sentences:  Their bodies are discovered over the next few months, buried near mines all over Japan, and missing a body part as listed in Heikichi’s note.The murders become a national sensation, but each one remains unsolved for the next 40 years.The novel is brought up to the present, where a freelance illustrator and avid fan of mysteries, Kazumi Ishioka, is teaching his friend, the astrologer Kiyoshi Mitarai, about the Zodiac Murders; Mitarai had been approached by a client who claimed to have new evidence about the murders.