A beautifully written and engaging crime thriller with an evocative Tokyo setting.  The mystery is not who, how or, indeed, why, for that is known from the start, but in why one man should risk all to try and protect a woman he barely knows.  Intellectual plot, a fascinating insight into modern Japan and a totally unexpected end.  Scandinavian addicts will love it.  This is one of the biggest-selling Japanese thrillers ever, and the inspiration for a cult film.

Comparison: Natsuo Kirino, Donato Carrisi, Stieg Larsson
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Synopsis

Yasuko lives a quiet life, working in a Tokyo bento shop, a good mother to her only child. But when her ex-husband appears at her door without warning one day, her comfortable world is shattered. When Detective Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that day, he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense, and it will take a genius to understand the genius behind this particular crime...

Reviews

'Meticulous...a thriller hung on obsessional love and impeccable logic which drags you along with a teasing how did he do it logic...there's a tremendous sense of the more down-at-heel Tokyo neighbourhoods...and the ending is a killer twist' Metro

'The finale is both chilling and moving, and confronts emotions that crime fiction rarely covers. You realise that The Devotion of Suspect X is not simply an extraordinary thriller but a love story. A strange one, it is true, but a love story nonetheless. It will linger long in the memory' Independent on Sunday

'Intricate and beguiling...if you like riddles inside enigmas, it will please you no end' Guardian

'Imaginative plotting...an erudite and quietly subversive police procedural that builds to a twisting finale that encapsulates the brutal fatalism of the great noir novels' Irish Times

'The plot is taut and intriguing...this psychological driver sets it apart from more run-of-the-mill crime thrillers...Agatha Christie would be mightily impressed' Financial Times

'Beautifully judged prose...we are hooked even before the author pulls off another coup... Anyone who regularly writes about the crime genre is repeatedly asked: what's the next trend? If there were more genre authors in Japan as accomplished as this, the answer would be simple: Japanese crime fiction' Independent

About the Author

Keigo Higashino is a Japanese author chiefly known for mystery novels. Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co. He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After School) at age 27. Subsequently, he quit his job and started a career as a writer in Tokyo. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation