The devil's whisper = 魔術はささやく

Sixteen-year-old Mamoru Kusaka has recently moved to Tokyo to live with his aunt and uncle after the death of his mother. Just as he is beginning to adjust to his new life, his uncle is involved in a late-night accident while driving his taxicab. A young coed is dead and Uncle Taiko is charged with manslaughter, even though the circumstances seem suspect. Struggling to help his uncle, Mamoru discovers that the victim had been involved in a cruel scam with three other young women. Two of the four have also recently died in similarly violent incidents. Several days after the accident, a powerful businessman comes forward as a witness. But instead of making things clearer, the mans testimony only adds more confusing lies and deceptions to an already puzzling case, as Mamoru races to save the last of the four women targeted by the real killer.

Sixteen-year-old Mamoru Kusaka has recently moved to Tokyo to live with his aunt and uncle after the death of his mother. Just as he is beginning to adjust to his new life, his uncle is involved in a late-night accident while driving his taxicab. A young coed is dead and Uncle Taiko is charged with manslaughter, even though the circumstances seem suspect.

Struggling to help his uncle, Mamoru discovers that the victim had been involved in a cruel scam with three other young women. Two of the four have also recently died in similarly violent incidents.

Several days after the accident, a powerful businessman comes forward as a witness. But instead of making things clearer, the mans testimony only adds more confusing lies and deceptions to an already puzzling case, as Mamoru races to save the last of the four women targeted by the real killer.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Miyabe's forte is suspense, and here it's built around the strange behavior of young women being driven to suicide. But the peculiar fascination of the story lies in its acute observations of the way masochistic shame and guilt play into the social conformity so inhibiting to the Japanese identity.

Japan's bestselling mystery author, should garner new fans in the U.S. with this eerie tale that recalls some classic Japanese horror films. Mamoru Kusaka, a sensitive and intelligent teen, is troubled by the loss of his parents. Twelve years after his father disappeared following a municipal financial scandal, his mother has died of a stroke. As Mamoru tries to start a new life with relatives in Tokyo, his uncle, taxi driver Taizo Asano, is arrested after running over a young woman