Journey Under the Midnight Sun

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When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime; the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect. Over the next twenty years we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case – which remains unsolved – to the point of obsession. Stark, intriguing and stylish, Journey Under the Midnight Sun is an epic mystery by the bestselling Japanese author. Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino – eBook Details In general, Journey Under The Midnight Sun is a structurally fascinating book. Though the story is almost entirely focused on these two characters, we only ever get to experience them, in passing, through the eyes of the medley of characters that get caught up in their machinations. It’s how Higashino maintains the mystery, with each new character offering a couple of new insights into what’s going on, but it’s all one step removed, and only ever contributes to one elaborate jigsaw puzzle. For the longest time the picture simply doesn’t form. It is almost frustrating because, again, Journey Under The Midnight Sun is a very long book, but the delayed gratification in finally understanding the full picture is all the more worthwhile for it. Yukiho's distant relative, Reiko adopted Yukiho after her mother died. She is very strict in teaching Yukiho to behave like a lady.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun - Keigo Higashino - Google Books

Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co.　(presently DENSO). He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After School) at age 27. Subsequently, he quit his job and started a career as a writer in Tokyo. With that being said, as a genre work, Journey Under The Midnight Sun is written beautifully. Characters are distinct and interesting, and while descriptions are efficient, they’re not minimalist – Higashino is a great short story writer and knows how to paint a picture at rapid pace. There also a touch of the neo-noir to the book, which helps build atmosphere and tone. For example, the reason that we know that one of the two protagonists is a villain is because she’s written up in a particularly femme fatale manner: “She was pretty, he had to admit, with very delicate features. But there was something else, too. There are thorns in her eyes—that was the only way he could express it. For a moment, he thought she might have felt left out because he spoke to her friend first and not to her, but as she smiled, he realised the thorns were always there. A true lady would never have eyes like that.” A pawnbroker named Yosuke Kirihara was found murdered in an abandoned bulding. The body had been found by a kid named Kikuchi who, along-with other kids, used to play in the ducts inside the building. Suspecting that Kirihara had gone to that building on some adulterous fling, Police zoom on the only female customer of the pawnshop: Fumiyo Nishimoto, as well as a regular customer of the udon-shop where she works: Tadao Terasaki (jealousy-angle). They, also continue pursuing the widow Yaeko Kirihara, the pawnbroker’s assistant Isamu Matsuura, as well as the Kikuchi family (because the pawnbroker was carrying an unusually large amount of money that he had, most uncharacteristically, withdrawn from Bank). However, alibies were all cast-iron. Only person devoid of an alibi is Terasaki, who died shortly in an accident. And it seems that this would remain as another unsolved low-profile murder in the books of Osaka Police. However, Detective Sasagaki couldn’t let the case go, because he had noticed two pre-teen kids in this ruined & desolate landscape who were very special, and very captivating. For the next twenty years, even after he retired, he pursued those two persons: (1) the daughter of Fumiyo Nishimoto: Yukiho, (2) the son of the deceased: Ryo Kirihara. The book is a journey of those two, the unstoppable & insatiable white queen, and her ever-faithful dark knight.Rewatch Value 8.0 Tragic and yet beautiful in the dark side of love. This drama is too heavy that I get too depressed and saddened over it. OMO! Those tone is too heavy also, they really set the right atmosphere to set the mood with good music transition. T__T There is little direct guidance on dates as the years pass; instead we follow the changes in Japanese society – the oil crisis of the early 1970s, the introduction of business computing, the Japanese obsession with computer games, the penetration of western lifestyles and interests (furniture, films, golf, baseball), the property boom and the bursting of the economic bubble giving rise to extremes of wealth and poverty, and on the plus side the improving lot of women in business. Most of the alibis of those Sasagaki questions seem solid, and when the chief suspect dies in a vehicle accident the police reduce the resources devoted to the case. Despite it being classified as inactive, and then exceeding the statute of limitations, Sasagaki becomes obsessed with the crime and its ramifications, following it for nearly two decades, even into retirement, as he tries to unravel its complexities.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun - The Haptic Room Journey Under the Midnight Sun - The Haptic Room

I thoroughly enjoyed Higashino's book, the third of his that I have read. Like the others, it is clearly Japanese and very unlike most American books. I have had the good fortune to visit Japan a dozen times or so and have stayed in Ryokan (Japanese country inns) where, on occasion, I was the only English speaker and I know about a dozen Japanese words. Great fun!! i will recommend it to everyone who wants something different and unpredictable, it's dark and heavy though but it's a great drama, the music is good too, overall i love it, but i won't rewatch it, i don't want to endure the same torture i had while watching it. you will understand what i'm talking about if you watch it.. enjoy.. :D There never was a sun in the sky over me. It’s always night. But not dark. I had something in place of the sun. Maybe not as bright, but enough for me. Enough so I was able to live in the night like it was day…” Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.I understand that is not much of a synopsis but it is difficult to say more without revealing too much and I just don't want to detract from your experience, should you choose to read this book. The story is told from multiple points of views so we get to experience it from the perspective of different characters, mostly the minor characters. From them, we learn different aspects of the same events and other characters which were really interesting. Following the timeline, we get to see all the changes along the way in Japan. There were a lot of references to the video games, computer technology, movies, baseball and economic changes which manages to capture the heart of the changing and progressing era of the country. It also gives an insight into the Japanese culture and the way of life. Mother of Ryoji, Yaeko became the owner of the pawnshop after her husband died. After the pawnshop was closed due to mismanagement, she opened a small cafeteria. Yaeko knows she is not a responsible mother to Ryoji. One thing found it confusing or misread, how potassium cyanide and sulfuric acid acid turned into a gas and killed Imeada not Ryo ,how Rayo able to do this, that part I found bit mushy.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun - Wikipedia

A Midsummer’s Equation, with Detective Galileo from The Devotion of Suspect X, is due in early 2016. The author’s previous book, Malice, was one of our top books of 2014 and you’ll find more Japanese crime fiction here. An officer in the Crime Investigation Unit of the Osaka Prefectural Police, Hisashi was also investigating the pawnshop incidence. He rose through the ranks of the police force in the following 19 years. He is Junzo's coworker as well as his relative. Mother of Yukiho, Fumiyo was seen by the police as a suspect in the pawnshop incidence. Soon after the murder, she died from a gas leakage at home. The truth, however, is much darker... In 1999, he won the Mystery Writers of Japan Inc award for the novel Himitsu (The Secret), which was translated into English by Kerim Yasar and published by Vertical under the title of Naoko in 2004. In 2006, he won the 134th Naoki Prize for Yōgisha X no Kenshin. His novels had been nominated five times before winning with this novel. We all know how sun rises and sets at a certain time each day. In the same way, all of our lives have a day and night. But it’s not set like it is with the sun. Some people walk forever in the sunlight, and some people have to walk through the darkest night their whole life. When people talk about being afraid, what they’re afraid of is that their sun will set. That the light they love will fade, that’s why they are frightened.The Devotion of Suspect X was the second highest selling book in all of Japan— fiction or nonfiction—the year it was published, with over 800,000 copies sold. It won the prestigious Naoki Prize for Best Novel— the Japanese equivalent of the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize. Made into a motion picture in Japan, The Devotion of Suspect X spent 4 weeks at the top of the box office and was the third highest‐grossing film of the year. Unlike many other Japanese crime fiction greats such as Kirino Natsuoand Nakamura Fuminori, there’s nothing particularly literary about Higashino’s writing style. In fact, one of the reasons that I suspect TV and film producers regularly turn to Higashino is because his work is remarkably easy to translate directly into visual media. With efficiency and minimal embellishment, Higashino describes conversations, events, and results, without any particular desire for philosophical digressions or genre-bending. The author claims to be most heavily inspired by authors such as Matsumoto Seicho and Edogawa Ranpo, and that heritage is evident in his own work. Journey Under The Midnight Sun is a long read, but a highly accessible one that is particularly undemanding of the reader. |Oh well, Journey under the Midnight Sun is indeed a bit too harsh when you come to think of it in a metaphorical way that.. LIFE is all about surviving.