Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Written by Shoji Shimada, I found myself so much passionate in reading this Japanese novel. Mystery genre about a couple amateur detectives named Mr. Mutarai and Mr. Ishioka in 1979 who try to solve the mystery of the legend Tokyo Zodiac Murders happened in 1936. The serial killings started with the death of an artist Umezawa in a locked studio leaving a horrible message book told the public that he would try to create Azoth. Azoth is a super-powerful-perfect lady which its elements made from 6 different virgins’ body parts.  Not long after his death, his oldest daughter Kazue was also mysteriously killed. Soon after the oldest one, the rest of  daughters and nieces of Umezawa (6 in total) missing in the same time and found mutilated and buried in 6 different places. Someone had mutilated their head, breast, belly, hip and leg  that assumed to create Azoth. Police couldn’t arrested the killer based on clues except Masako the second wife of Umezawa. Many detectives’ investigation even found nothing to accomplish while public of Japan waiting how the case ended at the time.

The writer Mr. Shimada challenges the reader to solve the mystery as he put some clues in the novel to be figured-out in his note to reader. He humbly think that the reader has known the killer in the middle of the book! I honestly clueless and couldn’t solve the mystery, I personally guess I was too focused in Azoth and zodiac stuff :)