This is the second book in the Public Prosecutor Chigusa series, and it was as good as the first one! The first title won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, and it belongs to my favourite books among the prize winners. This second novel is a fast-paced, engrossing investigation with a good ending, and just enough clues for the reader to work out the solution.
The duo Chigusa and police detective Nomoto works very well, but we also see the contribution of other police officers from different police stations. I liked how the novel depicts police work and how several detectives will discuss the case together with Chigusa. The discussions where all scenarios are considered were the best part of the novel for me. I love seeing characters discussing the case and drawing conclusions from the elements at hand. This novel is not showing us the genius detective who works out the solution before everybody else but retains it until the very end. Rather, the reader is part of the investigation as everything is discussed openly in the pages.
それが一番わかりやすい解決だからだ。しかし、その推理には、本質的な矛盾がある。
The novel is short and the pace is very fast, the story is entirely focused on the case without superfluous parts. So if you are looking for an engrossing novel that is quick to read and not too difficult, this one is perfect.
The solution was also very good, and I was able to work out the solution only a few pages before it is revealed.
The only thing that I don’t understand is why such a good detective series is not more popular. All the books of the series are out of print and only the first three ones are available digitally. I saw that the Chinese translation was on Goodreads, but unfortunately, even this edition is out of print and not digitalised.
Other books by this author:
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 with natives, etc. and for a long time, I thought it was weird to learn languages just to read books, with zero interest in communication.
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.
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