The Devotion of Suspect X
Ratings115
Average rating4.2
Another suspenseful yet heartbreaking tale by Higashino. The story basically proceeds as a How-Done-It-Murder-Mystery. While the story doesn't progress in a twisty, breath-taking thriller, the book is engrossing enough thanks to Higashino's densely woven writing, intelligent investigation, and some wonderful characters. But the twist at the end, which the whole story builds up to, is both surprising and emotional. The author then takes the story to another level of emotion, and concludes with a heartbreaking ending. Keigo Higashino became one of my favorite authors.
Contains spoilers
Loved it. Was keeping me interested all the way. Just didn't like the ending. Felt like it ended adrubtly.
It won't keep you bored. Thriller/mystery fans would surely like this book.
I am thoroughly impressed by this book. I had zero expectations going into it – had never heard of it or the author, but it is the June pick for the Literally Dead Book Club, so I decided to try it out. I am very glad that I did!
This story basically follows two groups of people: one group who committed a crime and is trying to cover it up & the detectives trying to solve said crime. I wasn't so sure about it when I first started because there wasn't much mystery since the reader witnesses the crime, but I think the book slowly evolved into more of a character study, and it started becoming very interesting.
I loved how smart it was. There is one character who is a mathematician and another who is a physicist, so there are some discussions thrown in involving theorems and experimentation which I found super interesting.
The writing was very satisfying, the characters were intellectual, and it had an emotional ending. Very much recommend.
I'm not the biggest fan of crime fiction, and picked this up in a charity shop but it's brilliant!
More of a “howtheydidit” than a “whodunnit,” super heady without getting in the way of its riveting and emotional narrative. Really loved this one, def gonna read more Higashino.
more like 3.5
I don't want to be all “I kinda saw the end coming,” but I did!
I knew there was s serious misdirect going on and the beginning of the book gave that away. Nonethelessss, it was a really fun book. I wish we explored the characters more but despite the early reveal, the pacing did not bore me at all!
4.2 / 5
A murder mystery is truly masterful when it is still able to surprise you with a plot twist after revealing at the beginning the name of the murderer and how the crime happened.
Such is The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino.
A murder takes place in the first couple of chapters, and we know exactly who, how, what, and where. What we don't know are the details of the cover-up so when the body is discovered, we follow the clues through police detective Kusanagi and police consultant and physicist Dr. Manabu Yukawa (the Inspector Galileo of the series). We are also, alternately, following the murderer and accomplice, single Mom Yasuko and her daughter, Misato, who are guided to cover up their crime by their neighbour, Tetsuya Ishigami, a talented mathematician.
The brilliance of the book is in getting readers to root for the perpetrators of the crime, hoping that the wit and strategy of Ishigami would best that of the equally sharp Dr Yukawa (coincidentally, they were university mates). At the same time, we are eager for the trail of clues to be connected and made sense of by the detectives so that we, too, can be in the know.
The narrative is spare, but the dramatic tension and emotional stakes are ratcheted up each chapter, as Yasuko and her daughter anxiously follow Ishigami's instructions to evade police detection.
This was my first introduction to Higashino's work and likely will not be my last. I was racing through the pages, and though the ending with its surprise revelation was not one I was hoping for, the murder mystery was satisfactorily wrapped up and explained. The last time a murder mystery struck me as particularly inventive in plot and presentation was Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
Highly recommended, especially if you are looking for a fast, clever, and well-spun mystery read.
Just like the mystery of the book, the plot seemed simple for most of it until all is revealed at the end and you realise what you've been reading. Interesting read.
We know exactly what happened from the beginning, but the author still manages to have a twist that I didn't see coming. The characters are memorable and the plot is emotionally powerful. I will be thinking back on this story often.
I definitely didn't see THAT ENDING coming! Are you for real? I mean, I thought I knew the motives of each character, but that final twist just destroyed me (in a good way, though). Too bad only three books of this series are in English! 😫
This was one of those rare times where I have no idea who to root for and that I was disappointed the investigator caught the perp. At first I wondered how effective this novel can be because the whodunit was revealed quite early! But this book will surprise you still. An unconventional murder mystery, that's for sure.
Not a whodunit but rather a how to get away with it thriller. By the end of the first chapter Yasuko Hanoaka and her daughter Misato have killed Yasuko's ex-husband Togashi. You could argue it was in self-defence but that's not the point. Yasuko's neighbor, the heavyset, round-faced Ishigami overhears the commotion and deduces their predicament. Clearly infatuated with Yasuko, he offers up his services in covering up the crime. “Trust me” he says, “Logical thinking will get us through this.”
Ishigami, the math genius stuck in a dead end job teaching highschool, finds himself pitted against his former classmate Manabu Yukawa, the physics professor that goes by the moniker Inspector Galileo when he helps with police investigations. Yukawa at one point asks whether it's more difficult to create the unsolvable problem or to solve that problem.
That's what's happening here. On one hand you're working with Ishigami to create the perfect alibi while working alongside Yukawa trying to find the chinks in the armour and dismantle the perfect crime. There's clues enough to tease you but Higashino keeps throwing out curveballs.
A clean translation of some direct, workmanlike prose that propels the story forward - this was a unique, to me, take on the thriller genre.
This is my third Keigo Higashino book and I think my favorite so far. For some reason this story really kept me interested, more than the previous two. Maybe it was the relationship that Dr. Yukawa had with Mr. Ishigami that made it more interesting.
4 stars C'était mon premier crime/thriller japonais et j'ai adoré! // It was my first Japanese crime/thriller and I loved it! Very different from the ones I usually read :)
Definitely not what I was expecting... the story was very intriguing, but the ending was nothing that I expected. I also had some troubles getting into the book in the beginning due to the translation style; I don't know how to place it, but something about it was just a bit peculiar.
This one was a surprise: started off in a fairly pedestrian manner and ooooo so Japanese rigid structural framework both for the story and for the characters that seem so shallow. after the murder and the coverup the book kicks into another gear with the arrival of Yukawa the physicist and layers start peeling off Ishigami. Things get even more interesting with the arrival of the hopeful Kudo and even more of the characters are revealed. As it all falls apart the book hits a brilliant twist in the end. It started as a 3 star moves into 4star and ends on a higher note.
If you do not like Japanese movies don't bother. this book mimics the outward lack of personality in the characters, framed in stilted polite conversation and averted gazes, but the book's brilliance is how those shreds of conversation, those involuntary eye movements can betray such passion to sacrifice so much for so little in return.