I like how the heroine (a 24 years old newbie cop) is an ordinary person, she does her work more or less like everyone else would, she isn't particularly beautiful or smart--instead she is a newbie learning her ropes and trying very hard to deal with the brutal reality of her job as an investigator of murder cases. The only out-of-ordinary things about her is her taste for spicy powder and her habit of drawing pictures in her notebook instead of writing. Her down-to-earth performance makes her an understandable character.
As to the murder mystery itself.........it doesn't look very 'clean-cut' and well-organized to me even though the explanation for the killer's motive and how he/she did it is logical enough, still I manged to figure out who is the evil mastermind quite quickly (what I couldn't figure out is how he/she did it)
All those details about psychology and how the brain of an abused victim or a psychopath functions are pretty...educational and intriguing to say the least. Still, I hope the story can have a bit more sense of direction, especially in the middle part of the book.
I absolutely loved this book! while the characters are quite different from how they were in the tv series, I liked them just as much! And although the case was a bit unbelievable thinking about it, while reading the book it didn't feel like that at all.
And I'm really proud I finished my first novel in Japanese :3