Malice

Everyone has secrets. And everyone has the right to keep them. Even if they’re dead.

Keigo Higashino never fails to amuse me with perfect crimes and gripping mystery behind it. As usual, by the end of first chapter, the murder was committed, the how part was almost clear and we had a prime suspect. The rest of the story is a quest to find the motive behind the murder. Just when I thought it was over, the book had over 40% remaining and it was full of twists and turns.

Kunihiko Hidaka, a famous Japanese author, is found murdered in his house days before he was supposed to move to Canada. The body was discovered by his wife and his best friend. While investigating, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga comes across information that questions the authenticity of the author and the relationship with his friend.

The story resembles Devotion of Suspect X in many ways. There are old colleagues who know each other well. The conversation between them leads to a turning point in the investigation. But while trying to uncover the plot, the detective has to dig up far more than the suspect’s past known to him.

Unlike other stories, Malice is written from the point of view of the detective and the victim’s friend. This helps in setting the plot at the beginning. It also helped to break some conventional assumptions I had about the story.

Apparently, it won’t do just to tell the reader what a particular character is like. The author needs to show their habits or their words and let the reader form an image on their own.

I place Malice at the third position of my list of favourite Higashino novels. It comes after Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint, pushing Journey Under the Midnight Sun and Midsummer’s Equation one step backward. But I recommend this to anyone who loves crime thrillers.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun

You know how the sun rises and sets at a certain time each day? In the same way, all of our lives have a day and night. But it’s not set like it is with the sun. Some people walk forever in the sunlight, and some people have to walk through the darkest night their whole lives. When people talk about being afraid, what they’re afraid of is that their sun will set. That the light they love will fade.

Keigo Higashino is an acclaimed mystery novelist from Japan, and one of my favourite authors. He started writing novels in the 80’s and was popular in Japan for quite some time. But the world came to know about him when his crime thriller, Yōgisha X no Kenshin, was translated to English as Devotion of Suspect X. He writes perfect crimes which are, indeed, page-turners.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun takes us through a time span of two decades. A murder is committed, and the specifics of it remains unresolved. Time goes by, life of everyone associated changes, but the tenacity of Sagasaki, the investigation officer, doesn’t. He pays attention to the ramifications of the murder all these years, and continues his search for answers even after his retirement, which leads to interesting discovery about the past.

The intricate structure of the plot is purely mesmerising and shows the sheer brilliance of the storyteller. You come across these unanticipated subplots, with new characters and events, that just pops up and connect with the main storyline afterward. The ending of the book is kind of abrupt, but gives a logical closure to the crusade.

“When you wander in the dark too long, you start to see things that aren’t really there.” — Keigo Higashino

If you haven’t read any books by Keigo Higashino, I would recommend reading Devotion of Suspect X first. I had trouble remembering all these Japanese character names. But that one didn’t have many characters and it helped me to focus on the story instead of going back and forth to see who is who. This wouldn’t be a problem if you have read Japanese novels before.