Two suspended detectives are ordered to conduct a secret surveillance of an officer under suspicion in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The two detectives are promised immunity from prosecution for their work. The Daito Group, a conglomerate, has hired the suspected officer to identify someone called "Drowning Fish" who is sending threatening notes to the company. The notes demand that Daito Group executives walk on a busy street, dressed in outlandish outfits, and subject themselves to public humiliation. The senior managing director of Daito had problems with some modern artists several months before. He also has had dealings with gangsters and doesn't hesitate to use violence to solve company problems. All of this turns into a wild rollercoaster ride when the two detectives begin unraveling the intertwined relationships of the artists, the suspected officer and a company executive. Drowning Fish is for mystery readers who like some humorous situations along with their corporate wring doing, bureaucratic corruption, and gangland violence.

Drowning Fish (Oboreru Sakana) became a movie of the same name and was released in Japan in 2001 with Ken Watanabe ("Sayuri," "Batman Begins," "The Last Samurai") cast as a senior police officer. The movie won two awards: the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actor of 2001 (Yosuke Kubozuka) and the Mainichi Film Concours for Best Supporting Actor of 2003 (Shinya Tsukamoto).