Ever since the English translation of Devotion of Suspect X
(in 2011), Japanese author Keigo Higashino has developed a strong reputation as
the writer of mesmerizingly complex crime fiction. If crime novels are a form
of tourism, Highashino’s writings could very well acquaint us with unique food,
locales, philosophical renderings, people’s attitude, and other alleged eccentricities pertaining to the nation (which we address as ‘Japaneseness’). Of
course, we read crime fiction to also gaze into a country’s desolate quarters permeated
with bleak notions that aren’t advertised in the shiny brochures. However,
Higashino’s novels don’t take a conventional plunge into dreary Japanese underworld. Much of
the crimes committed in the author’s stories are related to domestic conflicts
and the perpetrators (and victims) mostly hail from middle-class, inherently carrying a
strong sense of morality and are persistently swimming against the rapidly changing tides of economic climate.
While readers of crime fiction in translation might be marveled at the rise in Japanese crime novelists in the recent past (Natsuo
Kirino, Kanae Minato, Hideo Yokoyama, etc), the detective stories in Japanese
literature has a long tradition. From Edogawa Rampo, Seicho Matsumoto to Yukito
Ayatsuji and Soji Shimada, Japanese crime novels in the past century had underwent a lot of changes as well as stuck itself to idiosyncratic cultural and moral notions. Keigo Higashino’s approach incorporates elements of human
psychology, Eastern philosophy, and Sherlock Holmes-like sleuthing processes. Like any other crime
writer around the world, Higashino bestows the key to unlock his complex puzzle
upon his fictional alter-ego Manabu Yukawa, who is revered as ‘Detective Galileo’.
Yukawa isn’t, however, a badge-carrying detective, but an associate professor
of physics whose deep intellectual reflections and strong knowledge of science brings swift solutions to hard-to-crack cases. A Midsummer’s Equation
(translated to English by Alexander O. Smith in 2016) was the third book in ‘Detective
Galileo’ series (followed by Suspect X & Salvation of a Saint). Similar to
the two previous books in the series, the central crime looks like an easily
decipherable case, but over time the robust facts emerging from the case the task of
nailing a suspect becomes daunting.
While Suspect X & Salvation of a Saint revealed the
suspect/perpetrator earlier in the narrative and simply tracked down the
answers to questions ‘How’ & ‘Why’, A Midsummer’s Equation starts off as whodunit
murder/mystery. The story beings with 11-year-old Kyohei on his way to spend
his summer vacation at an old seaside resort ‘Green Rock Inn’, managed by his
aunt and uncle, Setsuko and Shigeharu Kawahata. En route to Hari Cove, Kyohei
takes the same train as Manabu Yukawa. Despite the fastidious and ungreagrious
nature of Yukawa, he comes to the boy’s rescue over an altercation of using
mobile phones during travel. Kyohei also sort of recommends his aunt’s inn to
Yukawa for his indeterminate stay at the coastal town. Yukawa is traveling to Hari Cove to
attend series of public meetings organized by DESMEC, a big corporation which
wants to dig up the mineral resources on the ocean-bed The concerned local
citizens have formed the group ‘Save the Cove’ and the meetings are to assuage
the tension regarding the project.
For years, Hari Cove has gradually lost its tourism revenue.
Even at the middle of summer, Green Rock Inn has only one reservation. Now with
DESMEC’s promise for steady jobs, the town’s natural beauty is also threatened. Thirty-year-old
Narumi – Shigehiro-Setsuko’s daughter & Kyohei’s cousin – is one of the dedicated
patrons of ‘Save the Cove’ movement. She and her friends in the group take the conference
on undersea mining prospects very seriously. During the meeting, she sees an
elderly man -- a total stranger – nodding towards her. Later, Narumi finds out
that the old man named Mr. Masatsugu Tsukahara is the one reserved a room in their inn.
Thanks to Kyohei, the inn also has another guest (Yukawa). In the night after the meeting,
Tsukahara goes missing and later is found dead on the rocks lining the coast. No foul-play was initially suspected. But Tsukahara’s identity raises some
questions. Soon, Yukawa using his analytical
genius mind arrives at a theory behind Tsukahara’s death. Nevertheless, it takes a
detailed investigation led by prefectural and Tokyo department police to get to
the whole of truth (which is full of twists and turns).
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| Masaharu Fukuyama plays Yukawa aka Detective Galileo in the movie adaptations |
What I love about
Higashino’s novels are the steady, fluid pace and dense details that come out
of a seemingly simple scenario. Moreover, a good number of the smaller details expand
our initial understanding of the characters, which in turn allows for in-depth
examination of themes like guilt, penance, crime and punishment. Like many
fictional sleuths, Yukawa makes an intriguing central character because of him
lacking in courtesies and social niceties (at the same time he keeps up with
reader’s scientific expectations). Scientific pursuit of truth is the sole
preoccupation of Higashno’s protagonist. He goes after truth in a manner that somehow
often results in strictly moralistic and unexpectedly bleak conclusions. But in A
Midsummer’s Equation, Yukawa unveiling of secret doesn’t lead to entirely dark
developments. There’s a touch of Zen and Eastern philosophy, when the physicist
tells (to bewildered Kyohei) the importance of dispelling evil through truth and
goes on to suggest how truth can allow us to make informed choices in our
future.
Eventually, A Midsummer’s Equation was more emotionally
satisfying (despite lacking the subtlety of Malice and Suspect X) than what I consider
to be the author’s underwhelming novel – ‘Journey Under the Midnight Sun’.
Although ‘Journey..’ was critically acclaimed, I found the central mystery in
the novel to be dragging on and on as it introduced lot of subplots that didn’t
do much to advance the plot (it was messy rather than being a labyrinth). The
central protagonists of that novel are also so unsympathetic and are only perceived
through the eyes of underdeveloped minor characters. Furthermore, the ultimate reveal and
the easily predictable episodic twists were totally dissatisfying for me.
A Midsummer’s Equation might be smaller in scope compared to ‘Journey’, but the
human drama and emotions are sufficiently convincing (the only odd part is teenager
Narumi’s momentary rage, even though the author incorporates lot of details to convince
us on the character’s psychological underpinning). Altogether, A Midsummer’s
Equation is a well-crafted addition to the ‘Detective Galileo’ series, delivering
series of marvelous narrative twists while also maintaining surprising emotional
resonance.
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