Pathologist Ando is at a low point in his life. His small son's death from drowning has resulted in the break-up of his marriage and he is suffering from traumatic recurrent nightmares. Work is his only escape, and his depressing world of loneliness and regret is shaken up when an old rival from medical school, Ryuji Takayama, turns up on his slab ready to be dissected.
Through Ryuji's bizarre demise Ando learns of a series of mysterious deaths that seem to have been caused by a sinister virus. From beyond the grave Ryuji appears to be leading Ando towards a suspicious videotape - could this hold the answer to the riddle of the strange deaths? Or is it merely the first clue? When Ando meets Mai, an attractive former student of Ryuji's, his desire to solve the puzzle transcends curiosity and becomes a matter of life or death.
***
[Mitsuo Ando awoke from a dream in which he was sinking into the sea]
***
(HarperCollins, 5 June 2009, first published 1995, 304 pages, ebook from @AmazonKindle)
***
***
I expected this book to be much the same as its predecessor, Ring. I got something much, much better. This book picks up pretty much straight after the first book ended with Ryuji who died at the end of the book turning up on the mortuary slab of an old friend. That's when things get really strange and OTT and WTF. Ando finds something downright weird in Ryuji's body which leads to even more weirdness. I've seen the American movies and expected this to be similar to the second movie. It couldn't be more different, which is a good thing as I had no idea where the book was going to go. I didn't find Spiral to be scary as such but downright bizarre and creepy. I look forward to reading the final book.