People Who Eat Darkness

Lucie Blackman—tall, blond, twenty-one years old—stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie’s desperate parents. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, followed the case from the beginning. Over ten years, as the trial dragged on, he traveled to four continents to interview those connected with the story, assiduously followed the court proceedings, and won unique access to the Japanese detectives who investigated the case. Ultimately he earned the respect of the victim’s family and delved deep into the mind and background of the man accused of the crime: Joji Obara. The result is a book at once thrilling and revelatory.