A severed hand is found in a van in the outskirts of Tokyo at the same time as contractor Kenichi Takaoka goes missing, leaving his garage covered in blood. Lieutenant Reiko Himekawa is on the case, and when the hand is identified as Takaoka's, she's investigating a murder. Reiko is plunged into a world of past sins, forced suicides, and the shadowy control of the yakuza. The rest of Takaoka's body is nowhere to be found. But when his childhood friend sees a photo of the missing man, he swears it is not Takaoka at all...

Tetsuya Honda is one of Japan's best-selling authors with the on-going crime series featuring Reiko Himekawa, a Homicide Detective with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. THE SILENT DEAD (Japanese title: Strawberry Night), is the first of five novels, and has sold over 4 million copies in Japan alone, and is the basis for two TV mini-series and a major theatrical motion picture. Honda lives in Tokyo.