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Lemon
49,000 TNDThis is not a murder story. It is the story of those left behind. Parasite meets The Good Son in this piercing psychological portrait of three women haunted by a brutal, unsolved crime.
In the summer of 2002, Kim Hae-on was killed in what became known as the High School Beauty Murder. There were two suspects: Shin Jeongjun, who had a rock-solid alibi, and Han Manu, to whom no evidence could be pinned. The case went cold.
Seventeen years pass without justice, and the grief and uncertainty take a cruel toll on her younger sister, Da-on, in particular. Unable to move on with her life, Da-on tries in her own twisted way to recover some of what she’s lost, ultimately setting out to find the truth of what happened. Shifting between the perspectives of Da-on and two of Hae-on’s classmates, Lemon ostensibly takes the shape of a crime novel.
But identifying the perpetrator is not the main objective here: Kwon Yeo-sun uses this well-worn form to craft a searing, timely exploration of privilege, jealousy, trauma, and how we live with the wrongs we have endured and inflicted in turn. Praise for Lemon: ‘Discovering whodunnit isn’t really the point here; Lemon is a subtle, often intense meditation on the after-effects of violence’ Guardian ‘Chilling, suspenseful and disconcerting… I couldn’t put it down and read deep into the night until I finished it, with my heart hammering’ Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face
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Lia Park and the Missing Jewel
49,000 TNDPerfect for fans of the Storm Runner and Aru Shah series, this ‘;intriguing, fast-paced’ (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade fantasy follows a young girl who must venture to the undersea kingdom of the Dragon King in Korea to save her parents from an evil diviner spirit.
Twelve-year old Lia Park just wants to fit in. Her parents work with a mysterious organization that makes them ridiculously overprotective. Lia’s every move has been scrutinized since she was born, and she’d love to have the option of doing something exciting for once.
So when she gets invited to the biggest birthday party of the yearand her parents say she can’t goLia sneaks out.
But her first act of rebellion not only breaks her parents’ rules, but also an ancient protection spell, allowing an evil diviner spirit to kidnap and ransom her parents for a powerful jewel that her family has guarded for years. With just the clothes on her back and some very rusty magical skills, Lia finds herself chasing mysterious clues that take her to her grandmother’s home in Korea.
From there, she has to make their way to the undersea kingdom of the Dragon King, the only person who knows where the powerful jewel might be.
Along with her friend, Joon, Lia must dig deep and find courage to stand up for those who are weakand become the hero her parents need. -
Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon
59,000 TNDI am the go-between. When a young woman from Tokyo contacts the go-between to request a meeting with a deceased TV star who once helped her, she doesn’t expect a teenage boy to show up. Dressed in a designer duffel coat and carrying a tattered notebook, Ayumi Shibuya offers an extraordinary service: he reunites the living with their dearly departed.
Meeting his clients at a luxury hotel, Ayumi lays down the ground rules: each reunion is a one-time arrangement that the dead can refuse, the service is entirely free, and the meeting must take place during a full moon. As Ayumi arranges these reunions, we encounter a resentful eldest son who wants to ask his mother to unearth the deeds to a plot of land, a teenage girl who blames herself for her best friend’s death, and a weary businessman seeking answers about his fiancée’s disappearance days after he proposed. Already a multimillion-copy bestseller in Japan, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon is storytelling at its finest.
Captivating, cosy, and compulsively readable, this is an unforgettable page-turner in which the living and the dead are given one last chance for closure. Now read HOW TO HOLD SOMEONE IN YOUR HEART, the sequel to LOST SOULS MEET UNDER A FULL MOONFirst published in Japan under the title TSUNAGU or GO-BETWEENReaders are obsessed:’Every word resonated in my heart’ ***** Reader review”Perfect for anyone who loves to think deeply about what they have just read’ ***** Reader review’Makes you ponder about death and about life’ ***** Reader review -
Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon
79,000 TNDI am the go-between. When a young woman from Tokyo contacts the go-between to request a meeting with a deceased TV star who once helped her, she doesn’t expect a teenage boy to show up. Dressed in a designer duffel coat and carrying a tattered notebook, Ayumi Shibuya offers an extraordinary service: he reunites the living with their dearly departed.
Meeting his clients at a luxury hotel, Ayumi lays down the ground rules: each reunion is a one-time arrangement that the dead can refuse, the service is entirely free, and the meeting must take place during a full moon. As Ayumi arranges these reunions, we encounter a resentful eldest son who wants to ask his mother to unearth the deeds to a plot of land, a teenage girl who blames herself for her best friend’s death, and a weary businessman seeking answers about his fiancée’s disappearance days after he proposed. Already a multimillion-copy bestseller in Japan, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon is storytelling at its finest.
Captivating, cosy, and compulsively readable, this is an unforgettable page-turner in which the living and the dead are given one last chance for closure. Now read HOW TO HOLD SOMEONE IN YOUR HEART, the sequel to LOST SOULS MEET UNDER A FULL MOONFirst published in Japan under the title TSUNAGU or GO-BETWEENReaders are obsessed:’Every word resonated in my heart’ ***** Reader review”Perfect for anyone who loves to think deeply about what they have just read’ ***** Reader review’Makes you ponder about death and about life’ ***** Reader review -
Mistress Koharu
69,000 TNDAkira, a meticulous editor at a major publishing house in Tokyo, harbors a secret: he lives with Koharu, a Hungarian-made love doll. Each night, he speaks to her and finds a long-sought solace in her presence—a comfort he cannot attain even in the arms of real women in his life. Things only improve when Koharu breaks free from her role as a love doll and starts speaking and moving on her own, transformed into the perfect wife.
But when a new woman enters Akira’s life, everything changes. A single confession to Koharu about his attraction sets off a chain of disturbing events that spiral into the unexpected.
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Murder in the House of Omari
59,000 TNDOsaka, 1943. The Second World War rages, and American bombers rain down death upon Japan. The once prosperous Omari household, now ruined by the terrible conflict, is struck by a succession of ghastly murders.
Young trainee doctor and budding sleuth Natsuko is desperate to help her old friend, Mineko Omari, to solve the mystery and bring an end to the gruesome deaths tearing the family apart.
To do so, the pair will have to delve into the Omari clan’s past, where a dark and deadly secret has been festering for decades…
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My Grandfather, the Master Detective
59,000 TNDThere used to be a cafe called Mon Cheri at Nishi Waseda where members of the Waseda Mystery Club spent day after day frothing in excitement over the latest mystery novels, and now he and Kaede solve mysteries together
As a lover of classic crime stories, it’s perhaps no surprise that twenty-seven-year-old schoolteacher Kaede encounters everyday mysteries more often than your average person. Solving them is another matter, though, and the person she always heads to for guidance is her beloved grandfather – who, despite having dementia, retains a keen sharpness of mind.From impossible locked-room murders to confounding missing person cases, the granddaughter and grandfather team ‘weave stories’ in master-and-apprentice fashion. Together, they get to the bottom of case after case.
But, all the while, a shadow slowly closes in on Kaede, posing a more insidious threat . . .
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Out
49,000 TNDYou can hide a body. You can’t bury the truth. In a Tokyo factory, four women work the night shift to keep their lives afloat.
When one of them kills her abusive husband, the others help hide the body – and step into a world of extortion, deceit and revenge. Out is a masterclass in tension and realism. Kirino peels back the veneer of normal life to reveal the rage, loyalty and survival instincts that lie beneath.
Gripping, brutal and profoundly human, this is a thriller that stares unflinchingly into darkness. ‘A shockingly intense read’ Daily Telegraph‘Out is a potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice’ New York Times Book Review
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Piercing
49,000 TNDEvery night, Kawashima Masayuki creeps from his bed and watches over his baby girl’s crib while his wife sleeps. But this is no ordinary domestic scene. He has an ice pick in his hand, and a barely controllable desire to use it.
Deciding to confront his demons, Kawashima sets into motion a chain of events seeming to lead inexorably to murder.
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Seven Years of Darkness
59,000 TND‘The queen of crime . . .
You-Jeong Jeong is shaking up the world of suspense’ Glamour’You-Jeong Jeong is a certified international phenomenon . . .
one among the best at writing psychological suspense’ Los Angeles Times A young girl is found dead in Seryong Lake, a reservoir in a remote South Korean village. The police immediately begin their investigation. At the same time, three men – Yongje, the girl’s father, and two security guards at the nearby dam, each of whom has something to hide about the night of her death – find themselves in an elaborate game of cat and mouse as they race to uncover what happened to her, without revealing their own closely guarded secrets.
When a final showdown at the dam results in a mass tragedy, one of the guards is convicted of murder and sent to prison. For seven years, his son, Sowon, lives in the shadow of his father’s shocking and inexplicable crime. When Sowon receives a package that promises to reveal at last what really happened at Seryong Lake, he must confront a present danger he never knew existed.
Dark, disturbing, and full of twists and turns, Seven Years of Darkness is the riveting new novel from the internationally celebrated author of The Good Son. ‘South Korea’s preeminent author of psychological thrillers’ Entertainment Weekly’Rightly compared to Stephen King’ Die Zeit (Germany)
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Sisters in Yellow
79,000 TNDHana has nothing but she’s hopeful. She’s fifteen years old. She lives in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Tokyo with her young mother, a hostess at a local dive bar.
They have no money, no security. Then Kimiko appears.
Kimiko is older, a bright light in Hana’s dark world. Together they set up Lemon, a bar that, despite its shabby setting and seedy clientele, becomes a haven for Hana.
Suddenly Hana has a job she loves, friends to share her days with, and the glittering promise of money. She feels like a normal girl. She feels invincible.
But in the narrow alleys of Sangenjaya, nothing is as it seems.
Soon all of Hana’s hope, her optimism, and her drive, will be tested to the limit . . .
A story of enduring friendship and deep betrayal, Sisters in Yellow is a masterpiece of teenage dreams and adult cruelties that confirms Mieko Kawakami as one of the great writers of her generation. -
Strange Buildings
79,000 TNDA Times and New York Times bestseller
The addictive mystery taking the world by storm, from the author of Strange Pictures
Eleven strange buildings. One terrible secret.
A lonely hut in the woods.
A hidden chamber.
A mysterious shrine.
A home in flames.
A nightmarish prison…
Each of the buildings in this book tells a chilling story. Each one is part of a puzzle.
Look closely…
and you’ll see that everything is connected.
All leading to a revelation so horrifying you won’t want to believe it.
Millions of readers have become addicted to solving Uketsu’s dark mysteries.
Strange Buildings is the strangest, and darkest, so far.