Mill House Murders

Deep in the mountains of Okayama stands the Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, who hides the injuries of an old accident behind a rubber mask and gloves.

Each year a small circle of visitors makes the pilgrimage to view his late father's paintings — but this year the ritual curdles into horror: two bodies are found, a guest vanishes, and a priceless painting disappears. One year on, the survivors gather again, and as a typhoon bears down with an uninvited stranger in tow, the dread returns.

Amateur detective Kiyoshi Shimada confronts a classic Japanese locked-room puzzle in the second of Yukito Ayatsuji's Bizarre House mysteries.