Book - The Devotion of Suspect X

The Devotion of Suspect X
Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator)
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Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko’s next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step.

When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any obvious holes in Yasuko’s manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there’s something wrong. Kusanagi brings in Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist and college friend who frequently consults with the police. Yukawa, known to the police by the nickname Professor Galileo, went to college with Ishigami. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.

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I wanted to give this a 3.5 rating (out of 5), but... after much deliberation... I'm downgrading it to 3.

Not that it wasn't good. It was very nice, very intricate, and sent my brain running and running and running, just thinking about it.

It felt a little short, all in all. Either the book was quite fast-paced, or the book was really short to boot.

I must say the final outcome did come as a shock (I so did not see that coming) but then as I thought about it, the clues were always there... so bummer for me that I didn't see that sooner.

I liked the book enough, enjoyed it much too, but it just wasn't so spectacular as what i've heard people say about it - the story did tend to branch out to some seemingly unrelated side story, and the seemingly sudden change of personality of a character had me scratching my head for a while there.

Overall enjoyable read!