THE DARK RING OF MURDER

Three murders—the stabbing of a political philosophy professor at Kyonan University, the poisoning of a Tokyo songwriter, the hit-and-run death of a respected member of the National Diet—seem to have nothing to do with each other. But Chisako Tanaka, engaged to the political-science tutor who ascended to the vacant professorship at Kyonan, is worried that her fiancÇ, withdrawn ever since his stay in America, knows something about them—especially when she realizes that the mysterious woman she saw him with in two different airports knows even more. A fourth murder and an ingenious police theory will throw new light on the mystery, but Yamamura, in her first English translation, has some surprises still in reserve. Placidly written, with an elegant, improbable solution.