WeRead
Powered by ReaderPub
A man in a theatre audience is found dead during a performance, and his inexplicable death triggers a tightly plotted investigation. An experienced police inspector and his son, a mystery-writer gifted in deduction, pursue methodical inquiry into seating, costume and hat evidence, and forensic detail. The narrative unfolds through interviews, legal conversations, and social encounters that expose motives among theatre personnel and patrons. Clues are assembled and weighed in a formal analytical climax that explains the mechanics of the crime and identifies the perpetrator.
“The policeman must oft follow the precept of the ‘bakadori’—those fool-birds who, though they know disaster awaits them at the hands and clubs of the beach-combers, brave ignominious death to bury their eggs in the sandy shore.... So the policeman. All Nippon should not deter him from hatching the egg of thoroughness.”
—From A Thousand Leaves,
By Tamaka Hiero.