Guilt

Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate the death of a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, whose body was found on a Central Tokyo riverbank. His investigation leads him to Tatsuro Kuraki, who claims to have had limited contact with Shiraishi — but, to the investigators' surprise, Kuraki not only confesses to the lawyer's murder, but also to another one from thirty years ago, for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. This brings unexpected resolution to two cases, but there is one problem: to Detective Godai the confession rings false.

Godai is not the only one who cannot accept Kuraki's explanation of both murders and his professed motives. The confessed murderer's son and the victim's daughter both feel strongly that the act and the motive claimed are untrue.

As Godai investigates further, he discovers that the relationship between the murder from thirty years ago and the recent one is complex, raising multi-faceted questions of guilt and innocence. Guilt is a rich novel about crime and its aftereffects on those left behind by both the victim and perpetrator, a twisting, compelling work that will surprise and astonish.

A tour de force crime novel from one of the international masters of the form, where a simple murder case questions the simple notions of good and evil, guilt and redemption.