The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows (Paperback)

~ Rampo Edogawa (Author), Ian Hughes (Translator), Mark Schreiber (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Two Golden Age classics from Japan's grand master of mystery. A master criminal -- The Black Lizard, as deadly as she is beautiful -- wagers all in an epic battle with a master detective.

In Beast in the Shadows, a mystery writer vows to protect the woman he secretly loves, but disaster strikes when he turns detective himself.

From the Publisher

Edogawa Rampo (pseudonym of Hirai Taro, 1894-1965) is the acknowledged grand master of Japan's golden age of crime and mystery fiction. In the early part of his career, he created the Japanese gothic mystery, developing the work of Edgar Allan Poe and related nineteenth century writers in a distinctly Japanese form. This part of his career coincided with a great flowering in Japanese literature and culture, a relatively free and uninhibited popular press being a defining feature of the times. In this context, Rampo's dark vision and extravagant grotesquery found an avid readership, and had a profound influence on other writers. Public morals tightened in the years leading up to Japan's Asian and Pacific wars, and censorship was tight in the war years. Rampo's early work fell out of favour, and he turned to adventure stories with detective characters in leading roles. After the war, he concentrated on stories for young readers, and on developing the Japan Association of Mystery Writers. The Edogawa Rampo Prize, originally endowed by Rampo himself, is awarded annually to the finest work of the year in the mystery genre. It is the most important prize of its type in Japan. Edogawa Rampo -- whose name is meant to be read as a punning reference to 'Edgar Allan Poe' -- remains popular and influential in Japan. His work remains in print, in various different editions, and his stories provide the background for a steady stream of film, television, and theatrical adaptations.

Kurodahan Press takes great pleasure in presenting the first English language translations of these two short novels. We hope to bring more of Edogawa Rampo's unique brand of crime fiction to life in English, and there is no better place to start than in the cavernous hideaway of the Black Lizard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kurodahan Press (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4902075210
• ISBN-13: 978-4902075212
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #539,492 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and Rare, January 25, 2006

By	M. Baugh "pulpreader" (Sedona, arizona USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first became of Edogawa Rampo a few years ago when a fascinating movie titles "The Mystery of Rampo" was distributed in the US. It used the character of Rampo (a pseudonym for Hirai Taro), a real author who is often considered the father of the Japanese detective story.

This is amazing stuff! Though he was an admirer of western authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Maurice Leblanc, Rampo is no mere imitator. He is an original writer with a wicked sense of humor and an eye for the bizarre.

"Black Lizard" is the most famous of the Akechi Kogoro novels. Akechi is a dilletante-detective character. He is often called the 'Japanese Sherlock Holmes' but Akechi is far from being a stereotyped Holmes clone. He has the requisite detective skills like deductive reason, jujutsu, mastery of disguises. He can also be quite ruthless and mercurial and brings a perverse sense of humor to his adventures.

The titular Black Lizard is a beautiful female crime boss with a perverse streak of her own. She loves to collect beautiful things, both gemstones and pretty people who she has stuffed and mounted to preserve their beauty. Her relationship with the detective is the usual matching of wits but is overshadowed by a growing sexual tension between the two.

It is a strange and fascinating read.

BEAST IN THE SHADOWS is a Poe-esque story of love and obsession. A mystery novelist is attracted to a beautiful woman only to learn that she is being stalked by her old lover, a horror novelist who has gone off the deep end. At least that the way it seems, the novel is wonderfully ambiguous. It reminds me a little of Henry James' TURN OF THE SCREW the way it makes you wonder if even the narrator is what he seems.

Rampo's quirky humor comes out in this story as well. Both the narrator and the unseen stalker seem to be alter egos of his. This gives him an opportunity to lampoon his own stories and his image as a writer.

Both stories are intense, often lurid, and unexpectedly funny. I recommend them highly!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two real gems from Japan's grand master of mystery fiction, November 29, 2008

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I must say it was quite the treat to introduce myself to the acknowledged master of Japanese crime fiction, Hirai Taro, who lived from 1894 to 1965 and wrote under one of the greatest pen names ever devised. Edogawa Rampo, pronounced a certain way, bears an unmistakable resemblance to a certain Western master of detective fiction. Indeed, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the works of Poe, as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, were translated into Japanese as early as 1887 and 1899, respectively. One tends to think of Japan as quite insulated culturally in the years leading up to World War II, but Edogawa Rampo was writing Western-influenced crime stories as early as 1922. This period preceding the oncoming war years was, in fact a rather free and unrestricted golden age in Japanese literature, as the somewhat salacious character of Rampo's stories can attest to. Rampo's later fiction had to be toned down considerably, but his influence on future generations of Japanese mystery writers was already assured. Today, every Japanese mystery writer's ultimate goal is to win the Edogawa Rampo Prize for the year's best novel. Sadly, though, most of Rampo's work still awaits translation into English - that's why it was such a treat to read these two early novels from Japan's grand master of the genre.

The Black Lizard pits Rampo's master detective, Akechi Kogoro, against the seductive wiles of a female jewel-thief extraordinaire. The Black Lizard is an infinitely cunning adversary and master of disguise who not only challenges Kogoro's career but secures for herself a front-row seat for all the festivities of his planned downfall. Her ultimate prize is the fabulous jewel known as the Star of Egypt, which she plans to get in the form of ransom for its owner's daughter Sanae. With Kogoro putting his very career on the line to guard Sanae as well as the priceless jewel, the Black Lizard delights in the challenge. Brilliant moves by the two adversaries make this a most entertaining read, although I must admit I was taken somewhat aback by some surprisingly grotesque aspects of the Black Lizard's nature revealed toward the end.

Beast in the Shadows was much more to my liking, though, as it is much more reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe with its many dark twists and turns. The story ostensibly pits two mysteries writers against each other, with the narrator coming to the defense of a beautiful married woman who claims a former lover is threatening her. That former lover is another acclaimed mystery writer who seemingly disappeared several months earlier. But is he really the "beast in the shadows" spying on and threatening this unfortunate woman? This story is chock full of twists and turns, all of them processed through the mind of an imaginative mystery writer who ends up solving this particular case more than once. There is a surprisingly grotesque aspect to one facet of the story which I found somewhat disturbing, but Rampo succeeds masterfully at keeping a complicated story from unraveling prematurely at any point.

These two short novels are quite different from one another. The Black Lizard has you asking how on a number of occasions, but Beast in the Shadows covers the gamut of who, what, how, when, and why. Both works are quite capable of whetting your appetite for more of the same. I had no knowledge of the long and rich tradition of detective fiction in Japan, but now I stand among what must surely be a growing number of Western readers eager to sample more of the wares of Edogawa Rampo and his Japanese peers. All we need is someone to translate and publish them -- let's hope Kurodahan Press keeps up the good work.

4.0 out of 5 stars Gothic mysteries from Japan, October 11, 2009

By	J. I. Uitto (Brooklyn, NY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Edogawa Rampo (nom de plume of Hirai Taro, 1894-1965) was one of the first mystery writers in Japan. He took an early liking to Edgar Allan Poe (hence the pseudonym: if you pronounce it fast, it sounds like the name of his idol--believe me!) and started writing detective stories with a gothic flavour. This book contains two of his famous novels, `The Black Lizard' and `Beast in the Shadows.' I didn't read both in one go; rather there were a couple of weeks and at least one book in between.

The Black Lizard is a well-known story in Japan and was made into a movie in the 1960s. When reading it, I did think it had plenty of cinematic potential. The story is not much of a mystery, per se. Rather it describes a battle of wits between a master detective and an (almost) equally brilliant criminal. The fact that the criminal happens to be a stunningly beautiful woman--and an exhibitionist at that, getting naked at any conceivable opportunity--seems to have been sensational in Japan of the past (I haven't been able to verify when the novel was first published). I didn't really like the novel and found the style of narration annoying (it is not a matter of the fluent translation of Ian Hughes, as he adheres closely to the original Japanese text). Yet, the gothic story has stayed with me for these several weeks since I read it.

Beast in the Shadows was, to me, a much better and suspenseful story. It had its twists that provided some surprises. Published originally in 1928, the piece was surprisingly modern. Like the story of the Black Lizard, this one too had a strong erotic charge. One cannot help detecting a certain misogynistic tendency in Edogawa Rampo's writing, though.

Both novels in the book are worth reading for people who are either fans of the history of detective writing or Japan itself.