generally, in a whole new way.
Spellbinding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781641293259
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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