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Under the Midnight Sun
by Keigo Higashino
Translated by Alexander O. Smith with Joseph Reeder
Minotaur, November 2016
A pawnbroker is killed in Osaka, Japan. Experienced police detective Sasagaki leads the
investigation, which peters out when a likely suspect dies.
The scene shifts to a group of middle school students which includes the victim’s son, Ryo Kirihara, and the daughter of one the pawn shop customers. There are a series of apparently unconnected incidents as the group moves on into high school. Computer crime in particular is a recurrent theme, with Ryo involved in a plot to make and sell counterfeit Mario Brothers games.
For long periods, the novel will focus on a new character or group and new crimes that involve them. Computer hacking and sale of industrial secrets affect some. Others find love affairs foiled. Characters marry and divorce. The Japanese economybooms and declines. Some characters have secure positions as heirs to family owned companies or comfortable positions as salarymen in corporate Japan. Others live on the edge of the economy as temporary office workers or running small businesses out of converted apartments.
Through it all, Yuhiko Nishimoto Karasawa moves as a mysteriously glamorous young
woman with an uncanny ability to make money. The reader soon notes that persons who are
obstacles to her plans mysteriously come to grief, yet she never seems to be directly
involved.
Almost twenty years after the original murder, detective Sasagaki is retired, but still intent on the case. He returns to the scene and re-interrogates those involved. People, including the dead man’s widow, are willing to be more open with him since the statute of limitations has expired. This element is obviously quite different from American mysteries, in which there is no statute of limitations on homicide. The Japanese law has been altered recently as well. Eventually, Sasagaki learns two facts that enable him to solve the case, and he moves to assist in an arrest, with evidence that the suspect has committed other crimes that can be punished.
The leisurely pace of this novel and the large number of characters set it apart from most western mysteries. Actual detection or police procedure takes place on only a few pages. One might almost regard it as a novel with mystery elements. However, the tension builds as more people die and more lives are affected. The author portrays various levels of Japanese society, from the comfortably well off who send their children to exclusive private schools to single mothers barely making the rent of tiny apartments. Higashino, a native of Osaka, describes the regional differences between his hometown, in the warmer south of Japan, and Toyko: cuisine, accents, levels of prosperity, and climate, making it clear that Japan is not as homogeneous as westerners may assume.
Keigo Higashino is an award-winning writer who has served as president of the Mystery
Writers of Japan. An English translation of his _The Devotion of Suspect X_ was nominated
for a 2013 Edgar Award. In addition to dozens of novels, he has published collections of
short stories and essays. Several works have been adapted as films and television dramas,
including one film, _The Secret_, in French.
by Keigo Higashino
Translated by Alexander O. Smith with Joseph Reeder
Minotaur, November 2016
A pawnbroker is killed in Osaka, Japan. Experienced police detective Sasagaki leads the
investigation, which peters out when a likely suspect dies.
The scene shifts to a group of middle school students which includes the victim’s son, Ryo Kirihara, and the daughter of one the pawn shop customers. There are a series of apparently unconnected incidents as the group moves on into high school. Computer crime in particular is a recurrent theme, with Ryo involved in a plot to make and sell counterfeit Mario Brothers games.
For long periods, the novel will focus on a new character or group and new crimes that involve them. Computer hacking and sale of industrial secrets affect some. Others find love affairs foiled. Characters marry and divorce. The Japanese economybooms and declines. Some characters have secure positions as heirs to family owned companies or comfortable positions as salarymen in corporate Japan. Others live on the edge of the economy as temporary office workers or running small businesses out of converted apartments.
Through it all, Yuhiko Nishimoto Karasawa moves as a mysteriously glamorous young
woman with an uncanny ability to make money. The reader soon notes that persons who are
obstacles to her plans mysteriously come to grief, yet she never seems to be directly
involved.
Almost twenty years after the original murder, detective Sasagaki is retired, but still intent on the case. He returns to the scene and re-interrogates those involved. People, including the dead man’s widow, are willing to be more open with him since the statute of limitations has expired. This element is obviously quite different from American mysteries, in which there is no statute of limitations on homicide. The Japanese law has been altered recently as well. Eventually, Sasagaki learns two facts that enable him to solve the case, and he moves to assist in an arrest, with evidence that the suspect has committed other crimes that can be punished.
The leisurely pace of this novel and the large number of characters set it apart from most western mysteries. Actual detection or police procedure takes place on only a few pages. One might almost regard it as a novel with mystery elements. However, the tension builds as more people die and more lives are affected. The author portrays various levels of Japanese society, from the comfortably well off who send their children to exclusive private schools to single mothers barely making the rent of tiny apartments. Higashino, a native of Osaka, describes the regional differences between his hometown, in the warmer south of Japan, and Toyko: cuisine, accents, levels of prosperity, and climate, making it clear that Japan is not as homogeneous as westerners may assume.
Keigo Higashino is an award-winning writer who has served as president of the Mystery
Writers of Japan. An English translation of his _The Devotion of Suspect X_ was nominated
for a 2013 Edgar Award. In addition to dozens of novels, he has published collections of
short stories and essays. Several works have been adapted as films and television dramas,
including one film, _The Secret_, in French.
