Who’s the Suspect? The Devotion of Suspect X

July 2, 2014
Author: Keigo Higashino
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Year: 2011
ISBN: 9780312375065
Rating: ★★★★½
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Exceptionally well-written; a book that grips you from the start and doesn’t let go! Share this on twitter!

Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino is an incredible book, in the best sense of the word. With exceptionally well-built characters to an even more exceptionally framed plot, this book has all the ingredients to get you hooked.

The book revolves around Yasuko Hanaoka, a single mother of one, an independent, hard-working woman who is faced with the sudden re-appearance of her ex-husband who is stalking her and trying to wriggle back into her life at the risk of both her and her daughter’s sanity. One thing leads to another and Shinji Togashi, the ex-husband, is dead. Enter Ishigami, a loner, hopelessly in love with Yasuko, who turns the story around. What ensues is a sly game of hide and seek between Ishigami and his long lost college friend Manabu Yukawa, and Kusanagi, a duty bound detective filling in the essential clues. Yukawa is the only one capable of deciphering the crypt of clues created by Ishigami, and it is he who, after careful evaluation of Ishigami, comes to terms with the actual turn of events.

An aptly titled book, Devotion of Suspect X (which is the third in the Detective Galileo series) is not your conventional thriller novel. The story is not about discovering the murderer, rather it is about how well the murder and the subsequent events are choreographed. Being a thriller, this is the most distinctive feature- there is no chase to find the murderer or the murder weapon. The murder scene is well written in the beginning, but the real thrill is in whether or not the actual murderers are kept from being discovered.

A lot of well-placed evidence is discovered, but the awe-inspiring point is that none of it makes any sense to the reader. Ishigami, the star of the show, a high school maths teacher with calibre beyond perception, pulls off an extremely spell-binding application of genius that hides things in plain sight, not just from the law enforcing authorities, but also from the reader who would never see it coming till the end.

As though all these mind twists weren’t exciting enough, the end has revelations that will have you reeling!

The book delves into the psyche of the characters faced with the murder, the subsequent lying and finding someone dear at fault. This story has instances of unconditional sacrifice, compassion, and indebtedness, a sense of loss, a dilemma between duty and friendship, camaraderie and various facets of love.

Check out The Washington Post’s special on The Devotion of Suspect X here.

5 Comments

  • shrutianime July 4, 2014 at 4:48 PM

    A nice review, pushes me to read the book. This series has a Japanese TV Drama series and movie adaptation as well, and is pretty popular.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_%28TV_series%29

  • pratibha jain July 7, 2014 at 2:36 PM

    The author is pretty awesome. I read his other book, and it was fantastic too !

    • Mugdha July 11, 2014 at 10:38 AM

      Cool, Pratibha. Leave us your own opinion of this book after you read it!

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