The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island follows the twisted path of a failed novelist Hitomi Hirosuke, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a former classmate, the son of a rich industrialist family. Learning of the rich man's sudden passing, Hitomi fakes his own death, digs up and hides the other man's body, and then washes himself up starving on a beach near the home of the dead man's family. After successfully impersonating the now-dead son, Hitomi takes over all aspects of the industrialist's life, including his company, his fortune, and eventually his wife. The failed author soon redirects the family's fortune to his own perverse aims. On a remote and mysterious island, he builds for himself a playground of hedonistic excess -- replete with waterfalls, grand palaces, and gardens -- a backdrop for his decadent feasts, orgies, and dark secrets. Stunning artwork by master manga artist Suehiro Maruo deftly illustrates this Japanese pulp classic in fine detail. Maruo adapted this graphic novel from a novella by the Godfather of Japanese detective fiction, Edogawa Rampo.