"Butter"
The book cover is the colour of butter and just for good measure there's a cow there too. I was partly drawn to this novel by Asako Yuzuki because it is Japanese and I know so little about Japan. However, I had previously read three novels in translation by Haruki Murakami which I very much enjoyed. At the core of this work of fiction is a seed pod from reality - the strange case of Kanae Kijima, the Konkatsu Killer who was sentenced to death in 2010 for the killing of at least four men. By the way, she still languishes in a Tokyo jail as appeals follow appeals. There is little hard evidence to condemn her but a lot of intelligent supposition. The main protagonist in "Butter" is Rika Machita, a young journalist on a Tokyo lifestyle and news magazine. She manages to get an interview with Manako Kajii - the man killer - and this interest becomes increasingly obsessive. Asako Yuzuki Kajii had prepared fine meals for her alleged victims and food starts to play a m...