Twenty-seven-year-old Detective Reiko Himekawa has an impressive ability to solve crimes. When a gruesomely slaughtered body wrapped in plastic is discovered, Reiko soon uncovers eleven other murders with a similar 'signature' and a reference to something called 'strawberry night', a group that recruits victims and murderers on the internet. To solve the case, Reiko is forced to reach back into her own troubled past.

Tetsuya Honda is one of Japan's best-selling authors with the on-going crime series featuring Reiko Himekawa, a Homicide Detective with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. THE SILENT DEAD (Japanese title: Strawberry Night), is the first of five novels, and has sold over 4 million copies in Japan alone, and is the basis for two TV mini-series and a major theatrical motion picture. Honda lives in Tokyo.