Silent Parade: A DETECTIVE GALILEO NOVEL (Detective Galileo Series)

I used to look forward to Higashino books but the last two I’ve read (Nagano Thrift Shop and this one) have been, I think, underwhelming. Unfortunately I can’t read them in Japanese so I can’t be sure but both seem to have had ‘lazy’ translations into US pop culture, maybe the author filled ‘the parade’ with Disney characters in the original but I suspect (and hope) not. This seems to be a trend in a lot of recent translations of Japanese books into ‘english’. I buy Japanese books to read and learn about Japanese culture not Disneyland. if the problem lies not in the translation but in the original then things are even worse than I thought. Or If Americans are unwilling to stretch their minds to anything outside their own culture one wonders why they buy foreign books in the first place, the problem I suspect lies not with the readers but with the publishers.

Purchased as a gift for my daughter

Well written

I love this author, can't wait for the next book from him!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a review of Silent Parade, the fourth novel to feature physics professor Manabu Yukawa, aka the Galileo Detective, set in the Tokyo suburb of Kikuno.Kanichi Hasunuma was tried and acquitted of the murder of 12 year old Yuna Motohashi. 20 years later he is the prime suspect in the murder of 19 year old Saori Namiki and it looks as if he’s going to get away with it, until he is found dead on the day of the local parade. Chief Inspector Kusanagi, who had a junior role in the first investigation, is leading the Namiki murder case and then the investigation into Hasunuma’s death but with all suspects having alibis he takes help from Yukawa to see his way through it.I enjoyed Silent Parade, which I wanted to read as my introduction to the author and further my limited knowledge of Japanese crime fiction. It is perhaps more cerebral than my usual fare, but this seems to be a feature of Japanese crime fiction.I’m not quite sure how to describe the novel. It is long and slow and covers a fair amount of ground in a small area with an even smaller circle of suspects. It is an amalgam of many things. On the one hand it is a police procedural but on the other it harks back to another age with an interested amateur using his logic to see through the extraneities. Then there is the conundrum of the convoluted murder versus whodunnit - there is little doubt that a group of people are keeping secrets, but the actual who and how are rather well concealed with the author revealing snippets at strategic moments. The denouement harks back to the old fashioned way with Yukawa producing several unexpected twists at the last moment.I’m not sure if the novel is more gripping in the original Japanese but I found some of the execution rather tedious. It seems to get bogged down in detailed conversations the reader doesn’t need and that slows the forward momentum. It spends too much time on these moments before there is another reveal. As I said it’s more cerebral than I’m used to, although I did appreciate the cleverness of the essential plot and the message that the truth is not always as it seems, even to those who think they know.Silent Parade is slower and longer than it needs to be, or more precisely for my tastes, but it still has plenty to offer as an intellectual exercise.

Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino sees the welcome return of "Detective Galileo" , a nickname given to Physics professor and sometime police consultant Manabu Yukawa, first introduced in the massively successful ,and critically acclaimed ,book, "The Devotion of suspect X".3 years after the disappearance of a young girl on the cusp of a very successful musical career her body is found in the ruins of a burnt out house. When it's discovered that the house has links to a very strong suspect in the murder of another young girl almost 20 years previously, the police are determined to nail a man they're convinced evaded justice back then.With friends and family up in arms about the arrogant suspect's perceived gloating he's found dead in his small apartment.With the very long list of potential vigilantes having alibis centred around the area's annual carnival the police hit a dead end and ask for the help of "Detective Galileo"This isn't a fast-moving book,let alone action-packed. As with the books of Seishi Yokomizo and Seicho Matsumoto' from previous eras it's very much in the style of an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes novel with a complex plot and a cerebral protagonist unravelling a dastardly mystery. Yukawa has a touch of arrogance but a lot of humanity.As with the classic Seishi Yokomizo book "Tokyo Express" this book is largely one big puzzle that Yukawa ponders, theorises on and eventually solves. He sometimes reaches dead ends and the reader is kept on their toes as they nod sagely in agreement with the main character only for Yukawa to reveal that he's got it wrong and tries something else.The book is quite slow but it's very clever stuff that will be a treat for fans of Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle, while there's a nod to the former in the book Yukawa reminded me very much of Sherlock Holmes.

Two murders 20 years apart the police think they have their murderer but the suspect has an ingenious way of getting free. Chief Inspector Kusanagi needs help from his friend Physics Professor Yakawa known as Detective Galileo.Very much in the style of Sherlock Holmes the why and how nearly becomes more important than the who. The red herrings keep coming thick and fast and then you find yourself back at the square one and looking at a new path. The culture of Japan really shines through from these pages and really enhances your overall experience of the story.My first experience of this character but would recommend finding other stories in the series.