Newcomer
Ratings10
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings10
Average rating3.7
'An intriguing mashup of police procedural and golden age puzzle mystery' Guardian 'Detective Kaga pursues the case of a murdered woman from suspect to suspect, through a nostalgia-tinged Tokyo of family-run shops and Ginza bar girls. Clever and charming' Sunday Times International bestseller Keigo Higashino returns with his latest mindbender - Newcomer - as newly transferred Tokyo Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga is assigned to a baffling murder. Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department has just been transferred to a new precinct in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Newly arrived, but with a great deal of experience, Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the murder of a woman. But the more he investigates, the greater number of potential suspects emerges. It isn't long before it seems nearly all the people living and working in the business district of Nihonbashi have a motive for murder. To prevent the culprit from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets surrounding a complicated life. Buried somewhere in the woman's past, in her family history, and the last few days of her life is the clue that will lead to the murderer. This is the second appearance in English of Police detective Kyochiro Kaga, the protagonist of the critically acclaimed Malice.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 to 4 stars. Having read a few novels by Higashino from both his Galileo and Kaga series, I have come to expect great things from him. The last Kaga book I read, Malice, was simply outstanding, while others like The Devotion of Suspect X was incredibly This one, unfortunately, came up a little short. For Higashino's high standards, it was a little underwhelming, but as a mystery novel this was still pretty good.
The mystery centers around the murder of Mineko, a recently divorced woman living on her own in Nihonbashi. The book takes a while to get going, but it's incredibly engaging when it does. Instead of the typical formula where we either see events leading up to the murder, or having the murder happen very early on in the story, we instead start the story with the investigation but without any actual details as to the murder.
Most of this book is pretty much Kaga going around the different family-run businesses in the neighbourhood of the victim's home and asking them things. We get to learn tiny bits and pieces of the murder itself and about the victim through the accounts of these people, but mostly we get to see slices of their lives and the problems that they deal with. Though Kaga is interested in what they know about the victim and the events of that day, he takes the time to do little bits of side investigation to help them solve the small issues plaguing them, mostly domestic disputes. Because of this, the book is pretty episodic which honestly works for me.
We only really get to know about the murder, the victim, and her background very late into the book, within the second half. When we eventually get round to solving the actual murder, it does feel a little - straightforward. The conclusion of the mystery didn't really surprise me, and I didn't feel as mindblown about it, as I am used to feeling with Higashino. Nevertheless though, I enjoyed the way we dipped into the daily lives of all the families in the neighbourhood to slowly and gradually build up a picture of the victim.
Definitely going to read more Higashino after this.
Entertaining and intriguing, but a bit predictable. Still, Higashino Keigo is one of my favorite authors!
Enjoyable, but different from the usual murder mystery in that it is a series of sections which have minor mysteries, and as Kaga resolves these the solution to murder becomes clear.
