The Devotion of Suspect X - Hardcover

Higashino, Keigo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312375069 ISBN 13: 9780312375065

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 2011

Synopsis

Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko's next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step. When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any obvious holes in Yasuko's manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there's something wrong. Kusanagi brings in Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist and college friend who frequently consults with the police. Yukawa, known to the police by the nickname Professor Galileo, went to college with Ishigami. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet. An intelligent and compelling crime novel that will have you gripped till the very last page. This hardback book has 298 pages and measures: 24 x 16 x 2cm.

About this title

Review:

"Higashino won Japan's Naoki Prize for Best Novel with this stunning thriller about miscarried human devotion, a bestseller in Japan. The author successfully combines unquestionable reasoning with unquenchable pain. In this brutally laconic translation, cold logic battles warm hearts throughout this elegant proof of the wages of sin, in which everyone suffers and no one can ever win." --"Publishers Weekly "(starred review) "Winner of Japan's prestigious Naoki Prize and a bestseller there with more than two million copies sold, this literary psychological thriller is a subtle and shifting murder mystery. It will make readers redefine devotion and trust in an otherwise complete stranger." --"Library Journal ("starred review) "Veteran police detective matches wits with a brilliant rookie criminal. This character-driven mystery by the prolific Higashino has much to recommend, including a droll Columbo-like sleuth and a great surprise ending." --"Kirkus Reviews "(starred review) "In "The Devotion of Suspect X, "Keigo Higashino weaves a web of intellectual gamesmanship in which the truth is a weapon that leads both police and readers astray. The ingenius conclusion is so unexpected that it's difficult to imagine anyone seeing it coming. Smart, smart characters." --Jaqueline Winspear "How could we have ever imagined, without the help of a novel like this, that Japanese life could be so fraught with suffering and so entertaining all at once?" --Alan Cheuse, "Dallas Morning News" on "HIMITSU "("The Secret"), published as NAOKO in the U.S. "Higashino is a deft conjurer of human relationships, and while this is first and foremost a tale of grief-- --he infuses it with spasms of sharp humor." --"East Bay Express" on "Himitsu" ("The Secret")""The Devotion of Suspect X" has all the brilliant intricacy of the best Golden Age mysteries - puzzle within puzzle, twist after twist - with a modern sensibility. It is a wonderful, fresh take on the classic mystery's intellectual struggle between protagonist and antagonist, adds to it all the right amounts of tension and pacing, places it in a fascinating setting, and gives of all of this plenty of heart." --Jan Burke, "New York"" Times" bestselling and Edgar Award winning author of "Kidnapped" and "Bones""Japanese crime writers excel at many things: one is the slow tightening of the noose that's at the fast-pounding heart of the police procedural. "The Devotion of Suspect X "is a terrific book in that tradition and it's about time American readers got a crack at it." --SJ Rozan, Edgar Award winning author of "Winter and Night" and "On the Line"""The Devotion of Suspect X" is elegant and spare and gripping and vivid. Most of all, however, it is deeply moving, and this is what sets it apart!" --Jesse Kellerman, bestselling author of "Trouble" and "The Executor""Irresistible! A mind-twisting story that will have readers plunging in to try to solve the crime before the math genius, the physics professor, or the cop get there first." --Nancy Pickard, "New York"" Times" bestselling author of "The Scent of Rain and Lightning" and "The Virgin of Small Plains"""

Book Description:

Read the book that sold over two million copies in Japan and became a national obsession

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0312375069
• ISBN 13: 9780312375065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 298