The first thing I noticed about this book was that the narrative voice - belonging to Christopher Banks, a successful detective in 1930s England - is remarkably similar to that of Stevens, the protagonist of Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. While at first this drew me in (I loved The Remains of the Day), I soon began to find it offputting. I had assumed Stevens' voice was unique, so it was a bit of a disappointment to find that what I assumed were facets of that character are actually features of the author's own style. The plot traces Christopher's life from his fondly remembered childhood in Shanghai's International Settlement, culminating in his return to the same area as an adult. We learn how Christopher's loss of his parents - supposedly abducted - at a young age resulted in an obsession with solving mysteries, ultimately leading to his success as a detective. At the apex of his career, he returns to Shanghai to attempt to discover what happened to his parents. Finding the beloved places of his youth much altered, his increasingly obsessive need to solve the mystery leads him further and further into a war zone, providing the story's dramatic climax.

Christopher is a very interesting character, if not an entirely likeable one. It's almost immediately obvious he is an unreliable narrator, both in the traditional sense (he is holding things back from the reader) and in more unusual ways (he doesn't actually seem to recognise or understand the truth of things himself). It's clear to the observer of his story that he isn't telling the whole truth, but it also quickly becomes apparent that what he genuinely thinks he remembers, for example in relation to his status among his schoolfriends as a boy, is not accurate, and this double unreliability is both intriguing and confusing. The problem is that in the end, many of the plot's events just don't seem to hang together properly - Christopher's childhood obsession with finding his parents leading to him pursuing a career as a detective and ultimately becoming a key figure in events in Shanghai later in life; his 'relationship' with Sarah, which seems to develop very oddly; his ridiculous conviction that he will discover his parents alive and well, not to mention the fact that nobody around him contradicts this belief. With Christopher being obviously untruthful, I expected some loose ends, but it's very frustrating that nothing is explained properly, either from his viewpoint or objectively.

I think Ishiguro is an excellent writer, and although Christopher's voice echoes Stevens', the narrative gradually establishes him as a unique and memorable character in his own right. Perhaps the similarity between the two makes this an even greater achievement. And I can appreciate that Christopher not unlocking the mystery of his past is entirely the point, but I still felt unsatisfied at the end. I enjoyed reading the book, but ultimately felt like I'd taken a journey on which neither I or the protagonist had observed or learned very much.