Malice : A Mystery

Author - Keigo Higashino
Genre - Detective, Mystery, Kyoichiro Kaga, Japan, Crime
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - June 2015

Kyoichiro Kaga is a police detective. Kyoichiro Kaga is a very smart man, but that smartness never threatens the realms of genius or even spectacular brilliance. Kaga practices kendo. Kaga is not quirky, arrogant or pompous. Kaga is, as Frederick Forsyth will put it, a 'jagdhund', the African Sniffer dog - ungainly, neither super fast or super strong, but once he catches the trail of his target, he will not let go. In this first story of his that I read, the protagonists steal the show with their ingenuity and their ruthlessness, and lead Kaga down the wrong path more than once - but Kaga doesn't let go. Doggedness and perseverance, great traits though they are for a detective, do not translate well to literature. With Kaga though, I am impressed. Kyoichiro Kaga is no Manabu Yukawa, and that is just fine by me.

Salvation of a Saint

Author - Keigo Higashino
Genre - Detective, Mystery, Crime, Japan.
Source - Audiobook
Rating - 4
Read - June 2015

So then, to our second encounter with our (second) favorite pompous git of all time, Manabu Yukawa aka Detective Galileo. And to that excellent, bowfully-yours, 'let's have a round of badminton','you have gained weight I see' banter between him and Inspector Kusanagi. Remember 'The Devotion of Suspect X'? Remember the giddy excitement of reading this, 'Gone Girl' and 'A Place of Execution' one after the other? Our Manabu-man is back!
And a fine return it is! Not quite the equal of 'Suspect X' in ingenuity, this book nonetheless spins a dexterous web of its own, And what characters - a two-timing husband who treats his WAGs as baby-making factories, a wife who creates artwork worth millions, a pregnant protege, an enfant-terrible of a junior detective, and even a lovesick Kusanagi - a cast worthy of attention for any detective fiction aficionado. 
As usual, I would not reveal much in this review, but I will tell you this. There are only a handful of detective writers in history who compare with Higashino in the how-dunit. And this book is that master plotter in his elements. Read it.

The Devotion of Suspect X

Author - Keigo Higashino

Genre - Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Murder, Japan, Detective Galileo

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 4 (a high 4)

December 2013

The most brilliantly convoluted plot for a murder mystery story you will ever read. Not a whodunit (you know who is the murderer in chapter 1.. or do you?), not quite a whydunit (pretty obvious), but a masterful howdunit, probably the most difficult to convert to a very good book, and indeed the best of its type you will ever come across. You will find mystery stories that are better-written, you will find mystery stories that are better, fullstop; but you will struggle to find another with a more incredibly labyrinthine plot-twist.