Name: Epsita's review of A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino
Item: A Death in Tokyo
Rating: 4
Author: Epsita

Keigo Higashino

In the latest from international bestselling author Keigo Higashino, Tokyo Police Detective Kaga is faced with a very public murder that doesn't quite add up, a prime suspect unable to defend himself, and pressure from the highest levels for a quick solution.

In the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo an unusual statue of a Japanese mythic beast - a kirin - stands guard over the district from the classic Nihonbashi bridge. In the evening, a man who appears to be very drunk staggers onto the bridge and collapses right under the statue of the winged beast. The patrolman who sees this scene unfold, goes to rouse the man, only to discover that the man was not passed out, he was dead; that he was not drunk, he was stabbed in the chest. However, where he died was not where the crime was committed - the key to solving the crime is to find out where he was attacked and why he made such a super human effort to carry himself to the Nihonbashi Bridge. That same night, a young man named Yashima is injured in a car accident while attempting to flee from the police. Found on him is the wallet of the murdered man. 

Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the team investigating the murder - and must bring his skills to bear to uncover what actually happened that night on the Nihonbashi bridge. What, if any, connection is there between the murdered man and Yashima, the young man caught with his wallet? Kaga's investigation takes him down dark roads and into the unknown past to uncover what really happened and why.

‘A Death in Tokyo’ is another mind-bending mystery from the modern master of classic crime, finalist for both an Edgar Award and a CWA Dagger, the internationally bestselling Keigo Higashino.

A Death in Tokyo

麒麟の翼

Epsita

i probably could have been far more forgiving about this before it started haphazardly preaching about fathers & filial duty, but by the 300-page mark i was so unamused with the resolution it was headed towards that arriving there was like seeing a hole in your sleeve that you know you shouldn’t poke but can’t help tearing open out of spite. 

kaga is barely his own character, yet his presence loomed enough to cast a different shadow over higashino’s plotting style than yukawa did in the 

read more like a procedural or courtroom drama, though i’m not sure if it’s only bc our detective this time is part of the police force rather than an outsider with their own motivations. it made structural sense for so much of the story to be dedicated to collecting evidence that could be presented in a trial, but the way it was handled here just never found the right momentum. it didn’t help that the pov choices were dogged about things that didn’t matter yet almost blasé about things they should have leaned into. 

the real interesting questions and elements only arise in the final sixteenth of the book, which is a shame when they’re usually the main course of honkaku novels to me. 

 spent no time on them at all, offered no space to let the reveal settle, left everything and everyone half-addressed despite spending so much time elaborating on every single immaterial thing that came before, then wrapped itself up like it knew it wasted its own time as much as the task force working on the aoyagi case had.

i probably could have been far more forgiving about this before it started haphazardly preaching about fathers & filial duty, but by the 300-page mark i was so unamused with the resolution it was headed towards that arriving there was like seeing a hole in your sleeve that you know you shouldn’t poke but can’t help tearing open out of spite. 

kaga is barely his own character, yet his presence loomed enough to cast a different shadow over higashino’s plotting style than yukawa did in the detective galileo series. a death in tokyo read more like a procedural or courtroom drama, though i’m not sure if it’s only bc our detective this time is part of the police force rather than an outsider with their own motivations. it made structural sense for so much of the story to be dedicated to collecting evidence that could be presented in a trial, but the way it was handled here just never found the right momentum. it didn’t help that the pov choices were dogged about things that didn’t matter yet almost blasé about things they should have leaned into. 

the real interesting questions and elements only arise in the final sixteenth of the book, which is a shame when they’re usually the main course of honkaku novels to me. a death in tokyo spent no time on them at all, offered no space to let the reveal settle, left everything and everyone half-addressed despite spending so much time elaborating on every single immaterial thing that came before, then wrapped itself up like it knew it wasted its own time as much as the task force working on the aoyagi case had.

Epsita &
A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino

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Epsita &A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino

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Join the club

Epsita &
A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino