The Black Lizard features Rampo's main detective character, Akechi Kogorō: a figure who combines elements of Poe’s Auguste Dupin with the gentleman adventurers of British golden age detective literature. The Black Lizard herself is a master criminal and femme fatale, whose charged relationship with detective Akechi and unconcealed sadism have inspired shuddering admiration in generations of readers. Beast in the Shadows is a tale of secret identities, violent sexuality, and dark crimes that stands in stark contrast to the genteel detective stories popular in English literature of the 1920s.
