Picador/Pan Macmillan Ltd, 2001, www.picador.com, ISBN 0-330-48502-4.

A gripping, haunting, psychological thriller. Set against a surreal backdrop of present day Japan, The Earthquake Bird opens with Lucy Fly, the narrator and main character, under arrest in a Japanese police station. Lucy is an English translator who seems content and competent with her new life in the East.

We know that something terrible has happened and Lucy is the prime suspect. As she tells her story, more and more details come to light about Lucy, her friends Lily and Teiji, and the reasons why she emigrated to Japan ten years previously. We are taken back to Lucy’s solitary childhood in Yorkshire and events of her old life that still haunt her. Not everything about Lucy Fly is what it seems, I found myself hating her and loving her with the turn of each page!

Susanna Jones’ prose has a refreshingly urgent pace, and child-like clarity. At the end, the reader is left feeling like they have been given a guided tour of Tokyo; of its language, noodle bars, tower blocks and transport system.

The Earthquake Bird is relatively short, but narrated in exquisite detail without a superfluous word, reminiscent of Barbara Vine at her darkest.

I found myself reading ‘just one more chapter’ until I had reached its thrilling climax in one sitting. A must read for anyone with an interest in Japanese culture or the complexities of the human mind. Superb!