Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue is the first full-length mystery novel by the Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe and the first installment in the Masao Case Files (formerly the Retired Police Dog Masao Case Files) series. The protagonist, Masao, was once a police dog; after retirement he joins a distinctly styled establishment in a residential neighborhood, the Hasumi Detective Agency, and begins his second career, partnered with the agency's investigator Kayoko Arai. The story begins with an ordinary missing-person assignment: Masao and Kayoko are hired to find a runaway boy, Shinya Morooka. On the way home with the boy, they witness the high-school baseball star Katsuhiko Morooka being burned to death by an arsonist, and the victim is Shinya's elder brother. Hours after the murder, the culprit leaves a suicide note and takes his own life; he turns out to have been a former teammate of the victim on the baseball team. As the investigation proceeds, a pharmaceutical company gradually comes to the surface. What connects the charred doll, the threatening letters, and the "perfect blue," called "the most beautiful poison in the world"? Is the motive for murder jealousy from the past, or does a more terrifying truth lie behind it? Through the eyes of a loyal and keen-scented dog, the novel observes how human greed tramples on a young man's sweat and dreams; the tone is light and bright, the characters vivid, yet it carries Miyabe's characteristic social critique and gentle compassion.