The Final Curtain by Kiego Higashino
The fourth novel in the detective Kaga series!
The name Final curtain is reminiscent of Agatha’s last Novel of Poirot called, Curtain: Poirot’s last case! That was Poirot’s last case since he dies in that and also commits the crime! Kiego’s curtain is not like that so don’t worry!
Interestingly, Devotion of Suspect X is not Kaga Series but detective Galileo!
And that brings to the biggest confusion when I read Kiego! The names!
When a dude from UK or US reads Indian names and gets confused, I used to wonder how it is possible! I do not wonder anymore!
I had to constantly go back to the cast and characters page in the beginning to understand who is who?!
The name of a detective and the victim and one of the other characters are so similar! By the time I place them, it gets confusing!
Apart from that obvious issue, you have the issue of Japanese characters and feel!
That is why when I talk to my patients I would always try to speak to them in their native language! Being a polyglot who knows and speaks more than ten different languages, it is easier for me to understand their true emotions!
Even here, I am sure that the original Japanese version would be amazing! The flavor and essence is lost in translation…
So you have a murder of a young woman, then of another guy and then disappearance of another or may be the same guy and all interlinked in some way to Kaga’s mother! It is a small world indeed!
With so many twists and turns, and the confusing Japanese words and flashbacks, it is an arduous task indeed!
Kiego’s novels though murder mysteries, are more about why and how rather than who so you may get an idea about who did what pretty early.
With his characteristic twists and turns and flashbacks, Kiego weaves an intricate web of emotions and actions!
But in the end, there are so many loopholes that the end is not justified. Too much is relied upon gut feeling of detectives and too much time is spent in investigating the murder of a homeless man! Either the police have not much work to do in Japan or crime is low! Too many weird coincidences and connections are told and we are left with more confusion in the end!
The references to Bridges and earthquake and nuclear power plant may have some significance to a Japanese reader, for regular readers like me, I fail to see the point! Maybe learn Japanese and read the original is the only way to enjoy this one!
For Kiego regulars, this is routine! No Suspect X but a good one time read…
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