reading notes, どちらかが彼女を殺した

どちらかが彼女を殺した～第四章～３

From page 197 to 215.

A new confrontation between Kaga and Yasumasa is taking place! I would even say that it is the more tense and important confrontation until now.

Kaga is the main character of the series but not the main character of this novel. I can perfectly imagine that someone who would read only this novel (and wouldn’t know about the other books of the Kaga series) would find the detective frightening, always there, always seems to know more than he says… From Yasumasa’s point of view Kaga is really annoying and threatening and I think that the reader is supposed to take Yasumasa’s view.

I think that Higashino Keigo is the first author I read whose main detective is only seen through other characters’ eyes. The result is very new and interesting, I wish his novels were more translated.

Anyway, as for the vocabulary:

  • 耳寄り・みみより　welcome news
  • 左利き・ひだりきき　left hander
  • たまたま　unexpectedly, accidentally, by chance
  • 宛て・あて addressed to
  • 昇格・しょうかく raising of status
  • 手順・てじゅん process
  • 掴む・つかむ to seize, to catch, to grasp
  • 千差万別・せんさばんべつ　an infinite variety of
  • ニヤニヤ grinning, broad grin
  • 組み立てる・くみたてる　to assemble, to set up
  • 読み取る・よみとる　to read someone’s mind, to read between the lines
  • 矯正・きょうせい correction, remedy
  • 隠滅・いんめつ destruction, suppression
  • 見落し・みおとし　oversight, omission, sth overlooked, thing left unnoticed
  • 胡座をかく・あぐらをかく　to sit cross-legged
  • 生憎・あいにく　unfortunately
  • 窺う・うかがう to guess, to infer
  • 釈然とする・しゃくぜんとする　to be fully satisfied with
  • 首を傾げる・くびをかしげ to be puzzled
  • 配慮・はいりょ consideration, concern
  • 賛同・さんどう approval
  • 盛り上げる・もりあげる to pile up, to bring to a climax
  • 舌打ち・したうち smacking lips, clicking tongue
  • 裁く・さばく　to judge
  • 法廷・ほうてい　courtroom
  • 委ねる・ゆだねる to entrust, to leave to
  • 目星・めぼし objective, aim, work
  • 赤穂浪士・あこうろうし　is a term to designate the 47 rônin who avenged the death of their master. As you can read on the Wikipedia page, some people think that the rônin’s vengeance was not appropriate, because they staged their revenge and planned it carefully for a long time instead of acting just before their master’s death. That’s why, I think, Yasumasa says that what the 赤穂浪士 did was not a revenge but a “performance”.
  • 仏頂面・ぶっちょうづら sour look

About

I’m learning Japanese, Korean and Chinese to read mystery novels and play video games in these languages.

Learning languages has always been one of my favourite hobbies, but I’m not a social person, I don’t like to meet new people and make friends, this is just not me. I keep hearing that languages are meant for communication, that we have to actively use them, talk to people, etc. and for a long time, I thought I was weird to learn languages just for me, just to enjoy media, culture and entertainment in a foreign language, with absolutely zero interest in communicating with natives.

Now I don’t really care what people think, and this blog helped me a lot to stop doubting myself and just do what I enjoy doing.