The only problem with "Motive" is that after finishing this short story I can do nothing but craving for MORE Hideo Yokoyama's works, which sadly will not come out anytime soon given his lesser popularity in comparison to Keigo Higashino, who himself only gets at most two translated works (normally one in English, one in French) that I can read. "Motive" clearly is a premise for "Six Four" and a nice little piece on the inner working of the police force in Japan. Of course the "mystery" in this one is pretty simple, especially in comparison to the marvellous "Season of Shadows". Still, I love it for all of its simplicity and humanistic approach to character building, which Hideo Yokoyama always has his edge over Keigo Higashino.
I listened to the Audiobook of this book and so the review is shorter than most I do, partly as it is hard to highlight sentences or passages that could be used in a review.
Yokoyama is one of my favourite authors and, of course, I am most familiar with his novel “Kuraimazu Hai” (“Climber’s High”) (and have also met him). “Doki” is known in English as “Motive” and is another of his police stories (or, rather, it is a collection of short stories), unlike “Kuraimazu Hai“, and more like “Six Four” which is probably his best known book (at least outside Japan). I remember enjoying it, but as I didn’t take any notes, I don’t remember specifics now.