“The Devotion of Suspect X” is the work of one of
Japan’s best-selling crime novelists Keigo Higashino and this book has not just
sold some million copies but also won numerous awards. Therefore, when I picked
up the book, my expectations from it were sky high and unfortunately which came
crashing down with a huge thud. Usually, thrillers and murder mysteries have
such a compounding effect that it’s hard to put the book down. But in this case;
even tough the plot was interesting, it was an effort to pull the book up every
time I put it down. The book has a stirring start, where right at the beginning
the murder happens and we know who the murderer was. But what we are not told
is how the murder was covered up, and most importantly, why would a stranger
help the murderer cover-up the crime. The rest of the book is suppose to explore
that, and it does but with a lackluster pace.
Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced mother working in a
box lunch shop is leading a peaceful life with her daughter Mosito. On a
fateful evening, her ex-husband lands at her door step to extort money
from her. He then begins to physically harm her daughter, which is when she and
her daughter murder Shinji Togashi. Overhearing the brawl, next door
neighbor who’s a brilliant mathematics teacher named Ishigami decides to
help the women cover-up the murder and also avoid imprisonment. He not just
takes care of the body but also anticipates every move the cops would make, the
questions they would be asked and gets them ready for interrogations.
As expected the cops recovery Togashi’s
body and soon arrive knocking on Yasuko’s door as he was last seen tracing her.
The investigation is lead by Kusanagi, who is also helped by his physicist friend
Dr. Manabu Yukawa. As fate would have it, Yukawa and Ishigami were batch mates
from college and Yukawa held Ishigami in high regard for his intellect. It’s this
reunion that leads to the unfolding a perfect cover-up.
Clearly post the murder, Yasuko remains the prime
suspect, but has an alibi that’s both strong as well weak. Kusanagi, is trapped
into the alibi validation through most of his investigation, as he is made to
believe that the imperfection of the alibi would hold the key to find a loop-hole
in Yasuko innocence. On the other hand, Yukawa the physicist cannot help but
wonder at the seemingly insignificant objects the murderer left behind. For instance,
the murderer was prudent enough to burn the dead body’s fingers but left finger
prints on the bicycle, which leads to the body’s identification. Somehow, the
murder wanted to ensure the body was identified, but yet wanted to hide it.
“Ishigami the Buddha” wondered out loud to his
friend, if creating a perfect problem was more challenging than actually
solving a perfect problem? When posing mathematically problem to his students,
he played with world of assumptions, where he would pose an algebraic problem
as a geometric one. He used these blind-spots created by the assumptions to hide the crime safely thereby protecting Yasuko and her daughter.
The end of the book, is a brilliant piece, when
the entire story stitches up, giving you the answers to how and most
importantly why did Ishigami help Yasuko cover-up the murder and dirty his own
hands. My biggest problem with the book as I mentioned earlier was its pace.
After the first 50-70 odd pages are superb, when you are gearing up for a
thrilling ride. However, the story just doesn’t move for the next 125-140 odd pages.
As a reader, nothing significantly new is revealed in terms of story, and there
is barely any progress. The characters are only establishing themselves and
linking themselves to the plot, which literally kills the excitement. It’s at the far end, the last 50 -70 when
things begin to actually move and slowly push the story forward, then suddenly
just like the start picks up a zooming pace and ends!
Exciting start, brilliant end, but lost in
translation mid-way, wonder if I would recommend this for happy reading!!!
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Meetali
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Meetali
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