Salvation of a Saint (Detective Galileo #2) by Keigo Higashino

Salvation of a Saint (Detective Galileo #2) Reviews

• 
  carol.

  The second mystery I've read by Higashino was even better than my first (
  The Devotion of Suspect X). There is something immensely satisfying about his approach to telling a story. Perhaps it is a difference of cultural expectations on what an author needs to accomplish. Though Higashino is a best-selling author in Japan, he seems relatively unknown in the U.S. What I do know is that when I finish, I feel a strong sense of pleasure. The mystery is resolved, yes, providing a sense of intellectual satisfaction; but there's also an artistic sense of pleasure, as from seeing a play performed by skilled actors.
  
  "Kusanagi walked in through the glass doors and up to the sales counter. He had heard that the store stocked over fifty varieties of tea, and sure enough, there they were, all individually labeled and sorted into neat rows. Behind the counter was a little tea room. Even at the relatively quiet hour of four in the afternoon, he saw a few customers scattered around the cafe, sipping tea and reading newspapers. One or two were dressed in company uniforms. Male customers were definitely in the minority."
  
  Like Agatha Christie, Higashino makes use of traditional or iconic set-pieces, but is wise enough to let the setting be the background to the story, albeit an important one. The main characters are all treated well, with hints at complexity but not in a way that overshadows the plot. There are no scenic digressions of them having a lonely beer at the local bar, or getting their hair cut at the stylist. Kusanagi is the lead detective, and now has a female member of his team, Utsumi, along with his long-term aide, Kishitani:
  
  "Kusanagi suppressed a smile as he looked at his two subordinates. Poor Kishitani had finally got a new recruit of his own to push around--and it was a woman. He has no idea how to handle her."
  
  They are working to solve the case of a man found dead in his locked home, a spilled coffee cup by his side. Is it natural? An accident? Suicide? Homicide? As they work to tease out the possibilities, they end up with an impossible situation. However, nothing is impossible when the physicist Yukawa is consulted:
  
  "It's not very scientific to say things like 'absolutely' and 'zero possibility.' It's also rather unorthodox to say someone made a mistake when they've only presented a hypothesis that proved to be incorrect. But I'll forgive you on the grounds that you're not a scientist."
  
  I love the irreverent and infallibly logical Yukawa. He is not so much the associate with the little grey cells as the analytical counterpoint to the intuition-driven doggedness of Detective Kusanagi.
  
  The first book I read was about how the police uncovered a murder (we knew the who, what, why and how). In this, though the reader has a strong suspicion who the murderer is and why, there's enough doubt on the who to keep the reader wondering, and of course, the how is a puzzle indeed.
  
  Satisfying is really one of the best words I can come up with for this tale. It perhaps stretches, just slightly, the boundaries of imagination, and yet Higashino makes this story plausible. I enjoyed the way the emotions of the story tugged at me without descending into the maudilin or horrific, as well as Higashino's complete failure to include car chases, ominous but missed hints from the criminals as they pack their bombs, and dire threats to end the world as the detective almost fails to catch them in time. I know, I know; I'm overusing that word, satisfying. But I can't think of a better way to describe a work that intrigued me and captured my attention without resorting to narrative or plotting tricks.
  
  Four, five stars. Really could be either. If anything keeps it from five, it is that I do not feel the drive--not quite--to add this to my own library. Although I'd consider reading it again. Rounding up for that.
• 
  Crystal Bryant

  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 in such a way that you empathize with both sides, and the conflict is lifted from the story and lodged somewhere between your throat and your stomach as well as within the pages of the book.
  
  One of the things I'm really coming to appreciate Higashino is that while his stories focus on the technical genius of the murders, he gives equal weight to the emotions behind the murder. And the revelation of those emotions, the driving events, are just as important as the how of it all.
  
  I really hope they start to translate his earlier Galileo novels into English.
• 
  Nandakishore Mridula

  Every classic mystery is a magic trick - it works through misdirection. While the magician entices us to watch something in the open, his quicksilver hands does the business out of sight, and we are mystified at the apparent breakdown of the rules of nature. "The hand is quicker than the eye." In the mystery story, it is the same - we are persuaded to chase the red herrings while the writer cleverly builds up his plot under wraps. The only difference is, unlike the magic trick, the novelist tells us how it was done at the end.
  
  Keigo Higashimo's "The Devotion of Suspect X" was a classic in this aspect. "Malice" was also good, though by then I could sense how his particular style of sleight-of-hand was carried out. In "Salvation of the Saint", however, the style is slightly different.
  
  As with "Devotion...", the murderer is pretty clear from the beginning. The focus in a Higashimo novel is not as much on "whodunnit" as "howdunnit". In this aspect, he resembles the great Dorothy Sayers (for example, the novels "Strong Poison", "Unnatural Death" etc.) - it is impossible for the most likely person to have committed the murder: yet it was done.
  
  When Yoshitaka Washiba is murdered by poison in his coffee, his beautiful wife Ayane is the obvious suspect - especially since Yoshitaka had declared his intention of leaving her and marrying her young apprentice Hiromi Wakayama. The problem is, Ayane is hundred of kilometres away when the murder happens, as per the testimony of Hiromi herself. It is left to Detective Kusanagi to unravel the mystery, all the while fighting the strong attraction Ayane exercises over him. However, he has Professor Yukawa of Tokyo University ("Detective Galileo"), who solves cases like problems in physics: constructing hypotheses and testing them.
  
  There is no long trail of false clues in this story - the whole thing boils down to how the poison was introduced into the coffee. But while the method is brilliant and there is a logical explanation for all the doubts it gives rise to, I felt slightly disappointed here as I partly guessed where the poison was, and how it was disposed off. As any mystery which is amenable to deduction by the reader disappoints me, I wouldn't rate this as high as his other novels I have read.
  
  Still, an extremely enjoyable and well-written mystery, with memorable characters. I am getting to be a fan of Detective Galileo.
• 
  آبتین گلکار

  بعد از "فداکاری مظنون ایکس" دومین کتابی بود که از این نویسنده می‌خوندم، خوب و پرکشش می‌نویسه. ولی کماکان «فداکاری مظنون ایکس» به نظرم خیلی جلوتر از این یکیه
• 
  Sawsan

  رواية مشوقة عن جريمة قتل نُفذت بهدوء ودقة
  كان من السهل تخمين القاتل من البداية, لكن الأهم هو كيفية القتل
  وخطوات البحث والتحقيق في محاولة إثبات الدلائل وربط الأحداث
  سرد سلس وحبكة غير مُتوقعة
• 
  Carol

  Salvation of a Saint is the second Higashino novel I've read in as many weeks. It takes place in Japan and is a masterful police procedural featuring several police detectives and the ever-fabulous physics professor Yukawa solving what appears initially to be the perfect crime. One of the things I love about Higashino's novels is that they reflect a uniquely Japanese style and temperament. The aggressive/confrontational interrogation tactics typical of American detective novels and movies is nowhere to be found. There's a politeness in every interaction between the detectives and suspects. If there's a little tension, it's between and among the detectives jockeying for position to be the one to solve the crime.
  
  Salvation of a Saint presents an unsympathetic murder victim and, initially, a particularly sympathetic potential perpetrator. It's a detective novel for those who like their solutions challenging - the more puzzle-oriented readers - the how, as it were, and also want to be presented with a "why" that makes sense based on human nature. Higashino scored on both points in this novel. Finally, his pacing is sublime. I stayed up far later than I should have to read this one night because Higashino has figured out how to drive the reader to read just one more chapter. And one more. And one more. I can't recommend Salvation of a Saint enough, if more complex detective novels are your thing.
  
  
• 
  Barbara

  
  In this 5th book in the 'Detective Galileo' series, the Japanese police look into the death of a rich businessman. The book can be read as a standalone.
  
  *****
  
  Wealthy businessman Yoshitaka Mashiba tells his wife Ayane that he's divorcing her because she hasn't become pregnant. He reminds Ayane this was the deal when they married - a baby on the way within a year or he looks for someone new.
  
  
  
  Meanwhile Yoshitaka has been having an affair with Hiromi, Ayane's apprentice in the art of quilt making.
  
  
  
  Heartbroken, Ayane goes off for the weekend to visit her parents. While she's away Yoshitaka is murdered with arsenic-laced coffee. The police suspect Ayane, but she has an ironclad alibi.
  
  
  
  To add to their problems, the police can't figure out how the arsenic got into the coffee. Detective Kusanagi and his team question Yoshitaka's friends and acquaintances but have trouble advancing the case.
  
  
  
  So the female detective on the team, Kaoru Utsumi, consults the brilliant physicist Yukawa, who's a whiz at solving difficult cases.
  
  
  
  Eventually the ingenious murder method and the killer are uncovered. I liked the new slant on murder weapons but the resolution was not very believable or satisfying (to me).
  
  All in all I thought the book read like a typical cozy, but I would have liked the characters to be more fully developed and more interesting. Still - for mystery fans - the book is a pleasant way to pass a few hours
  
  You can follow my reviews at
  https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
• 
  Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂

  4.5★
  
  I have no idea why it took me so long to get back to this series, when I enjoyed
  The Devotion of Suspect X so much!
  
  It may be a case of "Ooh look, shiny!" as new books cross my Goodreads path, but it is more likely that the number of group reads I do & my devotion to twentieth century fiction crowd even the ablest of modern writers out. Which is, of course, a pity.
  
  But better late than never!
  
  Devotion of Suspect X made me think of Shogi
  

  
  

  
  
  This book features both chess
  

  
  

  
  
  and badminton
  
  
  
  It isn't subtle (nothing about this book is) but it shows the value of keeping fit mentally and physically.
  
  One of the main characters is a Japanese quilter. I know nothing about this sub craft ( I guess you would call it) but I certainly looked at some beautiful examples.
  
  

  
  

  
  
  This one might be closer to the style of Ayane's work.
  
  

  
  

  
  
  This art form is definitely the work of careful planner. And Ayane is indeed a planner!
  
  It may also be the translation, but some of the points are very heavy handed.
  
  Still, don't give up. I definitely got a surprise at the end!
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
  
  
  
• 
  K.J. Charles

  I appear to be glomming. Really enjoying this author's twisty murders, which tend to have wildly complex solutions while also playing hob with form. Here, the author reveals the murderer in the first chapter, and we then spend the entire book trying to see how she did it and wondering if we've been fooled and she didn't, only to facepalm at the end. I've read three of these in a row, I really should start to see the twists coming, but no.
  
  This one also has a lot to think about re some fairly toxic gender attitudes not unknown in Japan. Cracking reads.
• 
  Samadrita

  **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 complexities of the human mind and offers the reader some philosophical meanderings to go with a regular offering of a mind-boggling mystery.
  
  Without delay, let me get to the summary now.
  
  Yoshitaka and Ayane Mashiba have been married for one year and yet their marriage is already falling apart. Why? Because turns out, both of them had agreed to treat marriage like a contractual agreement in which if Ayane fails to conceive a child within a year they will part ways. And, of course, Ayane has failed to conceive at the end of the stipulated time period.
  So what happens next? Yoshitaka declares he is leaving her because he has already found prospective new baby-producer to replace Ayane. And it turns out that she is none other than Ayane's protege, Hiromi Wakayama, whose talent Ayane has helped hone herself.
  And to put the cap on this madness, Yoshitaka gets killed in his apartment while Ayane is away in Sapporo on a visit to her parents and the detective in charge of the investigation falls for Ayane at first sight even though she becomes the chief suspect.
  But then of course, she has a rock solid alibi. She was away from Tokyo when Yoshitaka was murdered.
  How do you kill when you are physically hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime?
  
  Here in lies the novelty of Salvation of a Saint. It's not a whodunit as much as it is a howdunit.
  
  To me the real villain of the story remains the victim and not the murderer. Because men who treat women like baby-producing machines and switch to one from another as easily as changing clothes, deserve to be at least squarely kicked in their family jewels, if not murdered outright. And I'm pleased to find out there are no misogynistic undertones in this narrative since Higashino doesn't gloss over this fact.
  Now for my verdict on Higashino as a writer:-
  
  If you are acquainted with anime such as Death Note, Monster or Detective School Q (Tantei Gakuen Kyu), you are bound to know that the Japanese, being big fans of logical reasoning and the science of deduction, have a penchant for creating stories with a worthwhile mystery at its center. And Keigo Higashino upholds that cherished tradition with this well-plotted novel.
  He excels at creating a mystery which appears convoluted and unsolvable at the outset, but when it unravels slowly and all the pieces of the puzzle start falling into their place, the solution doesn't baffle one as much as the killer's dedication towards the very act of the murder does.
  
  But I have a bone to pick with the translation - it doesn't always do a good job of capturing the true cadence of Japanese speech and the awkward sentence construction feels jarring at times.
  
  A significant thing about this book is instead of one detective giving it his all to solve a murder, it gives you 3.
  The detective in charge of the investigation, Kusanagi finds his judgement dangerously clouded by his growing fascination for Ayane. While his assistant Kaoru Utsumi, stubbornly convinced of the fact that Ayane is the killer, seeks out physics professor cum detective extraordinaire, Manabu Yukawa aka Detective Galileo to help her out.
  But even while pursuing separate leads, all 3 of them arrive at the same answer.
  
  The characters are not badly sketched caricatures but appear as people who could actually exist. The calmness of Ayane's demeanour even under suspicion, Utsumi's doggedness, Yukawa's brilliance and Kusanagi's quiet dignity shine through.
  
  Kusanagi and Yukawa's friendship, rivalry and the grudging respect they have for each other add another dimension to the story. And it reminds one of the Lestrade and Holmes equation because like Lestrade, Kusanagi is the one getting the credit even though most of the work is done by Yukawa. Although a comparison between Lestrade and Kusanagi won't be fair since the former was essentially a pompous idiot while Kusanagi is balanced and reasonable.
  It is also interesting to take note of Kusanagi's increasing concern over his own evaluation of the murder and the subsequent investigation - is he being objective or is he being too judgemental? and how does one stop his personal feelings from getting in the way of his professional assessment of a scenario?
  His inner turmoil leads him to ponder over what makes a person commit a murder and the effect it has on their personality:-
  
  

  "Kusanagi had met plenty of good, admirable people who'd been turned into murderers quite by circumstance. There was something about them he always seemed to sense, an aura that they shared. Somehow, their trangression freed them from the confines of mortal existence, allowing them to perceive the great truths of the universe. At the same time, it meant they had one foot in forbidden territory. They straddled the line between sanity and madness."

  
  
  Lastly, this novel also dares to analyze the not-so-flattering shades of a woman's personality and how one woman is sometimes another woman's worst enemy - how an act of betrayal may cause a woman to seek out vengeance with a resolute, perverse passion.
  
  Hence an impressed 3 stars.
  Highly recommended to lovers of mysteries and it doesn't hurt either if you are a fan of Japanese literature in addition to that.
  
  P.S:- I apologize for not shedding any light on how the title of the book relates to the murder or the core of the story. But to do that would be to reveal the crux of the story itself, which would be doing the future reader a grave injustice.
  
  Review as in
  Aura of Sleepless Dreams
• 
  Ali Book World

  عالی بود، عالی عالی عالی!
  طوفانی شروع شد، محشر ادامه پیدا کرد، بی‌نظیر تمام شد...
  یک کتاب معمایی-جنایی بدون نقص! 👏
  پیشنهادی صد درصد 👍
• 
  সালমান হক

  থ্রিলার বলতে যা মাথায় আসে, এক অর্থে এই বইয়ে তার কিছুই পাবেন না। কিন্তু চুম্বকের মত ধরে রাখবে শেষ পৃষ্ঠা পর্যন্ত। খুনী কে সেটার গল্প কখনোই বলেন না হিগাশিনো। বলেন কিভাবে খুন হলো কিংবা কেন খুন হলো। প্রথম যেবার শেষ করি, শেষ কয়েকটা অধ্যায় পড়ার সময় ভীষণ অন্যরকম একটা অনুভূতি হচ্ছিল। এভাবেও মার্ডার মিস্ট্রি লেখা যায়?
• 
  Tamoghna Biswas

  **4.2 stars**
  
  “Sometimes it's as important to prove there is no answer to a question as it is to answer it.”
  
  It was the second work that I read by Higashino, with my expectations set higher after his probably most famous work. An unwise decision, perhaps, to read an author’s most acclaimed work before dealing with his others, but I didn’t regret it, for sure.
  
  The story revolves around a middle-aged hypocrite who was going to divorce his wife, for “failing” to “give” him a baby, which wasn’t his fault for he had gone through the medical check-up himself. And soon after that, he was found lying dead in his abode, by arsenic poisoning, and the suspicion fell, quite obviously on his wife. However, she was verified to be hundreds of miles away at that time, and hence our beloved Physics Professor Manabu Yukawa was called to look into the matter.
  
  Written in a bit of Christie-like whodunnit style, the storytelling often can remind you of her
  Mysterious Affairs At Styles, though in a modern, and bit differently complicated manner. The ending may seem a bit unrealistic, but definitely a treat. However, this little bit imitative way of storytelling doesn’t allow this work to be as great as it’s sequel. But still, I will highly recommend this one to all lovers of this genre. Kusanagi and Yukawa’s conversations, at times are well enough to provide a bit of relief from the serious tone and pace of the story. Yoshitaka’s outlook of the society, and women’s role in marriage, can remind you of Atwood’s
  Handmaid’s Tale; a simultaneously disgusting and ridiculous way of perceiving for a ‘modern’ guy. Truth be told, we are actually always surrounded by guys who think like this, and even now there’s none to mould the thoughts.
  
  So, a thriller, packed with bits of important (relevant) social messages, that not for an instance feels preachy? Also, an awesome translation, that proved to me more readable than even Murakami. I hardly remember anything that I had read almost 3 years ago, but this story sheds some much needed light on a silent antagonist of immense character, one that can’t be easily forgotten. No need to speak anything on the crime-solving skills of Yukawa, we don't call him "Galileo" for no reason. And quite like the other works of the series, you won’t be amazed by the “who?”, as much as you will be by the “how?”
  
  Definitely recommended. However, it’s not that excellent. Good, undoubtedly, but not even close to his best. Rather, doesn’t feel that authentic, but just as some good modern-day crime thriller will do.
  
  “…marriage meant offering daily salvation to a man standing on the gallows”
• 
  الزهراء الصلاحي

  لحظة!
  "كيغو هيغاشينو" مرة أخرى!!
  الكاتب الذي يجعلني في كل مرة أُمسك فيها بعمل له لا أتركه قبل إنهائه!
  لثاني مرة أقرأ رواية له بيوم واحد!
  فماذا أقول فيه غير أنه الآن أصبح أفضل من كتب الروايات البوليسية اليابانية بالنسبة لي!
  
  أفكاره خارج الصندوق،
  حتى لو أخبرك بصاحب الجريمة منذ البداية إلا أنه سيبهرك بطريقة تنفيذه لهذه الجريمة.
  __
  بدايةً، هذه الرواية مميزة بكل شيء!
  الاسم، الغلاف، الافتتاحية وحتى النهاية.
  لكن دعوني أسأل سؤال:
  ماذا ستفعل امرأة أخبرها الرجل الذي أحبته وقررت الزواج به قبل عقد قرانهم بأنها إذا لم تحمل في خلال عام فإنه سيتركها؟!
  بالطبع هناك من سترفض الارتباط من الأساس، وهناك من ستقبل على أمل الإنجاب مبكراً، وهناك من ستتوقع بأنه يمزح أو بأنه سينسى موضوع الاتفاق بعد مرور عام على الزواج كما فعلت "إياني".
  
  وماذا ستفعل عندما يفاجئها زوجها ذات مساء بأنه سيتركها لأنه قد مر عام وهى قد كبرت والأمل صار ضعيف في الإنجاب وإضافة لذلك فهو مرتبط بالفعل بامرأة أخرى!
  
  هنا تبدأ "إياني" في تنفيذ خطتها للتخلص من زوجها،
  لكن هل تروا أن هذا دافع كافي لقتله؟
  خاصة وهو قد أخبرها منذ البداية بأن غرضه الأساسي من الزواج هو الإنجاب وتكوين أسرة وهى تعلم أنها عقيم!!
  __
  سأقول لكم شيء،
  منذ البداية وأنتم ستعلمون بأنها من قتله وأيضاً ستعلمون أنها قتلته بسم الزرنيخ في القهوة،
  لكن ما لم تعرفونه بأنها كانت مسافرة قبلها بيومين 🙂
  هل زاد حماسكم؟
  سأترككم للتعرف على باقي المفاجآت عند قراءة الرواية.
  
  تمت
  ٢ أغسطس ٢٠٢١
• 
  Apoorva

  It seems like the end of 2018 is gonna be ‘Keigo Higashino’ year for me and I’m not complaining! Salvation of a Saint is another impressive novel, a successor of the Devotion of Suspect X in the thriller series 'Detective Galileo'. This book revolves around a perfect crime: a crime which is so proficiently crafted that it leaves no evidence or trace behind to pinpoint the criminal; the unsolvability of the crime depends on the skill of the criminal rather than the incompetence of the investigator.
  
  The mystery here begins with the murder of a businessman Yoshikata Mashiba who’s killed in his apartment alone with a poison-laced coffee. We later learn that the victim had made up his mind to divorce his wife so, the wife is a logical suspect here, as there scarcely appears anyone else who had a definite motive and who might have constructed such a scheme to end Yoshikata. The thing is the murder was committed when the wife was miles away which would make it impossible to carry out.
  
  Unfortunately, our lead detective Kusanagi is enchanted by the wife and denies any allegations against her. Seeing his judgment getting clouded due to his feelings for the dead man’s wife, his assistant Utsumi secretly approaches Professor Manabu Yukawa, famously known as 'Detective Galileo' to assist in the investigation, as the events happened in the previous book has created a rift between the two friends. But, even Yukawa has a hard time decoding this one. It leads the two friends to split in different directions and pursue different paths to find the killer. What follows is the elaborate observation of the clues to rule out different possibilities to get to the heart of the crime.
  
  This book is well detailed and cleverly constructed and the information is disclosed one step at a time with tiny twists. The characters are likable and witty. The plot is very simple. Turning a simple plot into a complex story is the forte of the author! There’s never a dull moment and it’s hard to put down the book. Even though the identity of the criminal is revealed in the first few pages, you need not worry, as it does not hinder the mystery. Even as I was reading and was absolutely sure about something, I was led astray by the revelation of new clues and information which made me doubt myself so much. And, the ending just blew my mind! This book attempts to stretch the boundaries of your imagination and makes you marvel at the complexity of the human mind.
  
  All in all, this book was awesome! Not as good as the previous one but excellent in its own way. I highly recommend it to the fans of thrillers.
  
  
• 
  Eli24

  تمام شد. خیلی خوب بود عالی بود اصلا محشر بود.
  فکرکنم من جز معدود کسایی بودم که وقتی کتابو میخوندم نمیخواستم باور کنم این شخص قاتله همش دنبال یک دلیلی برای رد کردن این ادعا بودم ولی بازم قاتل بودن هرشخص دیگه ای هم غیرمنطقی میشد. جالبترین چیز برام نحوه قتل بود که چقدر براش وقت گذاشته شده بود و با چه دقت و حوصله ای پیادش کرده بود. البته سخن پایانی اینکه مقتول حقش بود که بمیره 😒
• 
  Patrick Sherriff

  I don't recommend this book if you are trying to cut down on caffeine. I say this as someone who drinks far too much coffee for his own good. I decided to knock coffee on the head for a week. The same week, by chance, I started listening to the audiobook of Salvation of a Saint. On day one, I had terrible headaches and a real craving for the smell and taste of filter coffee. And then I found, much to my chagrin, the victim keels over from a cup of poisoned coffee and all I could think about was coffee. In fact, the the whole novel revolves around coffee, or how the poison got in to the coffee. Every day for a week as I struggled to detoxify my body, I listened to detectives experimenting with coffee filters, debating whether mineral or tap water went into the coffee and who had the last cup?
  
  Well, it wan't me.
  
  Anyway, when I could drag my mind away from my addiction, I found the book's tastiest elements were the blend of characters -- our hero cop who falls for the femme fatale, his sidekick female junior detective who decidedly doesn't fall for suspect no. 1, and the professor who hovers Spock-like over all the bickering parties offering sage advice to follow the clues to their logical conclusion. At times I found the whodunnit puzzle a little too tedious and our hero's infatuation with the suspect not strongly convincing, but it was all palatable enough. The audiobook narrator was very good, although his pronunciation of Japanese place names was sometimes - how you say? - distracting. Nevertheless, on the whole, a concoction worth savouring.
  
  Download my starter library for free here -
  http://eepurl.com/bFkt0X - and receive my monthly newsletter with book recommendations galore for the Japanophile/crime fiction/English teacher in all of us.
• 
  Shaghayegh

  و من عاشق این کتاب شدم.
  علاوه بر اینکه سبک جنایی داستان کاملا متفاوت از بقیه جناییا بود،میزان احساستی بودن کاراگاه بدجوری به دلم نشست.
  این کتاب میتونه یکی از محبوب‌ترین کتابای جناییم بشه.
• 
  Rifat

  একদিকে স্ত্রী গেলেন বাবার বাড়ি ওদিকে তার স্বামী নিজের হাতে বানানো কফি পান করে রান্নাঘরেই জ্ঞান হারিয়ে পড়ে রইলেন। এরপরে তার প্রেমিকা তাকে ফোনে না পেয়ে বাসায় এসে এমন অবস্থা দেখে এম্বুলেন্সে ফোন করলেন, তারপর জানা গেল বিবাহিত প্রেমিক আর বেঁচে নেই। ফরেন্সিক এক্সপার্টরা জানালেন নিজের বানানো কফি পান করেই বিষক্রিয়ার স্বীকার হন তিনি। ওদিকে প্রেমিকাটি ঐ লোকটির স্ত্রীরই সহকারী। তাহলে দেখা যাচ্ছে স্ত্রীর একটা মোটিভ থেকে থাকতে পারে এই খুনের ব্যাপারে। কিন্তু সে তো ছিল বাবার বাড়ি। তাহলে কি প্রেমিকা এই কাজ করেছে!? তার কি মোটিভ থাকতে পারে? হোমিসাইডের লোকেরা কোনো খুনির হদিস খুঁজে পান না, পাশাপাশি বিষ কিভাবে কফিতে মিশে গেলো সে ব্যাপারেও কোনো কিছু বোঝা যাচ্ছে না। সাসপেক্টও মাত্র এই দু'জন!
  
  বেশ আরামেই পড়ছিলাম। শুরুটাও ভাল ছিল। তারপর দেখি সব গোল গোল ঘোরা শুরু করলো।একবার স্ত্রীর কাছে ইনকোয়ারি করতে যায়, একবার প্রেমিকার কাছে এভাবেই বারবার ঘুরতে থাকে। এরপরে ৭৪% শেষ করার পর আমার ধৈর্য আমাকে বলে উঠল- "এই ফাগুনী পূর্ণিমা রাতে চল পলায়ে যাই "🐸 And it happened!
  
  শেষ করার পর একটু আফসোস লাগলো। শেষটাও দারুণ ছিল, কাইন্ড অফ পার্ফেক্ট ক্রাইম। আহারে! কিন্তু বইটা যদি ২০০/২৫০ পৃষ্ঠার মধ্যে শেষ হতো অনায়াসে পাঁচ তারা দিতাম। আমার কাছে মনে হল মাঝের দিকে ঝুলে গেছিলো :/
  
  ৩/৫
  
  ~২৫ জুন, ২০২১
• 
  Mohi Hajihoseini

  گاهی میشه با هیچ کاری نکردن یه نفر رو کشت!
• 
  Amit

  There's nothing more scary 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 can sometimes go back decades and if I'm lucky maybe even a weird weapon of choice.
  With slight modification to one of the above 3 elements, I'd say, the book excels on all 3 grounds.
  
  When I finished reading the first 2 chapters in the book and realized that there are more than 300 pages remaining, I knew I was getting into something highly complex. And boy, was I not disappointed. The novels continues on with the detectives going about their regular work, questioning anything that moved.
  
  The murder plan was extremely simple, but complex enough to keep the reader guessing till the end. Even crazy, if not mind boggling and the motive was quite obvious from page 5, though the reason was not. Keigo is definitely well on his way (after reading this book, a long way) from becoming the next Arthur Conan Doyle, the reason for which I shall now explain.
  
  Keigo has definitely done a great job by concentrating more on the case than on the characters themselves, especially from those in the police department. But as a reader of his previous work, The Devotion of Suspect X, i believe, he hasn't given us a character who can be described as the Japanese Sherlock Holmes. Throughout the book, I was confused as to whether Manabu Yukawa or Shumpei Kusanagi were playing the part of the main protagonists, once thing the author should have kept in mind when he reintroduced the characters from his previous work. My above statement is highly evident from the fact that since Yukawa is the one who mainly decodes the case, he is hardly given any spotlight at all. I hope the author improves on this in his next work.
  
  Normally, after writing an entire paragraph on what's wrong with this book, I would give a rating in the range of 2-3 stars but the overall simplicity of the murder plot won me over, and thus I'm compelled to give this book a 4 star rating.
  
  And under normal circumstances, I would refrain from the idea of turning this novel into a movie since they basically alter the plot line which can seriously piss the reader off. But this case deserves an exception. After watching The Devotion of Suspect X on screen and how closely it follows the plot line. I will admit that I am eagerly looking forward to the movie adaptation of this book.
  
  For the Indian Reader
  
  The mass market paperback version of this book is available at great discounts across many online retailers. But, I would recommend buying the book from
  Infibeam, for the simple fact that they don't charge extra delivery fees for shipping anywhere in India, and that their delivery timings are on par with that of FlipKart (Seriously pissed off at them right now).
• 
  Heba

  رواية بوليسية تشويقية..مُمتعة..، كادت تقتنص مني خمس نجوم لولا مفتاح حل الجريمة...
  لن أحرق الأحداث...ولكن سأتطرق إلى نقاط الضعف الذي لا يمكن تغافلها...
  السيد "يوشتاكا" وجِد قتيلاً بعدما تناول فنجان من القهوة ، وقد أفضى التحقيق إلى أن القهوة كانت سامة...
  أين دُس السم ؟...
  في مسحوق القهوة ، المصفاة ، صنبور المياة، في أحد أقنية المياة المعدنية...أين يا ترى ؟
  دائرة الا��ت��اه ضيقة ومحدودة جداً الزوجة وعشيقة الزوج...
  الرجل أبرم اتفاقاً مع الزوجة قبل الزواج أن لم تنجب خلال السنة الأولى سينفصل عنها..عندئذٍ تُدبر مكيدة القتل منتظرة اللحظة المناسبة للتنفيذ...!!!
  كانت امرأة تصمم لوحات من الفسيفساء النسيجية وذاك يُرسخ من حذرها ، ذكاءها الحاد ، إرادتها الخطيرة ، ويقظتها المُتقدة التي لا تعرف الوهن...
  كيف يمكن للمحقق أن يُغرم بها ويقف مُعانداً أمام كل الاحتمالات التي تضعها مساعدته ؟!..
  حتى وإن لم يقف مُعرقلاً أمام سير التحقيقات بل لم يستهين بأي دليل مادي مهما كان تافهاً وبعيداُ ، ولكن اليست الزوجة هى المُشتبه الأول لوجود دافع الانتقام من الزوج الخائن ؟...
  الإدلاء بالكثير من المعلومات أمام الزوجة دون الحفاظ على سريتها ، حتى وإن كان على سبيل أن تهتز ثقتها بنفسها إن كانت هى الجانية ولكن هى لم تكن محل اشتباه عندما فعل المُحقق ذلك...
  لِما لم تُفرغ رسائل الهاتف الواردة والمُرسلة حتى وإن لم تكن لها داعٍ بالقضية ولكن لتتسع دائرة البحث والغرق في التفاصيل..
  مفتاح حل اللغز ياتي على يد استاذ فيزياء جامعي معاون للشرطة ...واستطاع تحليل الجريمة وتحديد موعدها وان يُعلن عن تفاصيلها الدقيقة كما لو كان حاضراً برفقة الزوجة وهى تُنفذ مكيدتها....
  كما أن الحل يستحيل ان يكون منطقياً ...احتمال تصور حدوثه ضئيلاً بعيداً عن الواقع...
  لا تقلق... لن أحرق الاحداث والله..أنا أعطيتُك وعد...🤗
  لكن دعني اسألك سؤال بسيط ، هل يمكن لامرأة أن تتحكم في دخول زوجها للمطبخ ؟؟!!...
  هل يمكن ان تحول بينه وبين أن يعود يوماً باكراً من العمل وبدلاً من أن يفتح قنينة مياة معدنية يُسارع لمياة الصنبور المُصفاة لكي يشرب منها أو يغسل تفاحة يتناولها قبل الغداء..مثلاً...
  هنا مُمكن...اتصدق ذلك 🤪
  إن المهم عند المرأة ليس ما نراه وإنما ما يوجد داخلها....
• 
  MD Mijanor Rahman Medul Medul

  এই জন্যই জ্যাপানিজরা এশিয়ার গর্ব। নাক চ্যাপটা এই জাতিরা যা করে 😭😭।
  এর আগে কিয়েগো হিগাশিনো'র " দ্যা ডিভোশন অফ সাসপেন্স এক্স " পড়ে দেড় মাস পাগোল আছিলাম, এবার "স্যালভেশন অফ আ সেইন্ট"পড়ে আজীবন এর জন্য পাগোল হয়ে গেলাম। কোনটা থেকে যে কোনটা বেষ্ট সেটাই এখন বের করতে দম বের হয়ে যাবে। হিগাশিনো কি রকম প্লট তৈরি করে আর শেষে টুইস্ট দেয় এতো ডেঞ্জারেস ভাবে 😭😭।
  এর আগে" দ্যা ডিভোশন অফ সাসপেন্স এক্স "পড়ে ১৮০ ডিগ্রীতে ঘুরে গেছিলাম এবার ৩৬০ ডিগ্রী পুরা হলো 😞।
  সালমান হক ভাই কে ধন্যবাদ কিয়েগো হিগাশিনোর সাথে পরিচয় করিয়ে দেয়ার জন্য।
  পারসোনাল রেটিং ৫:৫ 😞।
• 
  Bharath

  I read Keigo Higashino’s “The Devotion of Suspect X” on a recommendation from a friend sometime back and really liked. Since then, I read “Malice” and now “Salvation of a Saint”. The strength is in the depth of the story and the characters. They are all great crime novels with no fluff or unnecessary drama.
  
  Salvation of a Saint is another great story if you like crime/mysteries. It is not as crisply written as the other two books mentioned above, but a very good read nevertheless.
  
  Yoshitaka and his wife Ayane are about to separate from their marriage. As Ayane is visiting her parents, Yoshitaka dies mysteriously – as a result of drinking coffee laced with poison. Yoshitaka has not been exactly faithful, and based on that it seems that his wife has the strongest motive to kill him, but she is away during that period. Ayane’s work colleague Hiromi is the last to have seen Yoshitaka.
  
  Police detective Kusanagi and his assistant Utsumi investigate the case. It is puzzling as it is unclear where the poison came from. Utsumi turns to Professor Yukawa for help. It seems to be the perfect crime – with no evidence to lead anywhere.
  
  The reasoning of the police and Professor Yukawa is a delight to read, as they persevere with testing one hypothesis after the other. In many ways, I suppose this is how great mysteries are really solved – one step at a time.
  
• 
  Rakib Hasan

  ডিটেক্টিভ গ্যালিলিও সিরিজের ২য় বই পড়া সালমান ভাইয়ের অনুবাদে এবং সাসপেক্ট এক্স এর মতই দুর্দান্ত আরেকটা বই। পারফেক্ট ক্রাইম ।😍
• 
  Idarah

  "Kusanagi had met plenty of good, admirable people who'd been turned into murderers by circumstance. There was something about them he always seemed to sense, an aura that they shared. Somehow, their transgression freed them from the confines of a mortal existence, allowing them to perceive the great truths of the universe. At the same time, it meant they had one foot in forbidden territory. They straddled the line between sanity and madness."
  
  Detective Galileo has done it again, by solving the perfect crime, and in the meantime revealing how "good, admirable" people can become the most cunning of murderers. Highly recommend. Can't wait to read the next in the series. I'm hooked!
• 
  neverblossom

  UPDATE 28/06/19
  
  4/5 sao
  
  Ối chà vậy là thêm một cuốn của Keigo Higashino lọt vào danh sách trinh thám yêu thích của tớ rồi. Khác với những cuốn trinh thám đa phần giấu nhẹm hung thủ cho đến phút cuối cùng, Sự Cứu Rỗi Của Thánh Nữ lại đi ngược dòng, tung hint danh tính hung thủ là ai ở ngay những trang đầu tiên. Tuy nhiên điều đó cũng không hề làm giảm đi sức thu hút của câu chuyện này đâu. Bởi nhiều khi dù biết thủ phạm là ai rồi nhưng còn động cơ hay cách gây án thì suy cho cùng vẫn là một ẩn số khiến chúng ta phải đau đầu và bị thúc giục đọc đến những trang cuối của cuốn sách.
  
  Tội ác của "Thánh Nữ" này mở đầu với việc tìm thấy xác người chồng tại biệt thự nhà Mashiba Yoshitaka - bị trúng độc và hiện trường vụ án vẫn còn vương lại dấu vết thạch tín trong cốc cà phê đổ lênh láng bên cạnh. Mọi nghi ngờ đều đổ dồn vào người vợ là Ayane - một nghệ nhân nổi tiếng với các tác phẩm ghép vải độc đáo đắt tiền và cô Wakayama Hiromi, học trò cưng của Ayane. Tưởng như chắc cốp thủ phạm là ai nhưng mọi chuyện không đơn giản như thế, bởi cả hai đều có chứng cứ ngoại phạm vững chắc. Và cảnh sát càng đau đầu hơn bởi vấn đề hóc búa: Làm sao hung thủ có thẻ hạ độc được ông Yoshitaka khi không một ai có thể tiếp cận nạn nhân trong thời điểm xảy ra vụ án. Một lần nữa, "thám tử Galileo" Yukawa Manabu nhập cuộc. Nhưng vấn đề ở chỗ mặc dù tìm ra đáp án cho bài toán nhưng đó lại là một "đáp án ảo chỉ có thể suy nghĩ về mặt lý thuyết nhưng không thể tồn tại trong hiện thực". Vậy rốt cuộc cái chuyện trời đánh này là như nào vậy ta.
  
  Sự Cứu Rỗi Của Thánh Nữ chắc chắn phải là một tội ác hoàn hảo, vì thế nên tác giả đã tự tin phơi bày ra chân tướng hung thủ ngay từ phút đầu tiên. Và điều này càng khiến người đọc tò mò, tự mình vắt óc suy nghĩ và thử diễn giải mọi thứ trong câu chuyện. Nhưng càng cố tìm ra sự thật thì dường như sự thật lại càng bị bao phủ thêm bởi màn sương dày đặc và mọi manh mối đều dẫn vào ngõ cụt không lối thoát. Chính vì sự kích thích trí tò mò về động cơ cũng như cách thức của thủ phạm nên Sự Cứu Rỗi Của Thánh Nữ chuẩn là một cuốn page-turner với tớ, cảm giác như càng đọc càng bị cuốn vào vụ án, đòi hỏi phải tìm ra bằng được lời giải cho bài toán sát nhân nhức não này.
  
  Mạch truyện ổn định, tuyến nhân vật "đủ dùng" nên trong quá trình đọc không bị rối. Nếu ai đã đọc X thì chắc chắn sẽ nhận ra cặp bài trùng Kusanagi và Yukawa một lần nữa lại song kiếm hợp bích, được Keigo Higashino tái hợp cho lên sàn diễn. Tuy nhiên không thể không nhắc đến Utsumi Kaoru - một cảnh sát điều tra trẻ tuổi và cô này cũng là nhân vật tớ đặc biệt ưa thích trong Sự Cứu Rỗi Của Thánh Nữ. Kaoru đúng chuẩn một nữ điều tra biết tận dụng tối đa cái đầu và óc phán đoán cũng như sự suy xét tỉ mỉ của mình và điều này rõ ràng làm tăng lên giá trị cũng như tầm quan trọng của cô trong việc truy tìm chiếc chìa khóa giải mã cuối cùng. Keigo Higashino đúng thật là đã xoay người đọc như xoay chong chóng. Nhiều khi tưởng đã tìm ra thủ đoạn gây án rồi nhưng không, tác giả lại một lần nữa phũ phàng phủ nhận suy luận tưởng như đã rất hợp lí của cảnh sát, nghi vấn lại chồng chất nghi vấn, bế tắc lại chất chồng bế tắc, đủ để làm người đọc bối rối hoang mang style theo.
  
  Một điều nữa sau khi đọc xong "Thánh Nữ" tớ công nhận là đúng chuẩn như tên gọi, phụ nữ trong câu chuyện này không phải là dạng vừa đâu, từ chính diện đến phản diện luôn. Và cũng như bao cuốn trinh thám khác của mình, tác phẩm của Keigo luôn đan xen thêm những vấn đề nhức nhối của xã hội. Trong câu chuyện này là nghệ thuật patchwork (ghép vải) và mâu thuẫn hôn nhân giữa Ayane và Yoshitaka đã dâng cao đến đỉnh điểm. Nhiều vấn đề trong hôn nhân được đặt ra, nhất là chuyện về con cái.
  
  Nhìn chung Sự Cứu Rỗi Của Thánh Nữ không phải là tác phẩm xuất sắc nhất của Keigo nhưng là một cuốn sách khá ổn, nếu bạn nào ngại spoil chi tiết nho nhỏ thì đừng đọc lời giới thiệu ở bìa sau nhé. Dịch ổn, bìa đẹp. Và những ai chưa đọc một tác phẩm nào của Keigo Higashino thì lựa chọn Sự Cứu Rỗi này làm câu chuyện mở màn cũng ok lắm đó.
• 
  Zumi

  Was better than my expectations. Devoured it page by page. I love intelligence in women, devious brains and a mystery which exercises my brain cells, and of course the Japanese way of life, storytelling and descriptions.
  A man in his early middle age , who was about to divorce his wife of a year, as she couldn't conceive in the stipulated time, is found dead in his house by his young lover, who's in fact the wife's disciple. He's died of arsenic poisoning. And the search for the killer starts, the obvious target being the wife, who'd gone to her parental home for a few days. Astonishing facts are revealed, keeping the reader eagerly anticipating for the final revelation.
• 
  পটের দুধের কমরেড

  কয়েকটা ক্রাইম-থ্রিলারে হাতসাফাই থাকলে বুঝতে পারবেন আকামটা কে করল��� (whodunit) , কিন্তু প্রদীপের নিচে থাকে অন্ধকার - সেই অন্ধকারে কানামাছি খেলে জজ সাহেবের কঠোর মুখভঙ্গিতে বলা "সমস্ত সাক্ষ্যপ্রমাণের ভিত্তিতে..." - সেই সাক্ষ্যপ্রমাণ (howdunit) ধরতে গেলেই ধোঁয়াশা কিংবা চিন্তিত ভ্রূকুঞ্চনের চাপে কপালবন্দী স্বেদবিন্ধু তিরতির করে কাঁপতে থাকবে।
  
  বইটার কথা দীর্ঘদিন মনে থাকবে। আসলে গল্পটাই অন্যরকম মেজাজের। সবশেষে হয়ত আঁতকে উঠে বলবেন না "এইটা কি হলো?", বরং প্রফেসর ইকাওয়ার মত বলতে বাধ্য হবেন "It's the Perfect Crime".
  চক্ষাম একটা বইয়ের মাখন অনুবাদের জন্য অনুবাদক সালমান হক ভাইয়ের প্রতি কৃতজ্ঞতা জ্ঞাপন করি।
• 
  AngelFA

  1. I hate all of the characters in this book
  2. I hate how the investigation is done
  3. I hate all of the personal thoughts and opinions
  4. I hate her husband (our victim) to the bone
  5. I hate his mistress (she is a real fool)
  6. I hate the twist
  7. I hate there's no further explanation after all of those shit
  8. I hate EVERY FUCKING THING In here.
  
  And I WISH TO HAVE MY TIME BACK.