The Master Key

The prizewinning debut mystery from one of Japan's best-loved crime writers.

The K Apartments for Ladies are occupied by over a hundred unmarried women, once young and lively, now grown and old - and in some cases, evil.

Their residence conceals a secret, a secret connecting the unsolved kidnapping in 1951 of four-year-old George Kraft to the clandestine burial of a child's body in the basement bath-house. So, when news comes that the building must be moved to make way for a road-building project, more than one tenant waits with apprehension for the grisly revelation that will follow. Then the master key is lost, stolen and re-stolen, and suddenly no-one feels safe.

Fiendish intrigue, double identity and an ingenious plot make this a thriller worthy of comparison with the work of P.D. James.