The purest version of criminal motivation
Keigo Higashino’s works are always listed on the Bestsellers in most bookstores here in Taiwan. This year, the publisher has published the 9th anniversary special edition of The Devotion of Suspect X recently, and I took the chance to reread the book.
It’s a novel which seems to spoil all information of a crime at the very beginning: the crime scene, murderer’s identity, how and why it happens. Readers enjoy the position of knowing (part of) everything. They witnessed the process of the murderer’s hiding the truth, when the police are busy with figuring it out.
I feel it’s a typical Keigo Higashino-style work, surrounding between humanity and detective plot. Disclaimer: I’m not a particular fan of him, and only read his work from time to time. What I found intriguing — but also a bit disturbing — in his works is purity of humanity. Murderer’s motivation is always determined yet incredibly pure — a few examples include the student murderer in Hōkago (After School), the Ariake siblings in Ryūsei no Kizuna (Meteor Bonds), and Tetsuya Ishigami in The Devotion of Suspect X.
I feel strangely relieved after reading. That purity of murder motivation almost hit me like a revelation; suddenly I…
