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A review by nikey_view
Newcomer by Keigo Higashino
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In Newcomer, Kaga has just joined the Nihonbashi precinct as a detective. When Mineko Mitsui is found murdered in her apartment, Kaga starts to piece together a picture of Mitsui's life by tracking down the people she might have encountered on her daily routines, and uncover the origins of the items in his apartment. Kaga persistently uncovered all the backgrounds of all individuals remotely related to this case.
So.. the first thing that comes into my mind when I opened the first page of the book is "wow, this book have so many characters". And tbh I was taken aback to see the list of the characters bcs I'm afraid that I'll forget the characters and I did think that it was soo overly doing, like... you don't need to do that, just let it flows.. But then as the story goes by, it turns out it's not as bad as what I think and I find myself not in troubles so I was pretty enjoyed the whole story.
In this book we get a closer look at how Detective Kaga would act and investigate to identify suspicious clues and uncover the truth. I really like the process when Kaga went to one shop to another in Nihonbashi, met different kind of family flows at the shop. Whenever I read each chapter, I feel like I'm reading slice-of-life short stories. I really like how Detective Kaga indirectly solves their family problems. Even if the problems didn't have clear connection to the murder case, I still love the vibes of the book and it's pretty heart-warming for me. Surely it made me a fan of Detective Kaga.
And as we don't even learn the victims' names and other background details until near the midpoint of the book, and instead, we slowly learn the entire story from these shops which Kaga came to. We can rule out the suspicious thing in every chapter. In the end the culprit was someone I would never have thought of and it was interesting to see every detail come together at the end, yet it didn't made me suprised. I wonder why, but perhaps the structure of the story that made me not suprised? It can be a weakness but also a good thing. A weakness bcs it feels like an anticlimax twist, a good thing bcs Keigo did a good job in writing the story to unfold the murder case bcs it's so neatly written.
So.. the first thing that comes into my mind when I opened the first page of the book is "wow, this book have so many characters". And tbh I was taken aback to see the list of the characters bcs I'm afraid that I'll forget the characters and I did think that it was soo overly doing, like... you don't need to do that, just let it flows.. But then as the story goes by, it turns out it's not as bad as what I think and I find myself not in troubles so I was pretty enjoyed the whole story.
In this book we get a closer look at how Detective Kaga would act and investigate to identify suspicious clues and uncover the truth. I really like the process when Kaga went to one shop to another in Nihonbashi, met different kind of family flows at the shop. Whenever I read each chapter, I feel like I'm reading slice-of-life short stories. I really like how Detective Kaga indirectly solves their family problems. Even if the problems didn't have clear connection to the murder case, I still love the vibes of the book and it's pretty heart-warming for me. Surely it made me a fan of Detective Kaga.
And as we don't even learn the victims' names and other background details until near the midpoint of the book, and instead, we slowly learn the entire story from these shops which Kaga came to. We can rule out the suspicious thing in every chapter. In the end the culprit was someone I would never have thought of and it was interesting to see every detail come together at the end, yet it didn't made me suprised. I wonder why, but perhaps the structure of the story that made me not suprised? It can be a weakness but also a good thing. A weakness bcs it feels like an anticlimax twist, a good thing bcs Keigo did a good job in writing the story to unfold the murder case bcs it's so neatly written.