Ending a bit off, but a cool police procedural. ( )

Translated from Japanese, set in Tokyo. A female motorcycle cop faces prejudices from colleagues during a bizarre murder investigation, which soon turns even more bizarre as they discover that several murders have been committed by a trained wolf-dog. This is a very memorable and intriguing story. Highly recommended. ( )

More of a character study than a crime novel, Nonami's Otomichi is a female detective forced to partner up with a misogynistic old-school cop during a citywide manhunt. The killer has used both combustible materials and a mysterious dog to track down and kill several people for reasons as yet unknown, and Otomichi must tolerate work-related discrimination, family issues, the memory of her recent divorce and the pressures of a grueling investigation to uncover the truth.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are all flawed but manage to keep from becoming static, and even the grumpy old cop grew on me by the end. The methods and reasoning behind the murders (and even the victims themselves) seem almost incidental by the conclusion, vehicles used to cultivate character growth, but it didn't really seem to matter. The cops and criminals themselves are the story, and the dog one of the most interesting characters in a crime book in years. ( )

Do fire extinguishers and sprinklers not exist in 1990's Japan?! ( )