A hugely enjoyable, page-turning murder mystery with one of the best and most-satisfying conclusions you'll ever read: clever enough that you're unlikely to guess it, but simple enough that you'll kick yourself when it's revealed. That's what has made it a classic in Japan, and what readers of this first ever English translation will love too.The members of a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly, unsolved multiple murder the year before. They're looking forward to investigating the crime, putting their passion for solving mysteries to practical use, but before long there is a fresh murder, and soon the club-members realise they are being picked off one-by-one. The remaining amateur sleuths will have to use all of their murder-mystery expertise to find the killer before they end up dead too.This is a playful, loving and fiendishly plotted homage to the best of golden age crime. It will delight any mystery fan looking to put...

A twisty and ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders— Praise for Yukito Ayatsuji's mysteries - -'From the first page you know you're in the hands of a master. The atmosphere, the setting, the characters... it is flawless.' Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants'If you enjoyed Yukito Ayatsuji's ingenious The Decagon House Murders - and how could you not? - you will love this quasi-Christie locked-room mystery' The Times and Sunday Times Crime Club'A psychological-mystical thriller built on tropes from cozier crime fiction. Agatha Christie-type stopwatch sequences and John Dickson Carr-style locked-room conundrums coexist with Poe-like Gothic sequences full of severed limbs and charred flesh... No one can accuse Mr. Ayatsuji of not sustaining the eerie mood of his strange story until its very last sentence' Wall Street Journal__________Miyagaki Yōtarō is one of Japan's most famed mystery writers, but several...

A classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House MurdersEvery year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote, castle-like Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by an impossible disappearance, the theft of a painting and a series of baffling murders.The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives to investigate. But will he uncover the truth, and will you be able to solve the mystery of the Mill House Murders before he does?

The remote Clock House is filled with priceless timepieces from across the world. It is also rumoured to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl. A team of ghosthunters visit the mansion to investigate, but their stay has barely begun when one of them is gruesomely murdered, and the survivors realize that they are trapped inside the house with a killer... As the murderer's bloody spree continues, the team are picked off one by one. Can the brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi crack the enigma of the Clock House before all those inside have been slain? And can you guess the solution before he does?

In the spring of 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to Yomiyama North Middle School. In class, he develops a sense of unease as he notices that the people around him act like they're walking on eggshells, and students and teachers alike seem frightened. As a chain of horrific deaths begin to unfold around him, he comes to discover that he has been placed in the cursed Class 3 in which the student body head count is always one more than expected. Class 3 is haunted by a vengeful spirit responsible for gruesome deaths in an effort to satisfy its spite. To stop the vicious cycle gripping his new school, Kouichi decides to get to the bottom of the curse, but is he prepared for the horror that lies ahead...?