Enduring the guilt is a way of doing penance
As a voracious reader, i have read quite a few books under mystery/detective genre but this books stands truly apart. When i started this book, i thought it might be whodunnit but by the end of first chapter we know, what has been done and who has done.. And it is all about hiding the construction of alibi.
Yasuko Hanaoka who is a divorced mother working in a box lunch shop. She left her old life as a hostess behind and is trying to live a quiet existence while raising her teenage daughter, Misato. As it is said the more you run from someone more they follow you, she has a deadbeat ex-husband who was looking for her and who wants her back in his life and wants money from her. When he comes to extort her and threatens to harm her daughter at her apartment on that fateful evening, she and her daughter murder Shinji Togashi.
Overhearing the scuffle, next door neighbor -- a mathematics teacher named Ishigami -- comes to her door and offers Yasuko total salvation. He tells her that he will take care of everything and will help them avoid prosecution and imprisonment if only they do exactly as he says. How he prepare the anecdote for Yasuko and Mistaso.
On the other hand When Detective Kusanagi tries to put together the events of that night, he find himself confronted by most puzzling, mysterious circumstances..
A mixture of suitability, skill, unexpected turns, crafting the plot with logic and Trust me the way investigation unfolded will leave how things will leave you appalled and totally unexpected ending.
Good to know about prolific mathematician Paul Erdos, Bernhard Riemaan, P=NP problem, how differential and Integral calculus is used in sports car racing, usage of Mathematics in real life. How sometimes solving some problem is all about detecting blind-spots.
Some of the lines which i really like in book and i would like to share -
Theories and logic are very well, but it is intuition which is one of the biggest weapon of detective arsenal..
Tunnel vision is no way to make a researcher. Your assumptions are your best enemies trust them too much and you'll fail to see what's right under your nose.
There was no such thing in the world as useless cog, and that even a cog may decide how it is to be used.
Also, sometimes it is enough to be associated with something so sublime. To seek any kind of acknowledgement would sully its dignity.
My overall rating is 4/5 even though i quite like the book, i feel the investigation was little prolonged.
If you are into mystery genre go for it
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