I almost didn't read this because it opens with a manifesto of astrology-obsessed artist Heikichi Umezawa, detailing his plan to murder six women and use them to assemble the perfect woman, and I didn't need to read that. But when chapter two picks up, 40 years have passed and you find out that before he could commit his murders, Umezawa was killed in a studio whose only door was locked from the inside. But someone else has killed and dismembered the women just as he'd described, and the case has never been solved.

This is the first of Shimada's books featuring Kiyoshi Mitarai, a Holmes-esque fortune teller who in the present has been approached by a client with new information related to the unsolved murders. He and his friend, illustrator Kazumi Ishioka (the Watson character), decide to look into the case and attempt to succeed where many have failed before. This story is absolutely captivating, and I had a lightbulb moment when the puzzle pieces started to click into place. The solution is both ingenious and satisfying.