A Midsummer's Equation - Keigo Higashino - Book Review

A few years back, a Malayalam movie was released and became one of the biggest box office hits. It was heralded as a near-perfect movie and was remade in different languages as well - Drishyam. On its release; another talk went around that this was a copy of the book 'The Devotion of Suspect X' by Keigo Higashino. That prompted me to try my hand at the book. And it was worth it. I loved the book. I don't want to get into the debate of whether the movie was a copy or not. But certainly, there were similarities. He is one of the most celebrated mystery writers in Japan. Japan has its fair share of crime thriller novels only second to the Swedish ones. After 'The Devotion of Suspect X' and 'Malice', this was my third book by Keigo Higashino. As always the story is set in Japan starting with a boy traveling alone to his aunt's resort in a rustic beach town. There is a government-backed project that is going to start which might affect the eco-diversity of the spot due to which there is a local protest also going on when he arrives. Apart from him, there is just one other person in the resort; whom we find dead one fine day. The local police try to wind it up as suicide where as the prefecture from Tokyo has their doubts on the same and so the investigation is kicked off as the deceased person was an ex-policeman. On a parallel note, a professor who was visiting the area regarding the project also carries an investigation of his own thereby helping his friend in the Tokyo police. Who killed the ex-policeman? Was this a suicide? Has this got something to do with any of the criminals that he had arrested in the past or any of his old personal demons? The book answers all these questions on the way to completion. This book had a rather slow start. So it took a while to tune your mind to full reading mode. It does take its time to talk about the environmental conservation debate part. The book does not keep you on the edge of the seat like other mystery thrillers. Keigo's works do take time to seep in. The book was devoid of any blood or gore prevalent in other similar works. Like his other works, this also circles around relationships. Seasoned readers might be able to guess the path of investigation but then there is still suspense left at the end which you never see coming your way. There is depth in the main characters which needs attention. The storyline goes in a bit confusing way and unwinds itself in the usual Keigo fashion. Japanese mystery works are not really edge-of-the-seat thrillers but take time to materialize as I mentioned earlier. For me, this was a pretty decent work. After an initial hiccup of around 50 pages, I was able to cruise through till the last page. But still a tad less when compared to the Devotion X. Again a decent work. People who like their time around mystery stories that proceed leisurely and meticulously will take a liking to the book.

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