Invisible Helix

by Keigo Higashino

Goodreads Synopsis:

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino’s best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in a case where hidden history, an impossible crime, are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident—Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. She's taken time off from work, clothes and effects are missing from the apartment she shared. And when the detectives learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume that she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight—she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation.

But if Sonoko didn't kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as "Detective Galileo." With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association—an eccentric artist, who was Sonoko's mother figure after her own single mother passed; and an older woman who is the owner of a hostess club. And how is Sonoko continuing to stay one step ahead of the police searching for her? It's up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence that connect the people around the bloody murder- which, surprisingly, connect to his own traumatic past—to unravel not merely the facts of the crime but the helix that ties them all together.

My Rating:

☆☆☆

Dates Read: January 29 - 31 2025

Initial Publication Date: September 2021

Translation Published: December 2024

Author Origin: Japan (Osaka)

Major Characters:

Detective Kusanagi
Dr. Manabu Yukawa (“Detective Galileo”)

Personal Notes:

My first translated novel and Japanese mystery of 2025!

Another installment in the Detective Galilleo series with twists and turns abound! I wasn't able to predict the end, though I'll admit that by now, I've come to expect the unexpected from Higashino and didn't make any guesses or predictions as I read. We get to see a new side of Yukawa in this novel, learning some about his family and personal history, which brings an interesting element to his character, but aspects of the plot felt far-fetched or confusing.

I also felt one of the characteristic elements of Higashino's writing was missing from this one. When I reviewed one of his earlier works (The Devotion of Suspect X, to be exact), I wrote, "One of my favorite little aspects of Higashino’s novels, aside from the twists, is the constant presence of coffeeshops and restaurants, as his characters meet to discuss the case. It's something you'll find in every one of his novels, and its always so atmospheric; you can practically smell the coffee or taste the hot chocolates the characters are always drinking." While there were a couple cafe scenes, the restaurants and cozy coffeeshops were replaced by a sleazy-seeming hostess bar that lacked much of the charm of the settings I've come to expect from Higashino.

Ultimately, while enough of an entertaining book to read to the finish, it didn't leave me with that same sense of thrilled awe that some of his other novels did (Malice, or The Devotion of Suspect X, in particular). I've noticed this has been the prevailing feeling I've been left with, after finishing some of the more recent translations of Higashino's work. Could it be because these new releases have such a lofty bar to reach, given the success and high opinions earlier works have recieved? Perhaps. But I think this just wasn't one of his stronger novels.

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