I have a friend who reads just mysteries and thrillers – every time she talks about books, it’s either Frieda McFadden (who she hates, but loves to read – in order to hate), or Riley Sager, or many of the usual suspects whose names are thrown around in the mystery/thriller sphere. After she came to know of my love for Japanese literature, and my enduring love for Natsuo Kirino and her macabre thrillers – she recommended me Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X. What quietly piqued my curiosity is that how she insisted this was different than other thrillers she’s used to reading, and I’m sure to like it. I do not like being told I’m sure to like something, but since she ended up gifting it to me, I wanted to read it anyway.
The book is unmistakably Japanese – the quietness the pervades through the book, the sense of stillness and people going about their lives. Admittedly, the beginning of the book was very dry – the descriptions were factual, with no emotions behind it; as if written by a mathematician than an author trying to paint a picture through his words. But the story took off soon enough, and I was engrossed. This is one of those stories where even if you feel like you have figured out what is happening, there’s always more happening behind the scenes, and the reveal at the end was quietly devastating.
I’m not Japanese, but the thread of self-sacrifice that runs through the book is something that’s built into my culture too. When I was a child, when I thought someone treated me badly, I’d imagine scenes from Jurassic Park where I’d save that person from a rampaging T-Rex by sacrificing myself and then they’d come to realise they should have treated me better. The book hugged that child inside me who used to think like this, and never in a million years would I have thought that I’d feel seen like this from a book that was written by a person of a different culture, translated into a language which isn’t even my native tongue.
It’s a beautiful book, and like I said, the ending is quietly devastating. I love it enough that I aim to pick up more books by Higashino. Specifically, books in the Detective Kaga series, starting with Malice, as I was told it explores more of the human psyche and relationships, whereas the Detective Galileo series, which this book is a part of, focuses more on the mysteries. I was also saddened to hear that Keigo Higashino recently passed away from colorectal cancer. We lost one of the good ones, again.