Introduction: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, Book Review
The Devotion of Suspect X: A Detective Galileo Novel (Detective Galileo Series)
My heart was racing. My heart was very heavy. I was so upset that I couldn’t go to sleep. These are the words I wrote in my journal immediately after I finished reading The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino – I had to capture what I was feeling. Published in 2005, this detective story by Japanese author Keigo Higashino will delight you because of how it’s written. I have said it countless times that reading a detective story or mystery is a great way to hone your problem-solving skills – and this book delivers. It takes problem solving to a new level.
I missed one vital clue that threw me off completely. Read very carefully to figure out this case.
UPDATE: First Published January 2016
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What is The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino About?
One of the main characters is Yasuko Hanaoku, hasn’t had much luck in the love department, but she has a teenage daughter, Misato, whom she adores. Yasuko works in a takeout lunch shop. Every day when she is working, high school mathematics teacher, Ishigami Tetsuya stops to buy his lunch on his way to work. He is in love with Yasuko, but she is oblivious to his feelings. They also happen to live in the same apartment building. His apartment is next to hers.
Prior to working in the lunch shop, Yasuko worked as a hostess, but left the job when another coworker opened the shop and invited her to work there. It was an excellent move for her because she believes that it will be difficult for her abusive ex-husband, Shinji Togaahi to find her and his stepdaughter. Unfortunately, one day her ex-husband finds her, and to prevent him from making a scene, or go to her daughter’s school, she tells him that she will meet him after work.
Yasuko Hanaoku meets Shinji Togaahi, and after using his old, tired lines, she refuses to get back together with him, or to give him any money. She goes home, but he follows her. Shinji knows exactly what to say to get Yasuko to give him what he wants – threat against Misato. It’s not the first time he extorts money from her. But instead of taking the money, he taunts her, bragging that he will always get what he wants from her. The situation in Yasuko’s apartment quickly escalates. Misato clobbers her ex-stepfather on his head. He gets very angry and attacks her. Fearing for her daughter’s life, she wraps an electrical cord around his neck until he lets go of Misato. But Yasuko is not strong enough to strangle him, so Misato helps her.
Hearing the noise next door, Ishigami knocks on Yasuko’s door, but she tells him that she was killing cockroaches. This is why having powerful observation skill is so important, in the short time that the door is open, the neighbor notices the lack of visitor’s shoes on the welcome mat, yet he sees feet sticking out further in the room. He also knows that there are no cockroaches in the building.
Mother and daughter decide not to report the death because women are not protected very well from domestic violence. Ishigami Tetsuya decides to get rid of Shinji Togaahi’s body. There is nothing like a beautiful, brilliant mind. The school teacher firmly believes that every problem has a solution, so there must be a way to get rid of the body, while at the same time keeping the cops from suspecting Yasuko. Ishigami closes his eyes to focus on the problem at hand – to get rid of the body. He visualizes all the scenarios. Then he coaches both Yasuko and Misato on how to answer questions when the police question them.
When the body finally shows up, Detective Kusanagi and junior detective Kishitani investigate the case. All the alibis stand up to the test, but the detective senses that there is something wrong, but doesn’t know what it is. Kusanagi often gets help from Dr Manabu Yukawa, a physicist, in solving cases. When Detective Kusanagi visits Ishigami Tetsuya to question him, he notices a letter from the Imperial University, the same university he attended with Manabu Yukawa, but he doesn’t tell the math teacher that he attended the same university. When Kusanagi sees Manabu he tells him about Ishigami, whom the professor remembers with fondness. He gets the contact information from the detective.
When Ishigami Tetsuya and Dr Manabu Yukawa meet again after so many years, they reminisce about the old days in university. The physicist also believes that his old friend had something to do with the murder. There is a passage in the story that I really liked:
“Ishigami built his theorems with the rigid blocks of mathematical formulas while Yukawa began everything by making observations. When he found a mystery, he would go about breaking it down. Ishigami preferred simulation. Yukuwa’s heart was in active experimentation.”
What happens next in The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino is the meeting of the minds – Physicist vs. Mathematician and it’s beautiful. Manabu respects and highly rates Ishigami's intelligence because he remembers how good the math teacher is at problem-solving. To protect Yasuko, Ishigami tries to out-think and out-maneuver the physicist, who is his worthiest opponent to date.
Big Ideas from The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
1. The power of observation is an excellent skill to acquire.
2. Things are not always as they seem.
3. Think things through and create different scenarios.
4. What are you prepared to do to protect the ones you love?
5. There is a fine line between genius and madness.
When Dr Manabu Yukawa finally solves the case, he understands Ishigami Tetsuya devotion of Yasuko Hanaoku, which amazes him.
Final Thoughts: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
It bothers me tremendously how the story ends, but I grudgingly admit that it’s quite masterful. I recommend that you read The Devotion of Suspect X
by Keigo Higashino. This is one of the books I read during the first month of the Read the World Challenge (Before the Strategic Reading Challenge). I read it for entertainment, but it was very gratifying to read a non-Western detective story.
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