The Devotion of Suspect X (容疑者Xの献身)

⚖The case for it

Higashino shows you the death and the cover-up in the opening pages, so the question is never who but whether the police can break something built this carefully. Underneath runs a duel between two old university acquaintances on opposite sides, a reclusive maths teacher and the physicist the police bring in to consult. The construction plants its “clues in plain sight” and still lands, and readers say “every scene, prop and sentence works to move the story forward.” One critic promises “a droll Columbo-like sleuth and a great surprise ending.” Readers finish with a “punch in the gut” and reread to find what they missed.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

The middle circles the same procedural ground more than once without advancing, and the lead detective keeps returning to an alibi he cannot crack, which some readers call hand-waving rather than misdirection. The ex-wife is thin and behaves inconsistently, with “no personality” underneath the choices the plot needs from her. That the physicist and the maths teacher happen to be old acquaintances is a large coincidence to hang a book on. A vocal minority finds the final construction overwrought rather than clever, calling it “intellectual laziness” that lands “like a slap in the face.”

— the honest librarian

7h

honest hours

10

sittings