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People Who Eat Darkness

The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up

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People Who Eat Darkness

Written by: Richard Lloyd Parry
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Lucie Blackman - tall, blond, 21 years old - stepped out into the vastness of Tokyo in the summer of 2000 and disappeared. The following winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. The seven months in between had seen a massive search for the missing girl involving Japanese policemen, British private detectives, and Lucie’s desperate but bitterly divided parents. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult or snatched by human traffickers? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet? And what did her work as a hostess in the notorious Roppongi district of Tokyo really involve?

Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, followed the case from the beginning. Over the course of a decade, as the rest of the world forgot but the trial dragged on, he traveled to four continents to interview those connected with the story, assiduously followed the court proceedings, and won unique access to the Japanese detectives who investigated the case. Ultimately he earned the respect of the victim’s family and delved deep into the mind and background of the man accused of the crime - Joji Obara, described by the judge as “unprecedented and extremely evil.” The result is a book at once thrilling and revelatory.

Richard Lloyd Parry is the Asia editor and Tokyo bureau chief of the London Times and the author of In the Time of Madness.

©2011, 2012 Richard Lloyd Parry (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Asia True Crime Exciting

What the critics say

“A masterpiece of writing this surely is, but it is more than that - it is a committed, compassionate, courageous act of journalism that changes the way we think. Everyone who has ever loved someone and held that life dear should read this stunning book, and shiver.” (Chris Cleave, number one New York Times best-selling author of Little Bee)
“I opened this book as a skeptic. I am not a lover of true crime…. But Richard Lloyd Parry's remarkable examination of [this] crime, what it revealed about Japanese society and how it unsettled conventional notions of bereavement, elevates his book above the genre. People Who Eat Darkness is a searing exploration of evil and trauma and how both ultimately elude understanding or resolution.… Just as the grief of Blackman’s parents is unassaugeable, Obara and his motives are unknowable. That is the darkness at the heart of this book, one Lloyd Parry conveys with extraordinary effect and emotion.… People Who Eat Darkness is a fascinating mediation that does not pretend to offer pat answers to obscene mysteries.” ( New York Times Book Review)
“[A] masterful literary true crime story, which earns its comparisons to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner’s Song.… Like the case of Etan Patz, the Lucie Blackman disappearance captured the public imagination. By writing about it in such culturally informed detail, Parry subtly encourages an understanding that goes past the headlines. It is a dark, unforgettable ride.” ( Los Angeles Times)

What listeners say about People Who Eat Darkness

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Mind boggling

I’ve been a fan of mystery books for a few years and rarely move to true crime. This was the book that changed that for me. An unbelievable recount of a bizarre yet intimate look at a rape and murder, the victim, her family, her murderer, the culture they both came from and the laws that govern those countries.

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Strung out

Good story, although I often found myself skipping over parts that seem more like filler. This book could be condensed into a much more interesting and gripping book, instead the way this book tries to look at every single minor detail of the story makes it a lot more drawn out making me want to skip many parts of it to get to the more important and Interesting parts.

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Holy....jeeZ

riveting from start to finish. I didn't want to stop listening between sessions.

great work

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Spectacular True Crime read

Yes, it's overly dramatized at times.. Yes, it includes a lot of extraneous (unnecessary) information.. but this is a great book. Richard Lloyd Parry (Tokyo bureau chief for 'The London Times') meticulously documents a striking Crime involving a sexual psychopath, an embittered/contentious family that won't give up, and an unfamiliar Criminal Justice System. The writing is clear, logical, and well-paced.. and the story is legitimately captivating. A truly talented Editor could have shaved a couple of hours from the book I suppose, but it by no means feels too long.

The narration from Simon Vance is typically exemplary. His cadence, tone, emotiveness, and pacing are unsurpassed. If you have not heard this narrator before, you are in for a genuine treat. I would listen to Vance any day (In fact, I have actually purchased audiobooks just because he was attached to the project).

When an engrossing tale is presented with excellent writing and unparalleled narration, we get a 9.5/10 audiobook. I can highly recommend 'People Who Eat Darkness'.

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Very well-written

I couldn’t stop listening. Every chance I got, I was listening to this audiobook. Such a horrific, true story.

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