The Murder House in a Ring of Fire

“The House of the Setting Sun” is a popular Japanese novel often compared to such cult works as “Tokyo Zodiac” and “The House of the Crooked Walls.” The main plot takes place in the mysterious mansion of a detective novelist, Yudzana Takarada, full of hidden rooms and strange mechanisms. The main characters end up trapped in this house because of a forest fire and must find a way out to survive. But the situation is complicated by the mysterious murder of the writer’s granddaughter. Two central figures—a former detective and a novice detective—begin a battle of wits as they try to solve this intriguing case. The novel’s author, Tatsumi Atsukawa, has held top positions in Japan’s suspense fiction rankings for many years.