"Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination contains nine bloodcurdling tales by the author who is widely regarded as the father of Japanese mystery writing and Japan's answer to Edgar Allan Poe. The chilling stories in this book present a genre of literature largely unknown to readers outside Japan and combine the quick tempo of Western fiction with the rich fantasy of the East. These spine-tingling tales include the strange story of a quadruple amputee and his perverse wife; the record of a man who creates a mysterious chamber of mirrors and discovers hidden pleasures within; the morbid confessions of a maniac who envisions a career of foolproof "psychological" murders; and the bizarre tale of a chair-maker who buries himself inside an armchair and enjoys the sordid "loves" of the women who sit on his handiwork. Lucid and packed with suspense, the stories of Edogawa Rampo have enthralled Japanese readers for over half a century"--