神探伽利略

This was really fun and though this was the first Chinese book I've read in a while, the language and writing style was accessible and easy to follow. I've read a couple of stuff by Higashino before this one (in their English translations) and I've enjoyed them. I wanted to explore more of his works but then realised that a majority of his books have not been translated into English but all of them have been translated into Chinese, which is why I started off with this one, the first book in the Detective Galileo series and actually a collection of shorter stories.

Actually, it was because I watched (and was a big fan of) the Japanese drama “Galileo” based on this series that I came to even know Higashino at all. Because of that, I vividly recalled the very first mystery featured in this book, roughly translated as “Burning”. This was also episode 1 of the first season of “Galileo” so it left an impression on me. Luckily, I didn't remember the solution so I got the nice experience of finding it all out for the first time again.

The titular Detective Galileo is actually physics professor Dr Manabu Yukawa, who aids his university friend and now Detective Kusanagi Shunpei to solve criminal cases. (Of course, there're a few new characters added into this team to spice things up in the drama) It probably wouldn't surprise anyone to know that Yukawa and Kusanagi have a pretty Sherlock & Watson dynamic, Yukawa being the eccentric intellectual with poor social skills who is always “consulted” all the time, and Kusanagi being the well-meaning, energetic, but ultimately clueless sidekick/policeman.

Higashino's stories here are comforting and fun to read, but ultimately didn't blow me away as some of his other later works have (see: Malice). I don't think these were meant to do that though - they seem like short stories to flesh out some main characters, their dynamics, and just sort of experimenting and getting a feel of a formula. That's a-okay with me though. Mysteries that don't require a lot of time commitment and investment, and act out like solving puzzles with a satisfying conclusion are precisely the reason why I love cozy mysteries so much. Higashino's writing and formulas were also very clearly influenced by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but since I love those two authors, I have no problems with that.

Generally a solid but somewhat run-of-the-mill collection of mysteries here, I'd recommend it to anyone who just overall love the formula of cozy mysteries, or is already a fan of Higashino or the drama “Galileo”.