The Makoto Murders
By Richard Jerram
- The Makoto Murders
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Author: Richard Jerram
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Publisher: Titan Books
- ISBN: 9781835417232
- Published: July 2026
- Pages: 300
- Format reviewed: Paperback
- Review date: 03/08/2026
- Language: English
There are several professions that do not have the best reputation, and journalism is one of them. For every Watergate there is a phone tapping scandal listening into the voice messages of a missing child. In Richard Jerram’s The Makoto Murders we follow a journalist based in Japan who falls into the latter camp, someone who will do anything to chase the story, even if that means creating it.
Ken Kato is an award-winning photojournalist who writes for one of the less salubrious magazines that deals in gossip and scandal. His triumph came a few years earlier with the photos of a child floating in the waters during the aftermath of the Tsunami. Now Kato is living on borrowed time and needs a new story or lose his job. His plan is not a sane one, but a plan, nonetheless. What if he could get the inside scoop into a serial killer’s latest victim? All he needs is a serial killer, even if that means creating one.
Ken Kato is not a nice person, he is indifferent to his wife, is an immoral journalist and has more than acceptable feelings for his friend’s wife Makoto. He is also desperate. Desperate enough to make a story and not just any story. The name Makoto is popular in Japan for both men and woman. There are plenty of Makotos in Tokyo, enough for a serial killer to strangle a few and make a name for themselves. All Kato needs to do is make sure that he is first on scene to get the best photos and to do this he starts to plan the scenes.
We get a sense of what type of person Kato is early in this novel. He is a stereotypical tabloid journalist, the type of thing you see in any documentary about sleezy papers in the 80s and 90s. However, he goes further than even these people, willing to sacrifice others to improve his career. He is haunted by the award-winning photo he took of the boy. A boy he could have saved or taken an awesome photo of.
Kato is a despicable character with few redeeming characteristics, but this is meant to be the case. He is no anti-hero, just a nasty piece of work. However, there is something compelling about following a sociopath around. Kato justifies his actions to himself, they make little sense, but to Kato they are enough to think he is doing nothing wrong. We get the sense of self-delusion with his obsession with the original Makoto, a woman who obviously wants nothing to do with him, but he still thinks he has a chance.
Makoto has the feel of the film Nightcrawler about it, they both deal with journalists gone rogue. If anything, Kato is the worse character, planning, executing, and then chronicling a series of killings. The book is pitch black, a noir, but also a story about a broken personality reigning havoc on those around him. It is an uncomfortable read at times, but deliberately so. It asks the reader to question what is acceptable, certainly not what Kato gets up to, but perhaps there is method in his madness.
Written on 3rd August 2026 by Sam Tyler .
Topics and themes
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