Debut novel of Soji Shimada, a Japanese musician and writer on astrology who is best known as the author of over 100 mystery novels, “The Tokyo Zodiac Murders” was also a best seller and was nominated for the Edogawa Rampo Prize for mystery novels.

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The book unfolds in different chapters but begins in 1936, with the letter of Heikichi Umezawa, a painter and womanizer who was obsessed with astrology and alchemy. All of his “capacities” are included in the letter, but also his absurd will to create Azoth, the perfect being by using parts from the women around him, namely 2 daughters, 2 of his 3 stepdaughters and his 2 nieces. However, as the story unfolds, we learn that Umezawa was murdered, with the same thing happening to Kazue Kanemoto, the only one of his stepdaughters not included in the creation of Azoth, and later on,...