‘A Midsummer’s Equation’ – Thoughts

I have felt something while reading Higashino’s books that I have not felt while reading any other author’s books. Half-way down the book I have felt an irresistible urge to take a peek at the ending though each time I somehow resisted it. You can relate to all his characters, their motivations, their virtues, their vices and their flaws. They have a dubious past which forms the core of the plot and it’s the journey into their pasts which is the best thing in his novels for me.

A Midsummer’s Equation is set in Hari Cove, a coastal resort town which used to be a buzzling place with lot of tourists in its heydays but has fallen out hard times now. When a guest in one of the town’s local resorts, who has come for a conference on a planned underwater mining operation in the town is found dead, the local police initially categorizes as an accident. But, when the discover that the person was an ex-policeman and it was carbon monoxide poisoning that killed him, things start getting suspicious. The physicist Manabu Yukawa better known as Detective Galileo, incidentally is also staying at the same resort as the deceased. Needless to say, he untangles the mess with his old friend (or collaborator should I say?) Detective Kusanagi.

This book is different in the way that the killer is not revealed until 3/4^th of the book. In another writer’s universe, some of the characters would have shrieked for sympathy. But not here. As I reach towards the end of the book, I felt a strange heaviness in my heart. I wonder if it was because the book was about to end or was it the story? That is what Hagashino’s novels do. You get a peek into Japan’s culture as well through his books. I will re-read all his books. This time slowly. Steadily. Without worrying about the suspense.