chelsea_not_chels 's review for:

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo--and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry

4.0

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Very interesting true crime book about the abduction and horrible murder (and more) of Lucie Blackman in Tokyo. Aside from some light speculation about how Lucie might have spent her last morning alive at the very beginning of the book and a really weird anecdote about some threatening mail Parry received at the end, this is a "just the facts, ma'am" recounting of the search for Lucie, and the arrest and trial of her accused murderer. Parry points out how the press coverage of the case was skewed by stereotyping on all sides (Westerners saying that it was just indicative of a Japanese fascination with Western women, some Japanese people implying that Lucie must have been asking for it because she was a Western hostess and they're all drug users and sluts) and I think managed to remain fairly neutral himself. The accused here has a very vague background, which made some of that portion of the book a bit boring to read, as it's a lot of "No one knows!" and the end seemed to drag on a bit, but overall, very, very good, and I liked it as much as it's possible to like a book about horrible things happening to good people.