The White-Haired Demon

by Edogawa Rampo, Noriyo Kamimura (Translator)

Marie Corelli’s Vendetta! (1886), translated and adapted by Meiji-era writer Kuroiwa Ruiko, was reimagined by Edogawa Ranpo in 1931 as The White-Haired Demon (Hakuhakki), a gothic masterpiece of betrayal and obsession. In S City, where Meiji Japan’s Western mansions hide whispered secrets, a white-haired demon, forged by unspeakable wrong, stalks a cunning seductress blind to his spectral wrath. Inspired by Poe and Doyle, Ranpo’s tale of adultery and retribution weaves through candlelit crypts and treacherous banquets, where every smile masks dread. Will beauty outwit vengeance, or will both plummet into an abyss of their own making? A cornerstone of Japanese horror, this haunting novel grips like a fever dream, its terror undimmed nearly a century later. Dare to enter—there’s no escape.

175 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2025

About the author

Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), better known by the pseudonym Rampo Edogawa ( 江戸川 乱歩), sometimes romanized as "Ranpo Edogawa", was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction.