Basically every Japanese writer, from Kenzaburo Oe but also Murakami o Ishiguro offers us a point of view with reflections of science fiction, even if it is from the merely exotic of a moral and a sociological notion that has not yet finished being devoured by the western world. The Higashino thing I met in the first place was a more explicit science fiction, from that speculative Japan that collects parts of the existentialism of the aforementioned writers, mixing it with that imaginary manga capable of the most sophisticated or grotesque deformation, depending on the touch.
But there were more Higashinos beyond science fiction. Within his underworld-laden repertoire, Japanese noir ends up composing scenes inspired by dystopias made real from the closest thriller. An admirable capacity for the eclectic in one of the biggest bestsellers in his country for that same unclassifiable character that ends up drawing a genre of its own.
Disconcerting in substance and form. Abysses from the introspection in the mind of the criminal or towards new worlds. You never know what you're going to find in every Higashino novel. Undoubtedly a surplus value for this writer who does not seem to stick to formulas but rather moved by disruptive ambitions between genres. Mystery, suspense that ends up darkening to let us know the shadows of Japanese society or projections towards new worlds. An author capable of everything.
Keigo Higashino's Top 3 Recommended Novels
The devotion of suspect X
Nothing is free in a perfect crime. Unless framed as a mutual exchange of necessary corpses in the style of strangers on a train, debt will always remain alive. And perhaps staying alive is even worse after allowing a prying eye to forever share your darkest secret.
Yasuko Hanaoka, a divorced single mother, thought she was finally rid of her ex-husband. But when he appears one day at her door, in an apartment complex in Tokyo, the scene becomes complicated and her ex-husband ends up dead in her house. Mother and daughter have strangled him.
Suddenly, Ishigami, the enigmatic neighbor next door, offers to help them dispose of the body and find the perfect alibi. Yasuko, desperate, immediately agrees. When the body finally turns up and is identified, Yasuko becomes a suspect. However, Detective Kusanagi, while finding no flaws in Yasuko's alibi, knows that something is amiss. So he decides to consult Dr. Yukawa, a physicist at the University of Tokyo who often collaborates with the police.
This, known as Professor Galileo, studied in the past with Ishigami, the suspect's enigmatic neighbor. Finding him again, Professor Galileo senses that Ishigami has something to do with the murder. And what emerges gives an unforgettable twist to this fascinating story.
Paradox 13
P-13. The phenomenon of cosmic chance had to be based on that number. The Earth approaches the antimatter, or the antimatter reaches the earth with that firm phagocytic will of the Universe folding in on itself. The possible arrival or creation of a black hole in the vicinity of Earth is the basis of this interesting science fiction novel Paradox 13.
It probably all started on Tuesday or Friday the 13th, but what is clear is that it was March 13, at 13:13 p.m., 13 minutes, and XNUMX seconds. With which the chance of the appearance of that black hole is more associated with a God capable of playing billiards with the cosmos, a God tired of human rebellion, his slights and involution, of the drift of a world without values ​​(This is already my judgment)
Keigo Higashino places us in Tokyo. Chaos begins to take over the city as a fateful moment approaches associated with that moment when the planet was engulfed by the black jaws of the most absolute abyss. From the general perspective, the author focuses us on the detail, on that character necessary to prepare the human being against the devastation and loneliness resulting from the phenomenon 13. Fuyuki is a policeman, he is in the middle of a scuffle with some armed robbers. A bullet hits him and he ends up fainting...
When he wakes up, he seems to be the only inhabitant of Tokyo, and probably the world. Silence reigns in a city usually given over to constant bustle. Reality seems a macabre scenario, between the now devastated streets only a gusty wind whistles ...
Ten more people and Fuyuki himself will end up getting together without having the remotest idea of ​​what has happened. Deciphering what unites them, what has made them survivors and getting some light in this massive withdrawal from life will become their fundamental objectives. At first it may sound like a typical plot, but the very development of the story and the dazzling outcome brings that fresh touch to this apocalyptic revisit.
As the survivors roam a vast new empty world called Earth, the planes of the cosmos may have shifted. The black hole, like a reversible garment, may have changed the nature of everything ... and the Earth has ended up being shaken, like a construction in the hands of a capricious child who thinks he is the God of his toys.
The salvation of a saint
Within the chaos that death supposes as a rupture of possible destinations for the deceased and their environment, the question is to approach this disorder as the puzzle that puts everything back together. Because in this way, not only is the motive for the crime found, but also the why and how of the atavistic need of the human being for violence in its extreme representation.
A murder that seems impossible, as meticulous as it is terrible, committed for even more shocking reasons. The victim, Yoshitaka Mashiba, a wealthy Tokyo businessman, dies on a Sunday when he is alone in his house. He has been killed with a poisoned cup of coffee. He was about to leave his wife, Ayane Mashiba, who becomes a prime suspect for him. But Ayane has a strong and irrefutable alibi: when her husband died, she was more than a hundred kilometers away. So how did the poison get into the coffee cup?
Professor Yukawa must use all his talent to order the clues and find the truth, through a captivating, claustrophobic and at the same time extremely neat and orderly atmosphere, which plunges us into a "domestic crime" where elements of Japanese culture emerge. in its coldest, calculating and pure side.
Master of "lab lit" or laboratory literature, Higashino builds a masterful novel through an ultra-detailed police procedure. A book that will excite all those minds that enjoy the game of deduction, with an unexpected twist that will amaze and surprise the most experienced of readers.
Other Recommended Keigo Higashino Novels…
swan and bat
Japanese noir is not as trivial as its western side. The crime thing has a more sophisticated aftertaste in the Japanese narrative of this genre. For Higashino you have to tackle everything. Because the pending fringes from which to pull the thread not only serve to unravel the crime but to justify it from any other forces that aim and push towards that resounding end that is death at the hands of a murderer who perhaps never wanted to be one.
A tribute to Crime and Punishment in the complex and contradictory Japanese society. Tsutomu Godai, a detective from the Violent Crimes Section of the police, investigates the murder of a prestigious lawyer that everyone only talks about for good. As the investigations progress, a man named Tatsuro Kuraki is arrested and ends up declaring himself the author of the crime.
According to his confession, the reason for the murder dates back more than thirty years and is related to another violent death, for which Kuraki also blames himself, that of a cyclist whom he had run over and who was extorting him, a crime for which that an innocent man was accused. Both the son of the accused and the daughter of the victim are convinced of the innocence of their respective parents and together they will lead an investigation parallel to that of the police that will bring to light the truth.
