Four women living in a low-end Tokyo suburb work the night shift in a factory making boxed lunches. One of them, Yayoi, a young mother, brutally strangles her gambling, cheating husband Kenji a day after he punches her for standing up to him. In a panic, she calls the resourceful Masako, her friend from the factory, to help dispose the body and cover the crime. Masako ropes in the other two, and cuts up the body and disposes the pieces in garbage bags all around the suburb.
But the police find the bags soon enough, and a DNA match helps them identify the body too. They interview everyone concerned, but Masako has got all their stories straight. The police nearly figure it out, but a chance mention by Yayoi of her husband’s gambling leads them to the owner of the nightclub. He had had an altercation with Kenji on the day he was murdered, with several witnesses. The police promptly arrest him and shut down his club.
Meanwhile, Masako is sexually assaulted by an immigrant worker at her factory, but she forgives him and strikes up an odd friendship with the assailant. One of the other ladies gets entangled with a pay-day loan, and Masako has to step in to get the loan shark off her back, but the loan shark figures out everything, and comes up with a lucrative business plan… disposing bodies. Now Masako works to dispose random Yakuza victims. Meanwhile the police release the club owner for lack of evidence, but having lost his club, he makes it his life’s mission to exact revenge on the real killers of Kenji.
Everything is at stake for the women, and they are up against several enemies. The story builds up to a climax, and the ever-resourceful Masako has to use all her wits to go up against the relentless club owner.
The books encompasses the best elements of a thriller, a mystery and a horror. There are several instances where the narrative shifts at just the right moment; Kirino masterfully manages the storytelling by keeping the reader constantly engaged, and constantly at the edge of their seat. There are several brutal scenes; rapes, murders, dismemberments… but the book retains a tinge of black humour. The characters are complex and vivdly drawn, and a certain amount of back story is provided for each character to clue the reader in on their motivations. On the whole the tale becomes much more compelling.