The Devotion of Suspect X

My Rating:

☆☆☆☆☆

The first installment in the Detective Galileo series, the first Higashino book I picked up, and the book that got me hooked on Japanese mysteries!

Higashino’s mysteries are leisurely-paced; you won't find much action within the pages, mostly discussions and interviews between the characters as they work their way through theories, but this novel (much like Malice and Salvation of a Saint) was so interesting that I couldn’t put the book down once I’d begun reading. I also especially liked the characters; Kusanagi and Yukawa particularly. While I wish the very end had gone a bit differently, I suppose it was fitting of the genre.

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.