The Third Lady

by Shizuko Natsuki

Book Overview

Obsessive love and tragic irony are the main ingredients in this tale in which a man who sets out to murder his lover's enemy actually murders his lover. Natsuki is also the author of "Murder at Mt.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345337654
• ISBN13: 9780345337658
• Release Date: May 1987
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of her Master Piece!! Inarguably a Classic of its own!!

To be perfectly honest, I managed to spot on the murderer because there were not really many ladies in the book. The author managed to describe each character's psychology and its changes in detail especially the females. The structure of the novel is compact. Once you start reading, you don't want to stop. The setting (environment: dark and stormy) at the beginning was very clever to cover the true identity of Fumiko. The procedure/logic used by the cops to catch Daigo was described thoroughly. I just wonder why Daigo couldn't ask each lady if she had been to France. The ending was the one you will remember for quite a while.

Very unique twist!

Outstanding suspense story with an ending that you'll never guess (I kept trying to right up to the very last page but was still wrong). Two strangers (both Japanese) have a chance meeting in France, and, from there, a very unusual suspense evolves.

Better than Strangers on a Train...

...well, better than Strangers as expressed in the Hitchcock film -- I have not read the Patricia Highsmith novel. The Third Lady starts with basically the same premise, but adds an extra moral dimension that I wouldn't dream of giving away. A fine work of suspense that provides a moving character payoff at the conclusion.

Deep-Minded Story

This story is not an exception of her "deep-minded" stories. I felt thrilled and anxious while reading it. Several months after reading, I am still deeply "into" the plot. The male main role is a common university professor, and it is thrilling to see how a common person can have an uncommon life course after a small event. (This seems to be an attractive aspect of Natsuki's books; "common" persons can be involved in uncommon events.) I plan to read it again in the near future.