Asako Yuzuki was inspired by the sensational real-life case of the ‘Konkatsu Killer’ when she wrote up this study of a suspected killer, of the possible motive behind the killings—if killings they were—and of several things that ail Japanese society in modern times, spreading disaffection and maybe violence, too. Manako Kajii is in a Tokyo prison, awaiting the retrial of a serial murder case where she is the prime and only suspect. She had been seen last with all three of the dead men, and had been their regular companion for a brief while before their sudden deaths.
Rika Machida is a journalist who feels she could scoop out a new angle to the case and asks to be assigned to meet Kajii. Who, being the focused object of as much fat-shaming (she is a curvaceous woman, “over 70 kgs” in a land where slenderness is much prized) as she is for the murders she has purportedly committed, does not want to meet any member of the media. When eventually Rika gets to meet Kajii for a series of regular sessions, she is pulled into a whirlpool, into the world Kajii used to live in, a world of luxe goods and luxe food.
Kajii was a very good cook, it was one of the ways she lured men into relationships, and when she realises the journalist has a near-nil interest in food and the making of food, she makes it conditional that Rika start to cook and eat the food Kajii herself likes and recommends, if they have to continue their meetings. Rika slowly gets into and gives the reader a lo.