The Black Lizard: And, Beast in the Shadows
About
Two novellas from Japan's grand master of crime fiction, written during the golden age of detective stories but entirely unlike anything coming out of the West at the same time. In The Black Lizard, a master thief and a detective engage in an elaborate game of disguise and counter-disguise that blurs the line between hunter and prey. In Beast in the Shadows, a writer becomes obsessed with the idea that his neighbor's husband is plotting the perfect murder — or is the writer plotting one himself? Rampo's mysteries are less about solving crimes than about the pleasure and danger of devising them. His Tokyo is a city of hidden passages, double identities, and desires that polite society pretends don't exist. Crime fiction as funhouse mirror — where the detective and the criminal share more than either would admit.
