Malice

On Thursday March 30^th I went to a Barnes & Noble for the first time since the covid outbreak 3 years ago. I bought three books and a book mark and one of the books I bought was Malice by Keigo Higashino. This wasn’t the first time I discovered the author. I discovered a picture of his book A Death In Tokyo on Facebook. Bestselling author Kunihiko Hidaka was found murdered in his office in his locked house. The two most likely suspects were Hideaka’s new wife Rie Hideaka and his friend Osamu Nonoguchi. Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga whose on the case is friends with Nonoguchi and both men taught at the same school. Nonoguchi left teaching to become a full time author of children’s books and Kaga left to be in the police force. As Kaga investigates though he discovers the two authors were not very friendly at all. Kaga has to discover the truth or else the killer will go free….

Pros & Cons

I like the characters especially, the character of Detective Kyoichiro Kaga. While the book isn’t specific about how old Detective Kaga is, I couldn’t help but picture either Hideaki Ito or Kent Watanabe both actors from Tokyo Vice to play the detective. I like the setting which is obviously Japan and that it takes place in 1996 as they still used VCR and VHS Tapes.  We do find out early on who killed the author, which at first I didn’t like but Higashino still has a mystery for us. It’s not a matter of who did the murder but why the murder happened that’s the mystery. I can’t wait to read more from Keigo Higashino, and I’m glad more of his novels are being published in English.

Overall

Overall I really love the novel. I began it Thursday as soon as I got home from Barnes & Noble, and then finished it yesterday. I recommend this author and this novel if you enjoy mysteries, mysteries that take place in another country and how authors do the mystery genre and what they change about it.