Take a photo of a barcode or cover
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A well-written police procedural detective story, skilfully evoking its place and community in the setting of a traditional area in Tokyo.
The novel is made up of a number of episodes in which the MC detective calmly teases out the murder mystery by clarifying time, place and interpersonal relationships. The MC’s actions show him as being both astute and compassionate. There are quite a few characters, but I didn’t find myself overwhelmed because of the way in which the MC focuses on one situation at a time, gaining an understanding of relationships and personalities.
The plot may strike some readers as being a bit meandering, but I felt that gave it a more realistic feeling of a mystery gradually being untangled, occasionally after investigating leads that turned out to be irrelevant for its solution – though even then still revealing more about the place and community.
A small weakness in this edition is the copy editing – the layout of dialogue occasionally confused me as to who was speaking and also some obvious errors occur (e.g., “there someone was behind him” [Chapter 1, Section 5], “that’s not the how police investigations work” [Chapter 2, Section 5]) – and some of the English figures of speech in the translation didn’t quite jell with the context.
All the same, overall a great read with excellent characterisation.
The novel is made up of a number of episodes in which the MC detective calmly teases out the murder mystery by clarifying time, place and interpersonal relationships. The MC’s actions show him as being both astute and compassionate. There are quite a few characters, but I didn’t find myself overwhelmed because of the way in which the MC focuses on one situation at a time, gaining an understanding of relationships and personalities.
The plot may strike some readers as being a bit meandering, but I felt that gave it a more realistic feeling of a mystery gradually being untangled, occasionally after investigating leads that turned out to be irrelevant for its solution – though even then still revealing more about the place and community.
A small weakness in this edition is the copy editing – the layout of dialogue occasionally confused me as to who was speaking and also some obvious errors occur (e.g., “there someone was behind him” [Chapter 1, Section 5], “that’s not the how police investigations work” [Chapter 2, Section 5]) – and some of the English figures of speech in the translation didn’t quite jell with the context.
All the same, overall a great read with excellent characterisation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Child death, Alcohol
Minor: Infertility, Toxic relationship