Bustle ‘Bout Books: Review- A Midsummer’s Equation By Keigo Higashino

Book Review

A Midsummer’s Equation By Keigo Higashino

AUTHOR: Keigo Higashino

GENRE: Mystery, Police Procedural

PUBLISHED ON: June 6, 2011

MY RATING: 4/5 stars

*NOTE: THIS REVIEW DOES NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS AS ONLY BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF FEW INSTANCES ARE GIVEN. OVERALL SITUATIONS ARE DESCRIBED.

Are you a fan of murder mysteries? Do you like Japanese thrillers? If your answer to any of these or both the questions is ‘yes’ then, this book is definitely the one for you!

I think that not many people know that this awesome book exists. I read this book long time back and I loved it! This was the first murder-mystery I ever read and I remember making a mental-note to read more works of Keigo Higashino.

The story starts when a boy named Kyohei (a fifth grader) travels to Hari Cove (in Shizuoka) all on his own. In Hari Cove, he was supposed to spend his holidays with his aunt and uncle who owned a resort. Kyohei’s parents worked at a small clothing boutique and often had to spend a lot of time travelling to sell their products.

A physicist, Manabu Yukawa (also known as ‘Detective Galileo’) had come to Hari Cove to attend a conference on “a planned underwater mining operation”. He decided to stay in Kyohei’s relatives’ resort. Over time, Kyohei and Yukawa became friends and both kept company with each other- Yukawa taught Kyohei various scientific theories by performing fun experiments, which made Kyohei always want to spend his time with him.

Amidst all of this fun, there was also something strange and serious going on in the resort as the night after Yukawa’s conference meet, one of the resort’s guests was found dead. At first, the police considered the case to be a very simple one. However, Yukawa realised that this case was much more complicated to be considered as a simple accident. The case was later found out to be very complex as the victim was discovered to be a former policeman whose death was a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Yukawa and the police took up the challenge of cracking the case so as to get to the bottom of it.

Many people were suspected for the policeman’s death. Infact, while reading this book, I, too, started suspecting a few. But, I must admit that the ending of the book was completely unexpected and I don’t think anybody can guess it right. How the case ended and what the correct answers were, left me open-mouthed and goggle-eyed!

I remember getting goosebumps throughout and of course, while reading the ending.

Favourite quote from the book:

“It didn’t bother me. It excited my curiosity. And I believe there is no greater sin than to leave one’s curiosity unsatisfied.”

~ Keigo Higashino

Totally loved this book!

---

Would you like to read this book? Or have you already read it? Let me know in the comments section below!

I recently created a tag of my own! Check it out here.

Check out my previous Bustle ‘Bout Books post here.

I post every Saturday and Tuesday!

Connect with me on Twitter!(@meher_gandhi)

With love,

Meher