#2 in Galileo series

Looked like perfect murder, but Yukawa logical thinking helps to solve case. If you enjoy mystery novel then this is best book to pick up. Interesting and written precisely so that you can imagine while reading. One more thing I liked about author is his books is like conversation. Men’s I feel like I am conversing with someone... loved it.

When Yoshitake Mashiba is found dead in his home, the obvious suspect is Ayane, the wife he had told he was planning to divorce for her younger apprentice, Hiromi. But Ayane was miles away in Sapporo at the time, so she couldn’t have done it, right? That’s what Detective Kusanagi thinks, anyhow. But Detective Utsumi, his rookie female colleague, thinks he’s too blinded by love for the suspected mariticide perpetrator and is certain Ayane did it. So she convinces Manabu Yukawa, aka Detective Galileo, to look into the matter. Galileo has a solution, but could it be possible that such a painstakingly near-impossible method was used?
This is the third book of Higashino’s that I’ve read, and unfortunately my least favorite. Galileo doesn’t play as much of a role in this book–likely because Kusanagi isn’t the one to bring him on to the investigation–and as a result, his solution really seems to come out of nowhere. While Utsumi is a strong female character, Ayane and Hiromi both seem washed out, as if written by a man with no close female friends. Kusanagi’s love story with Ayane is given a weak end, and the story overall comes off feeling unresolved. I hope I’ll like future books by Higashino better.

Chado: the Japanese tea ceremony; all must be exquisite perfection, yet, compared to my daily coffee ceremony, I consider chado to be primitive - - but the exquisite perfection of my coffee ceremony is put to shame by Keigo Higashino's perfect craftsmanship of the mystery/police procedural!
The perfect murder, but soon to unravel . . . . . coffee, anyone?
[Is Keigo Higashino the reincarnation of the 14th century Kusunoki Masahige? Possibly, possibly . . . . .]

Not as good as other books of his. Very unusual murder and planned execution was credible but questionable. But did enjoy the overall plot and the authors writing style.

intro to this genre - read first

Just average mystery with, in my opinion, not very believable for so many characters to have irriational behaviors, including the detective. So many women in one plot to be that enamored with the same man to betray friends, and be so weak as to commit a serious crime and suicide is not only irritating, but not quite believable. I found Midsommer's Equation much more interesting and compelling.

Read this after watching the last two episodes of Jdrama "Galileo" (season 2) so I already knew the trick to it, but the book still had some surprises.

The names were confusing at first but it helped that I had faces in mind for the characters, even if Kusanagi's role was downplayed in the series and Utsumi was replaced by a female Kishitani.

I think both book and show offer something unique and work well together because I liked the confession at the end of the show too. I think it explained the title better. (Except the Suspect X I watched both as Japanese and Korean movies so I'm reluctant to read the book.)

But I still devoured this in a day. I wish more of the Galileo books get translated to English. (Or just more fun Japanese mystery novels.)

A flawless murder mystery. Perfection.

Interesting Japanese police procedural. I found it difficult to keep track of all the Japanese names in the novel: Kusanagi, Utsumi, Ayane, Yoshitaka, Hiromi, Tatsuhiko, Yukiko, Yukawa, Yoko, Kishitani, etc. For this reason, or perhaps because of Higashino's writing style, I could not connect with the characters or even picture them in my mind. The method of murder was interesting, but otherwise I didn't find anything too remarkable happened in the story.