Born in 1948 in Hiroshima prefecture, Soji Shimada has been dubbed the 'God of Mystery' by international audiences. A novelist, essayist and short-story writer, he made his literary debut in 1981 with The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, which was shortlisted for the Edogawa Rampo Prize. Blending classical detective fiction with grisly violence and elements of the occult, he has gone on to publish several highly acclaimed series of mystery fiction, including the casebooks of Kiyoshi Mitarai and Takeshi Yoshiki.
In 2009 Shimada received the prestigious Japan Mystery Literature Award in recognition of his life's work.

LOUISE HEAL KAWAI has translated around a dozen works of Japanese literature, including works by Seicho Matsumoto and Taeko Tomioka. In 2018, her translation of Seventeen
by Hideo Yokoyama was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. Her most recent works for Pushkin are the classic locked-room murder mysteries Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada and Seishi Yokomizo's The Honjin Murders. Louise lives in Japan's Kanto region.