Suspects and a motive are hard to identify so Kaga pads around the roads and side streets, visiting the shops, cafes and even the temple Mineko attended in her last week or two. Mineko was recently divorced but the split seems to have been amicable and ex-husband Naohiro Kiyose has an alibi for the evening of the murder. It’s an aspect of the story that Higashino takes full advantage of and Kaga must scrutinise the neighbourhood and everyone the victim came into contact with before her death. She hasn’t lived in the area long and people don’t know much about her. Mineko Mitsui, a middle-aged woman living alone in her small apartment, has been strangled to death. For some reason he’s been posted to the Nihonbashi precinct of Tokyo and there’s been a murder. Kaga himself is the newcomer of the title. We’re not sure what happened to books one, three, four, five and six, but we’ll take it because Newcomer is such an intriguing read. Now the seventh book has arrived in translation. That was the second book in Higashino’s popular series, but the first to appear in English.

In Malice, reviewed and recommended in 2014, we were introduced to the Tokyo detective Kyoichiro Kaga. Translated by Giles Murray - The translations of The Devotion of Suspect X and Malice have put Japanese author Keigo Higashino on the map in English-speaking countries, at least among those who enjoy discovering crime books from other cultures around the world.

Malice keigo higashino summary