Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino

SILENT PARADE by Keigo Higashino is book 4 in the Detective Galileo series by this award-winning Japanese author. Higashino’s work is routinely highly rated and praised and I had already enjoyed The Newcomer a few years ago. However, I found SILENT PARADE to be rather slow even though the premise of the story was unique and held my attention for a while. Booklist describes this novel as “leisurely paced” while Library Journal and Publishers Weekly gave it starred reviews. Tokyo Chief Inspector Kusanagi returns with his friend (and amateur detective) physics professor Manabu Yukawa to try to solve a locked room puzzle: Was a murderer murdered? How? And by whom? Which of many suspects had the best opportunity and motive? Or were they working in cooperation? This translation provides a lengthy list of characters and numerous twists and turns as Yukawa, employing scientific reasoning, develops and refines a variety of hypotheses. Try it for yourself and decide.