The Killer

浜尾四郎Mar 2025

3.6

Word count: 182K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

At the Akagawa family mansion, a mysterious threatening letter arrives—and with it, a chain of horrifying murders! Detective Shintaro Fujieda, asked by the eldest daughter Hiroko to investigate, has barely begun when he learns that Mrs. Tokuko Akagawa has been poisoned. Next, the second son Shuntaro and the maid Yasuko Sada are killed almost simultaneously, leaving crime scenes both bloody and bizarre.

Another famous detective, Eizo Hayashida, is also on the case, apparently eager to pit himself against Shintaro Fujieda. The killer, far from satisfied, keeps adding new victims, including a naked woman found dead in a bathtub... What secret is the Akagawa family hiding? Who is the killer, and what is the motive? Can Shintaro Fujieda ultimately defeat Eizo Hayashida?

Editor's review

The Murderer is a long-form detective novel by Shiro Hamao with a strong honkaku flavor. The story opens with a threatening letter to the Akagawa family, then rapidly piles on a poisoning, a double murder, and the death of a naked woman in a bathtub, giving the reader almost no time to catch their breath. Its most notable feature is the two-detective setup: Shintaro Fujieda is asked to step in, and Eizo Hayashida appears midway, their private rivalry adding a layer of gamesmanship to the investigation and forcing readers to keep revising their guess at the killer. The crime scenes are bloody and grotesque, the atmosphere leaning toward old-fashioned haunted-mansion horror; a closed setting, family secrets, and serial killings interlock in a classic honkaku puzzle structure. A caveat: the book was written in an earlier era, and some of its handling of personal relationships and female characters bears the marks of its time, which may feel distant to today's reader. Best enjoyed as genre entertainment—read in one sitting over an evening, its suspense works better than in stops and starts.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Honkaku mystery readers who enjoy serial killings in a closed setting
Suspense fans drawn to two rival detectives competing on the same case
Readers of genre fiction curious about early Japanese detective novels
Casual readers who like to finish a suspense novel in one evening

Not a good fit for

Readers sensitive to graphic crime-scene descriptions
Mystery readers who prefer social-school depth in motive and human nature
Readers expecting rigorous modern forensic and scientific detail

Reading tips

Read as continuously as possible; setting the book aside makes it easy to lose track of characters and the timeline.
Jot down the order of the killings and who was present at each, so you can reason along.
Watch where the two detectives disagree—that is often where the author plants misdirection and the way in.
After finishing, revisit the threatening letter and early suspicions in the first half to test whether the clues hold up.

版权信息
美丽的委托人
广子的讲述
第一个悲剧
围绕悲剧的人们
秋川一家与惨剧
怀疑谁？
第二个惨剧
惨死的尸体
藤枝的观察
杀人交响曲
嫌疑人
风暴前夕
第三个悲剧
浴室中的新娘
广子的推理
警部的逻辑
第四个惨剧
意外的事实
最后的悲剧
藤枝的说明
命运的相似三角形
终局

FAQ

I haven't read any other works by Shiro Hamao. Can I start with this one?

Yes. It is a complete standalone novel whose characters and plot do not depend on other works, so you can read it without confusion. If you like the storytelling, you can seek out the author's other books afterward.

Is there a lot of gore, and will it affect the reading experience?

The crime scenes do include fairly explicit horror and bloodshed, especially the bathtub scene, which is grimly atmospheric. But the focus remains on the puzzle and the detective work, and the gore does not pervade the whole book. Those sensitive to such descriptions should choose with care.

With two detectives on the case, do the clues become confusing?

The large cast takes some effort to keep straight at first, but the division of labor and rivalry between the two detectives is precisely the book's structural highlight. Keep track of what each detective knows and concludes, and the confusion gradually turns into the pleasure of solving the puzzle.

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About the author

浜尾四郎 Author

Hamō Shirō is a Japanese author of mystery fiction. The Chinese book database currently holds six of his works, including Did He Kill Someone?, The Murderer: Selected Masterpieces of Japanese Mystery Fiction, Whom Did He Kill?, The Rights of the Dead, A Collection of Hamō Shirō's Short Mystery Stories, and The Murderer. Public information about his dates of birth and death, nationality, education, and personal history is limited; what can be confirmed at present is mainly the nature of his works. His novels are generally categorized as suspense and mystery fiction and foreign literature, and often revolve around murders, the identity of the killer, and disputes over rights behind a death. The plots carry the puzzle-mystery flavor common to early Japanese detective fiction, and the recurring image of "murder" in the titles reflects his sustained attention to criminal puzzles and the darker sides of human nature. These short stories and selected works offer Chinese readers a point of reference for understanding the origins of Japanese mystery fiction.