Kitsumori Koun's debut full-length mystery centers on the riddles surrounding the famed onnagata Sansei Sawamura Tanosuke and Kawanabe Kyosai's ghost painting, unfolding into a series of murders in the early Meiji kabuki world. Its interplay of obsession, stagecraft, and historical atmosphere makes it rewarding both as period fiction and as a classic mystery.

A tragic onnagata and a ghost painting draw a string of murders into early Meiji kabuki.