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lee_hillshire 's review for:
The Devotion of Suspect X
by Keigo Higashino
I don't think this book will leave me quickly.
It's different from your normal "mystery/thriller" fare. It reminded me of two of my favorite pieces of media dealing with crime, the TV show Numb3rs, and the movie Juror #2. It starts out slow, and soft, and contemplative, and focuses more on letting the reader wonder about truth and justice, and the cost of lawful justice when it hits the lives of real people. And it sits in that uncomfortability without providing easy answers.
Oh, but and then. There is a plot twist, in the second to last chapter, that forces you to rethink everything. To sit with the consequences of what was implied by the way you assumed things happened for the preceding pages of the book. And it leaves off on a last scene that is so incredibly haunting, in the best possible way.
(It's also interesting how heavily the setting and culture played into the story without being apparent in playing into the story whatsoever. If that situation happened in America with the same type of characters, there would be no book. Ishigami would just be a witness to a self defense plea, and everyone would come together to support Yasuko and her daughter through their trauma. If the story had continued, an American ending would probably have looked much different as well. But I think that's where so much of the power of the story lies, forcing an American reader to sit and wrestle with their views of what should or shouldn't have happened, and wonder about the culture that's shaped that view. Gut-wrenching and powerful all around.)
It's different from your normal "mystery/thriller" fare. It reminded me of two of my favorite pieces of media dealing with crime, the TV show Numb3rs, and the movie Juror #2. It starts out slow, and soft, and contemplative, and focuses more on letting the reader wonder about truth and justice, and the cost of lawful justice when it hits the lives of real people. And it sits in that uncomfortability without providing easy answers.
Oh, but and then. There is a plot twist, in the second to last chapter, that forces you to rethink everything. To sit with the consequences of what was implied by the way you assumed things happened for the preceding pages of the book. And it leaves off on a last scene that is so incredibly haunting, in the best possible way.
(It's also interesting how heavily the setting and culture played into the story without being apparent in playing into the story whatsoever. If that situation happened in America with the same type of characters, there would be no book. Ishigami would just be a witness to a self defense plea, and everyone would come together to support Yasuko and her daughter through their trauma. If the story had continued, an American ending would probably have looked much different as well. But I think that's where so much of the power of the story lies, forcing an American reader to sit and wrestle with their views of what should or shouldn't have happened, and wonder about the culture that's shaped that view. Gut-wrenching and powerful all around.)