预知梦

TW: Suicide, murder

I think it's fair to say that I'm getting pretty addicted to Higashino's mysteries. They're both comforting and refreshing at the same time. They use some pretty familiar formulas from the cozy mystery genre, but at the same time the solutions never fail to surprise me, and that's such a delight for me as someone who has read and re-read the Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes canon multiple times and have been “trained” to suspect the least likely character.

Unfortunately more than 90% of Higashino's works aren't translated into English, but luckily for me, they are mostly translated into Chinese and I'm able to read in that langauge. This is one book that doesn't have an English translation so bear with me as I try to give my own translation of the case titles here. This is the second installment in the Galileo series, following physics professor Yukawa Manabu's reluctant assistance with his friend Detective Kusanagi's murder cases. (For newcomers to the series, Prof Yukawa is the titular Galileo, nicknamed as such by Kusanagi's colleagues in the police force). I hadn't even realised that this was a collection of short stories (like the first installment) until I got into it, but I was pleasantly surprised - I really love very short and contained mysteries, it never feels too draggy. In this one, a recurring theme of the short stories written here is seemingly paranormal circumstances surrounding the crux of the case, but which generally get debunked by Yukawa in the end.

In “Dream”, the case surrounds a man who claims he has dreamt of his soulmate since he was 10, and even has put a name to her. He eventually meets and stalks such a girl, but this girl was born after he began dreaming of her. The second chapter, “Ghost Sighting”, a man who drunkenly saw a vision of his girlfriend outside a friend's window and becomes worried. He calls her colleague who lives in the same building to check on her, and she indeed finds her collapsed in the bathroom, apparently strangled. “Poltergeist” deals with a house who seems to have some kind of unnatural tremor at a specific time every evening, which only began after its owner, an old lady, passes away. “Strangulation” talks about a man who is found strangled in a hotel room, but all apparent suspects in the case have iron-clad alibis. Lastly, and perhaps most memorable, is “Prophecy”, where a little girl claims to have witnessed having seen her neighbour hang herself one night, only for her family to see the neighbour alive and well the next day and in seemingly good spirits. Three nights later, the lady does in fact hang herself.

As usual, a lot about Higashino's works needs to be taken in the context of Japanese culture. There's nothing overtly misogynistic here except values that have already been deeply entrenched in the society. I usually can't stand misogyny in my books, but this one I could close one eye to. As usual, Yukawa's solutions are always outstanding in the way it catches you off-guard, and all while using physics and scientific concepts.

I already borrowed 3 more Higashino books from the library so definitely will be reading more.