Christmas in Lockdown

Seiichi Makabe – a detective fiction author who made a name for himself with plots featuring ingenious murders in locked rooms. The celebrated writer gathers a close circle of family, friends, and colleagues from the publishing business at his villa every Christmas. This time, a newcomer made the list – the renowned criminologist Hideo Himura, a friend of detective Eliza Arisugawa. No one could have imagined that his brilliant deductive skills would prove so necessary… After the festive dinner, the guests returning to their rooms discovered strange surprises: scattered lime, the letter «X» on the door, a huge white heart on the window, wine-soaked shoes, a bedroom interior wrapped in toilet paper, a teddy bear with the inscription «Time Bomb», a blind man's cane… What a crazy prank! While everyone pondered this question, the «main surprise» was revealed: the owner’s corpse with his head in the fireplace. Makabe was murdered in a locked book storage. An impossible murder – as if from one of his novels. Moreover, it was a double murder – in another room, the body of a suspicious unknown person was found, who had previously been seen wandering around the villa…