Merciful Rain

Name: Merciful Rain
ISBN: 9787559665966

柚月裕子 / 王丹Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. · ChinaJan 2024

4.0

Word count: 143K words
Chapters: 14
ISBN: 9787559665966

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Summary

Retired detective Kambara once handled a juvenile murder case sixteen years ago. Six-year-old Junko suddenly vanished on her way home from school. Police deployed a large force and finally, on a rainy day in the plum-rain season, found Junko's body; she had been raped and murdered. Police immediately identified the killer as Yaegashi Kazuo. Yaegashi was imprisoned for twenty years. Yet Kambara remained haunted by the case. Just after Kambara retired—sixteen years after Junko's murder—a similar crime occurred at the same location. This time the victim was a young girl named Okada Erina. She too was raped and murdered. The occurrence of this case inadvertently shattered the straw that had weighed on Kambara's heart for years. It turned out that when police arrested Yaegashi, they had inadvertently discovered an alibi. But by then the police had already announced the case to the media. Although they knew there were doubts about the case, because Yaegashi had a criminal record and was indeed a hidden offender, and in order to solve the case as quickly as possible while preserving the police's shining public image and credibility, Kambara's superior decided to let the error stand and ignore the matter. What Kambara never expected was that an identical case would occur sixteen years later. Relying on his intuition, Kambara suspected that the killer in this case was the same person as the killer sixteen years ago. By now, however, Kambara was retired. He had long since lost the right to participate in investigative work, so Kambara privately contacted Ogata Keisuke—formerly his subordinate and also his future son-in-law.

Editor's review

Yuzuki Yuko's *Jiu* (Compassionate Rain) is a work of social-school mystery fiction and the opening installment of her "Retired Detective Kamba" series. The novel won the 69th Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and its value lies not only in its ingenious puzzle design but also in its profound exploration of human nature, guilt, and redemption. The story begins with retired detective Kamba revisiting the scene of a young girl's abduction and murder he handled sixteen years earlier, only to become unexpectedly entangled in a current case with an eerily similar modus operandi. As the old and new cases intertwine, Kamba is forced to confront the errors and regrets that may have marked his career while pursuing the truth. Yuzuki's prose is cool and restrained; there are no heart-pounding chases, yet through delicate psychological portraiture and solid social observation she builds a quiet, tension-rich narrative atmosphere. Setting the case against the backdrop of an aging society, she uses the perspective of an ordinary old man stripped of the aura of authority to explore such weighty themes as the boundaries of justice, the reliability of memory, and whether time can truly heal wounds. Reading this book, one gains not only a tightly reasoned mystery but also a meditation on responsibility, conscience, and the dignity of life. For mystery readers who value literary depth and social concern, *Jiu* is undoubtedly a work not to be missed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy social-school mystery and care about the human and social dimensions behind a case
Readers who prefer the quiet, delicate narrative style of Japanese literature
Readers seeking an award-winning mystery for a deeper reading experience
Readers who appreciate stories centered on elderly protagonists with a distinctive perspective and emotional richness

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast pacing, intense action, and highly dramatic twists
Readers who want pure honkaku puzzle-solving and grow impatient with extensive social background and psychological description

Reading tips

Read in a relatively quiet environment to better immerse yourself in the novel's quiet, tension-rich atmosphere.
Pay attention to the subtle shifts in the protagonist Kamba's inner life; this is key to understanding the story's deeper themes.
After finishing, reflect on the complex real-world meanings of "justice" and "redemption"; you may find it rewarding.

About the publisher

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1993

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher known for its literature and history titles, with 2,065 books in the collection. Its publishing covers foreign literature, contemporary Chinese prose and essays, history, folk literature, and cultural books. Its list ranges from Sima Qian's complete edition of the Records of the Grand Historian to foreign classics such as The Book of Disquiet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Snow Country, The Stranger, and Jean-Christophe, as well as modern Chinese works including Teahouse and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. Its authors and translators include Yasunari Kawabata, Fernando Pessoa, Erich Maria Remarque, Jin Xinyi, Zhou Miao, and Chen Chao. Public information is limited, but its catalogue reflects a balance between Chinese and foreign literary classics and historical and cultural works.

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FAQ

Is *Jiu* a typical honkaku mystery?

Not entirely. It leans more toward social-school mystery. Although the case itself is logically clear, the work's focus is on using the case to explore social issues and portray characters' psychology and emotions; it is strong in literary and intellectual terms.

Will not having read other books in the series affect my reading?

Not at all. *Jiu* is the first book in the series, and the story is self-contained and complete—an excellent entry point.

Is the book's tone very dark and heavy?

The story involves crime and past trauma, and its tone is serious and contemplative, but the author's touch carries a restrained warmth and deep compassion for the characters. It does not merely dwell on darkness, and the ending leaves a glimmer of warmth and hope.

Comments

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About the author

柚月裕子 Author

Yuzuki Yuko is an author known for writing mystery and detective fiction. Publicly available information about her is currently limited, and what can be confirmed centers mainly on her creative direction and her works. One title by her is included in the collection, namely Jiu (Compassionate Rain). Judging by its common classification, her writing falls within the mystery and detective field, a genre that typically revolves around the progression of a case, the laying out of clues, and the portrayal of characters' psychology, with attention to building suspense and controlling pace. As the representative work currently available, Jiu (Compassionate Rain) is the main entry point for understanding her writing style. Owing to the limited materials, her personal background, chronology of works, and complete bibliography remain unclear, making a full assessment of her creative development difficult. Based on the existing clues, Yuzuki Yuko's work is concentrated within the mystery and detective genre, and readers can use Jiu (Compassionate Rain) to appreciate her approach to plot organization and atmosphere, with room for further study as more materials become available.

王丹 Author

Wang Dan: publicly available information is limited, and no confirmed details about nationality, dates of birth and death, or educational background are available. Judging from the 19 works held in the collection, Wang Dan's writing and editorial work spans a wide range of fields—culture, world history, art, mystery and detective fiction, popular science, and inspirational personal growth—showing broad and varied interests. Representative works include the academically oriented two-volume study The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, "Envoys' Records," and East Asian Historical and Cultural Studies; general-audience titles such as A Complete History of Japanese Thought and A Minimalist History of Western Humanities: Columbia University's Humanities Course; and works reflecting an interest in children's science and visual art, such as Children's Forest: Nature Stories for Kids and Memories of Chang'an: An Animation Art Setting Collection. Wang Dan has also written the mystery novel Mercy Rain and guides on applying to graduate school. Overall, Wang Dan comes across as a compiler-author who addresses different readerships and balances scholarship with popularization.