Book Cover

Wikipedia says:

The Devotion of Suspect X is a 2005 novel by Keigo Higashino, the third in his Detective Galileo series and is his most acclaimed work thus far. The novel won him numerous awards, including the 134th Naoki Prize, which is a highly regarded award in Japan. The novel also won the 6th Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the mystery novels category in Japan. 2006 Honkaku Mystery Best 10 and Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! 2006, annual mystery fiction guide books published in Japan, ranked the novel as the number one.

The English translation was nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel and the 2012 Barry Award for Best First Novel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devotion_of_Suspect_X

We read this in April 2013.

Jill’s summary of the meeting attended by 11 people:

On the whole this book was less enjoyed than other more recent books but with widely diverging views on all aspects.  Those with some experience in reading (and watching) crime and detection were not very impressed by the mystery/puzzle – at least one person thought the solution was obvious very early on. Those with less experience and perhaps a dislike of crime/detection tended to be more impressed by the puzzle and completely surprised by the revelations at the end.

The characters were felt to be rather stereotyped and often not very convincing and it was generally felt that little character development took place.

Several people felt disappointed that they got very little sense of life in Japan.

Scores ranged from 1 to 9 with an average of just over 5.

Even though the book was generally not particularly enjoyed the discussion was interesting because people’s opinions varied so greatly.