Maggie M. - , reviewed on 11/6/2015 + 400 more book reviews

This was my first Keigo Higashino book and it was okay, although somewhat farfetched to the point of being ridiculous. Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi focuses all of his attention on the x-wife (and her tween daughter) of a murdered man found beside a river, to the complete exclusion of all other possible suspects, even though she has solid AND verified alibis. The story doesn't tell us why he's so focused on her, even when there is no evidence to back it up. Not even his "intuition" tells him it's her, so the reader is left trying to put those pieces together and they just don't fit. Anyway, he brings in his friend, a physicist who has helped him solve cases in the past. The physicist discovers an old school buddy/friend (who is now a math teacher) is the x-wife's neighbor and, again, the reader is left trying to fit the puzzle pieces together as to why this matters or fits. We are supposed to believe the implausible fact that the physicist gets a notion that the math-genius neighbor is behind everything. The unbelievable just becomes moreso from there on until the murder is solved. The ending is rather unusual from what I'm used to and that was, I think, the highlight of the book overall. On the other hand, it was fun to become part of/introduced to a different culture than the United States.

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