In its native Japan, the manga DEATH NOTE is a phenomenon, having reportedly sold some 24 million copies and spawned an anime series and live-action films, with a U.S. remake in the works. Wanting to see what the fuss was all about, I intended to read just a few pages of DEATH NOTE: VOL. 1 in the tub. But an hour later, I was still soaking, so hooked in the story that I wasn’t leaving until the last page was reached.

That’s the power of a brilliant concept: A smart high school senior named Light finds a black notebook accidentally left behind by a demon. When one writes a person’s name in it, that person dies. You can even specify the exact time and means of their demise.

Like any bright boy, Light wants to use the power of the notebook only for good. He can rid the world of bad guys, he reasons; it’s murder, yes, but wouldn’t doing so bring peace? He puts his theory to the test, and indeed, the notebook works as promised.

Trouble is, the inexplicable string of heart attacks among the felonious raises the attention of local authorities, so Light, scared of being caught, opens up a whole other can of worms by putting some of the cops on his list in an effort to thwart any investigation. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts, and once Light crosses that line, there’s no turning back … especially with a winged demon only he can see peering over his shoulder, egging him on.

Throughout the first volume, this demon Ryuk — with wild hair, sharp teeth and the face of a damaged clown — parcels out more and more rules to Light regarding his notebook, such as that he’s bound to it for life, that he’ll neither go to heaven nor hell. With each successive chapter, additional rules are revealed, deepening not only DEATH NOTE’s mythology, but its infectious hold on the reader.

In VOL. 2, the girlfriend of one of the government agents Light offs to shake a trail happens to be a former agent herself, and she starts an investigation of her own to find out who’s behind her boyfriend’s sudden passing. Her hitting the streets brings her to Light, who knows what she’s up to, and attempts to wring her name out of her so he can write her name in the notebook. She’s a little too smart for that, and operates under an alias. Their conversation takes up too many pages, freezing the narrative for a bit — a problem which VOL. 1 did not have. You’ll be frantically reading nonetheless to see what happens.

The stakes grow even greater in VOL. 3 as Light comes face to face with “L,” the enigmatic computer genius/savant whose crack intuitive skills gives the cops their big break in VOL. 1. Here, with a list of likely suspects narrowed, L “befriends” Light, hoping to catch him drop a line that would suggest inside knowledge of the killer’s activities, thus exposing his guilt. It’s a match of wits — mentally and physically.

And I can’t wait to see how it all ends. Twelve volumes total exist in the storyline, with a VOL. 13 serving as a spoiler-packed companion to the entire series, containing in-depth character profiles, interviews with writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata, and, best of all, a prequel story.

I’m impressed with Obata’s drawings, which prove quite detailed and precise in their backgrounds, without cutting the usual corners. I’m equally impressed with Ohba’s plot. Suspense is a genre that often gets a short shrift in manga, but DEATH NOTE not only proves it can work, but depends on it. Without a viable concept, the mystery would be nil, but this series has a killer one (pun not intended). Despite the occasional, obviously overly padded scene, it pays off in spades. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.