This character-driven mystery by the prolific Higashino (Malice, 2009, etc.), one of only a few translated into English, has much to recommend it, including a droll Columbo-like sleuth and a great surprise ending.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. When detective Manabu Yukawa, Ishigami's college rival, is added to the investigative team, it threatens to send him over the edge. Ishigami obsessively replays and adjusts his movements, using the murder to get close to Yasuko. Kishitani is ready to dismiss them as suspects, but the veteran Kusanagi puts them on a mental back burner. The inevitable discovery of the victim's identity leads to the pro forma questioning of both Yasuko and Ishigami. Enter veteran detective Kusanagi and his brisk junior partner Kishitani, who examine the body, dumped naked and wrapped in blue plastic in a factory district, its face bashed in. As the panicked Yasuko considers her options, Ishigami knocks on her door and takes charge, from disposing of the body to crafting alibis for them. A fight ensues, and when Misato intervenes to help her mother, Togashi is killed. One evening, Yasuko's abusive ex-husband Togashi surprises her at home. Although she and her daughter Misato are Ishigami's apartment building neighbors, they've never spoken outside of the shop.

Yonazawa and his wife Sayoko, who manage the shop, speculate regularly about Ishigami's visits, but Yasuko seems oblivious to his attention. Meticulous high-school math teacher Ishigami frequents the modest box-lunch shop Benten-tei because of his crush on Yasuko Hanaoka, a young mother who works there. A veteran police detective matches wits with a brilliant rookie criminal.

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