Introduction

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.

「赤い指」is the seventh book of the detective Kaga series “加賀恭一郎シリーズ” (かが・きょういちろう) by Keigo HIGASHINO. Before starting the review of this novel, I would like to say a word about the series.

The series

First, you don’t have to read them in order. Even though they follow a chronological order (starting when Kaga is still a student), it would not impact the comprehension of each story to read them separately or in a random order.

I also find that the books are very different from each other in terms of structure. The first two novels were very similar with two main focalisations that alternate (a chapter seen from the point of view of Kaga, then a chapter seen from the point of view of another character). The third book, 「悪意」was very unique and different from the other novels. The following two books were very similar: we read the story from the point of view of another or other characters of the story and we don’t know what detective Kaga is up to. The sixth book was a collection of short stories. Again, in each short story, we are not given the possibility to follow detective Kaga. We see how he works and how the investigation progresses through the eyes of the other characters of the story that are not close to him.

All this to say that the books of the Kaga series upset everything I was used to when it comes to crime novels. To me, the thrill came from the investigation I was participating in. Going through the clues with the detective, making deduction with him, be dumbfounded by the solution and so on.

But more than once, Keigo HIGASHINO places the reader on the side of the suspects, and it also happens that the reader should know who is the criminal right from the beginning.

I also feel that detective Kaga is a kind of supernatural human, like other great fictional detectives before him. But alas, the reader is not allowed to be a supernatural human, like Kaga. We are on the other side, the side of the too human emotions, the passions and the fears that lead to crime. Higashino places the reader among the human characters, the ones that make irrational choices and have to deal with it. Maybe this is one of the reasons that make me love the series so much.

The book

Now let’s take a look at 「赤い指」!

We have here a new kind of structure: two focalisation that alternate: a character closely linked to the case and a detective… which is not Kaga but works with him. For the first time since ages, the reader is allowed to see Kaga working. Even if we don’t know how he thinks, we are very close to observe his methods, and this was an absolutely good point of the novel to me.

As always in Higashino’s novels, I found that the characters sounded real. Without altering the pace of the novel, we are given sufficient insights into the life, the past and the problems of the main characters to understand how they feel. It becomes easy to connect with them and the complexity of the characters inner self and emotions is a part of what makes the book so interesting.

This is particularly true with「赤い指」as it questions Japanese society through the depiction of its characters. An interesting theme is present through the whole novel: it shows how people have to take care of their ageing parents, with both the lack of specialised institution and the sense of duty that weigh on most families. These reflexions brought a real plus to the novel.

But of course, the main feature of interest does not lie in the social criticism but in the case. Even though the reader knows very soon what happened, the novel is still thrilling and I guess that this is where Higashino’s genie resides. There is a tension that keeps growing through the novel, the reader is in turns wondering: “will I caught the murderer?” and “will I be caught?”. But while it seems that we know every detail of what happened since the beginning, everything might not be as it looks like and a shocking detail might be waiting for us at the end. This is another reason why the Kaga series is so exciting. The reader is not supposed to only take a side and share a character’s point of view, he has to use his critical reasoning, read between the lines, pay attention to details. In other words, we are challenged to find the truth by ourselves and not rely on what the characters say or think.

To conclude, I would simply say that I loved this novel and read it very fast. I never read a Japanese novel so quickly. I am tempting to say that it was one of the most, if not the most, easy novel of the series (from a Japanese level point of view) but it could also be that I improved my reading skills since I read the first one. Particularly, reading several other authors, including challenging ones, certainly expanded my capacities a little and returning to a Higashino novel felt like returning to something easy and familiar.

If you are interested in the Kaga series, my favourites are 「悪意」(though I felt this one was a little more difficult to read than the others), 「私が彼を殺した」and 「赤い指」.

An extract:

This is the beginning of the second chapter when we are introduced to one of the protagonists: 前原昭夫 (まえはら・あきお). Of course, there are parts more difficult than others, but if you can read this, I think that you can read the novel.

会議用の資料の作成を終え、パソコンを終了させるかどうか迷っていると、二つ離れた席の山本が立ち上がった。鞄を机の上に置き、帰り支度を始めている。
「山さん、お帰り？」前原昭夫は声をかけた。山本は同期入社であり、出世の度合いも昭夫と似たようなものだ。
「うん。いろいろと雑用はあるんだけど、あとは来週まわしだ。おたく何やってるの？金曜日だってのに、遅くまでがんばるねえ」山本は鞄を手に昭夫の机までやってきた。パソコンの画面を見て、意外そうな顔をする。「何だよ、これ。この会議は来週の末だろ。その資料は今から用意してるわけか」
「早めに済ませとこうと思ってね」
「えらいねえ。何も金曜の定時後にしなくてもいいと思うけどなあ。残業手当がつくわけでもないのにさ」
「まあ、ちょっと気が向いたから」昭夫はマウスを操作してパソコンを終了させた。

Reference: 「赤い指」、東野圭吾、講談社文庫、pp.13-14.

This is the 5th novel of the detective Kaga series by Higashino Keigo. If you are not familiar with Higashino Keigo, he is certainly the most famous contemporary Japanese writer of mystery and detective novels. His books are systematically translated into Korean, but sadly, there are only a few translations available in English or French…

Detective Kaga series is maybe the main series of Higashino Keigo. The first novel of the series was published in 1986 and the last one only some years ago. Reading the books of the series in order allows us to see how Highashino Keigo himself evolved and how the society changed, too. For example, the use of cellphones or other “new technologies” is slowly introduced and used in his novels.

I would say that the first three novels of the series,「卒業」, 「眠りの森」 and 「悪意」, where more or less focused on Kaga himself and you could say that he was the protagonist or one of the protagonists of the novels. In this three novels, we get to learn a little about Kaga’s past and life and I recommend to read them in the order of publication.

In 「どちらかが彼女を殺した」 and 「私が彼を殺した」, however, it seems that Higashino Keigo decided to focus entirely on the case and didn’t let us draw near to Kaga’s past or feelings or thoughts. In 「どちらかが彼女を殺した」, there is only one focalization. The novel is told using the third person and we only see Kaga through the eyes of another character. In this novel, there were only two suspects and both the protagonist and Kaga tried to know which of the two was the culprit.

The novel 「私が彼を殺した」 presents a lot of similarities with 「どちらかが彼女を殺した」. First, the title very resembles the previous one, and we are warned that there will be three suspects. But what is different is the focalization. We have three different narrators, each speaking using the first person. It will be obvious from the beginning that these three narrators are the three suspects in the case…

Now, imagine the position of the reader: you are supposed to read about a criminal case but the story is told by the three suspects! As a reader, you have no other choice but to rely on what you read. What is more, each narration begins where the previous one stopped. This means that you don’t know what the suspects have done during the time when they were not the narrator.

Are we to trust what the narrators say? Can the reader find out who is saying too little or who says too much and gives clues? Anyway, This is a novel where the reader must definitively be attentive to everything that is said, and work his or her way through the case. The reader is supposed to take the role of a detective and find the culprit…

My feelings

This is one of the best detective stories that I have ever read, and I am not saying that because I am a fan of Higashino Keigo but because I couldn’t stop thinking of the case even when I was not reading the book. I am tempted to say that this is my favourite Higashino’s book so far… but there was 「悪意」, too, and I can’t choose between the two.

All I can say is that I read this book in less than a week (I mean, the book was in Japanese, so consider it to be very fast), it is the kind of novel that you can’t stop once you started it. For once, I was not focused on understanding the novel in Japanese, but on finding who done it. Detective story readers surely want to read novels where they can find the culprit themselves, and this is the case in most of Higashino’s novels and this one is no exception. I would even say that the reader has to be active.

I highly recommend this novel to everyone who can read in Japanese. As Kaga does not appear that much (in fact, I always felt like I was the detective of the story, not him), there is no need to have read the previous novels to read this one.

Conclusion

I just don’t understand why Higashino’s novels are not massively translated into English or French or any other western languages. His books are always covering the tables of Korean bookshops, each new publication is a best-seller and former novels belong to the steady-sellers shelf… I may be mistaken but as far as I know, only few novels of the Kaga series are available in Western languages and 「私が彼を殺した」has not been translated into English. I know that a French publisher translates some of Higashino’s work but they do not focus on the Kaga series. 

We are still so fascinated by Agatha Christie’s Murder of Roger Ackroyd as if nothing could be done that would be half so good. But what Higashino Keigo does is also incredibly daring. He plays with narration codes and offers us an exciting reading experience.

If you like detective stories, if you like to hunt down a suspect, collect clues and work your way through a case, if you like to feel that you are maybe manipulated and enjoy it, if you like to see protagonists gather in a room to discuss the case and reveal the culprit à la Agatha Christie… then learn Japanese. 

 

I have finally finished the fourth book of the Kaga series, by Higashino Keigo. I read this series because I like the personality of Higashino Keigo’s detective. But even if we do learn important things about Kaga in the first novel of the series and in 悪意, I didn’t feel that I got to know Kaga better in this novel.

In fact, in this novel, Detective Kaga is not even the protagonist, and the reader never reaches Kaga’s mind. We see the progress of Kaga’s investigation through the eyes of the real protagonist, a police officer whose sister is found dead in her apartment. I personally found very frustrating that Kaga was so little present in this novel, but the story was still exciting.

The reader must investigate, too

Higashino Keigo offers his readers not only a novel but a real investigation. Every detail counts, every description and dialogues can reseal something of importance for the case. In most of Higashino Keigo’s stories, the action is less important than logical deduction. With all the gathered clues, one has to make possible scenarios and see if every thing fit into it.

I liked the fact that the reader can participate and even has to participate. Instead of taking vocabulary notes I should have written down every clue, drawn a sketch of the scene where the body was discovered and noted what we learn about the two main suspects.

I appreciated this novel, especially the concurrence between the main protagonist and Kaga, and I also liked the end, which was very surprising. I was just disappointed that the focalisation never changed (like it used to do in other novels of the series).

As for the Japanese difficulty, it was not the easiest book I have read by Higashino Keigo. What was easy is that there were a few main characters, a few places and little action. That means little description. The whole novel is mainly composed of dialogues which are much easier to understand than narrative and descriptive passages. However, when there were descriptions, I found them challenging, with important but difficult words. As the reader has to understand every detail to be able to take part in the investigation, this book does require some amount of concentration.

If you want to read this book, you can check the list I made of all the characters that appear or are mentioned in the story.

To see a short review of other books from Higashino Keigo I read in Japanese, here is the page!