Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, in a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.
Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka’s best friend. Years ago when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same high school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Osamu Nonoguchi left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka. But Kaga thinks something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi’s statement and investigates further, ultimately executing a search warrant on Nonoguchi’s apartment. There he finds evidence that shows that the two writers’ relationship was very different than the two claimed. Nonoguchi confesses to the murder, but that’s only the beginning of the story.
In a brilliantly realized tale of cat and mouse, the detective and the writer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded. Which one of the two writers was ultimately guilty of malice?
Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka’s best friend. Years ago when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same high school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Osamu Nonoguchi left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka. But Kaga thinks something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi’s statement and investigates further, ultimately executing a search warrant on Nonoguchi’s apartment. There he finds evidence that shows that the two writers’ relationship was very different than the two claimed. Nonoguchi confesses to the murder, but that’s only the beginning of the story.
In a brilliantly realized tale of cat and mouse, the detective and the writer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded. Which one of the two writers was ultimately guilty of malice?
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Reviews
Keigo Higashino again proves his mastery of the diabolical puzzle mystery with Malice, a story with more turns, twists, switchbacks and sudden stops than a Tokyo highway during Golden Week.
The story has more twists & turns than the Tokyo metro and proves that Higashino is a master of the form.
The creator of Detective Galileo returns with another fiendishly clever Chinese - make that Japanese - box of a whydunit....Each time you're convinced Higashino's wrung every possible twist out of his golden-age setup, he comes up with a new one. If you still miss the days of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, you can't do better than this fleet, inventive retro puzzler.
Keigo Higashino combines Dostoyevskian psychological realism with classic detective-story puzzles reminiscent of Agatha Christie and E.C. Bentley.
Smart and original...a true page turner...Higashino continues to elevate the modern mystery as an intense and inventive literary form.
A detective story about writers is often particularly satisfying, and this one is no exception...The plot is satisfyingly twisty and gathers pace as the revelations come thicker, faster, and more and more unexpected.
As fiendishly clever as The Devotion of Suspect X...Higashino offers one twist after another, all of which touch on the theme suggested by the book's title. Readers will marvel at the artful way the plot builds to the solution of Hidaka's murder.
A psychological thriller of the highest order...Each time Higashino makes a revelation, he quickly pulls the carpet from under one's feet, fueling the reader to finish the book as quickly as possible.
Intricate... At the outset, [Higashino's] approach seems unsettling, but the Edgar nominee knows his business; Malice soon becomes awfully hard to put down.
An exceptional study of the psychology of murder as well as a skilfully plotted narrative.
'A thriller of subtle sorts...written with an extreme sense of ease, flow and sensitivity.'
I've discovered that the best "golden age" detective fiction is coming out of Japan and the elegantly written Malice by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O Smith, twists and turns in every possible direction until its highly satisfying conclusion
