Confessions

A well-known master of iyashisu style, who explores the dark sides of the human soul, created one of the core directions in modern Japanese detective fiction.

Five schoolgirls were playing volleyball by the pool when a man approached them and asked one of the girls to help check the ventilation in the changing room. The girl went with him, while the others continued playing. When the girl’s friends went after her and couldn’t find her, they discovered her dead body in the changing room.

Despite the interrogations, the girls couldn’t remember the killer’s face. The mother of the lost daughter accused them of her death and promised to take revenge unless they found the murderer—or made amends some other way. That turned their lives into a nightmare.

The novel makes you think about responsibility for your actions—or for the absence of them.