Journey Under the Midnight Sun

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for this price, the product is quite decent, shipping speed is much faster that I thought, overall, very good for someone interested in reading this book

Journey Under the Midnight Sun, originally published in Japan in 1999, is Keigo Higashino's fifth English-translated novel following Naoko, The Devotion of Suspect X, Salvation of a Saint and Malice. Of those five, I believe this is his best work. Currently, it is only available in the UK but English-reading fans of Higashino's writing outside the UK can easily order a copy from a third-party seller.The novel begins in Osaka in 1973 when a man is found stabbed to death in an abandoned building. Detective Sasagaki, the lead officer investigating the case, follows several leads and meets two young children: Ryo, the son of the murdered man, and Yukiho, the daughter of one of the murdered man's acquaintances. Ultimately, Sasagaki is unable to solve the murder. The remainder of the novel is spread over the course of nineteen years. Structurally, the novel may seem like a series of short stories at first. Each chapter introduces and goes into the mind of a new character. However, every character is somehow linked to either Ryo or Yukiho and unusually strange crimes continue to occur.Higashino crafts a very complex and psychological human mystery here. The plot is much darker than his previous translated works but succeeds in allowing the readers to forge an emotional connection with Ryo, Yukiho, Sasagaki and the vast cast of characters introduced over the plot's near two decade span. Readers who pay close attention can solve sections of the chain of mysteries through intuitive reading, which is key as Higashino doesn't spell everything out for his audience. The 539 page length of the novel allows it to strongly develop its characters as well as address thematic ideas of society, pain, guilt, morality, love and humanity from multiple unique perspectives. Beneath its murder mystery exterior, Journey Under the Midnight Sun has a hidden humane heart.

Books written by Keigo Higashino leave most of the readers pretty speechless with their clever twists & turns, adroit characterization, and the depth of emotions that lace the actions on part of all concerned. The book under review is, even by his standards, a masterpiece, that has literally left me stunned. I am actually finding it difficult to write a review of it, but still, one has to try.A pawnbroker named Yosuke Kirihara was found murdered in an abandoned bulding. The body had been found by a kid named Kikuchi who, along-with other kids, used to play in the ducts inside the building. Suspecting that Kirihara had gone to that building on some adulterous fling, Police zoom on the only female customer of the pawnshop: Fumiyo Nishimoto, as well as a regular customer of the udon-shop where she works: Tadao Terasaki (jealousy-angle). They, also continue pursuing the widow Yaeko Kirihara, the pawnbroker’s assistant Isamu Matsuura, as well as the Kikuchi family (because the pawnbroker was carrying an unusually large amount of money that he had, most uncharacteristically, withdrawn from Bank). However, alibies were all cast-iron. Only person devoid of an alibi is Terasaki, who died shortly in an accident. And it seems that this would remain as another unsolved low-profile murder in the books of Osaka Police. However, Detective Sasagaki couldn’t let the case go, because he had noticed two pre-teen kids in this ruined & desolate landscape who were very special, and very captivating. For the next twenty years, even after he retired, he pursued those two persons: (1) the daughter of Fumiyo Nishimoto: Yukiho, (2) the son of the deceased: Ryo Kirihara. The book is a journey of those two, the unstoppable & insatiable white queen, and her ever-faithful dark knight.While I had started reading the book knowing fully well that this is not going to be a mystery in the traditional sense (Higashino simply enjoys breaking all the ‘rules’ that we associate with a mystery), the book left me literally gasping for breath as I raced towards the end with the Detective. Was I eager to see their fall? Yes. Oh God, yes! I wanted them to be destroyed, killed, ruined, burnt alive, thrown to wolves, fed to the grinder, etc. And I also wanted to see just what height they can reach taking this dark road until someone comes with the thunder. And all along, I also felt very-very sorry for them, as I also started joining the dots inside my mind to understand exactly how they had started this walk.The book is complex to the extent where the reader knows that at the end of this maze only the Minotaur would be waiting for him. It was unbelievably good, deeply unsatisfactory, and heartbreakingly tragic. Why? Because so many lives got destroyed, one fell, the other rose, and we kept walking under the midnight Sun. Perhaps, we might have another book that would eventually show someone crashing even that Olympian figure, and only then it would be the end of the night.Sorry about the rambling. Now, I wouldn’t like to take up any more of your time. Please enjoy the read. What? You are having doubts about reading the book? Are you crazy? This is an essential read!Recommended, obviously.

The way the story unfolds is superb. I just could not put the book down. I lost track of time.How Ryo and Yukiho are actually connected is left up to the reader’s imagination. I wish there were one more chapter at the end which reveals how the two communicated, what the deal between the two was, and what drove Ryo to do what he did and to stay in Yukiho’s shadow and what they envisioned in their future.Despite the dark story, it was an exhilarating feeling to read such a well-conceived story. I hope that an international audience will enjoy this.