Paperback: Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he is planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis.
Or so it seems.
At the crime scene, Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga recognizes Hidaka's best friend, Osamu Nonoguchi. Years ago when they were both teachers, they were colleagues at the same public school. Kaga went on to join the police force while Nonoguchi eventually left to become a full-time writer, though with not nearly the success of his friend Hidaka.
As Kaga investigates, he eventually uncovers evidence that indicates that the two writers' relationship was very different that they claimed, that they were anything but best friends.
But the question before Kaga is not necessarily who, or how, but why.
In a brilliantly realized tale of cat and mouse, the detective and the killer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded. And if Kaga is not able to uncover and prove why the murder was committed, then the truth may never come out.
Malice (2014) is the first and one of the bestselling - the most acclaimed - novels in Keigo Higashino's series featuring police detective Kyoichiro Kaga, one of the most popular creations of the bestselling novelist in Asia.
Malice is translated from the Japanese by Alexander O Smith with Elye Alexander.
About the author: Keigo Higashino is one of the most popular and biggest selling fiction authors in Japan, as well-known as James Patterson, Dean Koontz or Tom Clancy are in the USA.
Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co (presently DENSO). He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After School) at age 27. Subsequently, he quit his job and started a career as a writer in Tokyo.
In 1999, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Inc award for the novel Himitsu (The Secret), which was translated into English by Kerim Yasar and published by Vertical under the title of Naoko in 2004. In 2006, he won the 134th Naoki Prize for Yōgisha X no Kenshin. His novels had been nominated five times before winning with this novel.
The Devotion of Suspect X was the second highest selling book in all of Japan - fiction or nonfiction - the year it was published, with over 800,000 copies sold. It won the prestigious Naoki Prize for Best Novel - the Japanese equivalent of the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize. Made into a motion picture in Japan, The Devotion of Suspect X spent 4 weeks at the top of the box office and was the third highest-grossing film of the year.
Higashino’s novels have more movie and TV series adaptations than Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum, and as many as Michael Crichton.
About the translators: Alexander O Smith is founder of Kajiya Productions. He has been translating video games, novels, manga, and lyrics from Japanese to English professionally since graduating from Harvard University with a MA in classical Japanese literature in 1998. After working at Square Enix’s Tokyo offices for four years, he went freelance and is now based in the hills of Kamakura, Japan with occasional stints in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Alex has given talks and workshops on translation for groups, including the Tokyo branch of SCBWI (Society for Children’s Books Writers and Editors), several universities including Dartmouth College and the University of Vermont, and conventions, including PAX Prime and PAX East.
Elye Alexander is a freelance writer and part time editor with Kajiya Productions. A graduate of Harvard University (BA in English and American Literature and Language, 1994), his work with Kajiya includes regular editorial contributions to fiction and poetry projects. Elye's other interests include Welsh language and literature; speculative and literary fiction; poetry and drama in English and translation; song lyrics; and the martial arts. He also works as a custom builder.
Rating: 5/5
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