Love a really great mystery? Check out "Out"

[Sequoia]

by Natsuo Kirino, winner of Japan's Top Mystery Award.

I tend to avoid most mystery's, especially those by USA writers which are so easy to figure out and written like some 1950s show. This one is a really winner with some creepy gory stuff which I don't like, but the characters are worth it. I haven't finished it yet, but thought I'd mention it. I have the hard bound copy from the library and it's well bound with nice heavy paper and a satin ribbon bookmark to boot!

(It's now in paperback)

From Booklist
A suburban Tokyo woman fed up with her loutish husband kills him in a fit of anger, then confesses her crime to a coworker on the night shift at the boxed-lunch factory. The coworker enlists the help of two other women at the factory to dismember and dispose of the body. Readers beware--Kirino's first mystery to be published in English (it was a best-seller in Japan) involves no madcap female bonding. The tenuous friendship between the four women, all with problems of their own even before becoming accessories to murder, begins to unravel almost immediately. Money changes hands. The body parts are discovered. The police begin asking questions, and a very bad man falsely accused of the crime is determined to find out who really deserves the punishment. The gritty neighborhoods, factories, and warehouses of Tokyo provide a perfect backdrop for this bleak tale of women who are victims of circumstance and intent on self-preservation at all costs.

Carrie Bissey
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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[Mme. Defarge]

1. Thanks for the lead.

I do love mysteries -- especially of the 1950's variety. But I also works by writers like Peter Hoeg (Danish) and Arturo Perez-Reverte (Spanish).

[Richardo]

2. I've been meaning to read this one...

...thanks for the confirmation.