malice

malice
keigo higashino
fiction/mystery
minotaur books
originally published 1996
translated to english 2014

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he was to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver.  His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, buy his wife and his best friend, both of whom have solid alibis.  Or so it seems.

Malice is told from two different perspectives: Osamu Nonoguchi, the victim's best friend and Kiyochiro Kaga, the detective assigned to the case.  It's an interesting, if somewhat simple whodunit and I think that maybe some of the intricacies were lost in translation.  This one was a super quick read, I finished in a couple of hours and it thoroughly entertained me from start to finish.  If you're looking for a fun, quick read you will find it here.  I'd love to write a bit more about it, but the plot is so twisty I'd hate to give anything away.  What I did find coincidental and kind of funny is that middle school plays a big part in this plot and the last Japanese book I read, Confessions also focused a lot on middle school.  Weird.  Anyway, for a book that I picked up mostly because of the cover it was a good pick!