Newcomer

A Mystery

By: Keigo Higashino

Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

"Part Sherlock Holmes, part Harry Bosch, Higashino's hero is a quietly majestic force to be reckoned with." (Kirkus, starred review)

International best-seller Keigo Higashino returns with his latest mind-bender - Newcomer - as newly transferred Tokyo Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga is assigned to a baffling murder.

Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department has just been transferred to a new precinct in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Newly arrived, but with a great deal of experience, Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the murder of a woman. But the more he investigates, the greater number of potential suspects emerges. It isn’t long before it seems nearly all the people living and working in the business district of Nihonbashi have a motive for murder.

To prevent the murderer from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets surrounding a complicated life. Buried somewhere in the woman’s past, in her family history, and the last few days of her life is the clue that will lead to the murderer.

From the international best-seller Keigo Higashino, author of The Devotion of Suspect X, comes one of his finest works of crime fiction yet.

©2001; 2018 Text copyright Keigo Higashino; Translation copyright Giles Murray (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Nice experience

I enjoy the story and the narration is amazing. I hope to hear more in the future.

Clever plot. Poor translation. Goofy characters

The language (e.g. slang, idioms) in the dialog is inconsistent and inappropriate for the characters. I assume that's a translation issue.

Narrator does a good job with a huge number of voices of both genders.

Mysterious Japan

This mystery has a very good story and resolution. But its excellence is its ability to make the mystery unique to the place of origin — Japan.

I first visited Japan several times in the 1980s. It was and still remains a unique place. Although Japan has changed considerably since that time, the characters, behaviors and place details feel authentic.

Mysteries give us the ability to see the inside of these character’s actions and motivation. Initially, I thought this was going to become a sappy series of short stories. However, the author was able to pull it all together to create a much better than average mystery.

Another great whodunit from Higashino

This is my second book by Keigo Higashino, the first being “Malice” (the first in the Kaga series). The things I love about Malice have been carried over in this book–the straightforward, just descriptive writing style, the fleshed-out environment, and the use of logic rather than “gut feelings” that the detectives work from. I particularly like that a lot of information given is not necessarily connected to the case, but gets the reader and Kaga to the next peice of the puzzle. It feels like the opposite of the “Chekov’s Gun” device. It makes for a much more interesting mystery experience. Looking forward to listening to the next segment of the series.

Narrator sounded like AI robot, ruined a whimsical book

The book is less a crime novel than a whimsical study of people in a small neighbourhood and their hopes and foibles. It needed a subtle narrator. This one was mechanical, wooden but particularly tortured doing women’s characters.

Fascinating, intimate look at a Tokyo neighborhood in a procedural mystery

Detective Kaga combines a deep sympathy with ordinary people’s motivations and stories with a meticulous attention to detail. He leaves his suspects better off than when he first encounters him.

The narrator, with his film noir intonation and characterizations is perfect.

Loved every moment of this wonderful mystery

awesome - love det Kaga and Keigo Higashino

this was a very different story layout than other Detective Kaga stories I've read/listened to but I really enjoyed it, almost like an additional puzzle included for free. it was a bit confusing in terms of where in the timeline this story took place - at the end figured out why - print copyright 2011, translation copyright 2018, so it's actually earlier than other Kaga books I've listened to on Audible. It can be read as a standalone story, without dependencies on other novels. Highly recommend.

Smart deductions intelligent story

So many little details but all concluded with solutions! How these all weaved into the murder is amazing. The observation of human behaviour is also interesting and moving. Wonderfully well-written and I wish there were lots more from this author.

Very interesting story.

Good mystery, love detective Kaga. Narrator’s voice was to choppy and lacked expression, he didn’t add to the story.

Detective Kaga

This is an interesting police procedural story. I enjoyed the unraveling which is told in a slightly different way from most police procedural. Nevertheless, if this is your first Keigo Higashino novel, be prepared to have an open mind to make the cultural adjustment necessary to enjoy this novel. If you like to listen to something other than the "cookie cutter" type police procedural, give this one a try.