Keiko Higashino

[lemming13]

I seem to have a Japanese thing going on lately, but there are some terrific reads coming through from there and I was lucky enough to get this - ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pplBBdKUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg [/img]
- as a Vine review for Amazon. Higashino is known in Japan for his mysteries and if this one is a fair sample I can see why he's so popular. Superbly written, this isn't a whodunnit as much as a 'how can they prove whodunnit?' There is no sex, very little violence, and yet I couldn't put it down (I read it in one night, not noticing it was into the a.m. I was so engrossed). The plot follows a youngish single mum in Tokyo who works in a benten shop and has a high school student daughter. She also has a very unpleasant ex-husband who keeps hunting her down and harassing her, and a quiet high school maths teacher for a neighbour. It isn't giving too much away to say the ex-husband winds up dead, and then the police (and Higashino's best-known character, a university physics prof known as detective Galileo who helps out a friend on the force with his genius) come into the picture. I won't say any more about the plot than that, just that there is a twist at the end which I really didn't see coming, and the ending is genuinely tragic. Amazing book, and I'm looking for more.

[Thana Niveau]

Oooh, thanks for that, Lemming! That does look intriguing. I also have a fondness for Japanese stuff and bless Amazon and their "you might also like..." for suggesting some of the ones I've read in recent years that I never otherwise would have found. I'll give Higashino a look!

[benedictjjones]

i think i have a short story about the same main character by this author and it was very good (was most likely in Mammoth Book of International Crime) - i'll try and dig out the title when i get home tonight

edit:title of anth was actually mammoth book of worlds best crime stories