This is the first translated Japanese thriller I’ve read, and it was a pretty good start for the genre. It’s a story of revenge and the collateral damage that comes from it. There was one major plot point which baffled me, which I will address later in the review. The story is told in a stark, straightforward manner with each chapter coming from another character’s point of view.
Yuko Moriguchi, a teacher and single mother, addresses her middle school class on the last day of the term. She tells them that she is retiring from teaching after the death of her only child, Manami, who drowned in the school’s pool. She stuns them all by announcing that Manami’s death was no accident but a murder at the hands of two of their classmates. She also tells them that she has enacted her revenge on said students. This sets in motion a chain of events that will result and more deaths and a final confrontation between student and teacher.
Overall, I really liked the tone and the pacing of this story. Like many thrillers, some of the twists and machinations require you to suspend your disbelief, but if the writing is compelling enough, you’ll allow it. There is one thing that bugged me quite a bit. Without going into too much detail, HIV and the possibility of being infected with it is a major plot point in this book. Though it was originally published in 2008, the characters seem to think of being infected with HIV as a certain death sentence. Is it possible that attitudes toward HIV were very different in the mid to late 2000s? Maybe so. But it was a glitch in an otherwise well told tale.