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Born in 1948 in Hiroshima prefecture, Soji Shimada has been dubbed the 'God of Mystery' by international audiences. A novelist, essayist and short-story writer, he made his literary debut in 1981 with The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which was shortlisted for the Edogawa Rampo Prize. Blending classical detective fiction with grisly violence and elements of the occult, he has gone on to publish several highly acclaimed series of mystery fiction, including the casebooks of Kiyoshi Mitarai and Takeshi Yoshiki. He is the author of 100+ works in total. In 2009 Shimada received the prestigious Japan Mystery Literature Award in recognition of his life's work.
"'Ignites the mind' - Huffington Post 'Shimadas novel is a classic of the popular Japanese honkaku or ""authentic"" subgenre of crime fiction, which prioritises tight plots and carefully scattered clues' - The National 'If you like your crime stories to be bloody and bizarre, then this one may be for you. The winner of several major awards... the solution is one of the most original that Ive ever read' - Anthony Horowitz 'An intricate, compelling, violent, and exciting [read]. Full of hints, its a budding Sherlocks dream; Shimada encourages the reader to be as much of a detective as his protagonist.' - Crime Scene 'A wonderful example of excellent plotting and characterization, with a brilliant sense of the mysterious and the bizarre' - At the Scene of the Crime"
