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The blurbs tell us the author has been called the Stephen King of Japan, where he is famous. Many of his books, including this one, have been turned into movies and even video games. He is a bit like Stephen King in his blend of fantasy, horror and mystery.
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The basic story is that a journalist discovers that four young people -- two girls, two boys -- died separately and suddenly within a day for no good reason. They were of college age and all perfectly healthy. He becomes a detective, tracing events back and connecting the dots to find that all four had spent a weekend in a rural resort where they watched a video.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!

He goes to the resort and watches the video and discovers that it warns the viewer that those who watch it will die within a period of 10 days unless �� but the “unless�� part has been taped over! The journalist now fears for his life and later, for the lives of his wife and child, who accidentally watched the video as well.

He enlists a friend to help him solve the mystery. They turn into a Batman/Robin duo traveling around Japan trying to figure out who made this recording and why. The recording was generated telekinetically. (I’m not giving away plot because we are told this in the blurb). This book was published in Japan in 1991. You may recall in the 1980’s or so there was much talk by pseudoscientific charlatans (the best known was Japanese) who claimed to be able to project mental images onto camera film. (Can’t do that anymore �� no more Fuji film!) The Japanese culture seemed obsessed with cameras so this all fits together �� why not telepathically project an entire video tape!

I enjoyed the book. The plot held my attention; the mystery and its resolution were intriguing. There was a bit of plodding detail throughout the story, although this also provides local color. You can never get lost in the plot: if the protagonist is going out to a rural area, we watch him put on his coat, leave his office, take the bus to a train station, get off at another train station, rent a car, get off the highway, pay a toll, etc. Despite that flaw I thought it was a good book and I gave it a four. It turns out this book is the first of a trilogy (Titles: Ring, Spiral, Loop) but it works fine as a stand-alone read.