Fascinating plotting

Great story with interesting insights into Japanese culture. Narrator was oddly robotic but that was actually fine.

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First and definitely not last

I got into Japanese fiction as a result of reading Bullet Train, and came across this title. I was not disappointed. The same slightly disorientating feeling of immersing yourself in a culture simultaneously unfamiliar and shared was there. You have the same enjoyable effort of trying to remember and distinguish non -Western names of people and places, and the pleasurable work of calculating how features of such a different culture play into solving the problem.
The author is a master of tight, believable plotting. He keeps you guessing right up to the end.
The novel concerns an apparently straightforward crime in the heart of Tokyo and detectives unwilling to settle for the obvious answer. The central characters are realistic: neither all good nor all bad, and changed by a tragedy that threw the trajectory of their lives off course. A wonderful book. I immediately bought another by this author.

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Good story but annoying narration

I like this author’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. I wish it was narrated by someone else, though. This narrator interpretation of the characters wasn’t all bad but the interpretation of the narrator’s voice was too robotic and jarring for me and it didn’t let me lose myself in the book. Had it not been this particular author, I’d have given up listening.

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1 person found this helpful

Engaging story, but

PJ Ochlan was at a disadvantage, because the previous incarnation of Kaga was so different! Even given a difference in age and experience, the casting director and director probably should have been more attentive. It was a little distracting, as I kept hearing the previous voice in my head, which was so different. I think, to give Ochlan credit though, he got Kaga's personality right and gave imbued him with more life. But his own Americanisms/accent did colour all of his performance - from his narration right through each character.
The story was engaging, by I felt the same as Yuuto, that his father was innocent of the workplace cover up. As a red herring, it was a pretty low blow to leave it ignored and unsolved like that. Wouldn't Kaga's personality have led him to solve that too? In fact I thought that was the root of the mystery, why, IF he had MAYBE met with the unfortunate young man, they were going to work together to blow the whole thing wide open. Oh well, it was a dissatisfying loose end which Higashino had time to tie up and didn't.

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Needs to be re-recorded with a different narrator

I'm a big fan of Keigo Higashino but this audiobook is too painful to listen to. I noticed that the narrator is different from his other audiobooks but I was willing to give it a go even though I think his voice is unsuitable for this book but when on top of the monotone voice he started pronouncing name of places incorrectly I just couldn't continue, it is too distracting. There are not that many Japanese words in translated books other than name of places and characters but somehow they managed not to Google how to pronounce them and keep saying Nihonbosh.

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