Keigo Higashino is Japan’s most decorated mystery writer, and this book, Malice, the first in a series, catapulted him to fame. Unlike nearly any other mystery, the crime, perpetrator (Osamu Nanoguchi), and detective, Kyochiro Kaga, are all known near the outset. What follows is a chess match between Nanoguchi and Kaga as the detective move by move picks through the crime and move by move Nanoguchi counters. The reader is left to wonder if Nanoguchi actually did what he admits to while Kaga searches for a credible motive. The book reads like a script for a play. The two main characters sit opposite one another as the spotlight highlights one and then the other. Additional characters fill out the story and the reader is left guessing not only whodunnit, but why.
