Monday night at 8 and 9:15, NHK-G will broadcast the first two parts of a six-part drama series by best-selling mystery novelist Keigo Tono, who is famous for his elaborate plot twists. Tono himself was quite surprised that NHK had picked up his novel, "Akui (Malice)," for serialization, since, according to the author, "it's an extremely difficult story to put into visual terms."
The story itself is about a best-selling novelist named Hidaka who is murdered in his home in Osaka. The body is discovered at the same time by two people: Hidaka's wife, Rie, and his best friend and fellow novelist, Nonoguchi. Rie was supposed to meet her husband at a hotel, but he doesn't show. She goes home and meets Nonoguchi, who claims he received a call from Hidaka asking him to come over.
A police detective named Nishihara learns that Hidaka had been planning to move to Canada in two days to live alone. He visits Nonoguchi at home, and the writer tells him he is planning on writing a "nonfiction novel" based on his friend's murder.