REVIEW: Confessions - Kanae Minato

• Year first released:  2014
• ISBN of the edition I read:  0316200921
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Little, Brown and Company
• My rating (out of 5):  4

10 or 11 years ago, I read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. It was a fantastic mystery (regarding a stolen gemstone) told from the perspectives of 11 different people involved in the affair. The first - and longest - part of the book sets up the entire scenario and introduces us to all the key characters. From there, we're given more and more details, ideas, and points of view from each of the other characters, until the final part, which ties everything together and brings us the ultimate solution.

Minato's much more recent Confessions has a similar setup:

Part 1 introduces us to the underlying crime (this time, the tragic, heartless murder of a 4-year-old girl) which propels the story as a whole. Each of the subsequent parts then show us a different character's perspective on the matter, before arriving at its downright chilling ending.

Unlike The Moonstone, though, the flow to Minato's story is constantly pulling us forward. We're actually presented most of the details - and even the culprit - by the end of Part 1 - the first 50 pages of the book. Then, rather than revisit the same depressing scene over and over again with each new character's perspective, we're shown the aftermath that each character faces in response to the initial murder.

It's a deliberate, clever approach that works on several levels. Once you realize that you already know the answer to the crime only a fifth of the way into the book, you will inevitably wonder, Where could the story go from here? Isn't it already finished? Indeed, it is not - not by a long shot.

The layers that each new character adds to the story unfold in a highly intricate fashion, leaving us to wonder what is really at the heart behind everything. The facts we thought we knew become distorted. We discover that the motives aren't what we had originally been told. And, importantly, we may not have seen the last of the crimes... [no spoilers, though]

We might say that Confessions is a mystery in reverse. Rather than the book merely being about trying to solve the murder at the beginning, we already know who the murderer is and how the deed was performed. What matters here is the spiral, the after effects, all of which eventually point to the book's highly effective, disturbing, shocking final page. (Pleasingly, the final twist of the book is on the very last page - you do yourself a disservice if you stop reading the book at any point before then.)

Full of deep characters, a plot that twists with almost every page, and an intriguing look at justice - what it really is and looks like, how it is achieved, who is responsible for enacting it, etc. - Confessions is one of the best mysteries I've come across. I'll definitely be diving into Minato's next book, Penance, in due time.

REVIEW: Another Episode S/O - Yukito Ayatsuji

• Year first released:  2016
• ISBN of the edition I read:  9780316312318
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Yen Press
• My rating (out of 5):  3

You might remember from my October review of Another that I was quite smitten with it. (I gave it a 4.5 - pretty dang great, really.) One thing I said about it was, "Every step of the way, the story continually evolves - whether subtly or overtly - and is jam-packed with at least a dozen hefty twists, each of which alters the trajectory of the plot in unpredictable ways."

You can imagine, then, that I had rather high hopes for this side-story novella, Another: Episode S. Ultimately, these might have set me up for a bit of disappointment. 

Episode S wasn't bad. It wasn't anything particularly special, though - at least not compared to its counterpart. Here we have a ghost story about the ghost of a man trying to figure out how he died, why, and where his body is. (He is under the impression that he can't move on from this world until he finds his corpse so that he can get a proper burial.) It's kind of straightforward stuff, really, nothing groundbreaking (up until the end, at least).

I discovered an interesting concept after finishing the book, though:

There were several things about the plot development that bothered me. Frankly, I thought they were rather lazy on Ayatsuji's part, even a bit of a stretch. It felt as though Ayatsuji was taking the easy way out, relying too much on coincidence to move the story along. Curiously, though, once I hit the twist ending - which was quite sizable and highly intriguing, by the way - I realized that many of the things which bothered me along the way were actually intentional, and weren't as lazy or stretchy as I had thought. 

This said, on the one hand, I'd like to say that this revelation washes away the bad taste of that perceived laziness. It was certainly a worthwhile ending which I didn't see coming, and which made sense of the apparent conveniences along the way. Then again, I spent 200 pages with those things. And even though they were justified in the end, so to speak, that's still 200 pages of a bad taste. It's not necessarily so easy to gloss over that, even with a great finale. 

Some people say the end justifies the means. I think Episode S is proof that this isn't always true.

If I look at Episode S as a side story to add a little more weight to the world of Another, it's interesting enough. Considering how much I loved the first novel, I was glad to have the chance to spend more time in the universe. Episode S is absolutely not a starting point for the universe, though, and it won't win over anyone who wasn't impressed with the first book - it's just a nice little filler to flesh out the world a bit more.

(A couple minor, non-review notes, by the way:

One of the reasons Episode S is not a starting point for the world of Another is because it gives away several of the twists from the first book. If you're interested in the world, PLEASE read Another first.

Also, you might have noticed the title of the book also mentions Episode O, which I didn't comment on in this review. Episode O is a very short manga included in the back pages of the book, about which there's not much to say. It doesn't have much of a plot on its own - it's really just meant to highlight a tiny little bit of backstory from the original novel, and would be completely meaningless if you haven't read the original.)

REVIEW: Thornhill - Pam Smy

• Year first released:  2017
• ISBN of the edition I read:  9781626726543
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Roaring Book Press
• My rating (out of 5):  4.5

If I could draw (and I sincerely wish I could), I would create books like Thornhill. It is lovely, imaginative, succinct and with a fantastic dose of eeriness.

It’s a rather simple story, told half in prose and half in drawing:

The prose half of the book is the diary of a girl in an orphanage in the early 80’s, who is bullied by another tenant. The orphanage is struggling to keep its doors open, and one by one, all the other children and workers move on from the home.

The art half of the book – which is basically told only through drawing – is modern day, and shows us another girl, new to the neighborhood, who has more than a healthy amount of curiosity about the creepy, abandoned building not far from her house.

This delivery – of telling two intertwining stories, one with only words and the other with only art – is a fantastic approach. If this book were handled any other way – only prose or only art, or even all prose with occasional illustrations of both stories – surely something vital to the effect would have been lost. This combination does a truly remarkable job of creating precisely the right ominous atmosphere for this ultimately sad, dark story about loss and hope and bullying and figuring out where we belong.

And make no mistake, Thornhill is quite dark: according to the publisher, the age range is 10-14 years old. This sounds about right (actually, I would just say 10+, rather than capping it on the upper end at all), but it's perhaps not for a kid who is particularly susceptible to frights. (Though if you’re a parent, you know your kids well enough to know the right amount of thrills for them. My son, for example, loves creepy books and movies. I may pass this book on to him even earlier than 10.) 

Either way, at 32, I enjoyed it immensely. It’d be a fantastic book to read alone late at night, or curled up on the couch with a cuddle-buddy or squeamish friend. If you want a simple, easy, but still truly haunting book to read with your friends or loved ones on Halloween, Thornhill would be an exceptional candidate.

(Don't let the 544-page count put you off: since half is art, and the prose half doesn't actually boast too many words per page, it's not an especially long read - totally doable in a couple hours on Halloween night.)

REVIEW: The Tokyo Zodiac Murders - Soji Shimada

• Year first released:  1981 
• ISBN of the edition I read:  1782271384
• Publisher of the edition I read: Pushkin Vertigo
• My rating (out of 5):  4

On page 231 (out of 316) of this serial-killer murder mystery, Shimada breaks the fourth wall and interrupts his own book. He says, in part:

All of the information required to solve the mystery is now in your hands, and, in fact, the crucial hint has been provided already. ... Let me throw down the gauntlet: I challenge you to solve the mystery before the final chapters!

What a fantastic, fun invitation. And it’s okay by me.

At this point, I set the book aside for a week. Once I proceed on to the next page, there’s no going back. You can’t unread things.

One week later, when I came back to Zodiac again, I was precisely zero percent closer to having figured out even the first thing about the solution to the murders.

This is one thing I love about Zodiac. The final solution to the crime was, quite simply, cosmic. Unlike The Devotion of Suspect X, though, (another Asian mystery which I read and reviewed a few weeks ago here), Zodiac is not merely a novel about its finale. Yes, the final act is the best part, but the journey matters here, too.

For one, it matters in the way I’ve already described: the author actually directly challenges us to figure out the case before the characters. Even beyond this element, though, we are still left with excellent pacing (at least once you finish the first part of the book, which is a bit of an overly-long exposition about the crime, more than it is actual plot), an ingenious crime, and a secondary character who is enjoyable and attention-grabbing throughout (even if he does make fun of Sherlock Homes, which is only barely forgivable).

All of this perhaps sounds as though I am building up to a stellar rating. And I wish I could say that I am. There is a sizable flaw, though, which I can’t really ignore:

Zodiac is the perfect example of the translation leaving us to wonder who is to blame for the stiff style of writing. Is it Shimada’s form which is rigid, or Ross and Shika Mackenzie’s translation? As I don’t speak Japanese, I can’t say. (And, as I explained in my blog The Art of Translation, pt. 3, I try very hard not to blame the author directly for this.)

Nevertheless, we have a rather colorless set of words and sentences to tell us a very colorful story, which can be somewhat distracting. 

This rigidity is worth forgiving, though, so that we can experience a truly unique mystery - and incredible payout - that serves as one of the highest examples of the genre.

Horror v. Thriller v. Mystery

In order to get started on what's going to be our very best month for literary scares, let's first take a few minutes to talk about the difference between HORRORS, THRILLERS, and MYSTERIES. There can certainly be quite a bit of overlap between the three, but they're all markedly different. So let's make sure we're clear about them.

There are many questions we can ask to guide us in the right direction, and plenty of great books we can look to for examples.

• Is there anything supernatural about the book?
• What sorts of imagery does the book contain?
• What is the overall mood of the book?
• Is there any sort of imminent threat or danger in the book?
• Is the book meant to be scary/suspenseful/dreadful?

There are plenty of well-read people out there who might disagree with these descriptions I'm about to impart. And that's okay. But this is how I, at least, view the genres, and, therefore, this is how I will be using these words throughout this blog.

MYSTERY

Perhaps the easiest of the three genres to define is Mystery. No doubt the most common examples of Mystery that we come across are murder mysteries, though of course murder doesn't have to be at the heart of it, nor does it have to be the main/only thing that is trying to be unraveled.

Unlike Thrillers and Horror, Mysteries will often only focus on one or two individual crimes - or a series of crimes - which have already been committed (or are committed in the early pages of the book), rather than an ongoing threat throughout the book. By and large, the focus is on figuring out the who, why, and/or how of the ordeal. Mysteries could theoretically be scary or unsettling, but it's not at all a requisite - in fact, I would say it's not altogether that common.

Mysteries will usually not have anything supernatural, nor are they likely to feature a particularly dreadful mood.

A great example of a Mystery (which I'll be reviewing for you very soon), is The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. At the core of the book is a series of eight murders, all of which happened decades ago. Now, our protagonists are trying to solve the crimes out of, frankly, idle amusement. There are no imminent threats, no deadlines, no reason our heroes must solve the crimes (or else risk the murders continue, etc.). They're just a couple of guys who want to solve these unsolved murders. Zodiac is a great mystery, but there's really nothing scary about it.

THRILLERS

Thrillers are sort of a mixed-breed of the arena, and perhaps the most difficult/subjective to define of the three.

A common type of Thriller that we find is the serial-killer murder. These often include many of the same tropes as Mystery, but with the added element of imminent danger: the hero must discover who the killer is, otherwise he'll kill again soon.

A highly popular series of such Thrillers is the Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris. Each of the books (okay, okay - I only read the first three, so I can't say much about Hannibal Rising) deals with a different serial killer - each quite gruesome, in fact - who is on the loose and who poses an immediate threat to society if he isn't stopped. Not only is there a mystery to unravel, it must be done imminently.

Aside from this type of Thriller, books in the genre can also be more focused on psychological dread, rather than merely solving a crime. There's almost inevitably a sense of deep mystery, but it doesn't necessarily need to be about any sort of crime - just the sheer unsettling nature of the situation as a whole. Also, though a Thriller can include supernatural elements, more often it won't.

A fantastic example of this sort of Thriller is Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. An inpatient on an island-bound mental facility suddenly vanishes one day, and two detectives go to the island to investigate. A runaway? A murder? A conspiracy? The book is positively dripping with psychological dread, uncanny occurrences, and mystery upon mystery about what exactly is going on in the facility. (And my goodness, it's an amazing book - definitely one you should check out this month.)

HORROR

Of the three genres discussed here, Horror has a few key elements that really separate it from the pack. There are lots of sub-genres of Horror (which I'll go into in a later blog), but there are a few tropes that most all the sub-genres have in common.

For one, though a Horror story doesn't require any sort of supernatural element, it's the most likely of the three to contain the supernatural. Sometimes this is in obvious ways, such as monster horror: vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. Sometimes, the supernatural is more subtle - in fact, one of the plot points may be that we're not entirely sure if there really is anything supernatural in play. Can the cult actually perform black magic, or is it all parlor tricks? Is it really a ghost in the attic? Is the girl possessed by a demon, or suffering from a mental illness?

As well, though Thrillers generally contain more dread than Mysteries, Horror will almost always up the stakes even more. (Now you can see why I decided to describe the three in this order. 😉) And, like Thrillers, most Horror will contain some sort of imminent danger for the heroes - if not for the community, or even the entire world.

The overall mood of a Horror will generally be much darker, scarier, more unsettling, and more foreboding than a Mystery or Thriller, and will usually contain the most grotesque - and sometimes even downright repulsive - imagery and settings.

There are certainly many great Horrors we can look to for examples of the genre: Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, most of Stephen King's and H.P. Lovecraft's writings.



Of course it's very likely you already knew all of this. But just in case you were wondering - even if only occasionally - why I will label a book one way instead of another, I hope this little reference helps.

Guilty Pleasures, pt. 1.5 / REVIEW: DEATHNOTE: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases - NISIOISIN

• Year first released:  2006 (Japanese), 2008 (English)
• ISBN of the edition I read:  9781421518831
• Publisher of the edition I read: VIZ Media LLC
• My rating (out of 5): 4.5-ish. or maybe 2ish. hmm... 

Now I want to explain to you one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about guilty pleasures recently:

Just last week, I read the Japanese light novel DEATHNOTE: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases by NISIOISIN. As usual, after reading it, I sat down to write a review of it for you. I found that I was rather stuck, though.

First of all, I absolutely LOVED the book. But when I tried to discuss the book’s style, I had to admit that it’s, frankly, pretty badly written. (I believe that some of this was bad translation, but definitely not all of it.*) It had a constantly shifting POV that was more than a little distracting. To add to this, the first-person narrator played a rather confusing role in the story, one that I don’t think I can definitively explain for you. This is largely because I don’t think I fully understood who the narrator was supposed to be – in fact, to be even more blunt, it felt like the author made a mistake in who the narrator, as a character, is in the overall DEATHNOTE universe. Oops. 

Perhaps, then, I loved the book because it had such great content (even though the form was bad) …right?

Well, partly yes. The plot was great, and had a killer ending. (No pun intended – I mean, it’s a serial-killer mystery, after all.) But what I certainly loved most about the book was the character L (who you’ll know if you’ve read the DEATHNOTE manga or seen the corresponding anime). Revisiting his character – and in prose, instead of only manga or anime form – was an absolute delight. He’s every bit as fantastic and hilarious and genius here as he was in the manga/anime. Very possibly my favorite character to have come out of the genre as a whole.

So then. When I tried to give a numerical score to the book, I wanted to give it a 4.5.

I realized, though, that this score is actually rather misleading. This book doesn’t really deserve a 4.5, for many of the reasons I already described (amongst several others). 

Yet I totally loved the book. It was an absolute blast for me. And so calling it anything less than a 4.5 feels wrong, too.

It turns out that the book is great, but it's not actually good.

Weird, I know.

Another Note was not high-quality. But dang it if it wasn’t one of the funnest books I’ve read recently – and, therefore, worth every minute I spent with it.**

* * * 

*This is actually the second book I've read by NISIOISIN in the past couple weeks. Each had a different translator. Both translations were fine - nothing entirely remarkable or entirely egregious - but overall I think the other book, Decapitation, flowed a little better as far as the translation is concerned.

**By the way, if you’re thinking of reading this book, it’s highly advisable that you read the original DEATHNOTE manga or watch the anime first. This is because:

1. Even though this book is a prequel to the manga/anime series, it actually contains spoilers for the series. 
2. The series is a better “jumping-off-point” to getting a grasp on L’s character. This book itself doesn’t do much of anything to help you understand his personality; it’s better to come to the book with a good feel for it already. (And, again, since L is my favorite part of the book, approaching the manga/anime first will almost certainly increase your enjoyment of this book.)

All that said, if you are familiar with the tropes of DEATHNOTE and are considering this book: Yes. Absolutely. Read this - just know that it's not as "high-quality" as many other great books you could be reading. (In fact, I might even say it's not as "high-quality" as the manga itself, even though it's still totally worth it - especially if, like me, you realize how amazing L is.)

REVIEW: Decapitation: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense User - NISIOISIN

• Year first released:  2008 (Japanese), 2017 (this English translation)
• ISBN of the edition I read:  1945054212
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Vertical
• My rating (out of 5):  4

Looking at the cover of this book, it’d be very easy to form a quick judgment of it. It sure looks like one of those crazy Japanese cartoons, doesn’t it? – and, therefore, it must be for people who like all that that weird Japanese stuff, right?

Well…not really, no.

Yes, Decapitation is a Japanese “light novel” – basically a popular short novel. (The closest thing we produce here in the U.S. would probably be a mass-market paperback.) They don’t generally serve as examples of the highest quality of Japanese literature. And yes, very often, light novels are written that tie-in to manga.

This isn’t a book that’s necessarily targeted at teens, though, nor is it exclusively for people who are already into Japanese media. Instead, Decapitation is a locked-room mystery that is more likely to remind you of Agatha Christie than a comic. Technically, it takes place on an island off the coast of Japan, but there’s very little about the plot or the setting that feel particularly culturally exclusive (for better or worse).

A group of eight strangers – all geniuses – are summoned to an island palace on the whim of an incredibly wealthy and highly bored heiress. Soon enough, one of them ends up dead – decapitated, as you might guess from the book’s title – and, of course, everyone on the island is a suspect in this inventive, twisty novel.

Admittedly, the writing takes a small amount of adjusting to get into. I found myself a bit confused for the first 20 or 30 pages. It wasn’t that the setting or the action was hard to follow – everything was explained/displayed well enough – it was simply hard to understand exactly why things were being expressed in just this way. Wait…is this character speaking right now, or just thinking? Why are some of his thoughts in quotation marks, but not others? etc.

After that first small stretch, though, either it got better, or else I somehow acclimated – it’s hard to say which for sure. Either way, it stopped being of concern very shortly into the book.

Once I got past this small bump in the road at the beginning, the rest of the book came together rather nicely. Though the subject matter was serious (we’re talking about a murder mystery here, of course), NISIOISIN still managed to sprinkle in a healthy amount of levity, without being too obnoxious, cutesy, or out-of-left-field (all things I’ve noticed are sometimes a struggle in other manga and light novels). In fact, the overall tone of the book was fantastic - a definite highlight, all things considered.

The story moved along quickly, the characters were distinct (with the intentional exception of the triplets, of course), and the twists were enjoyable. I wasn’t as shocked by the ending as I’ve been by other similarly-themed novels, but, since Decapitation gives us more to enjoy than just an ending, this wasn’t particularly problematic or distracting. 

I highly enjoyed Decapitation and veritably raced through it. And, if you're at all a fan of mystery - especially one that's more quirky than most other stories in the genre - you probably will, too. 

REVIEW: Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff

• Year first released:  2016
• ASIN of the edition I read: B00UG61LNS (read on Kindle), paperback
• Publisher of the edition I read:  Harper
• My rating (out of 5):  2.5 

I wonder if I missed something while reading Lovecraft Country. Reading it, I perceived it as an okay drama about a black family in Jim Crow-era racism, with plenty of helpings of the occult.

After I read it, though, I discovered that it was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Horror, and that it’s considered a “dark fantasy horror.”

After discovering these things, I couldn’t help but think, Wait…this was supposed to be a horror?

Sure, the book was fine. It didn’t complete my life to have read it, but it wasn’t a waste of time. And yes, there were a small handful of eerie, supernatural elements to it. Dark fantasy is fine, I guess. But…horror? I didn’t think Lovecraft Country was even trying to scare me.

The title, too, is a bit of a misnomer. There are a few connections in the book to H.P. Lovecraft, and those were fun. There were only a few of them, though, and – with one particular exception – they were more like Easter Eggs than actual plot points. At the very least, certainly they weren’t strong enough of a tie to the works of H.P. to really name the book after him.

While we’re at it, there’s one more thing that’s worth saying about the book: the book is called a novel. And it almost is. There’s a description on the back to tell you what you’re getting into. What the outside of the book forgets to tell you, though, is that, more than a novel, per se, Lovecraft Country is more of a series of connected, chronological short stories featuring the same cast of characters. Further, it doesn’t mention that the description from the back of the book only describes the first (and best) story within.

Perhaps all of this is neither here nor there when it comes to deciding how good of a book it is, of course, but it’s still an interesting point: yes, the book itself – the plot, the characters, the writing – are fine, but everything about the book seems like a series of errors in judgement. Wrong genre label, misleading title, inaccurately described format...It’s all so fallacious, in fact, that I can’t help but wonder if it was actually intentional. A peculiar marketing strategy? – maybe. Either way, it's all rather misleading.

On to the book itself, though:

Lovecraft Country is a mysterious set of stories, drawing you in to its well-imagined characters: their personalities, their struggles, their secrets. The cast of characters, in fact, was probably the best part about the book as a whole. Also, Lovecraft Country showed a different view of racial issues and tensions than most fiction I happen to read, which was, for me personally, a good change of pace. And I appreciated how each of the individual story pieces tied together in a cohesive way (in the final story, The Mark of Cain). The final story wasn't nearly as climactic as it should have been - at least, compared to the climaxes of a couple of the other stories - but at least it brought everything together in an agreeable way.

None of these elements ultimately make this an unmissable book, though. Lovecraft Country fit neatly into a hole in my reading schedule, and it was a fine filler. I almost imagine it like a mid-album song: it was never meant for radio play; it’s not getting a music video. It’s just a passable song to make the album a little longer.

If you’re in between books, looking for some padding, or wanting to read a horror that isn’t a horror (hey, I know some people who like those, weird though it may sound), then sure, Lovecraft Country is fine. Don’t stick it too high on your To-Read list, though. 

REVIEW: Six Four - Hideo Yokoyama

• Year first released: 2012 (Japan), 2016 (UK), 2017 (US)
• ISBN of the edition I read: 978-1848665286 (I actually read the UK edition. The US edition is available here)
• Publisher of the edition I read: riverrun
• My rating (out of 5): 4

I have a small fear about trying to review Six Four: if I tell you what the book is, say, elementally, I worry that it won’t sound interesting to you. But considering that Six Four is actually great, I hope you’ll bear with me while I try to make this make sense to you…

Fourteen years ago, there was a kidnapping/ransom/murder (in that order, unfortunately). Still unsolved, you might have guessed. And, since the statute of limitations on this sort of crime ends at 15 years in Japan, the police force is giving it one final push before the perpetrator gets away, scotch-free, forever.

So it sounds like we have a crime drama, right? A mystery? Maybe a psychological thriller?

Well…not really, no.

More accurately, Six Four is a psychodrama masquerading as a crime drama. It is certainly mysterious. But, in a move that is wholly unique for the genre, the story isn’t really about trying to solve the crime.

Rather, our protagonist, Mikami, was recently transferred out of the Investigations Department and into Media Relations. Anymore, his job is to act as a liaison between the press and the police force. So it is that he’s running his own investigation, but, rather than trying to solve the crime on its own, he’s more interested in trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together, the role everyone played it the investigation 14 years ago, the elements that have gone unnoticed or unreported.

At its heart, we might say that Six Four is more about the office politics of the Japanese police department than it is about the solving of a crime.

Sounds boring, doesn’t it?

It’s not. It really isn’t.

This 632-page behemoth of a novel is a slow-burn, unfolding methodically, piece by piece, until its final exposé. Yes, there is a powerful twist at the ending – which certainly ratcheted up the tension for the final 100 or so pages – but the novel isn’t merely about the ending. It’s about the unfolding, the psychological drama that Mikami is desperately trying to navigate. There are betrayed loyalties everywhere we look, manipulations of the highest caliber, agents going rogue, and every other element that you could hope for in such a mystery.

It’s hard to comment on the pacing effectively. I admit, there are moments where the book can feel a bit slow. Despite this, though – and despite the fact that the book is over 600 pages – there really isn’t much in the book that isn’t worthwhile. Once we come to the end, we see that more of it mattered along the way than we could have realized all throughout. Yes, parts of the book are slow, but it is always succinct – a very unique, effective blend.

I’d also like to point out: I’ve read a fair amount of literature coming out of Asia. It can be quite hit-and-miss, of course, – particularly in translation, when it’s difficult to maintain the author’s original voice. That said, Six Four is easily the best-translated, and – to whatever extent this can be determined around the translation – the best-written book I’ve read from Japan. It is succinct and suspenseful without ever feeling formulaic or gimmicky. The prose is fluid, and – something that is highly important to me personally – the POV is never once betrayed.

If you have a fear of novels that run a bit long, I can understand your hesitation in Six Four. I can’t promise it’s for everyone. I’m pleased with the time I spent with it, though – in fact, more so than I had thought I would be going into it (which is saying more than it sounds like, since I sometimes shy away from books of the length). The slow-brood and the unique focus of the plot are fantastic additions to a genre that all too often falls stale.

REVIEW: The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino

• Year first released:  2005 (Japanese), 2011 (English)
• ISBN of the version I read:  978-1250002693
• Publisher of the version I read:  Minotaur Books
• My rating (out of 5):  2

The most important thing I can think to say about The Devotion of Suspect X is that it did a couple things very right and a couple things…well: not so right, to put it kindly.

Devotion is, essentially, a mind game between two equally brilliant men: the genius physics professor Yukawa, who occasionally helps his police-detective friend solve some of the trickier murder cases in the precinct; and math teacher Ishigami, an intimidating mastermind who seems to have missed his mark in life and is now, somehow, at the heart of a murder investigation.

Unlike most other mystery/crime novels, Devotion actually begins by showing us the murder, telling us exactly who did it and how it was done. The mystery at hand for us readers, then, is in the elaborate plot created by Ishigami to cover up the crime. It’s an unconventional approach for the genre, and a wonderful change-up. As the book progresses and every new lead or clue is discovered, each step of the way we wonder, Is Ishigami’s plan falling through the cracks, or is this, too, part of his master setup?

His plan, by the way, was truly clever. Just how far it goes is not something I will comment on; frankly, that’s the entire joy of the book. And, as you might surmise, the ending was wholly shocking and mind-blowing. I, at least, wasn’t even in the same galaxy of guessing the answer.

Here, though, is exactly where the book’s biggest problem lies.

Devotion suffers from what I sometimes refer to as the Sixth Sense Effect. Just saying that phrase, I’m sure you can guess exactly what I’m getting at: as the final act plays out in front of us and the whole truth is revealed, we realize we’ve just witnessed the most twisty twist that’s ever twisted in a movie. But in this case, the movie is the ending. The first 97 minutes of the movie are really just a prelude to the final 10. 

Which, unfortunately, makes the first 97 minutes rather dull.

So, too, with Devotion. Yukawa and Ishigami’s back-and-forth, cat-and-mouse game is a genuinely interesting, psychological treat. But every moment in which neither of them is on the page – and even a few moments when they are – I felt as though I was merely biding my time. Yes, the payout is incredible. But now that I know exactly what it is, there’s really no reason to tread this ground again.

That said, if this incredible twist is the most important thing to you and you’re willing to wade through 270 pages of prelude, then Devotion will likely be a delight for you. If you feel, though – as I usually do – that the journey is just as important (or even more important) than the destination, then Devotion might not quite be your thing.