I purchased this book at the Friends of the Library used book store in Wheaton, Maryland. Although I'm not usually a fan of mysteries and thrillers, the fact that it's a translation of a Japanese award-winning book captured my interest. I was also attracted by the cover art which is really eye-catching!

My daughter asked to borrow this book in the meantime.

Please note: This book is one of two which had a sad encounter with my cup of coffee. The book's cover and pages were not physically damaged but you'll see the "lovely" coffee-colored stains along the edges of the pages. :-(

I don't know if my daughter read this book or not, but I'm reading it now and am a little over half finished. It's a kind of silly but fun read. I had to write down all the character names to keep them straight. So far, so good.

Finally finished it!

The story was long and involved, but great fun to read even though it got kind of creepy near the end. I kept trying to guess what would happen next, but never did figure it out ahead of time. A lot of the plot was given to the reader right up front, but the psychology of the characters is what gave this book its energy.

I am releasing this book on the book exchange shelf at my work (Quality Assurance office, Medstar Health VNA) in Washington, DC.

My colleague at work picked up this book and is reading it now.