I am a huge fan of Keigo Higashino’s earlier works – Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. I consider him one of the most intelligent mystery novelists of our time, and in the same league as Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. It took me no time to decide that I have to read this book as soon as I saw it on my amazon recommendation page.

<Spoilers Ahead>

Detective Kyochiro Kaga is investigating the murder of best selling author Kunihiko Hidaka. He is found dead in his locked home by his childhood friend Osamu Nonoguchi and his wife Rie. Nanoguchi’s behavior makes Kaga suspicious and very soon he is able to establish beyond doubt that Nanoguchi is indeed the culprit. However, Nanahuchi’s version of the story strikes as odd to Kaga, which leads him to further investigation, unraveling the fiendishly diabolical plot by Nanoguchi to not only kill Hikada but to destroy his reputation, his integrity as well his honor.

In a typical detective story, there are multiple suspects, and the detective works diligently, piecing together evidences, reconstructing the  past, keeps eliminating suspects and then zeros down on the real culprit. and this is more or less the end of story. In this novel, there is only one suspect who is discovered pretty early in the novel. But that is not the end, The remainder of the book is devoted to finding the real motive of the murder. Instead of a whodunit we can call this book a whydunit. Kago’s dialogue sums it all – “You may be the first murderer who decided to fabricate a motive before committing the crime”

I have mixed feeling for this books. On one hand, I feel that it is a great book with a clever story, engaging twists and turns, and interesting characters. On the other hand, it was a bit disappointed too as I had really high expectations from the author – the other two books are master pieces and this is certainly not in the same league as Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. Also, I was not very convinced by the motive and rationale of why the characters did what they did. More than anything else, it was this disconnect which lessened my enjoyment of the book.

PS: My review of Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint