[mnemosyne] maruo suehiro: the strange tale of panorama island

Panorama is an adaptation of a novella by Japanese detective fiction godfather, Edogawa Rampo [Poe-influenced nom-de-plume of Taro Hirai]. The story takes place at the end of the Taisho era, and follows an unsuccessful science fiction author with an uncanny resemblance to a former classmate/son of a rich industrialist family. When the industrialist's son dies, the author fakes his own death, digs up and hides the other man's body, then washes himself up starving on a beach in a town where the dead man's family lives. After some more intrigue and scheming, he proceeds to take redirect all of their money to build a mysterious pleasure palace island, and live like a sensual weirdo king. (quoted from Ryan Sands, translator) 20101101