Review: Malice by Keigo Higashino

This mystery was a happy find. I saw Higashino's latest book, Newcomer, on a recommended list. When I saw that it was the second in the Detective Kyochiro Kaga series I decided to read Malice first.

Publication Information: Malice was first published in Japan in 1996. This edition was translated by Alexander O. Smith and published in the US in 2014.

Update: I forgot to mention that the story is a little outdated where technology is concerned but not annoyingly so. Mobile phones hadn't come into widespread use, for example.

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Summary: Bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka has been murdered in his locked office in his locked house where he was alone at the time. He is found by his wife and his best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi. Nonoguchi is also an author but of children's books. They are likely suspects but both have tight alibis. Adding a complication to the investigation, Detective Kaga and Nonoguchi were colleagues when they both taught in a middle school. Kaga identifies the killer fairly quickly but without a clear motive a successful prosecution is in jeopardy. His investigations lead him to believe that the answer lies in the past.

My Take: This is an excellent read where,  just as the the reader gets comfortable, the author adds a  twist. I can't give many details without spoiling the story which I do not want to do. It is as clever a piece of plotting as I've read in a while. I know this is vague and not very informative but I found it to be an engrossing book that I had to read in practically one sitting.

The Amazon reviews are all over the place with a number of reviewers objecting to the translation. I didn''t any problems myself and didn't find it flat and sophomoric as some did. I also thought the plot original though some objected to the crime being solved early and the investigation focusing on the motive. Personally, that's what I liked and what kept me turning pages. So your mileage may vary.

Keywords: crime fiction, Japan, police procedural