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Review: Keigo Higashino - Malice (2014)
As all books by Keigo Higashino are, this book started off light enough, in the sense that all of our main characters seemed to have a friendly and cordial relationship with one another. And it surprised me, as the book was called Malice.
I've only read the Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino. And I can understand why Higashino decided to go with a new detective when writing this novel, as the book had a different tone to it than those two with Detective Galileo.
Anyway, I did enjoy this book. I thought it was fascinating and a little chilling too. Another great novel to Higashino's name!
Spoilers!!
Story
Whereas the trick to the Detective Galileo series was often one very neat trick, the trick to Malice's mystery was an ongoing one.
Right at the beginning of the novel, I had a pretty good perception of Nonoguchi. Even as Kaga suspected him, I couldn't help but sympathize with his accounts. And as he intended, Nonoguchi's "true account" made him look great even as a murderer. So at the very end, when Kaga finally put together the truth, I felt sickened. Sickened that Nonoguchi had taken everything away from Hidaka, both in life and in death.
I really applaud Higashino. Right in the second chapter, the first time we read from Kaga's point of view, he'd already pointed out that Nonoguchi's intention was to set a narrative. Even with that knowledge, I was surprised when not only was Nonoguchi lying, but everything was premeditated and fabricated.
And the more chilling aspect was, as Kaga said, that there was no reason to any of this. Nonoguchi never had a legitimate reason for hating Hidaka. And yet he wanted to destroy everything about him. Hidaka having a copy of the photograph was just an excuse. Nonoguchi killed Hidaka and trampled on the graves of him and his late wife.
So this novel really felt more like a tragedy than the Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. Much kudos to Higashino for showing a different side of his writing, as I enjoyed it a lot.
Writing & Translation
The translation was done by Alexander O. Smith. This name sounds familiar to me, so I assume he translated Higashino's books that I'd read before as well. The translation overall was pretty solid. I liked that throughout the novel, there was still a somewhat cordial tone, which really does remind me of my perception of Japanese culture, in which manners are paramount.
There were some parts that felt a little awkward, particularly when Kaga was recording his interviews. But this was probably more to do with the ebook formatting than Smith's translation. Sometimes I thought the interviewee was repeating Kaga's question for the benefit of the reader, but then I realized that it was actually Kaga speaking. But that's just nitpicky stuff.
Characters
Osamu Nonoguchi
Our culprit. Let's go through his story chronologically. As a child, he lived in a part of town his mother hated. Kaga theorized that it was Nonoguchi's mother's disdain for the town and for Hidaka that influenced his own disdain.
As kids, Hidaka seemed to want to befriend Nonoguchi. He walked him to and from school and played with him. However, from testimony from that third friend of theirs, Nonoguchi never seemed to like Hidaka back. He found Hidaka kind of patronizing because he was always trying to take care of him.
At school, Nonoguchi joined the bullies. He was bullied, but his solution to the bullying was to join the bullies. He was Fujio's crony, and he would also join in bullying Hidaka. In one specific instance, Nonoguchi had abetted Fujio in raping a girl, and it was a serious crime that he probably felt really guilty about. Fujio had taken a picture of the crime, and had given it to someone else. While writing his book, Hidaka had asked that friend to see the photo, made a copy of it, and then sent it back. The original of the photo was lost, but Hidaka had the one copy of it.
After middle school, Nonoguchi went to another high school and he cut contact with Hidaka. They only got in touch when Nonoguchi wanted to seriously get into writing, and he saw all the success that had come to Hidaka.
When Nonoguchi found out he had cancer, he decided to put a plan in place that would exterminate Hidaka and grab all the glory for himself. He needed to fabricate an attempted murder in the past, he needed to fabricate an affair with Hatsumi, and he needed to fabricate Hidaka blackmailing him.
The fact that this was so meticulously was what was so chilling about the crime. Did Nonoguchi ever stop to think about why he wanted to destroy not only Hidaka but his late wife? His excuse was probably that he needed to stop his crime of abetting from getting out, but the stuff about taking all of Hidaka's glory for himself was pure malice.
Kaga knew Nonoguchi from their days teaching at the school together. They were friends. So I could tell how disgusted Kaga felt with Nonoguchi after uncovering the whole truth. Kaga kept as polite as he could, but the way he ended their last conversation, reminding him that he had a trial to attend, signified that Kaga had lost every bit of trust in this man.
Kyoichiro Kaga
Kaga was our main detective. Admittedly, when I first started reading from his point of view, I was hoping that he was looking too much into things. He said himself that he was wondering if his past relationship with Nonoguchi was pushing him to look at him more skeptically. And I had hoped it was true, because I had fallen for Nonoguchi's testimony so deeply.
Kaga used to be a teacher, but a terrifying experience had taken him out of the profession. He had tried to get bullying under control in his classroom. But instead what had happened was that the bully victim eventually lashed out against the bullies, stabbing the ringleader, and probably intending to die himself. And it was Kaga's knives that the victim had gotten a hold of. Understandably, Kaga felt guilty of the crime, but he also felt extremely guilty that everything he'd done for the victim did not help. Nothing he could do made him feel better, nothing he did endeared him to the bullies. It didn't matter how nice Kaga was to the student, that wouldn't change anything about how miserable the bullies made him feel.
So the theme of bullying was very personal to Kaga, and the fact that this case came back down to bullying probably struck a huge nerve with Kaga, especially since he knew that Nonoguchi was a teacher and worked with kids. With what we knew of Nonoguchi, he tried to stay away from the students and their problems.
So this experience with bullying hardened Kaga and he stopped being a teacher. He did however become a top notch detective. I wouldn't say that he was a genius, but he was definitely thorough and detailed, and he had a good gut instinct. That, and he also had a strong sense of empathy, which enabled his deductive reasoning skills when it came to understanding people. Basically, he had really high emotional intelligence.
And as mentioned, since bullying was such a sensitive topic to him, his impression of Nonoguchi really soured as he dug past the narrative that Nonoguchi had concocted himself. I'd be really interested in reading Kaga's cases in the future!
Kunihiko Hidaka
Hidaka was the victim. Based on Nonoguchi's account, he was a total bully, just for the sake of it. He had found out about Nonoguchi's innocent affair with Hatsumi and used it to blackmail Nonoguchi. Nonoguchi had murdered him as the last straw, as revenge for all that Hidaka had done to him.
Except it was entirely false. Every bit of it. Hidaka had always been exceedingly kind to Nonoguchi. One of the interviewees had mentioned that they would have wanted a friend to walk with them to and from school every day as Hidaka did for Nonoguchi. Later on in life, he became a successful novelist. You would think that nobody could take that from him, but Nonoguchi did.
Nonoguchi turned Hidaka into a cruel person who didn't have a single merit to his name, and he almost succeeded, if it were not for Kaga's superb sleuthing.
And all for what? All because Nonoguchi's mother turned her nose up at a country bumpking like Hidaka.
Rie Hidaka
Rie was Hidaka's second wife. She was Hidaka's editor first before they got married, so she was familiar with his writing process too.
Mostly, she functioned more as a plot device, as she communicated a lot of factual information to Kaga, both things that Nonoguchi had set up to be part of his grand plan, and facts that would disprove it, such as Rie not believing that Hidaka had a ghostwriter.
Hatsumi Hidaka
Hatsumi was Hidaka's first wife. We were led by Nonoguchi to believe that they were deeply madly in love, and that she had died by suicide because Hidaka was so insufferable.
In reality, we knew nothing about Hatsumi, and it seemed that her death truly was an accident. She was a plot device for Nonoguchi's narrative, convenient enough to be used because she was dead.
Masaya Fujio
Masaya Fujio was the middle school bully at Hidaka and Nonoguchi's school. Hidaka had written a book based on Fujio, who had later become interested in woodblock prints and was stabbed to death by a prostitute.
As Kaga dug into Hidaka and Nonoguchi's history, he did get confirmation that Fujio was the ringleader of the bullies, and specifically, he had transferred away because he had raped a girl from another school. The key here was that the accomplice who held down the girl as she was being raped was Nonoguchi.
I don't deny that perhaps Fujio might have seen the error of his ways and become a better person, devoting his life to his craft. But that doesn't erase the true evil he did as a child.
Miyako Fujio
Miyako was Fujio's sister. She and the Fujio family were very upset that Hidaka had written a book so specifically about Fujio, down to the point that he was killed by a prostitute, which understandably might be seen as embarrassing.
Miyako regularly contacted Hidaka, trying to get him to change the details of his book and such. She ended up not being too critical to the actual crime, but she gave Kaga some ideas on where to look when investigating Hidaka and Nonoguchi's past.
Themes
Narrative
Nonoguchi nearly succeeded in taking control of the narrative simply by writing it. Even if his narrative was poorly written or had a bunch of mistakes, I might still have found him sympathetic. Simply because I was in his brain. Even if he was a murderer, he had done it for love, and he'd been tortured for years into doing so.
Only at the end did we realize that Nonoguchi had taken control of the narrative in order to direct us away from the worse, more despicable narrative. He was not the one being tortured for years, he was the one doing the torturing.
But how curious it is that simply the act of listening to him made me want to trust him more.
Bullying
The book is called Malice, and Kaga really did help shine a light on the malice of bullying, the act of bullying without reason. As a teacher, he was horrified that the bullies were terrible to the victim because they disliked him "just because."
And what was just as terrifying was that the bullying never stopped past school. Nonoguchi just took it a step further by including both murder and character assassination in his bullying. And for what? Simply for the photo? That showed Nonoguchi himself doing something wrong? That's not to say that Nonoguchi completely did that of his own free will. But as an adult, it's so confusing as to why he never let go of his arbitrary hatred for Hidaka.
Overall
Another brilliant book by Higashino. To be honest, I wasn't as impressed with Salvation of a Saint compared to the Devotion of Suspect X, so I had wondered if the Devotion of Suspect X was kind of Higashino's best work. But Malice was terrific in a totally different way, and my respect for Higashino has gone up. What a creative way to explore mystery and thriller.
I've only read the Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino. And I can understand why Higashino decided to go with a new detective when writing this novel, as the book had a different tone to it than those two with Detective Galileo.
Anyway, I did enjoy this book. I thought it was fascinating and a little chilling too. Another great novel to Higashino's name!
Spoilers!!
Story
Whereas the trick to the Detective Galileo series was often one very neat trick, the trick to Malice's mystery was an ongoing one.
Right at the beginning of the novel, I had a pretty good perception of Nonoguchi. Even as Kaga suspected him, I couldn't help but sympathize with his accounts. And as he intended, Nonoguchi's "true account" made him look great even as a murderer. So at the very end, when Kaga finally put together the truth, I felt sickened. Sickened that Nonoguchi had taken everything away from Hidaka, both in life and in death.
I really applaud Higashino. Right in the second chapter, the first time we read from Kaga's point of view, he'd already pointed out that Nonoguchi's intention was to set a narrative. Even with that knowledge, I was surprised when not only was Nonoguchi lying, but everything was premeditated and fabricated.
And the more chilling aspect was, as Kaga said, that there was no reason to any of this. Nonoguchi never had a legitimate reason for hating Hidaka. And yet he wanted to destroy everything about him. Hidaka having a copy of the photograph was just an excuse. Nonoguchi killed Hidaka and trampled on the graves of him and his late wife.
So this novel really felt more like a tragedy than the Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. Much kudos to Higashino for showing a different side of his writing, as I enjoyed it a lot.
Writing & Translation
The translation was done by Alexander O. Smith. This name sounds familiar to me, so I assume he translated Higashino's books that I'd read before as well. The translation overall was pretty solid. I liked that throughout the novel, there was still a somewhat cordial tone, which really does remind me of my perception of Japanese culture, in which manners are paramount.
There were some parts that felt a little awkward, particularly when Kaga was recording his interviews. But this was probably more to do with the ebook formatting than Smith's translation. Sometimes I thought the interviewee was repeating Kaga's question for the benefit of the reader, but then I realized that it was actually Kaga speaking. But that's just nitpicky stuff.
Characters
Osamu Nonoguchi
Our culprit. Let's go through his story chronologically. As a child, he lived in a part of town his mother hated. Kaga theorized that it was Nonoguchi's mother's disdain for the town and for Hidaka that influenced his own disdain.
As kids, Hidaka seemed to want to befriend Nonoguchi. He walked him to and from school and played with him. However, from testimony from that third friend of theirs, Nonoguchi never seemed to like Hidaka back. He found Hidaka kind of patronizing because he was always trying to take care of him.
At school, Nonoguchi joined the bullies. He was bullied, but his solution to the bullying was to join the bullies. He was Fujio's crony, and he would also join in bullying Hidaka. In one specific instance, Nonoguchi had abetted Fujio in raping a girl, and it was a serious crime that he probably felt really guilty about. Fujio had taken a picture of the crime, and had given it to someone else. While writing his book, Hidaka had asked that friend to see the photo, made a copy of it, and then sent it back. The original of the photo was lost, but Hidaka had the one copy of it.
After middle school, Nonoguchi went to another high school and he cut contact with Hidaka. They only got in touch when Nonoguchi wanted to seriously get into writing, and he saw all the success that had come to Hidaka.
When Nonoguchi found out he had cancer, he decided to put a plan in place that would exterminate Hidaka and grab all the glory for himself. He needed to fabricate an attempted murder in the past, he needed to fabricate an affair with Hatsumi, and he needed to fabricate Hidaka blackmailing him.
The fact that this was so meticulously was what was so chilling about the crime. Did Nonoguchi ever stop to think about why he wanted to destroy not only Hidaka but his late wife? His excuse was probably that he needed to stop his crime of abetting from getting out, but the stuff about taking all of Hidaka's glory for himself was pure malice.
Kaga knew Nonoguchi from their days teaching at the school together. They were friends. So I could tell how disgusted Kaga felt with Nonoguchi after uncovering the whole truth. Kaga kept as polite as he could, but the way he ended their last conversation, reminding him that he had a trial to attend, signified that Kaga had lost every bit of trust in this man.
Kyoichiro Kaga
Kaga was our main detective. Admittedly, when I first started reading from his point of view, I was hoping that he was looking too much into things. He said himself that he was wondering if his past relationship with Nonoguchi was pushing him to look at him more skeptically. And I had hoped it was true, because I had fallen for Nonoguchi's testimony so deeply.
Kaga used to be a teacher, but a terrifying experience had taken him out of the profession. He had tried to get bullying under control in his classroom. But instead what had happened was that the bully victim eventually lashed out against the bullies, stabbing the ringleader, and probably intending to die himself. And it was Kaga's knives that the victim had gotten a hold of. Understandably, Kaga felt guilty of the crime, but he also felt extremely guilty that everything he'd done for the victim did not help. Nothing he could do made him feel better, nothing he did endeared him to the bullies. It didn't matter how nice Kaga was to the student, that wouldn't change anything about how miserable the bullies made him feel.
So the theme of bullying was very personal to Kaga, and the fact that this case came back down to bullying probably struck a huge nerve with Kaga, especially since he knew that Nonoguchi was a teacher and worked with kids. With what we knew of Nonoguchi, he tried to stay away from the students and their problems.
So this experience with bullying hardened Kaga and he stopped being a teacher. He did however become a top notch detective. I wouldn't say that he was a genius, but he was definitely thorough and detailed, and he had a good gut instinct. That, and he also had a strong sense of empathy, which enabled his deductive reasoning skills when it came to understanding people. Basically, he had really high emotional intelligence.
And as mentioned, since bullying was such a sensitive topic to him, his impression of Nonoguchi really soured as he dug past the narrative that Nonoguchi had concocted himself. I'd be really interested in reading Kaga's cases in the future!
Kunihiko Hidaka
Hidaka was the victim. Based on Nonoguchi's account, he was a total bully, just for the sake of it. He had found out about Nonoguchi's innocent affair with Hatsumi and used it to blackmail Nonoguchi. Nonoguchi had murdered him as the last straw, as revenge for all that Hidaka had done to him.
Except it was entirely false. Every bit of it. Hidaka had always been exceedingly kind to Nonoguchi. One of the interviewees had mentioned that they would have wanted a friend to walk with them to and from school every day as Hidaka did for Nonoguchi. Later on in life, he became a successful novelist. You would think that nobody could take that from him, but Nonoguchi did.
Nonoguchi turned Hidaka into a cruel person who didn't have a single merit to his name, and he almost succeeded, if it were not for Kaga's superb sleuthing.
And all for what? All because Nonoguchi's mother turned her nose up at a country bumpking like Hidaka.
Rie Hidaka
Rie was Hidaka's second wife. She was Hidaka's editor first before they got married, so she was familiar with his writing process too.
Mostly, she functioned more as a plot device, as she communicated a lot of factual information to Kaga, both things that Nonoguchi had set up to be part of his grand plan, and facts that would disprove it, such as Rie not believing that Hidaka had a ghostwriter.
Hatsumi Hidaka
Hatsumi was Hidaka's first wife. We were led by Nonoguchi to believe that they were deeply madly in love, and that she had died by suicide because Hidaka was so insufferable.
In reality, we knew nothing about Hatsumi, and it seemed that her death truly was an accident. She was a plot device for Nonoguchi's narrative, convenient enough to be used because she was dead.
Masaya Fujio
Masaya Fujio was the middle school bully at Hidaka and Nonoguchi's school. Hidaka had written a book based on Fujio, who had later become interested in woodblock prints and was stabbed to death by a prostitute.
As Kaga dug into Hidaka and Nonoguchi's history, he did get confirmation that Fujio was the ringleader of the bullies, and specifically, he had transferred away because he had raped a girl from another school. The key here was that the accomplice who held down the girl as she was being raped was Nonoguchi.
I don't deny that perhaps Fujio might have seen the error of his ways and become a better person, devoting his life to his craft. But that doesn't erase the true evil he did as a child.
Miyako Fujio
Miyako was Fujio's sister. She and the Fujio family were very upset that Hidaka had written a book so specifically about Fujio, down to the point that he was killed by a prostitute, which understandably might be seen as embarrassing.
Miyako regularly contacted Hidaka, trying to get him to change the details of his book and such. She ended up not being too critical to the actual crime, but she gave Kaga some ideas on where to look when investigating Hidaka and Nonoguchi's past.
Themes
Narrative
Nonoguchi nearly succeeded in taking control of the narrative simply by writing it. Even if his narrative was poorly written or had a bunch of mistakes, I might still have found him sympathetic. Simply because I was in his brain. Even if he was a murderer, he had done it for love, and he'd been tortured for years into doing so.
Only at the end did we realize that Nonoguchi had taken control of the narrative in order to direct us away from the worse, more despicable narrative. He was not the one being tortured for years, he was the one doing the torturing.
But how curious it is that simply the act of listening to him made me want to trust him more.
Bullying
The book is called Malice, and Kaga really did help shine a light on the malice of bullying, the act of bullying without reason. As a teacher, he was horrified that the bullies were terrible to the victim because they disliked him "just because."
And what was just as terrifying was that the bullying never stopped past school. Nonoguchi just took it a step further by including both murder and character assassination in his bullying. And for what? Simply for the photo? That showed Nonoguchi himself doing something wrong? That's not to say that Nonoguchi completely did that of his own free will. But as an adult, it's so confusing as to why he never let go of his arbitrary hatred for Hidaka.
Overall
Another brilliant book by Higashino. To be honest, I wasn't as impressed with Salvation of a Saint compared to the Devotion of Suspect X, so I had wondered if the Devotion of Suspect X was kind of Higashino's best work. But Malice was terrific in a totally different way, and my respect for Higashino has gone up. What a creative way to explore mystery and thriller.