Demon Marks is a short-story mystery collection by Seichō Matsumoto, a master of Japanese social-school mystery. Published in 2003 by Zhuhai Publishing House as part of the Seichō Matsumoto Detective Mystery Series, it was translated by Ru Shunzheng and runs about 120,000 Chinese characters. The book turns its eye to a peculiar breed of people spawned by the rapid advance of material civilization: members of a drug-addiction "Pill Lovers' Club"; a man who uses a camera in place of his eyes to see the world; an office clerk who cannot function without a timetable; a young woman who willingly lives with her kidnapper; a retired man obsessed with climbing Japan's Hundred Famous Mountains; a wife divorced because she insisted on "disinfecting her husband's body"; a girl who trusts the internet and runs away from home... Each is firmly in the grip of an extreme habit or fixation. Their ways of life seem absurd, yet behind them often lie one or even several murder cases and layer upon layer of concealed dark secrets. Unlike medieval tales of humans and monsters living side by side, Matsumoto writes about people in contemporary society who are "monstrous in themselves." He is not content with constructing and solving puzzles; through the detective's investigative clues he cuts open modern people's loneliness, anxiety, and pathological desires, asking just how far modern civilization has alienated human nature. The book consists of eight independent short stories: "The Pill Fiend," "The Camera Fiend," "The Marriage Fiend," "The Time Slave," "The Siren," "The Mountain Fiend," "The Clean Freak," and "The Telecom Man." They can be read separately or joined into a pathological portrait of the contemporary urban psyche—chilling to read and hard to shake off.
Zhuhai Publishing House focuses on youth literature, modern romance, and social novels, and its 25 titles in the catalog show a clear orientation toward younger readers. Representative works include Mo Xiaoba's Twelve Midsummer (Part Two) and Xin Tang Mina's emotional series linked by the character "Na": Na's Little Pain, Na's Love Affairs, Na's Phantom, Na's Yearning, and Na's Disposition, along with titles such as Goodbye, Aurora. Beyond literature, the press also publishes food and lifestyle books such as Homebody Dessert Workshop, as well as otherworld fantasy and general biography titles. Its collaborating authors include Chong Xi, Wang Hehe, Zhuiyue Zhuhua, and Han Shi. Public information about its full publishing history and catalog system is limited; the above is based only on the titles held in our catalog.
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