empty cross

Translator's Note

Losing a loved one
The beginning of a never-ending pain

One day, an ordinary man's world is shattered.
Office worker Nakahara is faced with an unbelievable tragedy that unfolds at home while his wife is out for a while.
His young daughter Manami lost her life at the hands of robbers.
The culprit who killed a child while trying to steal just a few tens of thousands of yen was eventually arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.
But even after the sentence is executed, nothing is over.
The dead do not return, and those left behind fall into deeper darkness.

The loss was so great that the couple's relationship was irreparable, and they broke up.
But as time passes, the question remains in Nakahara's mind: 'Why is it still so painful?'
If punishing a murderer in the name of law does not heal the wounds, what is justice?
Who will have to live their whole lives carrying the burden of guilt: the perpetrator or the victim's surviving family?
What on earth is 'atonement' if not time spent in prison?

“The Empty Cross” begins with these questions.
Rather than simply reenacting a criminal incident, it stares into the abyss between those who have been lost and those who are left behind, and persistently delves into the weight of moral responsibility that human beings must bear.

Another murder that breaks the silence
Completely different but connected events

After her daughter's death, Nakahara barely managed to survive.
Time passed, but the wounds did not fade at all.
And then one day, detective Sayama comes back.
His wife, Sayoko, was murdered by someone on the street.
Faced with the death of someone who once shared the same pain, he is once again confronted with his past.
“I think it was a good decision to get a divorce.
“If I hadn’t, I would have become a bereaved family member again.” He said that, but his words were entangled with indelible fatigue, despair, and inexplicable emotions.

But Sayoko's death was not a simple incident.
She faced the events she had experienced head-on while writing a manuscript titled “Violence Called Abolition of the Death Penalty” during her lifetime.
Having concluded that the death penalty for criminals was not a true solution, she sought to re-examine the nature of law, justice, and atonement.
And in the process, I think I was getting closer to some truth that had not been revealed.
As the investigation progresses, strange pieces are revealed.
Circumstances that make it difficult to view this as a simple random crime, unexpected relationships discovered around Sayoko, and invisible clues connecting past and present events.

Nakahara had to go back to 'that day' again.
Memories he wanted to forget, anger and guilt he thought he had buried, begin to consume his life again.
There is only one question left for him.
Could it be that the incident that I thought was truly over never ended in the first place?

On the road to truth
Who can we judge?

The investigation ends up taking increasingly unexpected turns.
The truth revealed through the intertwining of past and present events shakes our concept of justice.
An apology letter from the criminal's family, an unexpected person trying to explain the defendant's circumstances, and the conflicting wills of the criminal and those who want to forgive him.
All these puzzles are intricately intertwined on the boundaries of one person's life and death, and of human-made laws and emotions.

"The Hollow Cross" is not simply a mystery that reveals the motive and culprit of a crime.
This novel pushes the question of what it means for humans to judge humans to the limit.
What is justice, and where does revenge end?
How can atonement be achieved if not through time in prison?
And in the end, whose cross will those left behind have to bear?

Through this work, Keigo Higashino once again raises the deepest and most painful questions of human society.
And the answer to that question will be completed in the heart of each and every reader of this novel.
It will leave you thinking long after you've closed the last page.
What is true atonement?
Who can judge whom?
Who is it that lives carrying the cross?
"The Empty Cross" never lets that question go easily.