"The bizarre laboratory of Professor Tsujikawa stood on top of a pillar towering at least nine metres high, as if competing with the surrounding keyaki trees which had lost their leaves."
"There hadn't been a suicide note. The victim remains resolutely tight‑lipped, stone‑cold silent; the best and the worst witness of her end."
"She stared at what she had written, subconsciously aware that a mistake had been made but not seeing it at first. It looked so right, somehow: I hope that all is hell with you and Douglas."
"When Andreev said two bodies had been discovered outside the Kharbin train station, the Baron had an image of the dead men sprawled against snow, frozen in positions their bodies couldn’t hold in life."
