Index is only a so-and-so installment of the Himegawa Reiko detective novel series. What keeps the other books from the same series so great is the sense of urgency the author had create: an intensive race against time and death between policemen and criminals, but sadly this urgency is absent in this book. The short stories in this book only serve as a 'slices of life' stories for the fans to look a bit closer into the main characters and their developments, to me it isn't as exciting as reading the previous books. 2.6 stars.