帰郷

刑事・鳴沢了 #5

by Shunichi Douba

話があるんです――父の葬儀の翌日、一人の若者が訪ねてきた。新潟県警鬼の一課長と呼ばれた父にとって唯一の未解決案件を再捜査しろというのだ。奇しくも時効は葬儀の当日であった。遺品の備忘録に綴られる捜査への飽くなき執念、不審な元同僚、犯人と名指しされた男、そして謎の記号――父が遺した事件を追って雪の新潟を鳴沢、疾る！　書き下ろし

366 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 stars. I enjoy this author's other series well enough so I picked Homecoming up for a light read.

The protagonist of the story, a young cop, went back to his hometown to attempt his estranged father's funeral, and said father was also a cop. The older man left behind one single unsolved case in his career: a professor was stabbed to death with his 12 years old son being in the crime scene, despite having a strong suspect (a family friend) for the case, the murderer was still never caught.

So when the dead professor's son urged the young cop to re-investigate the case, the cop set out to try solving the case his late father had failed to solve.

Well, I'm impressed by how well the author wrote his characters in a realistic way, the ending isn't groundbreaking but it is also nice so turns out the then-12 years old son was the one who killed his father because the guy had been abusing him all along, and the suspect---the family friend, had been covering up this fact all along! So the now-grown-up son asked the young cop to solve the case because he couldn't stand the pressure and the secret anymore! I will look forward for more of this series.

[Hisashi Nishimura · Rating 4 out of 5]

鳴沢了もののシリーズ第５作。
新潟県警鬼の一課長と呼ばれた父親が解決できなかったただ一つの事案を自ら解決して父を乗り越えようとする。しかし、事件が明らかになるにつれ、返って父の人間臭さを知り、理解していくことになる。
事件そのものも風変わりでショッキングだが、第１作以来の父親との確執に終止符を打つ転機となる作品という側面の方が重要だろう。