Book: Devotion of Suspect X
Author: Keigo Higashono
Pages: 448
Read on: Kindle and Paperback
Read in: ~4 hours
Plot Summary: Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder.
The Devotion Of Suspect X is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case.
Yasuko Hanaoka works in a restaurant. She is divorced, and is a single mother to Misato. Her ex-husband, Togashi, was an abusive man, stalking and extorting money from her. With similar intentions, he showed up at Yasuko’s home, this time threatening to kill her and her daughter if she refused to lend him money. What started from denial, reached to a heated argument, and within a short span of time, turned to a nasty fight. In the spur of the moment, Yasuko killed Togashi.
Hearing the commotion in their apartment, Tetsuya Ishigami came into the picture. Ishigami was a middle-aged, single math teacher, who evidently had a growing affection for Yasuko. He offered not only to help her dispose of the corpse, but also to devise a logical plan to cover up the entire incident.Later, the body was recovered from where it was disposed of.
The principal investigator, Kusanagi, was certain of Yasuko’s involvement with the murder but was unable to find sufficient evidence. For a better insight, he summoned the assistance of the ingenious physicist, Dr Manabu Yukawa. Yukawa was a schoolfriend of Ishigami, and he suspected Ishigami. As the story progresses, there are more interesting twists and turns, keeping the readers thrilled and speculating.
Review: I first read The Devotion of Suspect X in 2013, a year after it released and became a global sensation. However, this blog did not exist back then and so, no review of the book exists here.
With the recent release of Jaane Jaan, the Netflix movie based on the book, I found myself wanting to re-read the book just to see how similar and different the movie was from the book.
The book is brilliant, fairly fast-paced, with great characters and an undercurrent of humanity and philosophy. It is smart writing and the twist-in-the-tale is really good!
The cat-and-mouse game between Ishigami and Yukawa is really nicely done with each trying to outwit the other. The way in which Ishigami plans the whole cover-up and the price he pays for his "devotion" to Yasuko is smart and heartbreaking. Yukawa figuring out Ishigami's plan and his reluctance to turn in his friend but still doing the right thing was beautifully depicted. The book is a crime thriller but with a lot of heart.
The characters are well written and as you go through each of their journeys you will come to care about them. None of them are cardboard cut-outs but come across as real people with their values, ethical dilemmas, insecurities and strengths.
This is an absolutely must-read book and I highly recommend it!
Rating: 4.5/5
Jaane Jaan is an official adaptation of The Devotion of Suspect X and it released on Netflix on September 21st.
We watched it over the weekend and here are some thoughts:
1. Jaane Jaan is quite different from The Devotion of Suspect X and not necessarily in a good way. The character build-up is poor, the movie has done away with a few key characters and has tried to merge three characters into that played by Vijay Varma (Inspector Kusanagi, Professor Yukawa and Mr. Kudo from the book), which made his character very all-over-the-place and chaotic. We don't really get to know the people in this movie and so, there is really no connect with what becomes of any of them. It was very superficial and there is no sense of dread or urgency about the fates of these characters- you just don't get to care about them!
2. There are some basic principles of maths, which form a key aspect of the murder mystery in the book. The movie doesn't even touch upon them and does a very slipshod job of integrating maths into murder. To be fair, perhaps mathematic principles don't translate well on film. So, this is not really a deal breaker but given the 'Teacher' (Jaideep Ahlawat's character) is a Maths genius, there should've been a better way to explain the P=NP principle and how it applied to the cover-up of the murder.
3. The ending is super-rushed. The movie starts off slow and then, at some point, it picks up speed and hurtles towards the end. How Vijay Varma's character cracks the case (or a part of it) and what really happened is shown very quickly.
Now, it may sound like I am bashing the movie, but if you haven't read the book, then perhaps you'd like it well enough. So, maybe go into it with an open mind and watch it as a slightly slow-burn thriller. :)
The movie is set in Kalimpong and the beautiful foggy landscape just made me miss my part of the world so so much! The cinematography is beautiful and the three lead actors are all good in their roles.
So, it is a movie that is worth watching, especially, if you haven't read the book.
Have a great week ahead!
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