Rach's Reading Club 2024-And Beyond!

The Spider Man

Edogawa Ranpo was a pen name for a Japanese author who had a great interest in Western Detective fiction. If you don't already know why he chose that pen name, try saying it out loud a few times and it should suggest a famous American author to you.

Anyway, Ranpo's novel The Spider Man(no relation to the Marvel superhero) is a suspenseful Detective/Horror story set in Japan. It revolves around an evil man who lures young girls to his residence where he dismembers them and does artistic things with the bodies.

An armchair named Kuroyanagi thinks he can catch the Spider Man. He is assisted by a young man named Nozaki who falls in love with one of the Spider Man's prospective victims.

If this all sounds a little unoriginal, well it is at times, but there are twists including one which is so shocking it's unbelievable. I'll just say that one of the above mentioned characters is not who they seem to be.

I found this edition of the book very readable whether because of Ranpo's literary talents or because of the translator, Alexis Brown.

It's definitely worth a read.