Devotion of Suspect X is a Japanese thriller written by Keigo Higashino.
When Yasuko moves into her apartment with her daughter, she hopes to finally live a quiet, comfortable life. But all that changes the day her ex-husband shows up at her door. Ishigami is a maths teacher at a private highschool. Everyday he has the same routine and that’s just the way he likes it. The two are neighbours who rarely speak to each other. But when Yasuko gets into trouble, Ishigami is the only one who can help. But at what cost?
"Which is harder: devising an unsolvable problem, or solving that problem?"
Devotion of Suspect X is one of my favourite mystery books I’ve ever read because the plot is so intricate and well-thought out. I really liked Ishigami as a character because he wasn’t the cliche superficial “genius” but rather a highly intelligent person with human motivations. The more I read the bigger the suspense grew, reminding me of a game of cat and mouse. The chapters are pretty regular length-wise and if you don’t appreciate long paragraphs of description this book is for you. Higashino wastes no time in getting straight to the action and I, for one, enjoyed how dialogue heavy the book was as it made it quick to read. His writing is quite blunt but it works in his favour as we can spend less time deciphering metaphors and more time spent wondering if the police will catch the murderer. One thing I noticed in the book was that at times the dialogue felt a bit strange and unrealistic but I think this is owing to the fact that I read a translated version of this novel. Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you like mystery or are trying to get back into reading.