番外編： The Fiend With Twenty Faces

What? The post title is not the title of a book or a quote? There is no introducing quote? Shocking! But there is a reason for that.

Because this post is more like a service announcement. Or a commercial. Some might have noticed that Kurodahan Press, who has published some interesting Edogawa Rampo novels / essays in the past, has released The Fiend with Twenty Faces a couple of days ago, the first volume in the Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boys Detective Club") series. The children's literature series stars masterdetective Akechi Kogorou and his assistents the Boys Detectives in their battles against the criminal mastermind Twenty Faces and quite famous in Japan and can been seen as the main inspiration for modern detective comic series like Conan and Kindaichi Shounen.

I had the pleasure and honor of writing the introduction to Kurodahan's The Fiend with Twenty Faces actually. Which was fun! And entertaining! Readers here might have noticed that I 1) like Edogawa Rampo and 2) I like writing about him and his works and to actually do it for an official release, well, I couldn't wish for more! It also means that I actually have the honor of having my name next to Edogawa Rampo's name on sites like Amazon. Which is really weird.

So for people interested in modern detective manga, 1930s children literature, Edogawa Rampo, Arsene Lupin and grand battles between good and evil, masterdetectives and masterthieves (not all of the above per se), take a look at Rampo's famous novel!

And now to solve the puzzle of packing for a year without making my luggage too heavy.