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Salvation of a Saint (Detective Galileo #2)

by Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 598 ratings · 169 reviews

In 2011, The Devotion of Suspect X was a hit with critics and readers alike. The first major English language publication from the most popular bestselling writer in Japan, it was acclaimed as “stunning,” “brilliant,” and “ingenious.” Now physics professor Manabu Yukawa—Detective Galileo—returns in a new case of impossible murder, where instincts clash with facts and theor...more

Hardcover, 330 pages

Published October 2nd 2012 by Minotaur Books (first published January 1st 2008)

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May 11, 2013 Samadrita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-literature, arc-or-netgalley-copies, japan, mystery-detective, own, human-drama, crime

**A big thank you to Blogadda for kindly forwarding a review copy to me**

The task of reviewing a novel of the mystery-detective genre usually presents itself as a challenge to me. Not because it is hard to put into words what the story holds without giving away spoilers. But because a detective novel usually doesn't give a reviewer much to go on, aside from a mystery and its solution.
But despite being a book of the same genre, Salvation of a Saint, provides ample food for thought on the complexi...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Crystal Bryant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, own

I was completely captured by Higashino's previous book, The Devotion of Suspect X, and pre-ordered Salvation of a Saint as soon as I heard about it.

It exceeded my expectations. How do you keep your readers interested in a murder mystery when the murderer is revealed at the very beginning of the book?
1) By making the execution of the murder so devious that it will need the input of "Detective Galileo", a modern day, Japanese Sherlock, to reveal it.
2) By writing the murderer and the investigators...more

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May 03, 2013 Deepak rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

‘Salvation of a Saint’ by Keigo Higashino is the first book that I have read by a Japanese author. Strangely it did not seem different from any Western murder mystery, in the sense that it did not have any Japanese flavour to it except for the fact that the name of the author was distinctively Japanese.

The book was originally written in Japanese and translated into English by Alexander O. Smith.
Keigo Higashino born February 4, 1958 is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. He is...more ‘Salvation of a Saint’ by Keigo Higashino is the first book that I have read by a Japanese author. Strangely it did not seem different from any Western murder mystery, in the sense that it did not have any Japanese flavour to it except for the fact that the name of the author was distinctively Japanese.

The book was originally written in Japanese and translated into English by Alexander O. Smith.
Keigo Higashino born February 4, 1958 is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. He is the President of Mystery Writers of Japan.

In this novel, physics professor Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, returns in a new case of a seemingly perfect murder, where instincts clash with facts and theory with reality.

Yoshitaka, who believes that marriage is for procreation, has just informed his wife Ayane who has not conceived even after a year of marriage, of his decision to divorce her. Apparently distraught, Ayane leaves him alone and goes to visit her parents, citing her father’s ill health.

Yoshitkaka is found dead the next day, poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee. His wife, Ayane, who is the logical suspect is hundreds of miles away when he is murdered.

The lead detective, Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi,who is put on the case seems smitten with her innocence and refuses to believe that she could have had anything to do with the crime. His assistant, Kaoru Utsumi, however, is convinced Ayane is guilty. While Utsumi’s instincts tell her one thing, the facts of the case are another matter. So she does what her boss has done for years when stymied—she calls upon Professor Manabu Yukawa aka Detective Galileo.

What follows is a beautiful tapestry woven by Keigo Higashino that keeps you fascinated and enrapt in the discussions, emotive clashes of opinions and a captivating story that refuses to let you keep the book down till you reach the last page and heave a sigh of relief at finding out whodunit!

The Times has called Keigo Higashino The Japanese Stieg Larsson.

Salvation of a Saint is Keigo Higashino at his mind-bending best, pitting emotion against fact in a beautifully plotted crime novel filled with twists and reverses that will astonish and surprise even the most attentive and jaded of readers.

Go for it guys! This is one book which is a must read for all crime fiction addicts!(less)

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Apr 29, 2013 Vaisakhi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lot can happen over a cup of coffee it is said, after reading “Salvation of a Saint” I would love to add murder to the list. Set in modern Tokyo, “Salvation of Saint” is Keigo Higashino’s 1st book I came across. Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi is the lead protagonist of this crime fiction and has the task of figuring out the killer of Yoshitaka Mashiba along with his team members Utsumi, Mamiya, Kishitani and detective Galileo Prof. Yukawa.
The story starts with the couple Yoshitaka and Ayane...more A lot can happen over a cup of coffee it is said, after reading “Salvation of a Saint” I would love to add murder to the list. Set in modern Tokyo, “Salvation of Saint” is Keigo Higashino’s 1st book I came across. Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi is the lead protagonist of this crime fiction and has the task of figuring out the killer of Yoshitaka Mashiba along with his team members Utsumi, Mamiya, Kishitani and detective Galileo Prof. Yukawa.
The story starts with the couple Yoshitaka and Ayane contronting the truth that their marriage is in shambles within a year and by the time you flip through 30 pages you find Yoshitaka dead. The suspects initially turn out to be Hiromi Wakayama , Yoshitaka’s mistress and Ayane’s favorite apprentice and Ayane the sad shaken wife who was off to her parents when the husband was killed. Even though at that point the readers conveniently know who the killer is, the police force are in the dark and still have a lot of pieces of the puzzle to figure out. Kusanagi smitten by the saint is torn between reality, evidence, duty, mind and heart. It is interesting to go through the dilemma Yukawa goes through to finally unveil the face of the killer. There are times in the book where the interrogation takes a wrong turn and something inside you is dying to scream at the Tokyo police “You are looking at this all wrong”.
The book is a sure quick read and is gripping too cause till the very end the killer is enjoying her time of extended salvation. But unfortunately for lovers of thrillers and crime fiction, who have scanned through Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels like life and death crisis and remember almost every episode of ‘Castle’ knowing the killer right in the start is a big loophole that puts you in a realization mode half way through the story and you already know how the story might end.
Pros:
It is definite page turner with use of very simple narrative and would appeal even the “not regular” readers.
Gripping as far as the investigation is concerned.
Character build up through the story, though not intended is good and you can connect to the characters well.
Cons:
Biggest con would be, knowing who the killer is right at the establishment of the story.
Half way through the book the you have an 80-20 chance of figuring out the end.
Police getting smitten by a grieving widow was kind of a bollywood-ish plot to me.
Over all I would give the book a 3 or 3.5 but not a 4 on five because I really enjoyed the whole hill ride of the investigation. I still wish the author would have waited till the very end to let us know the saint was the satan, because revealing the murderer in the commencement of the book seemed unnecessary. But for people who love crime fiction this book is at least a “give it a try book”. And people who want to start reading crime fiction this would be a good start because it is simple fast and engrossing at the same time.

Originally posted on my blog: http://vaisakhimishra.blogspot.in/201...(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Pallavi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Pallavi by: BlogAdda

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino has been translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander. The book is 377 pages long and is in the genre of crime fiction.

The book’s blurb reads: “When a man is discovered dead by poisoning in his empty home, his beautiful wife Ayane immediately falls under suspicion. All clues point to Ayane being the logical suspect, but how could she have committed the crime when she was hundreds of miles away?

As Tokyo police detective Kusanagi tries to unpick...more Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino has been translated by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander. The book is 377 pages long and is in the genre of crime fiction.

The book’s blurb reads: “When a man is discovered dead by poisoning in his empty home, his beautiful wife Ayane immediately falls under suspicion. All clues point to Ayane being the logical suspect, but how could she have committed the crime when she was hundreds of miles away?

As Tokyo police detective Kusanagi tries to unpick a seemingly unrelated sequence of events, he finds himself falling for Ayane. When his judgement becomes dangerously clouded, his assistant must call on an old friend for help; it will take a genius to unravel the most spectacular web of deceit they have ever faced…”

Ayane Mita and Yoshitaka Mashiba have been married for about a year and living in Tokyo. The book starts off with the husband, Yoshitaka, telling his wife, Ayane, that he wants them both to get separated since that was the deal. Almost immediately into the book, Yoshitaka is found dead at this apartment that weekend when Ayane is away visiting her parents. The last person to see Yoshitaka alive is Hiromi Wakayama, Ayane’s assistant at a patchwork quilting school which both of them run together.

The police are called in when suicide is ruled out. Naturally, the bone of suspicion is on Hiromi and also Ayane. However, how could she pull it off when she was away at her parents’ place in Sopporo? At the crime scene, it is established that Yoshitaka was poisoned by something in the coffee he drank. To solve this particular case are assigned detective Kusanagi and his assistant Utsumi.

How they go about interrogating each and everyone connected with Yoshitaka (his friends, his in-laws, etc.), pry into his past life, try and piece together each piece of the jigsaw puzzle forms the rest of the book. Utsumi also solicits the assistance of a physicist Yukawa to help her solve the crime.

The author’s style of writing is extremely thrilling; I found the book to be an absolute page-turner. Also, his words and sentences have the power of making the reader visualize the scenes – the apartment where the crime happened, the parents’ house in Sopporo, the coffee shop where they sometimes interrogated the suspects, etc.

The author has managed to create some absolutely strong characterizations. For example, even though Ayane is the main suspect, she is never shown to falter or cry; in fact, she keeps tempting the police saying, “Should I not be the one under suspicion?” On the other hand, Hiromi has been shown to be a sensitive woman; who will cry at the slightest instance and be wary of police around her. Utsumi has been shown to be a gutsy assistant who does not fear questioning or arguing with her superiors. She basically works a lot based on her intuition.

The protagonist – Kusanagi – is committed to the job. Even when he finds himself falling for Ayane’s charms, he is torn between his head and his heart – his duty towards solving the crime and his fascination for Ayane.

The book’s real strength lies in the way it goes about getting together each and every piece of the puzzle which will finally lead to the crime getting solved. Situations/people unconnected with the main event have been beautifully woven into the story. The book reaches its climax slowly and methodically; Keigo does not hurry in trying to solve the crime. The reader is often left second-guessing at the turn of events in the book and is finally both relieved and ecstatic when the climax is revealed.

I am going with 5/5 for this book – it was an extremely enjoyable and fun read for me. I really liked this particular sentence in the book – “Determining the existence or non-existence of something extraordinary is never a straight forward task and those who set themselves to do it are often overly swayed by their preconceived notions.

This review first appeared on www.pallosworld.blogspot.in (less)

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Apr 14, 2013 VaultOfBooks rated it 3 of 5 stars

By Keigo Higashino, Alexander O. Smith (Translator). Grade: B+

From the author of the internationally bestselling, award-winning “The Devotion of Suspect X” comes the latest novel featuring “Detective Galileo”.
In 2011, “The Devotion of Suspect X” was a hit with critics and readers alike. The first major English language publication from the most popular bestselling writer in Japan, it was acclaimed as “stunning,” “brilliant,” and “ingenious.” Now physics professor Manabu Yukawa–Detective Galileo–...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Doreen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

This mystery is actually a howdunit (with some whydunit elements) rather than a whodunit. Yoshitaka Mashiba asks Ayane, his wife, for a divorce because she has not become pregnant during their first year of marriage. Two days later, while Ayane is visiting her parents, he is found dead by his lover, Hiromi Wakayama. The cause of death is arsenous acid in his coffee. The case is investigated primarily by Kusanagi, the lead detective, and Kaoru Utsumi, the new female recruit, but when the investig...more This mystery is actually a howdunit (with some whydunit elements) rather than a whodunit. Yoshitaka Mashiba asks Ayane, his wife, for a divorce because she has not become pregnant during their first year of marriage. Two days later, while Ayane is visiting her parents, he is found dead by his lover, Hiromi Wakayama. The cause of death is arsenous acid in his coffee. The case is investigated primarily by Kusanagi, the lead detective, and Kaoru Utsumi, the new female recruit, but when the investigation leads nowhere, the help of a physicist, Manabu Yukawa, is requested.

The identities of both the victim and the killer are revealed to the reader in the opening chapter. What is not known is how the murder was done. For a time, it seems as if the perfect crime has been committed since the main suspect has an iron-clad alibi; only the assistance of Yukawa allows the case to be solved.

There are several similarities with the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. Yukawa is certainly the Holmes character with his breadth of knowledge; he is not just an expert in physics but understands human psychology as well. He even sounds like Sherlock with statements like, “’’An imaginary solution is one that, while theoretically possible, is practically impossible.’” The case is really a variation of a locked room mystery that made me think of “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.”

This is a meticulous police procedural, but I wanted more character and relationship development. Kusanagi emerges as a plodding investigator with little personality; virtually nothing is known about his life outside of work. The feisty Utsumi shows promise at the beginning when she makes some very astute observations but then she is slowly reduced to a female detective fighting for recognition since her theories are often scoffed at and dismissed as mere female intuition by her male counterpart. Only Yukawa realizes her potential: “’Kusanagi doesn’t know what he’s got.’”

There are a few problems with the book. One is that the author withholds information from the reader; for example, it is more than half way through the book before it is revealed that, “’there is another kind of water available.’” Another difficulty is Kusanagi’s “special affection” for the main suspect; there is insufficient explanation for his attraction. Because the reader knows the perpetrator from the beginning, he/she pays particular attention to the actions and words of that character; as a result, some of the clues to the solution are rather obvious. More problematic, the explanation of the how and why is far-fetched. We are told that the murderer is smart and patient, but the modus operandi stretches credibility.

Readers who prefer narratives focusing on plot rather than character will enjoy this book, although they may be disappointed with the ending.
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Mar 23, 2013 Soham Chakraborty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japan, thriller

Here comes the second thriller of Keigo Higashino, who I have fallen in awe with, after the jaw-dropping end of Devotion of Suspect X. I will start off this review telling that, if you haven't read the first one till now, please do yourself a favour and read that. I would put that novel beside The Millennium Trilogy. Higashino hasn't got the nick 'Japanese Stieg Larsson' for free.

First a question. How would you keep your readers glued to a crime story where in the first chapter you have declared...more Here comes the second thriller of Keigo Higashino, who I have fallen in awe with, after the jaw-dropping end of Devotion of Suspect X. I will start off this review telling that, if you haven't read the first one till now, please do yourself a favour and read that. I would put that novel beside The Millennium Trilogy. Higashino hasn't got the nick 'Japanese Stieg Larsson' for free.

First a question. How would you keep your readers glued to a crime story where in the first chapter you have declared whodunnit. Simple, read 'Salvation of a Saint' and you will keep the pages turning yourself. The story starts with a conversation of Ayane Mita and Yoshitaka Mashiba, married for around one year by now. Yoshitaka wants a child and while marriage, he laid his plan clear to Ayane, that is, if she can't bear an offspring within an year, they would have to cut the tie. In the very first conversation in the book, Yoshitaka again says this to Ayane and she is left wondering whether her husband really loved her or not. And while they go downstairs to meet their guests of that night, Ayane utters to herself, 'I love you but I will also kill you'.

And it happens. Ayane goes to visit her home town, more than thousand miles apart from the upscale city of Tokyo. She gives the house key to her best student and apprentice, Hiromi Wakayama. After Ayane leaves, Hiromi gets a call from Yoshitaka and we get to know that Ayane's husband is also the lover of her student. Together on that night, they drink coffee made by Yoshitaka. Since Ayane, who used to use the kitchen as her castle, has left, next morning Hiromi makes the coffee while Yoshitaka observes the rules of ideal coffee making. Next day, she gets another call from her lover and they agree to have dinner from a restaurant. She goes to Yoshitaka's residence when her call goes unanswered and she finds Yoshitaka dead, coffee spilled in the floor.

The charge of the investigation comes to Tokyo metropolitan police and soon detective Kusangi enters the house. This time, he has another assistant along with Kishitani, detective Utsumi, a rookie young woman. They have two suspects - Hiromi and Ayane. While Hiromi was taking classes throughout the day, Ayane is not even in the scene. So who did the murder, if it is indeed one.

The detectives soon find out that Yoshitaka died of arsenous acid laced coffee and so they are now formally into a homicide investigation. The question is looming on them. Who poisoned Yoshitaka Mashiba - CEO of a well-off company and where did the poison come from. They can't find traces of any kind of arsenic in the house. Soon, the investigation has no clue and both the suspects have an ironclad alibi.

Ayane Mita comes to Tokyo next day and on first sight, Kusangi is smitten of her. Kusangi with all the experience of his illustrious detective career, can't extract the information from Ayane, while Utsumi has fixed her sight on Ayane as the prime suspect. The two detectives develop a difference between them but none of them can move the investigation one inch and they have to turn to the brilliant Physics professor of Imperial university, Manabu Yukawa - Kusangi's classmate from college, who is long known in the police circle as detective Galileo.

But even Yukawa's extraordinary mind finds this coffee soaked murder mystery so beautifully plotted that it appears like a perfect crime. A crime where the criminal didn't intend to kill the target but kept it alive, until at the final point, the string is snapped. And it snaps so mysteriously that it forms a perfect circle, with no hole in it. But if this is a murder, someone is the murderer and who is that.

Higashino's earlier novel sported the clash of two genius scientists, one mathematician and one physicist. The outcome, Devotion of Suspect X, was touted as stunning, intricate and beguiling. This one, doesn't have the delicate maths and physics riddles of the former but it has a character development unlike no other crime story, where the central detective finds himself hopelessly attracted to the number one suspect, the other detective tries her wit's end to find any clue and Manabu Yukawa hangs his head down at the perfect crime. With countless side-plots, this is one hell of a ride, where the crime floats on the water, where the crime is deep into the filtration system of the kitchen and is inseparable from the coffee and as neatly woven as the wonderful tapestry made by Ayane.

If you like crime thrillers, you will be hooked to this beguilingly complex piece of a mystery to no end. It is one of the rare showcase of talent, enigma, reason and emotion, churned into salvation of the murderer, the detectives and of course, you, the reader. (less)

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Mar 19, 2013 Ross Longdon rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 12, 2013 Ava rated it 3 of 5 stars

I do not have a huge budget for buying books. A book that costs Rs.350/- or more makes me groan. I am not one of those IT professionals who take home upward of 50k every month. Much much less in fact.

I could join a library, you might suggest. There are seldom good choices available in a library. It is like shopping for exotic vegetables on the cart of the vendor who roams in your mohalla. Just like the cart is often loaded with the ubiquitous aloo, the library is also loaded with books that wer...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

An engaging whodunnit, or rather a police procedure howdunnit. A man who is about to divorce his wife is killed by poison, and the wife is the logical suspect, but she's hundreds of miles away at the time. Did she do it, and if so how? Two detectives enlist the help of a local college physicist, a boyhood friend of one of the detectives. The solution to the problem is really ingenious, and the relationships between the characters keeps you reading too.

There are some, I think, cultural, things in...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Kevin.kwfoong rated it 3 of 5 stars

After the brilliant read of 'Devotion of Suspect X' and 'Naoko', I've been looking forward to this new book by Keigo. I finished this book in less than 3 days, and I'd give it to Keigo for his ability to write a page-turner. Every last sentence of a chapter fills you with the urge to turn the page for 'just another chapter'.

The plot follows a similar pattern to 'Devotion of Suspect X' - a story about a seemingly perfect murder by a seemingly innocent woman. And much like 'Devotion of Suspect X'...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Rebecca Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: global-detective-fiction

I didn't like this novel as much as I thought I would based on how much I enjoyed The Devotion of Suspect X.

This was a locked-room mystery about the investigation of a seemingly impossible crime. The officers, Detectives Kusanagi and Utumi, his female sidekick, are stumped and go up one blind alley after another. The case itself inspired me to say, "oh, get on with it." I felt the author's manipulations the whole time and there was very little action except traveling from place to place on trai...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Okay. I have been hooked on British detective writers, Swedish detective novels, Scottish detective novels--well, you get the idea. Now, I have just read Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino, a Japanese detective novelist. It was great! He was a finalist for the Edgar Award for his first novel, The Devotion of Suspect X. This one is the second Manabu Yukawa where he returns to solve a new case of impossible murder. A man who was obsessed with having children has left every woman he was involv...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Angela Savage rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction, asia

Keigo Higashino could be compared with Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, Salvation of a Saint presenting the reader with a puzzle worthy of a Golden Age mystery. That said, Salvation of a Saint is unlike anything I've read before, not so much a whodunnit -- there are only ever two possible suspects, one if the narrator of the opening chapter proves reliable -- as a howdunnit and whydunnit.

Handsome, charismatic businessman Yoshikata Mashiba is found dead on the kitchen floor in his Tokyo apa...more Keigo Higashino could be compared with Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, Salvation of a Saint presenting the reader with a puzzle worthy of a Golden Age mystery. That said, Salvation of a Saint is unlike anything I've read before, not so much a whodunnit -- there are only ever two possible suspects, one if the narrator of the opening chapter proves reliable -- as a howdunnit and whydunnit.

Handsome, charismatic businessman Yoshikata Mashiba is found dead on the kitchen floor in his Tokyo apartment. Beside him is a spilt cup of coffee that proves to contain poison. Yoshitaka's wife and talented quilting artist Ayane is visiting family at the time. As far as police can determine, the last person to see Yoshitaka alive, or at least to drink coffee with him, is Ayane's apprentice, Hiromi Wakayama. Both women are in love with the victim. Only Ayane has a motive for killing him. But at the time of his death, she was more than 1,000 km from the crime scene.

Enter the team of seasoned Tokyo police Detective (Mr) Kusanagi, Junior Detective (Ms) Utsumi, and physics professor (Mr) Yukawa. Each bring complimentary skills and perspectives to the investigation. Utsumi the rookie combines observation skills with a down to earth attitude. Holmes-like Yukawa the physicist brings what he calls 'consistent application of the process of elimination', while Kusanagi brings experience, his 'sixth sense' as a detective. The case is complicated by Kusanagi's feelings for Ayane, widow and prime suspect.

Salvation of a Saint has the lure of a Sudoku puzzle at the 'Diabolical' level: you can't figure out how to solve it, but you can't give up trying because you know there's a solution. It is a measure of Higashino's talent that he sustains such a high level of suspense in what is a largely bloodless, puzzle solving exercise involving a great deal of dialogue.

Salvation of a Saint is a fiendishly clever, engaging read with a satisfying twist. I'll be looking for more Higashino in translation.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Hallie rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Salvation of a Saint” is the second Keigo Higashino’s police procedural to be translated from Japanese. In this “locked room” mystery, a philandering husband is poisoned, and the person with the most compelling reason to kill him, his wife, has an ironclad alibi. But from there on it’s anything but formulaic as his wife and mistress seem to team up to thwart the police inquiry.

The book stumbles a bit in the beginning but finds its footing once its three investigators begin trying to unravel ho...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

SALVATION OF A SAINT. (2008; U.S. 2012). Keigo Higashino. **.
The temptation to toss this book back into my library bag after about fifty pages was almost insurmountable, but I managed to carry on to the end. The author – new to me – is apparently the most widely read author in Japan and has sold millions of copies of his books and has had over twenty of them adapted into films and TV series. The bio on the end flap makes him sound like our James Patterson. As I think about it, the similarity do...more SALVATION OF A SAINT. (2008; U.S. 2012). Keigo Higashino. **.
The temptation to toss this book back into my library bag after about fifty pages was almost insurmountable, but I managed to carry on to the end. The author – new to me – is apparently the most widely read author in Japan and has sold millions of copies of his books and has had over twenty of them adapted into films and TV series. The bio on the end flap makes him sound like our James Patterson. As I think about it, the similarity doesn’t stop there. This novel is the second in a series of mystery novels featuring Dr. Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo. He is a physics professor at a Tokyo University, and has worked with the Tokyo police department before, helping them solve difficult crimes involving difficult and clever methods of murder. In this case, a man is murdered by poisoning, but the only obvious suspect – his wife – is hundreds of miles away in Sapporo visiting her parents while he is at their home in Tokyo. They have been married for only a year, and he just now announced to her that he wanted a divorce. It was a stipulation of their marriage agreement that a divorce would be granted if they could not have children within the first year of their marriage. Obviously, the husband was big on kids. Since both parties agreed to this term, it should have been no big thing, but the wife did find herself well off and happy after a year of marriage and maybe things changed in her mind. But wait...a young woman worked with his wife, Hiromi Wakayama, and it seemed that the husband had started seeing her on the side. In fact, it turns out that Hiromi was two months pregnant by him. It also appeared that she had a motive and an opportunity to kill off the cheating husband, since she spent the weekend with him while his wife was off visiting the parents. The whole story is really a stretched-out variation of a locked-room mystery, where Detective Galileo comes up with a series of potential theories of how the murder was committed, sending the police force off on a series of wild-goose chases from which they come back empty-handed. After four or five of these busted theories, I got a little bored with Detective Galileo, and decided that – if it were me – I’d look for another Sherlock Holmes substitute. I found the plot to be febrile and the character development shallow at best. I’ll try the novel previous to this one – it got rave reviews – and see if it’s any better. If not, I can put away my Japanese dictionary for awhile.
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Oct 05, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, mystery

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book with the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

This book is about 300 pages long, but was a quick read.

Mystery:
I'm not a mystery maven, but I think this is a "puzzle" mystery; the crime is fairly bloodless, the solution is a battle of wits, it's pretty clear who dunnit and why, you just can't figure out how.

Warning: this isn't the kind of mystery where the solution is there in the clues for the reader to figure out; I was amaze...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Amit Shetty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: how-psyched-can-you-get, its-complicated, ohayou-gozaimasu-nippon

There's nothing more scarier than the truth that hides in plain sight.

First of all, what makes this this murder mystery an interesting read,
1. By the end of the 1st chapter, you will know who committed the murder.
2. By the end of the 2nd chapter, you will know what happened to the victim (as we always do).

BUT

3. It will take close to 300+ pages to find out exactly how the victim was murdered.

When one picks up a murder mystery, one might expect an extremely elaborate plan to murder, motives that...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Alcornell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

clever puzzle mystery. the problem isn't whodunnit but how and why. what we're given about the victim makes us ask why not? I had difficulty finding sympathy with anyone in this volume, except the senior detective, Kusanagi. I found Detective Galileo too thinly drawn and repetitive, even pedantic. That was not true of him in The Devotion of Suspect X, a better book as others have said. Kusanagi was irritating in that book. Utsumi, a newly introduced junior, female detective, was disappointingly...more

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May 05, 2013 Jaideep rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Book Review: Salvation Of A Saint by Keigo Higashino: Pansies Murder Mystery Purpose Guts And Innocence

The Times has compared Keigo Higashino's writing style with Stieg Larsson, the Swedish journalist and writer famous for his Millennium Series of Crime Novels, thereby declaring Keigo Higashino as 'The Japanese Stieg Larsson'. Financial Times has stated the work of Keigo Higashino to be excellent enough to impress Agatha Christie. Almost all international...more http://pebbleinthestillwaters.blogspo...

Book Review: Salvation Of A Saint by Keigo Higashino: Pansies Murder Mystery Purpose Guts And Innocence

The Times has compared Keigo Higashino's writing style with Stieg Larsson, the Swedish journalist and writer famous for his Millennium Series of Crime Novels, thereby declaring Keigo Higashino as 'The Japanese Stieg Larsson'. Financial Times has stated the work of Keigo Higashino to be excellent enough to impress Agatha Christie. Almost all international newspapers and book critic magazines are full of praises for Japanese author Keigo Higashino writer of two excellent books in a row - The Devotion Of Suspect X and the one under review here Salvation Of A Saint.

Salvation Of A Saint is a magnificent and powerful murder mystery thriller written so beautifully so as to engage reader's curiosity at peak right since beginning and forces to chase its puzzles and results page after page. Characters' profile is strong enough to draw relevant emotions out of its reader's towards them and the story is going to stay in your memories for long. The story tells how sometimes a small intentionally taken wrong move by one person spoils so many people's life including his/ her own. This is what happens with a wrong move taken by a very successful industrialist Yoshitaka drives to his own murder. Yoshitaka Mashiba has been characterized as a smart and handsome businessman with success in his hands but who is far away from emotions and attachment in his personal life.

Story begins with a murder, when Yoshitaka is found dead in his own house one day. State Investigation agency gets involved as the solution of this complicated and well planned perfect murder is found out of limits of police. The death happens due to poison in coffee of Yoshitaka but indicates no proof against suspect, Ayane, who is Yoshitaka's beautiful wife. It takes ages for investigation department to crack this well planned, zero defect, perfect murder executed by Ayane to kill the victim, her husband Yoshitaka.

Basically the story involves three ladies in the life of Yoshitaka. Gradually a strong reason evolves that forces Ayane to plan for Yoshitaka's murder. Yoshitaka is a very calculative, sharp minded, irrational, professional with no emotions for the people in his life. Three years back he met a 34 years lady Junko Tsukui who was a simple, beautiful and lovely lady. They both started dating and almost after a year they had plans to marry with each other. But Yoshitaka had some other plans in his mind. He was was clear that a woman for him is nothing but a child factory. His only motive of getting a woman in his life was to get a child from her. When Junko could not bear a child for Yoshitaka, he started ignoring her and fell in for a new and younger lady who was named Ayane.

Ayane and Junko were very close friends. Junko otherwise was a loner and had not any other friends in her life. Junko was a children books writer. Ayane without knowing that Junko and Yoshitaka were dating, started dating Yoshitaka when he proposed her. Junko learning this killed herself. Ayane learning the reality after Junko's death decides to marry Yoshitaka and give him a lesson of his life if he doesn't improve in terms of respecting and loving a woman and playing with them with words.

A yearlong murder plan is made by Ayane single handedly with such a perfection that the whole team of investigating agency was not able to crack it unless they brought in Professor 'Galileo', a renowned physicist for his deep knowledge and scientific logics.

Finally, in brief a must read for all suspense/ mystery readers. I would rate it 4.5 out of 5 based on its plot, characterizations, story and sequence. And before I forget, credit for all this also goes to Alexander O. Smith who along with Elye J. Alexander has done a marvellous job in translating so well so as to keep the same momentum for its readers.(less)

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Oct 17, 2012 Marcus rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was a nice read, but I didn't like it as much as the previous novel "Devotion of Suspect X". What I enjoyed most about the previous book was the way it genuinely gave a mystery that had a mathematical/scientific parallel. This one just had a logical thinking scientist exploring even far-fetched theories until the truth was discovered. It was nice cheerleading for the scientific method, but wasn't as intellectually intriguing.

Some reviews have said that this is not a traditional mystery in that...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Gloria Feit rated it 5 of 5 stars

What’s more effective in solving a crime: a detective’s intuition and police skills, or the scientific method? This theme seems to be a recurring one in the author’s approach to crime fiction. In “The Devotion of Suspect X,” Mr. Higashino’s last book, a mathematician was pitted against physics professor Yukawa, also dubbed “Detective Galileo,” while an actual detective, Kusanagi, plied his trade using his intuition and other skills. In the present mystery, they repeat this dance in trying to sol...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Alen Joy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

DISAPPOINTED !!!!! thats the only word I've for this book and the reason for this is OVER EXPECTATION yeah thats the really reason . after reading the Devotion of Suspect X I became the number one fan of Keigo Higashino and I really thrilled when I got the second book Salvation of a Saint but after reading this I really felt bad for Keigo Higashino because the Devotion of Suspect X is the war between 2 genius and the twist in Suspect X is nothing but brilliant but in the case of Salvation of Sai...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Larry Rogers rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel is Higashino's second police procedural to be published in the United States t has a solid plot, forensically speaking. A husband dies shortly after he tells his wife that there marriage s over because she can't conceive and he can't afford to waste his time in a childless marriage. He is very businesslike about it. To complicate matters, he is involved with another younger woman who happens to be his wife's apprentice/assistant. (The wife is a fairly renowned artisan: producer of tap...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Kimbofo rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of translated crime, Japanese fiction, police procedurals

Recommended to Kimbofo by: Jeff, who comments on my blog

Shelves: translated-fiction, crime

Salvation of a Saint is a very detailed police procedural focusing on the death of a young married man inside his empty apartment. Yoshitaka is found face down, sprawled on the wooden floor, with a spilled cup of coffee next to him. Tests reveal there was poison in his coffee.

There are two suspects in his case: his devoted wife, Ayane, an artist who makes beautiful quilts for a living, and Ayane's young apprentice, Hiromi, who has been having an affair with Yoshitaka.

From the outset we know that...more

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May 02, 2013 Tensy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, mystery

[spoilers]I picked this book up from a recommendation in the Library Journal. Apparently, Higashino's earlier book garnered many good reviews. I did not read that book. Unfortunately, this book was so slow and the mystery to the crime was so easily discovered that it took all I had to finish the audio. Throughout the narration, I felt like Tattoo in Fantasy Island screaming, "Da flowers, Da flowers" you idiots! It does not take a physics professor (Galileo) to figure this one out.

I keep saying...more

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May 09, 2013 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian, crime-and-or-evil

Detective Kusagani is in for another duel of wits. This time his opponent is a woman, a textile artist whose husband has been poisoned. The complicating factors are: it's impossible that she did it, she was hundreds of miles away when he was killed and the method of administering the poison is a puzzle. He finds her both attractive and sympathetic (she is both)and is reluctant to think of her as a cold blooded killer. Kusagani's assistant the young detective Utsumi, being a woman, is less blind...more

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May 11, 2013 Stamatios rated it 3 of 5 stars

*** MINOR SPOILERS *** Having read The Devotion of Suspect X by the same author I must say I was disappointed by Salvation of a Saint. The entire premise is based on the method of the murder and the whole book is about figuring it out. Unfortunately, following the police process throughout the book makes for a pretty boring reading. Imagine the book titled "How Did the Arsenic Get Into The Coffee". Would you buy it? That is how unexciting this book is.

Furthermore, Keigo Higashino goes to great...more *** MINOR SPOILERS *** Having read The Devotion of Suspect X by the same author I must say I was disappointed by Salvation of a Saint. The entire premise is based on the method of the murder and the whole book is about figuring it out. Unfortunately, following the police process throughout the book makes for a pretty boring reading. Imagine the book titled "How Did the Arsenic Get Into The Coffee". Would you buy it? That is how unexciting this book is.

Furthermore, Keigo Higashino goes to great lengths to delay the big reveal, which makes things even worse. A second lab is needed to find traces of arsenic, the connections between Ayane, Yoshitaka and Junko are ridiculously difficult to discover, Yukawa knows the answer but won't tell anyone "because it would be dangerous" etc. And when the secret is finally revealed it is impossible to take seriously. Once again, Higashino sets everything up so as to make such an impossible task possible and to create a so-called "perfect crime" (I won't give any more details here for fear of spoiling it entirely for you, but the attentive reader will know what I mean).

This being the second book featuring "Detective Galileo" I can now officially say that I don't like the character. He is by far the least likeable character in the books; much less likeable even than the murderers! He doesn't miss a chance to show off how cleverer, better dressed or fitter he is. On the other hand, Junior Detective Utsumi is very interesting and I hope to see more of her in future instalments.

So, despite all that, why did I still rate this book with 3 stars? There's something about Higashino's simple and clear writing style that flows easily on my eyes. I found myself keeping on reading even though the pace was slow and there were no major cliffhangers to speak of. He uses descriptions sparingly, which I particularly like (some times I skip entire paragraphs of long descriptions when I read!), and the plot advances mostly through dialogue. And even though the aforementioned method of the murder is difficult to swallow, the motivations behind the murder are complex and revealed in a touching and astonishing way at one of the last chapters of the book that made me pause and rethink everything I had read so far. Salvation of a Saint may have been a partly frustrating experience, but it wasn't bad enough to make me give up on Keigo Higashino, and I will look forward to reading his next book.(less)

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Apr 02, 2013 Nilay Mehta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Higashino is a blessing to all fans of intelligent mystery fiction. As an ardent Agatha Christie fan, mysteries that baffle the mind exude a very strong magnetic pull, and Higashino's fiction is very much in the same vein, if not of the same calibre as Dame Agatha.

This book lives up to standard set by the more popular 'Devotion of Suspect X'. Inspector Kusanagi and Detective Galileo return in this mind bender.

I felt this one dragged on in bits and the promised twist in the end wasn't very diffi...more

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About Keigo Higashino

Keigo Higashino is one of the most popular and biggest selling fiction authors in Japan—as well known as James Patterson, Dean Koontz or Tom Clancy are in the USA.

Born in Osaka, he started writing novels while still working as an engineer at Nippon Denso Co.(presently DENSO). He won the Edogawa Rampo Prize, which is awarded annually to the finest mystery work, in 1985 for the novel Hōkago (After S...more

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Salvation of a Saint (Detective Galileo #2)

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