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| (Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!) |
A classic mystery from one of Japan's best-loved crime writers
The Lady Killer leads a double life in the shadow world of Tokyo's singles bars and nightclubs. By day a devoted husband and hard worker, by night he cruises nightclubs cafes and cinemas in search of lonely single women to seduce.
But now the hunter is being hunted, and in his wake lies a trail of gruesome murders. Who is the culprit? The answer lies tangled in a web of clues, and to find it he must accept that nothing is what it seems.
This is a moody, brilliantly plotted mystery from the writer dubbed 'the P.D. James of Japan'.
my thoughts:
My latest read for the JLC12 was such a disappointment. I wasn't even sure I wanted to post about it. Oh well. I guess all our reads can't always be winners. Anyhow, here goes:
The Lady Killer is about a man named Honda who goes around sleeping with lots of women. He's married, but his marriage is devoid of affection. So, he wanders about, picking up women, and sleeping with them. He even keeps a diary of it - calls it his Hunting Diary. Well, the women in his diary seem to be dying. Yep, they are being murdered. And, it looks like Honda is the prime suspect. Except, murder doesn't seem to fit in with his behavior or character. Plus, why wouldn't he have killed all of the women in his diary - instead only three have been murdered. Hmm...makes his attorney wonder if perhaps someone has decided to set up Honda. But, who? And, why?
That's pretty much the gist of the story. At first I was captivated, especially when reading about the death of the first woman, Keiko. After that, I fell out of love with the story. It just kept going and going, but the tone was devoid of the typical suspense and thrills that make up a crime thriller. It just felt flat to me and I found that I had to skip ahead to get through the story. Well, mainly, because I wanted to see if I was right about who the killer was - I wasn't. All in all, this book was a dud for me. I should have DNFed it, but for some reason felt the need to see it through. Oh well, on to the next book, right?
Hope you are reading something great. Happy reading!!
2 comments:
I have the same compulsion to finish a book as you expressed here, and I felt similar to The Master Key as you described feeling about this book. It had such stellar reviews, but I forced myself to carry in and didn't like it very much. I have also abandoned Six Four; I began it twice and put it down. Maybe it's because my edition was an ebook, and I'm finding paper more to my liking now. But also, there was so much bureaucratic/procedural stuff! I'm more of a plot girl. 😉
Oh, this sounds rather dreadful. Stalking women for sex and perhaps murder is dark enough but I always think if Japanese night clubs as real dens of depravity. LOL.
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