Keigo Higashino (東野 圭吾) is one of the most popular and biggest selling fiction authors in Japan—as well known as James Patterson, Dean Koontz or Tom Clancy are in the USA.
Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co. (presently DENSO). He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After School) at age 27. Subsequently, he quit his job and started a career as a writer in Tokyo.
In 1999, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Inc award for the novel Himitsu (The Secret), which was translated into English by Kerim Yasar and published by Vertical under the title of Naoko in 2004. In 2006, he won the 134th Naoki Prize for Yōgisha X no Kenshin. His novels had been nominated five times before winning with this novel.
The Devotion of Suspect X was the second highest selling book in all of Japan— fiction or nonfiction—the year it was published, with over 800,000 copies sold. It won the prestigious Naoki Prize for Best Novel— the Japanese equivalent of the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize. Made into a motion picture in Japan, The Devotion of Suspect X spent 4 weeks at the top of the box office and was the third highest‐grossing film of the year.
Higashino’s novels have more movie and TV series adaptations than Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum, and as many as Michael Crichton.
This collection of short stories is supposed to be a parody to the classical 'locked room' murder mystery genre. A lot of people seem to enjoy it but sadly, in this book (and the same goes for Keigo's Laughing series) the mockery is *way* too obvious to a point all the subtly and jokes just simply vanish into the thin air.
I don't like the shallow, stupid characters--I know they are supposed to be stupid, still they are so stupid that they don't even look like actual people.
I can't stand the pointless stories--I know they are supposed to be pointless, but the author shows me no insight other than 'Look! I'm making fun out of one of the overused murder mystery's cliches!' And the author is making his points in such a smug, 'smarter-than-you' manner which annoys me a great deal.
I can't stand the of forced, tasteless sense of humor and all those lame jokes that filled the entire book. I mean, a parody is bad when the jokes are entirely not funny.
Even the TV drama-adaptation basing on this book is also stupid and forced on so many levels, what a total failure!
A short story collection where the central gimmick is that the detective and his sidekick are both aware that they are characters in a mystery novel. They are, as such, aware of the tropes governing such novels and behave accordingly.
The fourth-wall breaking is not particularly clever. The author intended mostly for such a premise to generate humor, but such attempts fall flat because they consist solely of the protagonists pointing out various mystery novel tropes that are happening around them and commenting on how silly or unrealistic such tropes are. Beyond that, the premise doesn't go very far.
The premise even serves to worsen the mysteries, with most of them having sub-par and half-assed solutions just to accommodate the fourth-wall breaking (one of the mysteries even lacks a solution). There are a couple of mildly brilliant ones, but those are not worth dredging through this thirteen-story collection for.
Oh. My. Goodness. This book is...spectacular! From its humor to its plot down to its characters. Every part of this book fits so well into the story. Definitely recommend!
Liked the concept. Not a fan of the story-telling. The jokes didn't do it for me. The author just tried too hard to sell them. I think this book may benefit with more sly and subtlety.
The last short story was quite funny. Imagine a murder mystery where every character is a "amatuer detective" including the ones who die and the murderer! But some of the other ones were quite plain. I think it's only in Japanese too soz.
I love Higashino's short detective stories, which are simple yet very intriguing. I like them more than long ones.
This book is a collection of 15 short detective stories narrated mainly by a police, who acts as a side character and let an amateur detective to do all the deduction to find out the perpetrators. Author adopted a humorous tone which also educates readers about traditional Japanese detective stories. Very funny indeed. Quick read and an amazing page turner.