Set in Tokyo, the story is told from three points of view: from the detective, who is one Ryosaku Uno, currently investigating a series of arson-set fires; from Ikuo Onda, who is a fireman who makes nightly patrols to try to prevent the firesetting, and from the arsonist (whose name I won't divulge here). It seems that when all three of these people were young children, they were playing a game with lit matches at the home of one of these three, and a fire broke out. After the fire, the body of a man was discovered. Fast forward to the present, and watch the investigation unfold.

I found the characters often to be a bit hysterical (so much so that I often wondered why a couple of them weren't slapped once or twice just to get them back to normal); but all in all, it was still an okay read. ( )