Suspicious lovers

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Suspicious Beloved (original title: 容 疑 者 X の 献身 Yōgisha X no Kenshin , literally "Sacrifice of Suspicious X") is a crime novel by the Japanese writer Keigo Higashino from 2005. It is the third volume in the physics professor Yukawa series. The novel received the Naoki Prize and was translated into German by Ursula Gräfe .

action

Yasuko Hanaoka lives alone with her daughter Misato and works in the Yonazawas' Benten-tei snack bar . One day in March, her ex-husband, Shinji Togashi, shows up at the diner and wants to talk to her. Yasuko is shocked and can't get rid of him. She fears her husband. After he became unemployed, he started beating her. After the divorce, he persecuted Yasuko and extorted money from her. She hasn't heard from him for a year. In the evening, the two meet in a restaurant, where Togashi tells her that he has changed and that he wants her back. Yasuko doesn't believe him and just wants to leave. At home he suddenly stands in front of Yasuko's door in the evening. He threatens to wait in front of the door until she lets him in. He's molesting Yasuko. When their daughter Misato arrives, Yasuko gives in and gives him 2,000 yen to get rid of him. When he leaves, however, he threatens to come back and makes allusions that her daughter will make good money once she comes of age. Misato then runs up to him and hits him on the back of the head with a copper vase. Togashi reacts irritably, pounces on Misato and hits her. To save her daughter, Yasuko takes a cable of the Kotatsu and strangles Togashi while Misato holds his hands so he cannot fight back.

Shinji Togashi is dead. Yasuko's neighbor Ishigami immediately knocks and asks if something has happened. Yasuko tries first to cover up the murder and gets rid of her neighbors. She is considering facing the police, but is concerned about her daughter. Then Ishigami calls. Yasuko has long since seen through and offers to provide her with an alibi. He works out a plan and gives Yasuko and Misato precise instructions on how to behave.

On March 11th, a body is discovered by a jogger in old Edogawa . The face is smashed, the fingertips burned. A bicycle with punctured tires is found nearby, as well as remains of clothing in an oil barrel, in which they were supposed to be burned. By comparing it with hotels that guests miss and comparing the fingerprints in the hotel and on the bike, the body can be identified as Shinji Togashi. The police investigate in the area of ​​the deceased and thus also come across his ex-wife Yasuko, who lives very close by. When investigators Kusanagi and Kishitani question her, she has an alibi: going to the cinema, noodle restaurant and then ending the evening in a karaoke bar with her daughter. But Kusanagi is skeptical and Yasuko is the only suspect. The police keep investigating and checking the alibi, but get stuck. Kusanagi keeps meeting his friend, the physicist Yukawa, to discuss the case. He has already supported the police in some cases. However, he is not interested in this at first. However, Yukawa learns from Kusanagi that the suspect's neighbor is a graduate of the Imperial University. Yukawa knows him and visits him too. For Yukawa, Ishigami is a gifted math genius and it surprises him that he is a teacher and not researching. Ishigami tells him that he had money problems at the time and that he initially worked at a university that was not interested in research. Yukawa visits Ishigami more often. When he goes to the Benten-tei with him, he suspects that Ishigami is in love because Ishigami makes a comment about his appearance. Kusanagi already told him that his investigations showed that Ishigami probably only comes to Benten-tei on days when Yasuko works there.

The police are still investigating Yasuko, but her alibi is becoming more secure. This is how they find out that Yasuko spoke to a friend on the phone even after the karaoke night. Going to the cinema always seems safer, witnesses confirm the alibi, and where the murder was committed remains unclear. But Yukawa seems to have already solved the case. After talking to Ishigami and telling him that every life is worth something, Ishigami thinks his plan has been blown. So he turns himself in to the police and takes on Togashi's murder. His descriptions are logical and without contradictions. Still, Kusanagi continues to believe that Yasuko is the perpetrator and Ishigami is trying to cover her. But Yukawa knows what must have happened. Togashi's murder happened on March 9th, not March 10th. The body found is not Togashi, but a homeless man who Ishigami killed on March 10 to hide Yasuko's act. To prevent the homeless person from being identified as Togashi, Ishigami initially offered him a job, for which he spent a time in Togashi's hotel. Then Ishigami killed the homeless man in the same way that Togashi was murdered. He smashed the corpse's face and scorched his fingers. The evidence suggested Togashi as the corpse and Yasuko as the perpetrator, who had an alibi, but not a watertight one. So the police focused on cracking the alibi instead of clarifying the real identity of the body.

When Yukawa tells this story to Yasuko, she bursts into tears. She was instructed by Ishigami, but did not know what he was taking on. The reason Ishigami's sacrifice was because he wanted to kill himself a year ago. When the rope was already tied to the ceiling, the doorbell rang. Yasuko and Misato introduced themselves as new neighbors. Ishigami immediately fell in love and saw meaning in life again. So he decided that without them his life would be over and that he would do anything for them. In the end, Yasuko also turns himself in to the police and is sent to Ishigami prison.

characters

  • Yasuko Hanaoka : Single mother who works in the Benten-tei snack bar .
  • Misato Hanaoka : Yasuko's daughter from his first marriage.
  • Tetsuya Ishigami : Math teacher and neighbor of Yasuko Hanaoka, who fell in love with her.
  • Manabu Yukawa : Physicist at Imperial University and fellow student of Tetsuya Ishigami.
  • Shunpei Kusanagi : Police officer charged with the murder of Shinji Togashi. He is a good friend of the physics professor Yukawa.
  • Kishitani : colleague from Kusanagi.
  • Shinji Togashi : Yasuko's ex-husband from second marriage. He chased her and extorted money from her. He is the murder victim.
  • Kuniaki Kudo : A friend of Yasuko's who worries about her after hearing about her ex-husband's murder.
  • Mamiya : Head of department and supervisor of Kusanagi and Kishitani.
  • The Yonazawas : owners of the Benten-tei snack bar .

reception

Suspicious mistress received a positive reception. For Peter Urban-Halle , the novel dispenses with “blood-drenched” passages, as is the case in Scandinavian novels, and yet remains exciting. It's not about the murderer, but about the tactics of the protagonists. Elmar Krekeler von der Welt describes suspicious lovers as "a good, [...] great crime novel". It's about mathematics and the duel between two geniuses. Christine Brand notes that the murder can already be found on the first 30 pages and that the perpetrator is known from the start. For her, Higashino tells “an extraordinary crime story; exciting and extremely intelligent ”. According to Sebastian Hammelehle from Spiegel Online , the logic puzzle represents a contest between the two protagonists, the math teacher and the physics professor.

Awards

  • 2005 Naoki Prize
  • 2006 Honkaku Mystery Award for the best work (fiction)
  • 2006 Honkaku Mystery Best 10 in the Best Detective Novel category
  • 2006 Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! in the Best Detective Novel category
  • 2012 admission to the Reading List 2012 American Library Association as the best mystery novel

Film adaptations

  • 容 疑 者 X の 献身 Yōgisha X no Kenshin 'Suspect X'. Directed by Hiroshi Nishitani . JPN 2008.
  • Perfect Number . Directed by Bang Eun-jin . ROK 2012.
  • 嫌疑 人 X 的 献身 Xiányí rén X de xiànshēn . Director: Alec Su . CHN 2017.

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Urban-Halle: Falling in love with the murderer. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . February 4, 2013, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Elmar Krekeler: A thriller like a math riddle. In: The world . December 20, 2012, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Christine Brand : The perfect alibi. Books on Sunday, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Sebastian Hammelehle: Mystery of the Month: Murder is also just a mental exercise. In: Spiegel Online . January 24, 2013, accessed March 4, 2017 .
  5. ↑ About Us. In: The Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan. Retrieved March 3, 2017 (English).
  6. ^ The 2012 List. In: RUSA. Retrieved March 3, 2017 (English).