People Who Eat Darkness

In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman – tall, blonde and 21 years old – had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever.That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a desolate seaside cave. Her disappearance was mystifying. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? What did her work, as a 'hostess' in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo, really involve? And could Lucie's fate be linked to the disappearance of another girl some 10 years earlier?Over the course of a decade, Richard Lloyd Parry has travelled to four continents to interview those caught up in the story and been given unprecedented access to Lucie's bitterly divided family to reveal the astonishing truth about Lucie and her fate.

Long-listed for The Samuel Johnson Prize Non-Fiction 2011

'Difficult to put down ... impossible to forget.' -- Minette Walters
'A skilful, definitive history of one of the most notorious crimes of the past decade.' -- The Sunday Times
'Open-minded and sympathetic, despite being driven half mad by the case, Parry ... is the best kind of narrator of a tale that isn't just a murder case but a book that sheds light on Japan, on families, on the media, and on the insidious effects of misogyny,' -- The Guardian

Richard Lloyd Parry is a British author and award-winning foreign correspondent. He was born in northern England in 1969, and educated at Oxford University. Since 1995 has lived in Tokyo, where he is the Asia Editor of ‘The Times’ of London. He has reported from twenty-seven countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Macedonia. In recent years, he has covered the war in Iraq, the crisis in North Korea, political turmoil in Thailand and Burma, and the tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan. In 2005, he was named Foreign Correspondent of the Year in the UK’s What The Papers Say Awards. Simon Vance, a former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader, is a full-time actor who has appeared on both stage and television. He has recorded over 400 audiobooks and has earned over 20 Earphones Awards from AudioFile Magazine. A multiple Audie finalist, Simon has won Audie Awards for The King's Speech, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations, Market Forces and The Tao of Pooh. Winner of the 2008 Booklist Voice of Choice Award, Simon has also been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.