The Devotion of Suspect X (容疑者Xの献身)

⚖The case for it

Warm is the wrong word for anyone here, and yes, chapters can pass before your pulse does anything. Live with the chill; it is load-bearing, not decoration. A single mother, worn down by an ex-husband who won't stay gone, gets quiet help from the shy math teacher next door, who has quietly ached for her across years. Higashino seats two former university rivals at one table, one hiding what happened, one prying at it. The pull between those two minds holds you, and it keeps working on you for days.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

In translation, at least, the prose is flat as a case file, and the characters are chess pieces: Yasuko exists to be protected and admired, less a woman than a motive. Ishigami's devotion is stalking wearing a halo, and the novel never quite notices. You stay for the trick, which is genuinely brilliant, and for nothing else.

— the honest librarian