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Keigo Higashino is a Japanese novelist best known for his mystery books. One of Higashino's most popular characters is Professor Manabu Yukawa, a physicist called 'Detective Galileo' because he helps the police solve crimes. In this 5th book in the Detective Galileo series, the murder of a video producer is investigated. The book works fine as a standalone.
In the novel's prologue, a single mother whose partner suddenly dies has no money and is unable to work with an infant to take care of. So the young mother leaves the baby girl at an orphanage with a handcrafted doll.
Half a century later we meet twentysomething Sonoka Shimauchi, whose mother Chizuko, a former orphanage employee, just passed away from a brain hemorrhage.
Sonoka is comforted by her mother's best friend Nae Matsunaga, a children's book author who's known Sonoka since she was a child.
Some time afterwards, Sonoka - a design school student who works in a flower shop - meets video producer Ryota Uetsuji, who needs floral arrangements for a video shoot. Sonoka and Uetsuji begin dating and the video producer eventually moves in with Sonoka.
Sonoka and Uetsuji have been living together for about a year when Sonoka returns from a weekend trip with a friend to find Uetsuji missing. Sonoka makes a police report, and a few days later Uetsuji is found floating in Tokyo Bay, dead from a bullet in the back.
Chief Inspector Kusanagi leads the investigation into Uetsuji's murder.....
....assisted by Detective Sergeant Kaoru Utsumi and the homicide team.
Kusanagi and Utsumi try to question Sonoka, but she's taken time off from work and can't be found. When the detectives attempt to interview Sonoka's family friend Nae Matsunaga, Nae is unreachable, having told her editor she's off on a trip.
The Chief Inspector concludes Sonaka and Nae are on the run together, and when Kusanagi looks into Nae's background, he discovers the writer once consulted Detective Galileo regarding a children's book about a monopole. This draws Yukawa into the case.
The rest of the book toggles back and forth between the homicide investigation and Sonoka's flight, including flashbacks to Sonoka's past. Sonoka is a prime suspect for Uetsuji's homicide, but she has an ironclad alibi.
Kusanagi and Yukawa talk to people acquainted with Sonoka, such as Mr. Tamura - Sonoka's landlord; Mrs. Aoyama - Sonoka's employer at the flower shop; and Hidemi Negishi - owner/mama-san of the hostess club VOWM, who offered Sonoka a job.
The detectives also speak with Uetsuji's colleagues and acquaintances, who universally disliked and avoided the video producer.
Persons of interest emerge, but the plot is like a puzzle, with one surprising revelation after another. Many of the disclosures come from Detective Galileo, who keeps his cards close to his chest until he's ready to make the big reveal.
We get a glimpse at the private lives of the investigators in this book, which adds a personal touch to the story. Chief Inspector Kusanagi, for instance, is an aficionado of hostess clubs, and a regular patron of VOWM.
And Professor Yukawa has moved in with his elderly parents to assist in the care of his mother, who has dementia.
Higashino's mystery novels tend to be cerebral and twisty, and this book is a fine example of his hallmark style.
Thanks to Netgalley, Keigo Higashino , and Minotaur Books for a copy of the novel.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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