Newcomer

Keigo Higashino's Newcomer was yet another mystery novel we devoured in a day. Featuring the brilliant detective Kaga working out of the precinct in Nihonbashi, the book consists of a series of chapters offering vignettes into the lives of various residents and businesses in the neighborhood of the victim. Kaga appears to be loving his new neighborhood as he investigates various tiny details about the victim, her background, and the places in the area she frequented. Along the way, Kaga helps with the emotional impact of the murder on the people who knew the victim and those who barely knew her. This novel features some rather strong scenes or chapters in which the victim's ex-husband and son discover things about themselves and their family that they never knew. It was suspenseful and written in a way that truly highlights the uniqueness of this Tokyo neighborhood. However, the novel could have added more clues along the way for the reader to more easily guess the identity of the killer. It wrapped up nicely and made sense, but because not all characters are introduced earlier in the novel, it feels a bit cheap when the killer's identity was revealed...