TOKYO GOTHIC

Book excerpt: TOKYO NEON INFERNO. An eruption of madness and murder exposes a legacy of evil whose roots lie in an unspeakable atrocity perpetrated during the darkest chapter of Japanese history. Enlisting the aid of Yuki Horiuchi, a gifted young psychologist, Inspector Koichi Sakamoto investigates a wave of bizarre, ritualistic killings committed by a mysterious woman known only as Taro. Steeped in the esoteric symbolism of the occult, the inquiry uncovers a hidden world of secret societies, political conspiracy and horrific medical experiments. And when he finally discovers Taro's true identity Sakamoto is drawn into a dramatic confrontation with the killer and the sinister forces that have driven her fatal crusade -- a bloodbath of death and desire ... and the ultimate realisation of his own inevitable fate. TOKYO GOTHIC combines the subversive conventions of the Japanese ero-guru style with elements of European grand guignol to create a startling and flamboyant tour de force of explicit cross-cultural horror.