Have you ever thought of a perfect crime? What it could be like? Maybe when no traces of crime are left or maybe when the traces are not visible to “ordinary” eyes. Such an extra-ordinary attempt is made by Keigo Higashino in his book “Salvation of a Saint”.
A poisoned coffee of Yoshitaka Mashiba ruled out all the possibilities of a suicide and hence the clear indication being of a murder. But how can one be murdered when he is alone in his house and making his own coffee.
All clues point to the wife, Ayane, as the logical suspect, but how could she have committed the crime when she was hundreds of miles away.As Tokyo police detective Kusanagi tries to unpick a seemingly unrelated sequence of events, he finds himself falling for Ayane. When his judgement becomes dangerously clouded, his assistant must call on an old friend for help; it will take a genius to unravel the most spectacular web of deceit they have ever faced.
The book looked very promising , also it was written by a Japanese author, so I thought to give it a try. And yes, as I started reading I was more and more engrossed in the book. The way the mystery will be revealed may appear unreal to some, but it is definitely one of its kind and hard to imagine. It is an essential read for all fans of exceptional crime fiction. Though the writer stretched the book somewhere in between to maintain the length, that generally crime fiction books have, still he managed to keep the readers engrossed.
Showing the detective falling for the wife; which in turn clouded his judgement was also a good idea, tosay even the hardest of people have emotions. The characters are very well portrayed, humour and quick-wit is maintained all over the story. My only problem with the book is that it loses sense of reality sometimes, and things may appear vague. Nonetheless you can give the book a try and it won’t disappoint you.
And as the “Metro” mentioned-‘The ending is the killer twist’.
About the Author –
Keigo Higashino (born in Osaka, currently living in Tokyo) is one of the popular and widely known best selling novelists in Japan. He is the winner of the Edogawa Rampo Prize(for best mystery) , the mystery writers of Japan, inc. price (the best mystery) among others. His first book is ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ which sold more than 2 million copies. The Salvation of A Saint is his second book.
Pratibha Jain
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