Offering a reading experience that is as eerie as it is unique, this magnificently macabre and fiendishly clever interactive Japanese mystery revolves around nine bizarre pictures full of clues.
A Japanese mystery horror bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective - from the Youtube sensation Uketsu
A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death. A child's disturbing picture of his home. A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments.
Each contains a chilling warning. Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.
Uketsu's eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 9781805335399
Number of pages: 240
Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
He's the biggest crime writer in Japan - now Uketsu's work is set to become a UK sensation... Strange Pictures is a collection of eerie mystery stories, ingeniously connected to each other in ways that only become apparent towards the end of the book... It is certainly an enjoyably discomfiting read: Uketsu has the ability to evoke a sense of mounting unease - Telegraph
A macabre, unsettling box of tricks - Guardian
A creepy little delight of a brainteaser... Innovative and a lot of fun - Observer
I loved it! It has the twists and fair-play style of a Golden Age whodunit, mixed with a wonderfully innovative use of illustrations. Delightfully macabre and fiendishly clever. Seemingly unconnected stories tie themselves into a complicated knot, which Uketsu masterfully unravels - G.T. Karber, author of 'Murdle'
Part Rubik's Cube, part Russian doll, part kaleidoscope and altogether irresistible. Strange Pictures is heady, giddy, genre-blurring stuff and so fizzy with invention and possibility that I almost pity the next novel I read - AJ Finn
This refreshingly original, eerie treat of a puzzle invites the reader to immerse themselves in the darkest of mysteries. So captivating I read it in a day. So disturbing I thought about it all night. Uketsu is a disrupter, the master of quiet horror - Janice Hallett, author of 'The Appeal'
Uketsu understands how to build slow dread in a way that keeps you captivated... I can confidently say that I've never read anything like 'Strange Pictures' before. Uketsu has crafted a unique and engaging novel that will appeal to those armchair detectives out there. The brightly packaged book gives way to a deep and twisty mystery that requires you to put your brain into action and pay close attention - Entertainment Focus
It reveals its structure slowly and teasingly. Cult appeal awaits it - Herald
A labyrinthine and multilayered horror mystery... The entire mystery is wonderfully complex and carefully crafted... This is a story where revelations and new questions wait around every corner, and Uketsu keeps readers guessing until the very end - The New York Times
A superlative puzzle made of multiple parts that interconnect in unexpected ways, told inventively through pictures and text. Every twist and turn steepens the sense of foreboding. Original, intricate and deeply unsettling. I've never read anything like it - Alex Pavesi, author of 'Eight Detectives'
Absolutely loved this clever little banger. An addictive murder mystery that unfolds like pointillism on the page: only when you reach the end, step back and view the bigger picture does each of its parts click into place. Exceptional! - Alice Slater, author of 'Death of a Bookseller'
Not many books come up with different concepts or moods to surprise me these days, but this patchwork of crime and horror from Japan certainly did... Think Manga meets Golden Age meets Murdle and more! Innovative it certainly is! - Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time
Uketsu makes a triumphant international debut with this eerie chiller...A series of delightfully creepy illustrations and diagrams and the interconnected stories of their creators [allow] the reader to play detective alongside the characters...but this book also proves greater than the sum of its visual tricks, with a surprisingly strong emotional core that will keep readers glued to the page until the unsettling conclusion. This intricate puzzle box is a must for horror fans - Publishers Weekly, starred review
The highly satisfying kind of puzzle that might send readers scrambling for pen and notebook to jot down the connections between characters and events... An engrossing mystery and suspense novel that comes to a deeply gratifying conclusion - Asian Review of Books
An eerie reading experience like we've never seen before - Shueisha News
An intricately woven, at times unsettling, but always mesmerising piece of work - Ian Moore, author of Death and Croissants
A terrifying sketch mystery in which nine bizarre pictures are intertwined and a terrifying truth emerges - Da Vinci Web
I inhaled this unique mystery from Japan... I couldn't put it down! So original!... The twists are so good. It made me gasp a few times when dots were connected! Loved this!! - Mitsy Bookstagram
A book like no other I've ever read... very engaging but with unpredictable plot twists... It's definitely a unique one that I think will shake the bookish world - whats.sophie.reading
I picked up this proof (thanks to Pushkin Press) during lunch and found myself completely absorbed by dinner—it truly is unputdownable. The stories read like captivating short tales, each one seamlessly coming... More
A really good murder mystery that was strung together through seemingly separate stories. I absolutely loved the creativity of this book and how separately the stories were so well written and intriguing but... More
Thank you to the publishers for this surprise book to review.
It claimed on the back of the book 'The Japanese mystery horror sensation and international bestseller'.
The horror element put me off a little...
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