Inspector Galileo

Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino, published December14, 2021.
Much of the novel is centered in a family restaurant in a Tokyo neighborhood.
So there's lots of food in the novel, as in most of Higashino's fiction.

Keigo Higashino (1958- ) has written dozens of detective stories and novels and many other works. He is one of the most popular authors in Japan and much of Asia, though not as well-known or popular in the US. Higashino's most recent novel, Silent Parade, features "Detective Galileo," a physics professor (actually named Manabu Yukawa) who also consults with the police in solving particularly perplexing murders. Silent Parade is fourth in Higashino's series of Detective Galileo novels -- I had it pre-ordered and I read it as soon as it became available. And when I finished, I re-read two of the earlier ones. 

I am totally fascinated by these novels. In each one, a murder is described at the very beginning. For the most part, the perpetrator is revealed to the reader. However, the exact method of the perpetrator is concealed. The challenge to police detectives Kusanagi, Kishitani, and Utsumi, and to Detective Galileo is to discover how the crime and the cover-up or alibi was set up. Each of the criminals is completely ingenious, and they come very close to success. While the three detectives are often quite obtuse, Detective Galileo applies his scientific reasoning to the case, looking for solutions that are unexpected and not obvious. 

In each novel, Galileo's opponents -- the perpetrators -- have thought of almost every angle from which their crime would be analyzed, and have worked out ways to deceive their opponents. As Galileo questions the suspects, and as he directs the detectives to question them and search for evidence, he gets closer and closer to understanding their methods. And they become more and more desperate. However, the police and the reader are not in on his train of thought. It seems hopeless. But the brilliant physicist always figures out the real story. 

Higashino, in my opinion, is one of the most ingenious crime novelists ever. Each of the novels that I've read had a completely different plot from the others: always suspenseful and very intricately worked out. I highly recommend him to any fans of this type of fiction. This review © 2021 mae sander.

Another very good plot,just not quite
as amazing as The Devotion of Suspect X

My favorite because Inspector Galileo pits his
intelligence against a math genius, and the battle of wits
is amazing.