Editorial Content for Invisible Helix: A Detective Galileo Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
INVISIBLE HELIX is one of the twistiest, most brilliant mysteries involving familial relations tied into a murder that I have ever read. Keigo Higashino once again has elevated the genre to a level worthy of the greats like Dame Agatha Christie.
In the Prologue, a young mother makes the extremely difficult decision to give up her newborn for adoption. The only thing she leaves behind with her daughter is a handmade doll with a special marking on the back. It is obvious that these events took place some time ago. As readers are introduced to a handful of new characters in the present day, they will find their minds whirling as they try to figure out which of them may have been that once-abandoned baby girl.
"Higashino is at his most mesmerizing in INVISIBLE HELIX, and it was a joy to read from start to finish. This series is one of the finest being written today, and I eagerly look forward to each new installment."
A young woman named Sonoka Shimauchi has the dreadful experience of watching her mother, Chizuko, succumb to an unexpected subarachnoid hemorrhage. Sonoka must take solace in her job working at a florist, as well as leaning on Nae Matsunaga, the older woman who she and her mother always considered to be unofficial family. She also has to deal with her deadbeat wannabe film director live-in boyfriend, Ryota Uetsuji, who recently has become physically abusive towards her.
The murder mystery part of INVISIBLE HELIX comes into play when Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and his team answer a call about a body found in Tokyo Bay that is soon identified as Ryota. The police are initially unable to locate Sonoka, who supposedly has gone out of town on a trip with a friend.
As matters quickly grow more complex, Kusanagi calls on his long-time collaborator, Professor Manabu Yukawa, aka Detective Galileo. The first lead they track down involves the madam of a local ladies’ club, Hidemi Negishi, who for some reason had taken an interest in Sonoka. Galileo dives into the case but seems to suddenly pull back and begins to investigate different avenues on his own. Clearly he knows more than he is letting on and may have his own reasons for wanting to solve this case.
When Galileo has a private meeting with Hidemi, things previously hidden are revealed in astounding fashion, making for a great climax to this deeply layered puzzle of a mystery. It is difficult to go into further detail without spoiling some of the terrific twists, so I will leave it at that. Higashino is at his most mesmerizing in INVISIBLE HELIX, and it was a joy to read from start to finish. This series is one of the finest being written today, and I eagerly look forward to each new installment.
Teaser
The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident; Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend, Sonoka Shimauchi. But when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. When they learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight; she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation. But if Sonoko didn't kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as "Detective Galileo." With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association.
Promo
The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident; Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend, Sonoka Shimauchi. But when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. When they learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight; she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation. But if Sonoko didn't kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as "Detective Galileo." With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association.
About the Book
Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino’s best-loved character from THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X, returns in a case where hidden history and an impossible crime are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.
The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident; Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend, Sonoko Shimauchi. But when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found. She's taken time off from work, clothes and effects are missing from the apartment she shared. And when the detectives learn that she was the victim of domestic abuse, they presume that she was the killer. But her alibi is airtight; she was hours away in Kyoto when Ryota disappeared, forcing Detectives Kusanagi and Utsumi to restart their investigation.
But if Sonoko didn't kill her abusive lover, then who did? A thin thread of association leads them to their old consultant, brilliant physicist Manabu Yukawa, known in the department as "Detective Galileo." With Sonoko still missing, the detectives investigate other threads of association --- an eccentric artist, who was Sonoko's mother figure after her own single mother passed; and an older woman who is the owner of a hostess club. And how is Sonoko continuing to stay one step ahead of the police searching for her?
It's up to Galileo to find the nearly hidden threads of history and coincidence that connect the people around the bloody murder --- which, surprisingly, connect to his own traumatic past --- to unravel not merely the facts of the crime but the helix that ties them all together.
