Penance

Penance by Kanae Minato, 229 pages.
An odd, disjointed, angry book that starts with the murder of Emily, a twelve-year-old girl. The murder takes place near where she had been playing with four of her friends. After the murder is discovered, none of the other girls can describe the murderer, event though they had all seen him. And, as it is the festival of Obon, and there are lots of family and friends visiting the small rural town, the police have no luck hunting down the killer. A series of recent doll thefts in the town convince many that the thief and the killer are the same person, but  Emily's mother blames the girls and vows revenge. Her vow, and the letters she writes to the four of them detailing her plans for vengeance don't really help the girls with the trauma they have experienced. Somehow the blame, and the guilt and the lives they live cause the girls to be drawn into weird violent scenarios (that don'r really strike me as particularly probable) that cause them all to have to kill someone themselves. Like I said, a little odd and disjointed.