Newcomer is a Detective Kaga mystery from bestselling Japanese author Keigo Higashino. I first met Dt. Kaga in the terrific novel Malice. Higashino has written many thrillers in Japanese, several which have become award winning TV series and films, but English readers must wait patiently for translations.
A woman has been found strangled in her apartment, she was a recent newcomer to the close Tokyo neighbourhood of Nihonbashi. Known for its small, family run businesses the only clues to the case might come from witnesses who may have seen her, or shops she may have frequented. Newly transferred Detective Kaga has been assigned to the case. Kaga has a laid back style, wearing a short sleeved shirt instead of a suit, and calmly noticing details while he makes the rounds of the neighbourhood. His look and seemingly random questions disarm people, even his co-workers.
This mystery is told through several episodes which highlight psychology and keen attention rather than the murder itself...
Why did the owner of the rice cracker shop owner lie to his mother? Why did the cafe waiter buy the bean cakes? Why did the clockmaker meet the victim in the dog park, when she had no pet herself? Why did the ex-husband of the victim hire a new young secretary?...and why did Dt. Kaga buy all the wooden tops from the handicrafts shop?...
Exceptionally observant and willing to follow a hunch, Kaga asks unrelated questions about the victim, and discovers the clues along the way which solve the smaller personal mysteries within each family.
This has been called a Golden Age style mystery, but while the tone is personal and psychological, Higashino does not follow those rules of detection which state that by a certain point, all the clues are available to the reader to solve who-done-it themselves. This is not a mystery to solve, it is one to lay back and enjoy - I had to slow myself down and enjoy every movement as pieces were added to the puzzle. For mystery fans, there are eight or nine smaller mysteries to solve within the investigation. Higashino allows Dt. Kaga to follow his intuition, no detail is too small, and the pleasure comes when Kaga presents his case, all the family dramas merge into a clever solution, and then we marvel at Higashino's plotting prowess.
Clever and charming, this has the easy going ambiance of a mystery you would want to read again; the solution being less important than the pleasure of the read.
Recommended!
2001 (translated 2018) / Tradeback / 322 pages
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