This is my third book read for the Japanese Literature Challenge 18, hosted at Dolce Bellezza. Silent Parade is about two crimes, separated by about 20 years, which have connections. In both cases, young girls have been killed. The suspect is the same for both. This summary is from the Macmillan site:
A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There’s a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn’t indicted, he returns to mock the girl’s family. And this isn’t the first time he’s been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases.
The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. DCI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders.
My Thoughts:
- My copy of the book was only 344 pages long but it seemed longer. I think that is because the plot is so complex; the story has several twists and turns, but the plot dragged at times. It was worth it in the end; the final solution was satisfying.
- The book is full of very interesting characters, and many of them get fleshed out throughout the book. I felt like we got to know several of the police detectives, plus Manabu Yukawa (also playfully referred to as Detective Galileo, which he dislikes), better than in any of the previous books in the series. Plus many of the secondary characters related to the crimes (family members of the victim, friends of the family, etc.) are well defined also.
- I don't see these books as traditional mysteries like those written by Agatha Christie, but the author sprinkles references to Christie's books throughout the story. Also another vintage mystery author, John Dickson Carr.
- For once I saw how Manabu Yukawa puts his physics background to work. That also may have happened in the previous book in the series, A Midsummer's Equation, which is my favorite in the series so far. He did a few experiments in that book too.
- This book gives the reader a good look at the police procedures and legal limitations in Japan, versus in the US.
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Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2021 (orig. pub. 2018)
Translator: Giles Murray
Length: 344 pages
Format: Hardcover
Series: Detective Galileo
Setting: Tokyo, Japan
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: Borrowed from my husband.
8 comments:
I find it interesting that the Galileo mysteries in the full-length novel and in the short stories have very different styles. The mysteries in the full-length novels are a lot more grounded. However, in the short stories, the mysteries are wilder, with a heavy use of physics principles. While the short stories have never been translated in English yet, the live-action drama adaptation (titled 'Galileo') is available in Netflix in some region, with english subtitle. Some of the cases include supposed spontaneous combustion, astral projection, poltergeist phenomena, etc.
I really like Higashino's work, Tracy. I haven't read this one (yet), but it sounds as though it lives up to the promise of the others I've read. I'm looking forward to it!
You make a good case for this series and I think I would enjoy it. I have a John Dickson Carr book in my Kindle, but haven't gotten to it yet. It's interesting how the length of a book can be relative to the complexity of the story as for how long it takes us to read it.
Anonymous, I did not know that Higashino had written short stories, although of course that makes sense. I would love to see some of his short stories translated to English.
Margot, Glen has had this copy of Silent Parade for two years now; I am surprised it took me so long to read it. I hope we get the next book in the series later this year. I do enjoy his novels.
Kelly, the plot of this story was so complex and I was highly motivated to keep reading to see where it was going. I have only read one book by Carr, and I enjoyed it, but I haven't tried any others.
The story does sound interesting. I like murder mysteries that have a tie to a past murder. I wonder if the novel might have been less complex if the author had not added in the killing of the suspect. But rather simply stick to solving the murder 20 years ago and today?
Kathy, That is a good question, and I pondered how that would have changed things. In this case, I think a lot of the story was about human characteristics and how murder and loss changes people. But, still interesting to think how they would have gotten to the solution without that element. Which I guess is what mystery authors think about a lot.
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