Name: eash's review of Malice by Keigo Higashino
Item: Malice
Rating: 4
Author: eash

Keigo Higashino

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he's planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, in a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems. Police Detective Kyochiro 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 Osamu Nonoguchi left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka. But Kaga thinks something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi's statement and investigates further, ultimately executing a search warrant on Nonoguchi's apartment. There he finds evidence that shows that the two writers' relationship was very different than the two claimed. Nonoguchi confesses to the murder, but that's only the beginning of the story. In a brilliantly realized tale of cat and mouse, the detective and the writer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded. Which one of the two writers was ultimately guilty of malice?

Malice

eash

When a best-selling Japanese novelist is found murdered the night before he was scheduled to move to another country, police detective Kyochiro Kaga uncovers a deadly game involving the victim's best friend and rival. By the Edgar Award-finalist author of The Devotion of Suspect X.

A Mystery

WOY INI BUKU SERU WALAUPUN BIKIN PUSING + MIKIR

Libra

this book has a plot twist that actually shocked me, love it for that. despite still predictable to some extent, the author is really good at making me questioning my own perception. 

Jason Lo

Closer to a 3.5. Has a neat idea for a gimmick but unfortunately doesn’t take it as far as I’d like.

My fourth Higashino crime novel and my first Kaga series thus far, and I’m still amazed at how he managed to do something different each time. The murderer was found quite early and it made me wonder what the second half of the book is about. This book kept me guessing and it did hold quite a twist towards the end. 

Though it still can’t come close to The Devotion of Suspect X, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Detective Kaga is nothing like Yukawa Manabu, but both have their own charms. And as the first book of the Kaga series, Malice also set as the introduction and background for Kaga Kyoichiro. While Yukawa came across as an effortless genious, Kaga felt much more humane and down to earth. This in itself, is always a pleasant main character to have.

Shiela

Pleasantly surprised!

My fourth Higashino crime novel and my first Kaga series thus far, and I’m still amazed at how he managed to do something different each time. The murderer was found quite early and it made me wonder what the second half of the book is about. This book kept me guessing and it did hold quite a twist towards the end. 

Though it still can’t come close to The Devotion of Suspect X, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Detective Kaga is nothing like Yukawa Manabu, but both have their own charms. And as the first book of the Kaga series, Malice also set as the introduction and background for Kaga Kyoichiro. While Yukawa came across as an effortless genious, Kaga felt much more humane and down to earth. This in itself, is always a pleasant main character to have.

thea

altlovesbooks

"He had never imagined that such malice existed in the world."


I have very little experience in the mystery genre. I keep up with Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache books thanks to a prior librarian friend of mine, I’ve read one Agatha Christie book, and I’ve watched all of Matlock and Columbo (Columbo > Matlock, any day). But going into this book, I already kind of knew what I liked in the franchise – being taken along on the investigative journey in step with whoever is doing the investigating, meeting the suspects, and hearing their thoughts (vocalized or not) about who they think the murderer is, and why. You sort of get that here, but also not, and the not part is where I didn’t connect with this book.

Unfortunately, mystery books being what they are, much of my review will be hidden behind spoilers. Suffice it to say that I was kind of bored, had some minor quibbles about the one-sided dialogue, and thought a lot of what was discussed was academic.

General mystery setup spoilers:

(view spoiler)[Bestselling author Kunihiko Hidaka is killed via blunt force trauma and being strangled by a telephone cord (ah, the 90s), and is discovered by long-time friend Osamu Nonoguchi and Hidaka’s wife. Police detective Kyoichiro Kaga is on the case, but what looks like a locked room murder with solid alibis for all parties involved turns into something a lot darker and more premeditated than it seems. (hide spoiler)]

Spoiler-heavy thoughts about the case as a whole (including the ending):

(view spoiler)[Maybe I was expecting more mystery in my mystery, but the actual murderer reveal happens within the first half of the book. That was kind of a letdown for me, as the rest of the book revolved around motive—why did Nonaguchi, whom everyone thought of as Hidaka’s friend, kill the man? It felt like rather an academic journey rather than anything crime-based, because the end conclusions don’t drastically change the outcome any. Nonaguchi is still the murderer, but at least we got our reasons straight, right? Sort of, because the ending was basically, “IDK your mom sucks I guess?” and that’s a wrap. 

I also kind of disliked the one-sided dialogue that the author liked to use a lot of. Some chapters were Kaga’s thoughts on the case, as if he were writing them down in a journal or log or something. No dialogue, just musings on what would potentially make Nonaguchi kill a friend (or, “friend”) and why the facts weren’t adding up. We also get several chapters leading up to and including the ending where we only get one side of the dialogue. Several chapters are interviews with people who grew up with Nonaguchi, and we just get the interview portion without context. The ending chapter where I was expecting some sort of confrontation between Kaga and Nonaguchi was more one-sided dialogue, where we hear/see Kaga explaining step-by-step his conclusions he drew from his investigations to a listening Nonaguchi, whose reactions we only see through Kaga talking about them. This lent the entire second half of the book a really disconnected feel to me, where I didn’t really feel a part of whatever was going on. That sort of killed my enthusiasm a bit more. (hide spoiler)]

I read this one with a group of friends, and I kind of feel like the rube in the room because this book didn’t do much for me while everyone else seemed to really like it. Which is fine! There’s good points here. I did think the way the different sides of the case (or, perspectives, I guess?) were present was unique, even if it didn’t do much for me personally. The motive deep dive was interesting as well, even if it seemed to not amount to much. There’s good things here, maybe it just wasn’t what I wanted out of a mystery.

Emirsyah

Vicky (A City Girl's Thoughts)

C & TW: Rape, Bullying (especially indifference or brushing it off by bystanders and the bullies themselves), Fake Adultery/Infidelity/Cheating, and Murder

This was an exceptionally written murder mystery with twists and turns in all the right places! A murderer intent on killing only based on unjustifiable hatred would be hard for some authors but Keigo Higashino made sure it makes sense. This isn't your typical "whodunit;" we know who the murderer is (the murder itself sounds clear-cut as if it really is the way it's decribed) and whether he's guilty or not, but not only is he unreliable but Keigo Higashino focuses on the *intent;* what was the murderer's real reason? Is it really what he says or are there VERY small details that don't corroborate? I was even wondering if the detective himself was telling the truth! THIS is what makes Malice so good! I usually don't read police-psychological mysteries but I decided to give this one a chance! I'd recommend this to mystery writers as a masterclass on how to write unreliable narrators with a solid mystery!

Prashanth Srivatsa

When the murder in Malice is solved in the third chapter, your immediate worry is to wonder what the remaining two hundred pages have in store. Higashino weaves an amorous, and intentionally predictable, background to this setup, drawing you into the lives of a pair of writer friends and their murky, hazy histories. More than the envy, vengeance and trauma, which form the core of this mystery, it is the brilliant compilation of the murderer's childhood re-visits, each narrated in the form a detective inquiry with former schoolmates, that stuns you, and lends the book its bloody charm.

Savindi Jinasena

Okay that was a total mind f***!! I did NOT see half of that coming at all! I'm definitely reading more of Keigo Higashino's books now!

This was a nice quick read that gave the murder-mystery a twist. While you know who the murderer is quite early on, it’s the motive that puzzles and is the real mystery of the whole book. This is revealed in layers and you really don’t know what to think once you reach the final part. It was an entertaining book and a good palette cleanser for me after reading so much fantasy. 

Katie Allard

Nimish

Keigo Higashino's first book that I read - The Devotion of Suspect X - was the first instance of buying a book online, purely on impulse. And what a decision that was. Within 2 days flat, I finished it and was completely awed. I started searching more books by him, but sadly there were no new translations out. Couple of months back I read my second Higashino book - The Salvation of a Saint. This wasn't quite as good as The Devotion of Suspect X, at least for me. But I know for a fact that it wont stop me from reading more of his stuff.

So last Monday when I came across Malice accidentally while checking out Amazon for my monthly fix - more books, I just hit Buy when I saw the name of the author. 

Malice, like his other two books that I have read, starts off with a murder in the first chapter itself. That is the beauty of Higashino detective stories I believe. It is not a traditional whodunnit. So if you are expecting that, read other authors. 

To give the gist of the story: Kunihiko Hidaka is a best selling author, a widower who has recently remarried, is about to shift to Canada with his new wife Rie. His friend Osamu Nonoguchi, a struggling children's author, visits Hidaka to say goodbye. Hidaka has decided to stay back in the house as he has to submit a serialised story to the editor of a magazine. His wife is supposed to head to a hotel for the night. Hidaka gets a visitor who wants to discuss something with him. Nonoguchi excuses himself and heads home. Later that same night Hidaka is found murdered at his apartment. 

I know that is not a very coherent gist, but just a short summary of the first chapter. The only other thing I would like to add is the fact that the case is being investigated by Detective Kaga, a former teacher-turned-cop who was Nonoguchi's colleague in a school they both taught at. Saying anything more would be blasphemy! 

The beauty of the novel lies in the rest of the chapters. In a couple of more chapters, the actual murderer surrenders as well. Halfway through the book you even have a coherent confession by the murderer. I won't say anymore of the plot. 

Like I said before, this is not a traditional murder mystery or detective novel. Complexity of the characters, a purely psychological cat and mouse game between the detective and the murderer, delicate layering of the story are some of the hallmarks of Higashino novels. The way he has used multiple characters to give a first person account in some chapters adds a nice dimension to the flow of the narrative. Higashino even pays homage to Akira Kurosawa, with an entire chapter having a Rashomon-like same-story-multiple-angles approach. 

The translation by Alexander O Smith, is great and you will rarely feel like putting the book down. I would not call it a pacy read, like say a James Patterson book. You have to be patient as the layers of the story unfold and the complexities of the characters come to the fore. I like the way the police procedures are explained. YOu really can't anticipate what will follow in the chapters. 

Just like The Devotion of Suspect X had an unforgettable climax, the last chapter of Malice will stay with you long after you have finished the book. And it is not a very thick book either. 

It is just a pity that there aren't translations of his other works easily available here. But I will always be looking.

PS: This is something that really irritates me. Every physical book (I read the Kindle edition of Malice) of Keigo Higashino comes with a blurb - The Japanese Stieg Larsson. Keigo Higashino is NOT a Japanese Stieg Larsson. No offence to the Swedish author (I loved all his books), but it is quite a disrespectful blurb to use, to sell the book.

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is brutally murdered in his home on the night before he's planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, in a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems. Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka's best friend from years ago when they were both teachers. Kaga went on to join the police force while Nonoguchi became a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka. When Kaga suspects something is a little bit off with Nonoguchi's statement, he investigates further, ultimately executing a search warrant on Nonoguchi's apartment. There he finds evidence that shows that the two writers' relationship was very different than they claimed... In a brilliantly realized tale of cat and mouse, the detective and the writer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded. Which one of the two writers was ultimately guilty of malice?

Somya

Intelligent plot. A game of cat and mouse. Plenty of traps. Enough said.

It's a good, solid mystery with twists that hit you without too much of a shock. And frankly, that's a good thing. Sometimes the best twist is something plausible that you might not have thought about, you don't always need the rug pulled out from under you.

It's a great read, with little, if any, graphic scenes. Almost a cozy, but not just quite.

eash &
Malice by Keigo Higashino

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