Can You See it?

The Murder in Mansion Masquerade

In a Mansion Covered with Snow

These two books are both written by Keigo Higashino, one of the greatest Japanese mystery novelist in my opinion. The reason I chose to write them together is simple, I finished both of them last week, and they have similar settings - the typical "Closed Circle" murder case where a group of people were trapped in a mansion or a place isolated to the outside world and murders happened, murderer usually among these people and they have to solve the case and save themselves. 

As this is a very popular setting in mystery crime novel, I am very curious how Higashino would handle it, since his stories never fail to surprise me! I have read plenty of his book, but not one time I could guess the ending correctly, so whenever I read his books now, even I feel like I know the answer, I will just tell myself it's Keigo Higashino, it is never that simple! And every single time, he tricked me, including in these two books. 

If I have to choose one between these two, I will go for The Murder in Mansion Masquerade, simply because it has more human touch to it, and the trick is quite unexpected. Throughout the story, Higashino trying to make reader believe one of the character is the killer, but when the ending comes, it was something that I didn't expect at all, not even slightly suspicious (isn't that the magic of Higashino). He is always so good at pointing you to the other direction.

After Mansion Masquerade, I immediately read the second book, thinking that from the first book, I might be able to find some similarities and maybe could see the answer this time. I wasn't completely wrong.  For the first time, I got some little parts correct,  but still can't get the big picture right. 

I guess this is why Higashino's books are so fascinating. Although he had published many books, each book are still very unique that they surprise readers every single time. So you will go and buy another of his book, take on the challenge, lose again, and a new one, and a new one...  

More than a Normal Crime Novel

Rokuyon by Hideo Yokoyama

This is a 555 pages book, and usually for a book this thick, it will take me maximum 2 weeks to finish it, but this one took me more than a month. It wasn't because it was not interesting, it simply because I underestimated the book. I thought it's going to be about a kidnap case, maybe with a few twists but after all it's only a straight forward story that I can finish very soon.  But apparently I was wrong, and this book is unlike any crime novels that I have read.

From the book name, you will probably think that it is about the kidnap case, but the kidnap case is just the background, or maybe a trigger, or a reason, but it wasn't the core part of this story.  You can even say the case is like the Pandora box, and it unleashed a series of events that could change the police force forever.

The main character of this story is the liaison of the police force, who used to work in the crime department, and at the beginning of the story, he already realized there is something "going on" between the local police force and the Tokyo HQ, some kind of politic battles. He was caught between them and this kidnap case is a weapon that both sides could use to fight for power. So he has to fight hard, not only to balance himself among them, when the two powers were fighting against each other. He also needs to do his job as a liaison and try to maintain a good relationship with the journalists which is very difficult at such time. And at home, there were things going on too, and he needs to find a way to fix his relationship with the wife. This is why I said it is not like any other crime novels, there are many layers in this story, and they are closely linked, although they seem unrelated. This is a book that you can't rush to finish, but need to take time, read slowly and digest, because you need to think and pay close attention to every detail.

Like other Japanese crime novels (maybe also the only similarity), there is a big twist at the end of the story, a twist that could hit you quite hard, you may have guessed it, or you may have felt something is wrong during your reading process, but still it will hit you. And it will become one of those stories that you will remember for a long long time, not the detail of the story but the feeling you have when you done reading it, how it moved you, how it amazed you and how you sat there and try so hard to calm your complex emotions after finished it.

Japanese always write really awesome crime stories, and never fail to amaze me, this one just take one step further, not only the story is great, all the humanity, emotions, feelings and smallest detail like simple dialogues are all perfectly thought through by the author, every word has a reason to be there and they are necessary to be there. In conclusion, I strongly recommend this book to all of you. =D My review may make this book sound very perfect, but trust me if you take your time to slowly read it and understand all the connections and detail in the story, you too, will be amazed.