Title: 『むかし僕が死んだ家』 (むかしぼくがしんだいえ) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 講談社文庫 313 pages
むかし僕が死んだ家 has been translated into French by Manuel Tricoteaux under the title La maison où je suis mort autrefois (Actes Sud).
Short Review
Despite a rather slow beginning, むかし僕が死んだ家 is an engrossing novel about family secrets and a mysterious abandoned house.
Review
I have loved all the books that I have read by Keigo Higashino so far, so I was sure to love this one as well. I was therefore surprised to see that I did not like the beginning of this book. The first chapter (around 100 pages) was quite slow and it took me a while to get into the story. However, starting with the second chapter, the book becomes extremely addictive and I could not put it down.
Interestingly, there are only two characters in this book: our nameless narrator and his ex-girlfriend Sayaka. What annoyed me with the beginning is that we hardly know the two protagonists, but we are asked to follow them in what seems like a strange adventure. The story begins with Sayaka making a weird proposition to our narrator, and as we hardly know the two of them at that point, I had a hard time feeling involved in Sayaka’s quest.
Our protagonists investigate an abandoned house and try to reconstruct the life of the family who lived there… and try to understand why they seem to have suddenly disappeared. The book then turn into a really addictive exploration of the past, filled with mysteries and untold truths. The end is really good too and overall, this book was a real page-turner.
The book also touches upon heavy topics that give more depth to the character of Sayaka, making the book more and more interesting as we get to know her better.
Overall, 『むかし僕が死んだ家』 makes for a quick, entertaining read. If you like stories of abandoned houses and family secrets, you will certainly love this book. It is not a horror story, though it does have a slightly spooky atmosphere to it.
Title: 『聖女の救済』 (せいじょのきゅうさい) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 文春文庫 424 pages
This book has been translated into English under the title Salvation of a Saint by Alexander O. Smith. It is the 5th book of the Galileo series, but only the second novel. Interestingly, only the novels of the series have been translated into English. The other books, which are collection of short stories, did not make it to the English-speaking public.
From what I gather, these are the titles of the series in Japanese and English:
Format
#
Japanese
#
English
Short Stories
1
探偵ガリレオ
Short Stories
2
予知夢
Novel
3
容疑者Xの献身
1
The Devotion of Suspect X
Short Stories
4
ガリレオの苦悩
Novel
5
聖女の救済
2
Salvation of a Saint
Novel
6
真夏の方程式
3
A Midsummer’s Equation
Short Stories
7
虚像の道化師
Short Stories
8
禁断の魔術
Novel
9
沈黙のパレード
4
Silent Parade
The last English title, Silent Parade, is scheduled for October 2021 I believe.
I think that you will have a different experience if you read the books in English and in Japanese. The two first books in Japanese build Kusanagi and Yukawa’s relationship, so I was very affected, as a reader, when they drift apart in the next books. I don’t believe that this is something one can truly appreciate by reading the novels alone. Similar, Kaoru Utsumi (who works with Kusanagi) was introduced in the fourth book in Japanese. So when you read Salvation of a Saint in English, she is just there, which can be strange because she wasn’t present in The Devotion of Suspect X.
I had read the Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint in translation before learning Japanese. So 『聖女の救済』 was a re-read to me, but now I am reading all the books in Japanese in order, so my experience was a bit different.
Short review
An engrossing murder mystery where finding how the murder was committed will give the key to who committed the murder. Very addictive all along with a surprising ending. The only thing that I disliked is the role given to detective Kusanagi, whose attitude in the story was exaggerated and not credible.
Review
Even as a re-read, this book was a real treat for me, and if you like tricky mystery and quasi-impossible murders, you will certainly love it too.
I love the structure of the book and how much it focuses on the case. The whole book is devoted to solving the murder and there is not a single scene that does not contribute to the investigation. The downside is that the characters might lack some depth, as we don’t really learn much about them or spend much time with them outside of their connection to the case. But it makes for an addictive detective story, and I just could not put it down even though I already knew the solution.
The end is really good too, it turns an excellent murder mystery into one of genius.
There is not much action, suspense or many turnarounds in this novel, but if you like more classic investigations based on interviewing people and following every lead, you will love 『聖女の救済』. It is also a tricky and exciting howdunnit.
However, now that I have read all the preceding books in Japanese, there is something that really bothered me in this novel: how Kusanagi is portrayed. Even though the key character of the series is professor Yukawa, alias Galileo, the main character has always been detective Kusanagi. He is the one that the reader follows, he is the one who leads the investigation and asks for Yukawa’s help to solve the scientific part of the case. What I liked in the duo is that, although Yukawa is clearly the most talented one, Kusanagi is a good detective overall.
Kusanagi is my favourite character in the series, and I just could not stand how he was portrayed in 『聖女の救済』. He appears foolish, stubborn, blind and at times detestable. He is rude with Kaoru, his younger female assistant. He is supposed to be an experienced detective, but he lets personal feelings interfere with the case, and acts like an immature schoolboy. Yukawa says himself, talking about Kusanagi: あの男は刑事としてなかなか優秀だよ, but it is hard to believe in this novel.
This is not something that bothered me when I first read the book in translation, but I found it very irritating this time. I wonder if this trend will continue in the following books, but I hope not.
Title: 『祈りの幕が下りる時』 (いのりのまくがおりるとき) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 講談社文庫 443 pages
This is the tenth book in the Kaga series (加賀恭一郎シリーズ). As far as I know, this is the last one on the series for now, though a spin-off was released in 2019: 『希望の糸』. The main character is Kaga’s cousin who also appears in three books of the main series.
Short review
As always when it comes to the Kaga series, this book is excellent. The case is great, the investigation engrossing and the characters have more depth than in most crime fiction. The story is also very important for Kaga himself, and while it is not necessary, reading the previous books first might be better to fully appreciate it.
Long Review
To me, this book was simply perfect. The police investigation was suspenseful, the characters were easy to identify with, and the story was complex but very powerful.
As often with the Kaga series, this book is not only about murder and finding the culprit. It is about understanding people and why they act like they do, how they found themselves involved in a murder case. I like that there is no good or bad people, but that what determines the characters’ actions is more complex and often anchored in their past.
In this story, we also learn a lot about Kaga’s mother, who had been mentioned previously but about whom we knew very little. With 『悪意』 that reveals why Kaga left the educational field to enter the police and 『赤い指』 that is about Kaga’s father, 『祈りの幕が下りる時』 is one of the books that contain the most elements relative to Kaga and his family. While the story can be read independently, it does add to the reading experience to have read previous titles before this one. I personally recommend to at least read the books following 『赤い指』 in order: 『赤い指』, 『新参者』, 『麒麟の翼』, 『祈りの幕が下りる時』.
Elements about Kaga’s mother are so well integrated in the case that the pace of the investigation never suffers from passages that dig into the past. It makes for an engrossing read from beginning to end, but if you are a fan of Kaga as a character and want to know more about his past and his family, this is book is simply a delight.
I really hope that there will be more books in the series. At the same time, this one does wrap up the series very well, so it also makes for a perfect last book.
Title: 『麒麟の翼』 (きりんのつばさ) Author: Keigo Higashino (東野圭吾) Published by 講談社文庫 372 pages.
This is the 9th book in the detective Kaga series (加賀恭一郎シリーズ).
Review
When it comes to Japanese crime fiction, Keigo Higashino is my favourite author, and when it comes to Keigo Higashino, the books of the Kaga series are my favourite ones. No surprise then, that I loved 『麒麟の翼』.
The investigative parts of the novel were excellent and engrossing, exactly what a reader of detective fiction is looking for. However, the novel is not a simple investigation, it also goes deep into how a murder case affects everyone involved, the relatives of the victims of course, but also the relatives of the person accused. As it is said in the novel, finding the culprit is not enough to close the case. As long as we don’t understand why it happened, the families and relatives will continue to suffer.
『麒麟の翼』 is the perfect balance between a well-paced and engrossing investigation and an in-depth work on the characters and how they feel.
Watching Kyoichiro Kaga working is also a pure joy. I find that Higashino really managed to make Kaga an iconic detective by giving him a distinctive way of investigating. Leaving no stone unturned, paying attention to details and constantly checking everything are Kaga’s distinctive features.
If you want to read 『麒麟の翼』 I really recommend that you read 『赤い指』 and 『新参者』 first. You can read all the books of the series independently, but I find that there is a shift starting with 『赤い指』 where the books start having an underlying chronological thread whereas the previous books were more independent from one another. For example, in 『新参者』, Kaga had just been assigned to Nihonbashi and was solving his first case there while familiarising himself with 日本橋人形町. In 『麒麟の翼』, Kaga seems to know every street and shop of the area, which is a nod to 『新参者』.
『麒麟の翼』 also contains elements that are the direct continuation of 『赤い指』. It also reveals things relative to Kaga’s relation with his father that you only learn at the end of 『赤い指』, so it is best to read this one first. In both novels, Kaga is working together with his cousin Shuhei Matsumiya, so again, if you have read 『赤い指』, you might enjoy 『麒麟の翼』 even more.
Recommended reading order: 赤い指 👉 新参者 👉 麒麟の翼
Lastly, I also recommend that you don’t read the summary on the back cover because it reveals things we only learn late in the novel. I had already noticed that summaries tend to reveal much too much, so I took the habit of reading them only after I finish the book.
Title: 『ガリレオの苦悩』 (がりれおのくのう) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 文春文庫 p376.
This is the fourth book in the Galileo series. It is a collection of five short stories. Four of the short stories were first published in various magazines and one was written for the book edition, which was first published in 2008.
As far as I know, this book has not been translated into English.
Review
As usual, I found the cases in this book very entertaining, but to be honest, this book might be the one I enjoyed reading the least so far. (I am reading the whole Galileo series in order).
The first short story introduces detective Kaoru Utsumi who now works with Kusanagi. I read Salvation of a Saint some years ago in translation – which is the next book of the series and features Kaoru – but I did not remember the character of Kaoru well. As a result, I was very surprised by this addition and even more surprised (disappointed might be the correct word) to see her take Kusanagi’s place.
In the five short stories, what used to be the duo Kusanagi-Yukawa is now the duo Kaoru-Yukawa. It is always Kaoru who asks for Yukawa’s help, accompanies him in his experiences and discusses the case with him. Kusanagi is very absent from the case and does not seem to be doing anything. Worse, he appears as a stubborn and not very good detective in the first story, contrary to the zealous and bright Kaoru.
This might be an unpopular opinion (and the next books might make me change my mind), but I don’t like Kaoru. There is nothing wrong with this character, but I just think that she is an unnecessary addition. I have read three books (one novel and 10 short stories) with the duo Kusanagi-Yukawa, so losing this established duo is very unsettling. Readers who follow a series do so because they want to see their favourite detective again. The duo of detectives is such an established pattern in crime fiction, that changing the protagonists midway feels like a betrayal.
I found this addition so strange and out of place, that I checked online. On Wikipedia, it is said that the character of Kaoru was added for the television… Well, it makes sense. I am quoting Wikipedia:
I never watched the drama, so this is something that I was not aware of, but Kaoru appears right from episode 1 in the TV series (which is the first short story of the first book, and obviously she had not yet been created at the time). So for people who only watched the drama, the main duo has always been Kaoru-Yukawa… strange!
I doubt that Higashino would have created Kaoru if it weren’t for this request. This also explains why Kaoru has taken Kusanagi’s place instead of just working with him and Yukawa together as a trio.
I am okay with TV dramas changing things to please the audience or to make things more interesting. But here, the problem is not that the TV series departs from the books, but that the books change their line to fit with the series. I understand that Higashino wanted to create Kaoru himself, but I would have preferred to continue with Kusanagi in the books and let the TV series do whatever they wanted.
I am sure I will get used to the new duo in the end, but it was a bit of a shock in this book. I also hope that there won’t be too much of a sentimental relation between Yukawa and Kaoru because I am not usually a fan of romantic elements in detective fiction. We’ll see…
To talk more about the short stories themselves, I found them very different from the somewhat rigid pattern of the two first books where Kusanagi was the protagonist leading the investigation, and Yukawa was here to help solving the scientific part of the puzzle. In 『ガリレオの苦悩』, we find short stories were Yukawa is the protagonist and we learn more about him.
The last short story also had an interesting pattern, much similar to Christie’s the ABC murders.
Title: 『11文字の殺人』 (11もじのさつじん) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 光文社文庫 356 pages
『11文字の殺人』 is one of Keigo Higashino’s first novels. It was first published in 1990 and got a new bunko edition this year (2020) with a new design cover and a bigger font.
Review
This book is a real page-turner. I found it very easy to read, the kind of books where I am able to read 50 pages or more in a row because it is mainly composed of dialogues.
Our protagonist is an author of crime fiction whose partner has been murdered, and who decides to investigate by herself. There is nothing unrelated to the case in the novel, the pace is very quick, we jump from an interview to another, there are almost no descriptions.
I would say that 『11文字の殺人』 is purely entertaining, and that it succeeds in keeping the reader engrossed in the story until the end. It certainly does not have the depth of other books like 『手紙』 or 『虚な十字架』, nor the genius of other whodunnits like those of the Kaga series, but it is a page-turner and an easy read.
To me, it was the perfect book to relax, a book that does not ask any effort on my part and keeps me entertained. I think that it one of the easiest Higashino books I have read, and one that I recommend to people who want to get into reading Higashino but want to start with an easy one.
Title: 『白馬山荘殺人事件』 (はくばさんそうさつじんじけん) Author: Keigo Higashino (東野圭吾) Published by 光文社文庫
『白馬山荘殺人事件』 is one of Keigo Higashino’s first novels. First published by 光文社 in 1986, the book got its first 文庫 edition in 1990 and got a new re-print this year (2020) with a new cover design and a bigger font.
Review
The more I read Keigo Higashino, the more I think that I like his earlier writings the most (with the exception of the Kaga series, for which I find that the books get better and better). Based on the books that I have read that date from the late 80s and early 90s like 『白馬山荘殺人事件』, 『仮面山荘殺人事件』 or 『回廊亭の殺人』, I find that the story is mainly focused on solving the murder and revealing the truth rather than going deep into the characters’ life or feelings. All three novels set their story in a remote place, with a limited number of characters and even if the end did not always convince me, I found these novels extremely engrossing. Later writings seem to expand the story in terms of place and time, with characters and topics that are more complex like 『虚ろな十字架』, 『夢幻花』 or 『流星の絆』, but they also get away from the old-fashioned whodunnit setting.
In detective fiction, I like nothing more than having a bunch of characters all in one place, a corpse, and a professional or amateur detective trying to sort things out, while a second murder is on the making, so I was bound to love 『白馬山荘殺人事件』 . Keigo Higashino also added a mysterious code to crack to spice things up.
I would not say that 『白馬山荘殺人事件』 belongs to the best Higashino I have read (the Kaga series remains by far the best books to me), but it read quickly, was entertaining and delivered exactly what I was expecting from a detective story. I would say that it lacked a little in terms of suspense, but overall, it was a very engrossing read.
Title: 『容疑者Ｘの献身』 (ようぎしゃ X の けんしん) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野圭吾) Published by 文春文庫
This is the third book and first novel of the Galileo series (the two previous titles were collections of short stories). It has been translated into English by Alexander O. Smith under the title The Devotion of Suspect X.
Review
I think that 『容疑者Ｘの献身』 , in the French translation by Sophie Rèfle, might be the first book of crime fiction I read by a Japanese author. I loved it at the time, and I enjoyed re-reading it in Japanese very much even though I already knew the story.
If you are reading this series in Japanese, I recommend to read the first two books before 『容疑者Ｘの献身』 or at least the second one, 『予知夢』. If you do, you will know how detective Kusanagi and his friend Yukawa are used to working together. In 『容疑者Ｘの献身』, their relationship and relation to the case change a little, and this is something you can appreciate more if you have read the previous books of the series.
I remember that when I read the French translation, I was mainly focused on the case and the characters directly involved in it, and I was not paying too much attention to who the detective was. When I read it in Japanese, it was the other way around. I found it more interesting to see how Kusanagi and Yukawa were investigating the case rather than the case itself. Generally speaking, I was more focused on the characters and I found the very end extremely impactful, something I do not recollect from my first reading of the book in translation.
The series’ identity seems to have evolved over time. In the first book, all the mysteries were linked to a scientific phenomenon and this was the reason why detective Kusanagi had to ask for his friend’s advice. In the second volume, rational thinking, deduction and logic had replaced the physics. In 『容疑者Ｘの献身』 again, we talk more about deduction and logic, but science apparently comes back in 『真夏の方程式』, the sixth book of the series.
『容疑者Ｘの献身』 is a book that I heartily recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It is not my absolute favourite by Higashino so far (we’ll have to look at the Kaga series for that), but definitely one of the best books of crime fiction that I have read in my life.
Title: 『予知夢』 (よちむ) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野 圭吾) Published by 文春文庫 270 pages
This collection of five short stories is the second book in the Galileo series. The short stories were first published between 1998 and 2000 in the magazine オール読物 (よみもの).
Review
This second book in the Galileo series is slightly different from the first one, 『探偵ガリレオ』. In my review of this first volume, I said that physics-related explanations were present in each story, and that they never really managed to trigger my interest nor to really convince me.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the stories in 『予知夢』 have taken a different direction. The scientific elements are dramatically reduced. Instead of presenting us with a problem that is apparently impossible and explain it with science, the short stories in 『予知夢』 present us with apparently supernatural phenomenons and explain them with logic, rationalism and deductions.
I found this book extremely addictive, I have read one short story a day, completely putting aside my other books. I love the theme of supernatural elements, and how it is explained in a rational way. I also start getting used to and liking the character of Yukawa, whom I did not particularly like in the first book. Overall, going through all these short stories allowed me to feel closer to the duo of protagonists.
If you want to read the Galileo series but are not particularly excited about physics and science, you could skip the first book and start the series with 『予知夢』 . In any case, 『予知夢』 is a book that I recommend, especially if you prefer reading short stories in Japanese instead of diving into a whole novel.
Title: 『探偵ガリレオ』 (たんていがりれお) Author: Keigo HIGASHINO (東野 圭吾) Published by 文春文庫 330 pages
This book is a collection of 5 short stories all initially published for the magazine オール讀物 between 1996 and 1998. This book is also the first installment in the Galileo series, but even though several books of the series are translated in English, this opening title has not been translated.
Review
Reading Keigo Higashino after quite a long time really feels good. I am always amazed at how good his short stories are. Even in a reduced number of pages you get all the thrill of a good crime novel.
The short stories of 『探偵ガリレオ』 all follow a similar pattern with detective Kusanagi investigating a murder case and asking for his friend’s advice, the physician Yukawa, whom Kusanagi’s chief calls Galileo.
All the stories and cases have a scientific element to them, usually related to how the murder was committed but not exclusively. This element explains the necessity for Kusanagi to seek Yukawa’s advice, and it also distinguishes the Galileo series from Higashino’s other books.
I was a little surprised by the systematic introduction of a scientific explanation in the short stories. The only books I have read from the Galileo series are The Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint which are respectively the third and fifth books in the series. I may be remembering wrongly, but I don’t recall these two books as containing much, if any, physics. Either I am mistaken, or there has been a change in the series, from more to less scientific.
To be honest, I am not super interested in the technical or scientific explanations and physics has always been the subject I hated the most at school. Even though they are explained in easy terms (conveniently for the reader, Kusanagi is 理系オンチ), Yukawa’s scientific explanations often left me skeptical, clueless or bored.
The main particularity of the Galileo series (or at least, the first book) is the scientific element, so it looks like it does not make much sense for me to read the series. But the thing is that I loved this first book so much that I immediately purchased the second volume after finishing it. Even if you are not that into physics, the short stories remain extremely engrossing. They are worth reading for the investigation only, the scientific part being a plus for readers who like physics.
I still prefer the Kaga series over the Galileo series so far, but I found this first book very addictive!
Inside That Japanese Book 