In book club thus far we had always chosen fiction books (Beautiful Ruins, Eleanor & Park, Gilead, Gone Girl, Will Grayson Will Grayson, The Cuckoo’s Calling, Code Name Verity, Leviathan, and Attachments to be exact!) It was decided that some non-fiction be thrown in the mix and this one was easy to agree on. Here’s the synopsis from its Goodreads page:
An incisive and compelling account of the case of Lucie Blackman. Lucie Blackman — tall, blonde, and 21 years old — stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000, and disappeared forever. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave.
The seven months inbetween had seen a massive search for the missing girl, involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, Australian dowsers and Lucie’s desperate, but bitterly divided, parents. As the case unfolded, it drew the attention of prime ministers and sado-masochists, ambassadors and con-men, and reporters from across the world. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult, or snatched by human traffickers? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? And what did her work, as a ‘hostess’ in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo, really involve?
Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, has followed the case since Lucie’s disappearance. Over the course of a decade, he has travelled to four continents to interview those caught up in the story, fought off a legal attack in the Japanese courts, and worked undercover as a barman in a Roppongi strip club. He has talked exhaustively to Lucie’s friends and family and won unique access to the Japanese detectives who investigated the case. And he has delved into the mind and background of the man accused of the crime — Joji Obara, described by the judge as ‘unprecedented and extremely evil’.
I had never read a true-crime novel before and I can totally understand now why this genre is so popular; although I think this book goes beyond the calling of a normal crime novel. That’s why I don’t hesitate to recommend this one: it’s not a serial tradeback read-and-throw-away novel, it’s an deep delve into the culture behind what happened to Lucie Blackman.
Every few pages I found myself thinking, and sometimes even saying out loud, “huh, I never knew that!” Parry found a way to make a case that was interesting, yet very slow-moving, pace quickly throughout his book so that you never wanted to put it down. With the style of a very experienced journalistic writer he gave you details but never made them boring, taught you something about a culture that’s every nuance of the word ‘foreign’ to me, and kept me guessing at where this true story was headed.
Although the crimes were extremely violent and sadistic, Parry handled well the delicate balance of giving the true and accurate story of brutal atrocities without neither sugarcoating nor exploiting. I don’t know how he did it, but now I’m worried that when I look for my next true-crime book it’s going to leave me sorely disappointed after PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS.
