Newcomer: Keigo Higashino

Newcomer
Higashino Keigo
Giles Murray (Translator)
342pp

For the most part I love what might be termed as modern classic literature. I read a good deal of historically based works, works by acclaimed authors and oh so many thick masterpieces.

However, I do have two places I fall back onto to center myself. First, I enjoy stories that resemble my own life choices. People coming to Japan and trying hard to figure out what this whole place is all about. Some are good, many terrible, and I've already shared some here, and plan to share more as I build up the book reviews here into the future.

The second, I love a quick schlocky mystery. I love Poirot and Christie's other detectives. I love the search, the clues, the unknown. Since I focus on Japanese related books here, I share less of that, but I do still get to from time to time and if you don't already know, Higashino Keigo is my go to for translated mysteries. Higashino is one the very few writers who regardless of price is an automatic preorder for my amazon cart.

Speaking of which, I'd love to get an inside story of why the release date for this book was pushed back so much (over a year if I can recall) so if anyone knows Giles Murray (not on twitter it seems) please see if he's like to do an interview (I can promise it will be complimentary, as I've used his Japanese learning materials before and really feel he did an incredible job here too).

But, onto the book. Newcomer is a pretty simple murder mystery. A woman, newly divorced and independent, has been strangled in her apartment. No simple suspect appears, so Detective Kaga is put on the case. Kaga appeared in Higashino's Malice, along with numerous other adventures not yet available in English. If Poirot is smug, and Kusanagi (Higashino's other stock cop) is a scientific genius, then Kaga is the strong quiet type. He just really wants to help, and this book gives him room to do so.

The structure of this work is reasonably unique, with time doubling back, going forward, and jumping all around. This is not distracting, as each chapter takes on a different thread of this case. Each story is followed to a conclusion, and then we go back again and pull at another.

Higashino, along with Kaga, seem to be telling us that everything and everyone has a mystery. While we are looking for a killer, is it any less interesting to search for all the other answers to the mysteries all around us? I would say, at least in this work, it absolutely is just as interesting.

I'd say there are more than half a dozen little mysteries wrapped up nice and neat as we pass through the little neighborhood were our victim spent her last days. We meet numerous characters (so much so that wisely a Cast of Characters was included) and as we get to know them, solve their mysteries, it all builds up an argument that is simple but beautiful. All these people are important, and sweet, and sometimes sad or unhappy. All of them are simple and a dime a dozen, but worth so much more when displayed under a clear light. By doing this, Higashino, without any aggrandizing speeches or over the top sappiness makes us as readers realize just how sad it is that a woman who we don't really know, and whose family didn't know her much better, was taken from this world.

To be clear, there is also a great deal of happiness that peaks through here. I won't go into too many specifics, but numerous time we are able to peak at small acts of redemption, and finally, it feels like the people who missed the chance to know the victim do know her now.

This is a really simple and quick read, but it is exactly what I wanted this weekend. Maybe it won't hit everyone as well as it did for me, but I recommend this book very highly. It's a really striking mishmash and hodgepodge of stories all sewn together into a magnificent quilt.

I recommend this one really highly, and would say it is easily Higashino's second best book, falling only just a little short of the mysterious magic of Devotion of Suspect X, which is a longer, deeper mystery.

I hope that this book is popular enough to push out some more Higashino in 2019, and I would be happy if another Kaga mystery were selected.

Who's that mustached detected peeking out from behind Newcomer?