The Devotion of Suspect X

Author : Keigo Higashino

The first time I heard about the existence of this title was on a train ride on the way home from work. I saw someone reading a book and brushing courtesy aside, poked this person and asked him what he was reading. He showed me the cover and I went “Aaah”, not knowing what to make of it. His brief displeasure at being disturbed seemed to have vanished, because he went on to tell me that a then-popular Malayalam movie “Dhrishyam” had been inspired by that book. I had watched the movie and its translations in other movies, so I was intrigued. But the train journey ended and so did my thoughts about the book. Then, recently there was an offer on Flipkart on a bunch of books of which this was one too. So I bought it and I’m glad I did. I started reading it the very day I received it.

The story begins with a divorced woman, Yasuko Hanaoka and her daughter, Misato just leading a normal life with an unremarkable mathematician, Tetsuya Ishigami for a neighbor. But life cannot be allowed to be led normally, as these things go and the ex-husband, Togashi starts poking around in Yasuko’s life. One day he goes to her place of work to try and extort money out of her and is told to come to her house in the evening. But things get out of hand and a threatened Misato and Yasuko end up killing Togashi. Even as they’re trying to figure out what to do next, Ishigami (who secretly harbors love for Yasuko) arrives at their doorstep and subtly offers to help them take care of the situation, by disposing the body and advising them on a bunch of other things that need to be done.

Togashi’s body is eventually found and a full on investigation starts with Detective Kusanagi at the helm. He is aided by a Physics professor, Dr. Manabu Yukawa. It turns out that Yukawa and Ishigami had studied at the same university and were in fact friends back in the day. What follows is a lot of probing of alibis of those involved, all of which seems iron-clad thanks to Ishigami’s thorough planning. Yukawa meanwhile has his own line of investigation and collaborates a lot with his old friend, Ishigami, all the while suspecting him but also wishing that his fears go unfounded.

The title refers to Ishigami as the Suspect X, his devotion to Yasuko, unwavering even at the last minute when he’s forced to do something no one would ever do for another human being. The book, despite following a simple plot never trips at any juncture and the reader is left wanting more.

Till the end, I felt that Ishigami, for all his brains had let his heart overpower him in his decisions but Keigo turned it around beautifully by explaining his reasoning for doing so in just a few lines. And I understood why. Till the end, I felt Yasuko was being selfish by not turning herself in and towards the end, she did. And I loved that too. It was really painful to see the brilliance of it all not working out, the calm, rational methodology not triumphant. But I guess that’s how justice should work. It Should be infallible 😦

Subjective Rating : 4.5/5.0

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