Le quattro casalinghe di Tokyo

Four women who work the night shift at a Tokyo boxed-lunch factory find their lives falling apart. Masako is a quiet, tough woman cut off from her family, Yoshie a widow looking after a bedridden mother-in-law, Kuniko a debt-ridden shopaholic, and Yayoi a woman whose husband has gambled away their savings. When Yayoi strangles her husband, the others agree to help her dispose of the body, and an act of desperation slides into a bigger criminal enterprise.

For readers who like crime fiction that focuses on social pressure rather than detection, Kirino offers a bleak look at women's work, debt and loneliness in Japan. You follow how a small decision creates a trap, and how the group's loyalty both saves and ruins them.

Balanced in tone; a moderate read.

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