Book Review – The Devotion of Suspect X

Here is the review of the latest book from Blogadda, a cool, dark thriller with a twister of an ending.

Title: The Devotion of Suspect X

Author: Keigo Higashino

Plot: Yasuko Hanaoka, a pretty, single mother, works at a lunch box shop and lives a quiet, peaceful life with her teenage daughter. That is till her abusive, extorting ex-husband shows up outside her door. What happens then shatters the harmony of her life and her daughter’s. The events that follow are surprising and scary, to say the least and it all ends in a way she couldn’t have ever imagined. Why is Ishigami, the introverted, genius mathematician next door, doing what he is?? What exactly does Yukawa, the brilliant physicist, know about what happened? Will Detective Kusanagi be able to unravel all the threads of this tightly bound knot? How can a quiet and seemingly boring person have so much passion inside?

Review: The story is set in modern day Japan, and the writer gives a wonderful feel of the place with his writing. You can almost see the route Ishigami takes to work, and feel the cold as he walks near the bridge. You can feel the warmth and sounds of Yasuko’s workplace and can imagine how she would look like. The old university halls and dirty labs are most likely familiar with a lot of the readers.

All the characters in the novel are believable and may very well be people we see around in our daily lives. But that is exactly what makes the story so intriguing – we can hardly imagine an ordinary person with an ordinary job having the kind of passion and love described in the story. The characters here are all well fleshed out, with little details given that make them very real.

Though a mystery novel, this is not your regular whodunit. It is kind of a reverse engineering process. The underlying question throughout the story would be the one asked by Yukawa, “Which is harder: devising an unsolvable problem, or solving that problem?” If this sounds like going round in circles, then I suggest you read the book to understand it!!

The ending of the book is superb; the reader walks straight into the writer’s little trap and you get an ending you wouldn’t have seen coming from miles away. It took me a few minutes to actually sink in!!

The translation of the novel has been done very well, and there are hardly any hiccups in the narrative. It is a smooth read, though you’ll probably get goosebumps at the end, especially if you’ve been reading the entire novel at a stretch – and that is quite possible, considering how unpredictable the story is.

Verdict: This book is definitely a must read. If you’re a mystery lover, you’ll devour it in no time, and even if you’re not, you’ll be amazed by the back to front approach taken by the author. Apparently, this has been made into a Japanese movie, I would love to watch it!! For now, I suggest you guys get your hands on the book, you will certainly not be disappointed!!

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