But I’m not done yet! A couple more chapters to go.
Will she find love (or any kind of emotion)? Will Isobe date a serial killer? What happened to our good doctor? Will there be any more victims until the end of the book? Any more suicide attempts? Any more hilariously bad talk shows? 
Not just in Japanese media. He was my main suspect but just based on tropes. I didn’t see anything in the book specifically pointing to him. 
All done! The ending felt a bit long to me after everything was revealed, but that was probably because I didn’t want to leave it for another day and obstinately read on.
Very enjoyable read, thanks @cat for recommending it!
I wasn’t specifically looking for tropes (never do), just things that felt off. And while there were a few things off about the profiler, I was too stuck on my idea that this all couldn’t have been a coincidence, and that someone had been following and copying the scissor man all along. At least I guessed him before he was named.
I’m also a terrible person, because I loved the cynical humour, all the deadpan violence descriptions, the unemotional suicide attempts, and the bloodbath at the end (while worrying about staining the sweater). I was actually chuckling through much of it. Horrible, horrible person.
This part felt a bit vague. Was it a real doctor? Another hallucination? It did feel like it might be her father. In any case, I love how she thought she was fat and plain and everyone is impressed by her beauty, and how she says she’s dumb but -as the doctor mostly- keeps having intellectual conversations of which she claims to understand nothing. The book really played a lot with perceptions - of others and of ourselves.
Does anyone know if the author was male or female, by the way? Is it clear from the name?
By the way, what would you all think if I used this book for my “set in a work place” bingo square? Not a classic work place book, but a lot of scenes did take place at work, I feel.
The name sounds male to me, and googling I get hits for it being a boy’s name. Chinese Wikipedia also has a picture of a man, but oddly Japanese Wikipedia doesn’t.
Most of it took place at some workplace or another! 
The name was a pen-name anyways according to Wikipedia: 生前は覆面作家だったが、死後、本名：田波正と発表された。
I could not find anything definite on this name, but I can ask a Japanese friend later, if you’d like.
It’s not terribly important, just curiosity, but I’d be interested if you could. I admit both the pen name and real name sound probably male. And of course, if the photo on the Chinese Wikipedia is the correct one (and why wouldn’t it?), we already have an answer anyway. 
I don’ t think there is a female reading for a standalone 正
So just based on given name, he has to have been male.
But darn he died young. 
Probably uncommon, but:
The cover has the reading Syuno Masayuki and Masayuki is a male name.
I didn’t realize they had already passed, though! 
I was curious about their other books, since the cover illustrations are somewhat scary so I wondered if horror vibes were in store. 
It’s also a pen name, so on its own it doesn’t mean much. But in combination with the real name (and photo), I’d say there’s probably no doubt.
Ah right, that’s why we were discussing pen names. 
I guess reading comprehension in English isn’t my strong suit.
Which one? They all look more or less like ハサミ男 to me, and there weren’t any horror vibes at all in this one, I thought.
I might be interested in reading more at some point in any case.
Specifically 美濃牛 and 黒い仏 which seem to be a detective series. 美濃牛 has two different covers, and the old one is particularly weird. 
Forgot to reply to this earlier but 
みのうし → Minotaur kinda makes me laugh
The summary though:
病を癒す力を持つ「奇跡の泉」があるという亀恩洞（きおんどう）は、別名を〈鬼隠れの穴〉といい、高賀童子（こうがどうじ）という牛鬼が棲むと伝えられていた。運命の夜、その鍾乳洞前で発見された無惨な遺体は、やがて起こる惨劇の始まりに過ぎなかった。古今東西の物語の意匠と作家へのオマージュが散りばめられた、精密で豊潤な傑作推理小説。（講談社文庫）
@omk3 if this has an ebook you may have to read it, it has a hole
Not only a hole, but a hole that possibly has some kind of oni 妖怪 being?! It’s meant for omk!
Added it to wishlist. It’s stupidly expensive for an older book, but sales and promotions are there for a reason. I read interesting reviews about it too. Like:
殊能将之らしく，深く暗い情景の中コメディタッチもあり，普通の終わり方はしない。
And I have to say, I love the cute mino-bull on the cover.
I need some book readers help lol
I’m listening to the audiobook and there’s a part in chapter 1/track 6 where there’s a joke about a foreigner trying to play dead in front of a brown bear and the bear is asking him something in English that I didn’t completely get, I think it was “is it zen?” But I’m not sure, could you confirm or correct please?
That’s exactly what was said. We discuss this joke a little starting from this post if you want to have a look.
Thanks!!!
This actually helped a ton!
The first joke kind of speaks for itself but the second one feels a bit out there so I was confused
another favor from this lovely community that I adore and am definitely not a-kissing to get what I want
could someone add a contents table on the thread or send it to me somehow?
I initially thought that a bunch of tracks are one chapter but I reached a conclusion that I probably assumed wrong so I want to compare with a contents table instead (the book sample I found didn’t have it)
