Lucie Blackman--tall, blond, twenty-one years old--stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search for the missing girl involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie's desperate but bitterly divided parents. Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, followed the case from the beginning. Over the course of a decade, he traveled to four continents to interview those connected with the story, assiduously followed the court proceedings, and won unique access to the Japanese detectives who investigated the case. Ultimately he earned the respect of the victim's family and delved deep into the mind and background of the man accused of the crime--Joji Obara, described by the judge as "unprecedented and extremely evil." The result is a book at once thrilling and revelatory
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