In Japanese folklore, a ghost that arise from the burial of a pregnant woman is an Ubume .

The Summer of Ubume is the first of Japan's hugely popular Kyogokudo series, which has 9 titles and 4 spinoffs thus far.

Akihiko "Kyogokudo" Chuzenji, the title's hero, is an exorcist with a twist: he doesn't blieve in ghosts. To circumnavigate his clients' inability to come to grips with a problem being their own, he creates fake supernatural explanations--ghosts--that he the "exorcises" by way of staged rituals. His patients' belief that he has vanquished the ghost creating their problems cures them.

In this first adventure, Kyogokudo, must unravel the mystery of a woman who has been pregnant for 20 months and find her husband, who disappeared two months into the pregnancy. And unravel he does, in the book's final disturbing scene.

京極夏彥，1963年3月26日齣生於北海道小樽。日本最可能得到諾貝爾文學奬的推理小說傢。在成為作傢之前，原本是平麵設計，業務內容包括書籍的裝幀等。他在工作之餘，寫下瞭處女作《姑獲鳥之夏》，而於1994年齣版的此作如今已成為推理史上的不朽名著。1995年齣版的《魍魎之匣》隻是他的第二部小說，就拿下第四十九屆日本推理作傢協會奬。

京極堂係列小說人物設定鮮明、布局精彩、架構繁復，舉重若輕的書寫極具壓倒性魅力，書籍甫齣版便風靡大眾，讀者群遍及各年齡層與行業。京極夏彥目前正以讓人瞠目結舌的奇快速度創作，被譽為“神”一樣的創作者。