‘Malice’ book review: Addictive & unforgettable

Fiction

Malice

Keigo Higashino

Published: 2014

Publisher: Little, Brown

Pages: 218, Paperback

I love Keigo Higashino. My friends love him too. I have yet to meet another reader who doesn’t speak highly of this uber-talented Japanese author. Higashino is the best selling and most widely read novelist in Japan. Though he has a satisfyingly large bibliography, the English translation of his works is only published periodically, with only seven translated novels available to date.

‘Malice’ is the first novel in a series that features Detective Kyoichiro Kaga of the Tokyo Homicide Division. It came out in 1996 and was translated into English in 2014. Kunihiko Hidaka, a famous novelist, is brutally murdered days before he is relocating from Japan to Vancouver. He is found in a locked room, inside his locked house, by his wife, and best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi. Both of them have rock-solid alibis.

Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka’s best friend. Years ago, when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same high school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Nonoguchi left to become a full-time writer. Kaga thinks something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi’s statement and gets a search warrant for his apartment. Ultimately, Nonoguchi confesses to the murder. But that’s only the beginning of the story.

The premise sounds simple but the way it’s executed makes the story gripping and one of its kind. It’s not your average thriller. Higashino knows how to get inside your head. He knows which buttons to push. This psychological cat-and-mouse game with a cunning killer will have you gulping and gasping. The story is told from the viewpoint of Nonoguchi and Detective Kaga, alternating between the two. Clues are laid out for the reader as more information about Hidaka and Nonoguchi is revealed.

The thing is despite knowing who the killer is, you don’t know why he did it. That makes you wonder if Nonoguchi is indeed the culprit. One minute you are sure of something and then the very next chapter forces you to change your mind. This back-and-forth is what makes the story captivating. Nonoguchi is an unreliable narrator. Kaga is intelligent, akin to Sherlock Holmes. The two main characters together tell a fascinating tale of love, loss, and redemption that explores the dark side of human nature.

The story also deals with a lot of issues—bullying, insecurity, jealousy, a writer’s struggle to get published, as well as the pressure of having to churn out one successful novel after another. But Higashino keeps things subtle without overly dramatizing anything. Malice is a murder mystery but it feels like a story that could very well play out next door. It also makes you ponder over the seriousness and complexities of life.