ウェディング・ドレス

by Kenji Kuroda, 黒田 研二

結婚式当日、何者かに襲われた祥子。婚約者のユウ君と手分けをしながら、祥子は真犯人を目指した。鍵となったのは、あるビデオに関わる猟奇殺人と、母が遺したウェディング・ドレス。そしてユウ君と再会したとき、不可解なジグソーパズルは完成する。全編に謎と伏線が鏤（ちりば）められた第16回メフィスト賞受賞作。

373 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of Wedding Dress: Wearing her late mother's wedding dress, a young woman was about to wed her fiancé in a church. However, on her wedding day she was informed that her fiancé was injured in an accident. Blinded by panic, the bride jumped into a car with a driver who supposedly should take her to the hospital, instead the bride was kidnapped and brutally raped.

At the very same time, the young woman's fiancé rushed to the church in a hurry, but his bride was nowhere in sight, instead there were two other strangers standing in front of the altar, claiming they *both* had also engaged with the same young woman and they both planned to be wedded with the missing young woman in the same church, at the very same time?

Was the bride a helpless victim trapped in a sinister scheme? Or was she a foxy woman tricking all three men at once?

Okay, Kenji Kuroda really did a major mind-fuck with this award-winning novel of his. The two narrations in the story add to the confusion, even so often I feel like these two story lines between the bride and the groom are happening in two alternative universes and nothing adds up! You just know the author is messing with you but you barely know how he is doing this! Therefore I'm glad that in the end, the explanation is a sound one! Turns out the author played tricks with the characters' names, the timelines and the double storylines to make the story as confusing as it can. Plus the bride's storyline takes place in the past while the groom's storyline takes place in present.

[Life · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reader is likely to tumble upon to what exactly is going on because Kuroda doesn't make any real attempt to hide it, but it's still a decent explanation. The solution to the impossible crime here is also really interesting, even if I don't buy it for a second.