The Meiji Guillotine Murders

Futaro Yamada is the pen name of Seiya Yamada. He was born in 1922 in Japan and graduated from the faculty of medicine at Tokyo University. He made his authorial debut in 1947 with the short story "The Incident at the Dharma Pass" and went on to write over a hundred novels and short stories. He died in 2001.

An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, David Shih narrated the History Channel documentary China's First Emperor and the Discovery Networks series Royal Inquest. His many television and film credits include roles in The Path, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, All My Children, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Saving Face.

Bryan Karetnyk is a British writer and translator. His recent translations include works by Gaito Gazdanov, Irina Odoevtseva, and Boris Poplavsky. He is also the editor of the landmark Penguin Classics anthology Russian Émigre Short Stories from Bunin to Yanovsky.