Mahokaru Numata

I chose this item to review because it was listed as an LGBT title. I also found a brief description of it online that included this statement - "Nan-Core is at its heart a detective story, but its regular incursions into Japan's LGBT community mark it out as a vivid and unusual offering."

Well, let me set the record straight (pun intended), there is absolutely no LGBT content in this novel. None. Whatsoever.

Now that I've cleared that up, I'll commence with my review.

The first 80% of this book is deeply creepy and disturbing. At times, the atmosphere created by author Mahokaru Numata is so airless and filled with dread that I was anxious about continuing on with it for fear of where it was going. At the outset, the story is extremely simple. Ryosuke, a young man whose father is dying of a terminal disease and whose mother unexpectedly dies after being hit by a truck, discovers a series of secret journals at the bottom of a closet in his parents' home. They were written by a serial killer that Ryosuke quickly understands to be one of his two parents. The writer is completely without remorse, recounting, with an almost clinical chill, the almost orgasmic satisfaction of killing. The content of these journals, while not particularly graphic, is the most effective part of the novel.

Slowly, with the help of his younger brother, he unravels the mystery behind the journals, which is when the whole thing begins to fall apart.

There's a kind of pointless subplot involving the sudden disappearance of Ryosuke's girlfriend that I kept thinking was going to tie in with the serial killer thread, but pretty much didn't. And the final 20% of the book completely abandons the horror story feel and reads almost like a garden-variety noir. And the ending? I don't want to spoil it with specifics, but suffice it to say it's a huge letdown.

Five stars for the set-up and maybe one star for the resolution and denouement. We'll split the difference at three.… (mehr)