Evildoer
(Akunin)

FRENCH / Gérard Siary 

RUSSIAN / Ekaterina Tarasova

Asahi Shimbunsha (2007)

Rights Sold(This Title,Other Languages):French

Yuichi Shimizu was a young construction worker living in Nagasaki city. He strangled a woman named Yoshino Ishibashi, an insurance saleswoman, whom he met through an online dating site. The police first suspected a college student from a wealthy family named Masuo of the incident because the victim had implied to her colleagues that he had been her boyfriend. However, based on the statements made by Masuo and eyewitnesses, the police began to consider Yuichi as the prime suspect. Why on earth did Yuichi commit such a crime? He has a quiet nature and is not an "evildoer" who is likely to insult or harm others. He became a fugitive and continued to escape with another woman he met online named Mitsuyo Magome. Yuichi and Mitsuyo were strongly drawn to each other, and it was a true love that grew between them. However, they were doomed to follow a tragic path. What was the relationship between the victimizer, Yuichi, and the victim, Yoshino? The author is meticulous in writing about the background of the crime and experiences of the character's families and their sentiments. This is a crime novel, which poses the question, "who is the real evildoer?"

The Akutagawa Prize-winning author made a new departure by writing this novel, which was serialized in a newspaper in 2006 and published in a book in 2007.