The Devil of Nanking takes the reader on a literary ride from the decadent hostess bars and palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins in Tokyo, to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's deadliest, most shameful events - the Nanking Massacre.
Grey has a lot to prove and even more to hide. A young Englishwoman obsessed with a past she cannot understand, she comes to Tokyo seeking a rare piece of film footage that has been lost for decades, showing a specific horrifying incident during the notorious 1937 Nanking Massacre. Some say the film never existed. Only one man can help Grey. A survivor of the massacre, he is now a visiting professor at the university of Todai in Tokyo. Immersed in his textbooks and wary of strangers, he will at first have nothing to do with her.
When Grey accepts a job as a hostess in an upscale nightclub catering to Japanese businessmen and wealthy yakuza, she meets a certain gangster who may be the key to her quest - an old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage, rumored to rely on a mysterious elixir for his continued health. As the professor pressures Grey to find out more about the elixir, Grey's housemate, a handsome, laconic American dilettante, becomes unnervingly fascinated with her and the troubling past that she has kept concealed from everyone else. Grey is faced with the serious dangers of charming her way into a circle of gangsters, master manipulators, and possible murderers. It's a devil's bargain - but who, really, is the Devil of Nanking?

Mo Hayder teaches at Bath Spa University.