The Rope Artist

Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body-then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan''s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage which bears a complex cult ...

Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body-then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan''s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage which bears a complex cultural history of spirituality, torture, cleansing, and sacrifice. As Togashi, a junior member of the police force, investigates the murder of a kinbaku instructor, he finds himself unable to resist his own private transgressive desires. In contrast, Togashi''s Sherlock Holmesian colleague Hayama is morally upright to a fault, with a stalwart commitment to the truth and nearly superhuman powers of deduc