1~34 … 421

Translator's Note … 422

Human justice began the moment the goddess of justice abandoned the scales.
A spectacular masquerade ball surrounding three murders and three mysteries.
Will the truth behind the mask ever be revealed?

Three murders occur in Tokyo.
The victims had two things in common: they were all stabbed in the chest in the same way, and they were all actually perpetrators.
The victims who were the perpetrators of past murders received absurdly light sentences compared to the crimes committed because they were juvenile offenders at the time of the crime, because they were young adults with a bright future ahead of them, and because the scope of punishment under the current law is narrow. They are now returning to society and living under a mask.
Eventually, the bereaved families are identified as their murderers, and the Metropolitan Police Department summons the three superintendents in charge of each case and orders a joint investigation.

Elite detective Kosuke Nitta and talented hotelier Naomi Yamagishi are reunited at Hotel Cortesia Tokyo to once again tackle a difficult mystery together because the bereaved families, who are potential suspects, have started making reservations for Christmas at the Hotel Cortesia Tokyo one by one.
Under the Metropolitan Police Department's belief that a fourth murder will definitely occur on Christmas Day, the police and hotel management mobilize three teams of investigators, each disguised as a hotelier, housekeeper, and frontman, to prevent another victim from being found, and stage a dangerous masquerade ball.
With Yamagishi's help, Nitta puts on the hotelier's clothes once again and wanders the long, labyrinthine hotel corridors in search of the real culprit...

Hotel Cortesia Tokyo, the setting for the entire series, is a gigantic masquerade ballroom that maximizes the anonymous spatial characteristics of the hotel.
In this place where you can enter under an alias and no one can disturb you once you lock the door, people each have their own past and story and try to release their long-standing feelings for someone.
The main character, Kosuke Nitta, is usually a tough detective, but inside the hotel, he puts on the mask of a hotelier who is more polite than anyone else in order to solve cases.


This new work is a special novel that melts the setting that encompasses the entire series into a timely message of "law and human justice," leaving readers pondering it long after they've closed the last page.
A criminal who assaulted a passerby to death but ended up in a juvenile detention center and had no criminal record because he was only 17 years old; a robber and murderer who broke into an empty house, strangled a housewife, and destroyed a family but was released with a light sentence because it was an accidental crime; a man who sexually abducted a minor and then spread revenge porn because she refused to date him, causing her to commit suicide, but received a suspended sentence because the legal punishment standards are vague.
In modern society, the law is more stringently adhering to the lines of the law in the face of multi-layered and diverse serious crimes.
So what will become of the minds of those who have suffered loss outside the bounds of the law?


Among the representative characters created by Keigo Higashino, the charming detective Kosuke Nitta, who has been particularly beloved by readers, solves the tangled mysteries surrounding this weighty subject with a lightheartedness as if dancing at a masquerade ball, together with his partner Naomi Yamagishi, a natural-born hotelier.
A series of twists and turns that will keep you glued to your seat, countless stories and hidden pasts, and above all, a thrilling pace that will keep you glued to the page until you close it.
This novel, which illuminates the serious and intimate themes of private revenge and human justice under the bright lights of a luxurious hotel on a splendid Christmas Eve, presents a powerful and impressive contrast that will allow us, living today, to once again look at the masks we each wear and the justice we each judge.

In an effort to discover what the bereaved families truly desire, the author may be showing how humans can be liberated from the pain of hatred by delving into the inner selves of not only the victims but also the perpetrators, that is, the criminals.
Only true atonement can save both the bereaved family and the criminal himself.
It was a story where the weight of Yoshimi Kamiya's words, "I waited for the time to forgive," really hit home.
_From the translator's note

Recommendation

It is the best masterpiece in the series.
This is literally the best novel in the Masquerade series.
This book is written to immerse the reader in the work's weighty themes.
Thanks to this book, I had a wonderful holiday.
_『Amazon Reader Reviews』

This work depicts life and death under the theme of mystery.
In particular, it realistically illuminates the true diversity of lifestyles.
Meanwhile, regarding the proposition that sparks ever-more heated debate in the internet community—“Does a person deserve to die?”—this novel goes beyond the question, “What would you do?” to encompass the philosophical perspective of “What would you do if you could be saved?”
However, I felt that it was an ambitious work that took a difficult direction without losing the fun of being an elite detective case.
Be sure to read it! _『Amazon Reader Reviews』

First of all, it is a book that you can read quickly.
As the types of murders change, the mystery continues to grow through the use of social media (anonymous social media, data-erasing social media, etc.).
It also addresses the question of what constitutes the right punishment, regardless of whether it is a mystery novel.
This work has even more special meaning after reading it so earnestly about the victims' surviving families.
_『Amazon Reader Reviews』