Author: Keigo Higashino–– He is a Japanese Crime Writer
Genre: Mystery/ Suspense Thriller
Book Cover: The Japanese Man with the intense and intriguing look draws attention. I am sure it the protagonist who is murdered and the whole story lives around his murder and the culprit. The cover design does its work.
Book Title : Salvation of a Saint- The title is unique and appears complex, can be termed as thoughtful too. The real meaning unearths only when one reads the complete story. Who actually is the saint and who lives through the days of salvation is for the reader to find out….?
In one sentence: The unputdownable book lives to its genre and lends a thrilling delight to the reader.
The Round Up: Husband, Yoshitaka is in the house. Wife, Ayane goes to visit her parents place after one year of their marriage, that’s really a long time. Her intern and family friend, Utsumi has the keys to the house. However, the husband is murdered and thus the story takes a mysterious turn. The circumstances and the closeness with the man puts the two ladies under scanner. Phew! both have a motive too, but who has a better one remains a mystery. Also finding the method of implementation of making it happen remains a challenge all along. Unearthing the truth and the story behind it, gives a hard time to the investigating officials. There are many diversions, loose ends, revelations, hypothesis to come across along the ride.
My Musings: The story begins really well. The writer builds-on the suspense from the first chapter giving the readers an inkling that something is not right. Basically its the story from the murderer’s eye. We know that the murder has happened and it is a perfect crime but the whole planning and setup definitely surprises the reader. Makes a great read and I was hooked to it till I had known who-dunn-it and how was it done. Has all the elements to make a bestseller.
Hits: I liked the investigation through the murder case. I was surprised at many turn of events in the book. When Physicist Yukawa, aka Detective Galileo enters the story, he brings the real race to the story by invading into the mystical layers of the crime. He brings a scientific and logical angle to the crime and its methodology, identifies the hidden clauses and cues and really follows his slightest intuitions. The character of the wife, Ayane is definitely the best. She is a strong and fearless lady who faces all the ordeals and phases of investigation without any fuss.
Misses: The story has been stretched long needlessly. The story could have be more invigorating if there were some clues for the readers to wade through the mystery. Another thing that put me off sometimes was when the main police officer in charge of the investigation, Kusanagi, develops a soft corner for the victim’s wife, the angle which was not needed. A few suddenly popped up connections from the victim’s past were not very convincing.
Smileys won from my side 🙂 🙂 🙂
P.S.— I liked the writing style of the Author and am definitely looking forward to read his another best seller novel ‘Devotion of suspect X’.
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Happy Reading!!!
Happy Blogging!!!
Devotion of Suspect X would be better liked by you if you think this one could have been cut short. That one is full of action and more suspicious stuff. 😀 Though I liked both the books! 😉 I think Kusanagi developing a soft corner only made Utsumi’s character more relevant, as she knew this would be a problem and hence worked more! Alright, it may be my personal bias, I love lady-heroes 😉
Thanks Ashna for visiting around here…
And I guess I agree with you that Utsumi’s character would never have been so interesting and maybe she would not have involved Mr. Galileo… since Kusanagi was getting a little carried away, thus she was always on her toes.. 🙂
Glad u answered…
I too think that Yoshitaka’s past love connections were not quite convincing, that and another fact (what Kusanagi has kept in his drawer all along) wasn’t very easily digestible for me. Apart from that, Ayane’s character was indeed the best, she shined throughout. 😀
I too am looking forward to reading Devotion of Suspect X now. 🙂
P.S: Your blog looks yumm, specially the fonts and the use of colours in the text 😉
Thanks Usama for being here.
I am glad u loved it..
Yeah, I too thought about it, how she managed to keep it hidden in the drawer.. I am sure a perfect crime needs a great brain…
Lets enjoy the other book and catch up more…